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Bike/Barge Trip Info wanted

Posted by (PDX) on

Hi Fellow Travelers,
We are planning a Bike/Barge tour either in Holland (Amsterdam to Bruges or ? ) or else the Passau, DE to Vienna trip. Both are 8 days/7nights on board the boat. Looking to go August or late July 2019. Has anyone been on these trips, and can advise me? We are hoping for some freedom of travel, meaning NOT in a large, shepherded group from the boat with a tour guide, but free to stop where and when we like, taste some wine, shop or eat when & where we want, etc. The boat itself is maybe even of secondary importance-- I haven't read any reviews that say "the accommodations/food/staff etc. were horrible", but I HAVE read reviews that implied the "group" was not allowed to stop when or where they wanted, that the guide was mostly interested in getting from point A to point B by a certain time, etc. We love the idea of cycling Europe but not carrying everything on our backs/bikes. Some days we might want to ride fast, others maybe stop more and check out places. Can anyone share their own experiences? Thanks so much!

John

Posted by
2487 posts

I'm afraid it is mostly a group event, but this one suggests you can venture on your own: »Tour leader (multilingual) with daily briefings of the bike tours, some short city tours (free), during the day the tour leader is cycling the daily bike tour and reachable on his cell phone for individual cyclists«. Send them an email whether they allow you to be on your own.

Posted by
3207 posts

We used this bike and barge company. While everyone is essentially going in the same direction, we found it often settled into two groups of those who just wanted to ride their bikes and those who were interested in actually seeing the scenery/churches/smelling the roses, etc. So often the second group ended up at the same places and the guide was keeping an eye on everyone, back and forth on the route, etc. However, this was, wow, 18 years ago, so before reserving I'd just double check that you can follow the map, etc. these days just in case they have changed. The food on the barge was wonderful, but it might just depend on the particular cook on the particular barge you had. I don't know.

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