barge trips in Holland

We have done two trips with BikeBarge.com -- they operate primarily Netherlands trips but also do a bike barge trip from Paris to Bruges, Belgium. The company operates out of a US office near Seattle. Our first trip was in the Netherlands and the other the one from Paris to Bruges. All the trips within the Netherlands are on the barge Angeline, which has wi-fi, individual rooms with bathrooms for each couple (small but adequate), a dining area and a lounge area, plus a deck on top of the barge where the bikes are stored when not in use. They provide all meals except dinner the last night. You eat breakfast on the barge, pack your own lunch from supplies on board and then eat dinner back in the barge. There are 25 or so participants and each self-selects daily whether to ride the long or short ride. neither of which is particularly taxing -- after all, the Netherlands is flat. They provide bikes, which are 21 speed Dutch bikes with panniers to store your lunch and gear. Each group has a guide. Guides alternate days with each group. The guides are fabulous If you don't feel like riding you can also stay on the barge. The meals we had were also very good on the Netherlands trip. We were not so happy with the French trip, as they used a narrower, smaller barge operated by a Dutch family. Meals were not so good and they treated participants like children in a school rather than adults who paid a lot of money for the trip.bSeveral of us complained to the European manager of the company, who said this was the first time they had used this barge and that changes were coming based on our feedback.

The Dutch trips fill up FAST. I would do another one of those in a heartbeat. If you have other questions, send me a PM. Go to the website to get further info and look at photos.