France

Great trip! Our guides were great hosts and made sure everyone was safe, comfortable, and getting the most out of each day. Gorgeous part of the world.

This was our first VBT vacation and we have already registered for a second trip. Provence and the Alpilles is a beautiful region of France with abundant fruits, vegetables and other agriculture. The bicycle travel through the French countryside gives an up-close and personal travel experience.

We had an amazing time - And I can't speak highly enough of every aspect of this trip! Our VBT leaders, Sophie and Bruno, were exceptional, planning everything down to the smallest detail. They were a pleasure to be with in every way. We loved every hotel, each unique, and in the heart of a city, with lots to do in the area. Our e-bikes were brand new, and easy to navigate. We were blessed with beautiful weather and enjoyed our rides each and every day. I would highly recommend this trip - it will definitely not be our last. We are already booked for one next year!

This was our first VBT trip and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The guides were knowledgeable, positive, friendly, helpful and very professional. The GPS navigation was great. The routes were scenic, culturally diverse, and well thought out. The excursions/tours were interesting too. Recommend the ebike for the hills!

We had a wonderful experience. The itinerary, guides and bike routes couldn’t have been any better. Everything was planned the minute we landed in Paris. Would definitely recommend to anyone with an interest in the Normandy history.

We had a wonderfully-planned week of cycling along small, beautiful farm roads with itineraries bringing us to the coast of most days. Riding in August in 70 degree weather was great. We all loved seeing the texture of rural, historic France and learning more about Normandy and Brittany. The trip includes a focus on local food culture - the visit to the Cider farm was really special, as were the Cancale oysters and dinners at local restaurants. We also got so much out of learning more about WWII even though I did not choose this trip primarily for that reason. There were helpful guided tours, and the option to visit museums if you wanted more depth. I'm so glad we could take advantage of this aspect of visiting France. The Trip Leaders were extremely knowledgeable, good humored, well-seasoned guides who knew the area well and had set up a number of local experiences. We found the cycling to be engaging - beautiful rolling farmland that left me in a little better shape by the end of the week but wasn't overly challenging. (The shorter option was also always available.)

The Burgundy Wine Route trip was an exceptional vacation...it was a great mix of activity, leisure, learning and sightseeing. The trip leaders were personable, knowledgeable, and fun-loving, our fellow travelers were all interesting and friendly people, and the food, accommodations, and scenery were all first class. The daily route length choices ensured that everyone would be happy with their activity level, too. I’d highly recommend this trip to anyone who loves good food, wine, and outdoor activity. The pre and post trip extensions are also well worth it...especially the pre-trip in Lyon...there was so much to explore there!

This was our first Vermont Bike vacation but it certainly will not be our last! What a great time .For us it was a perfect mix of activity,culture ,wine and food. The countryside is just delightful and beautiful. The guides were excellent and our fellow travelers were wonderful .

Both the VBT guides and Emerald Waterways Cruise Line were wonderful. It was a great experience, and VBT does an excellent job merging the bike ride schedule in with the boat's itinerary.

VBT knocked it out of the park. The attention to detail in every aspect of this trip was astounding. Our guides Maytas and Werner were fantastic. I would book a new trip every 6 months if I could afford to! For now, I will bask in the wonderful memories, and save up for the next adventure with VBT.

Recommend the Berlin pre-trip. Fun and educational. Interesting city. The bike riding along the Moselle is spectacular. Great paths, easy pedaling, beautiful scenery. Very tiny amount of riding on roads. Bike riders dream. The Mystique II barge - updated interior. Very small cabins, limited storage, nice bathrooms. Small rooms are to be expected on barge. VERY loud in common areas especially during meals. Couldn't hear person next to you so the decibel level keeps rising. We ate off the boat, when possible, for dinners. This let us explore the local areas and got us away from the loud dining. Barge staff was very good. Chef was not very good with vegetarian meals. Luxembourg post trip was interesting and 2 nights was plenty of time to explore the city. City walls were pretty amazing. This trip is worth the riding. It is a large group, up to 30 so that makes it less personal than a regular VBT. I did miss the closeness from guides and other guests that you get with a smaller group. The Barge is the reason for my lower score. It is nice not having to unpack for a week but most of your clothes remain in your suitcase under the bed - a pain. I would not go on this barge again because of the loud decibel levels in the common area and the food quality.

The Mosel River bike/barge trip was great and I would highly recommended it. Just one travel hiccup taking the train from Berlin to Frankfurt. Train was late departing and our stop in Frankfurt was canceled. Luckily, all 18 of us on the pretrip made the local connecting train to the prearranged stop. Better support from Redpoint would have been appreciated.

Great trip, highly recommended. Some hills were steep but short.

This was our second trip with VBT. We absolutely loved our first tour ( Germany, Austria, Switzerland - Bavarian Alps & Lake Constance ) Our Bike & Barge tour was even better! The barge, the other guests, the guides, the food, the scenery were just about perfect. On the second day of riding I mentioned to a guide that it was an ideal day. He smiled and happily told that the next four days get even better. It was true! While the transfers between pre and post trip cities were lengthy and complex, I wouldn't want to miss out on our immense enjoyment of Munich and Berlin. It's difficult to imagine a different tour being better. We'll see, we signed up for a VBT tour for '23 the day after we arrived home. Thank you to all who made this tour an unforgettable and joy filled experience.

The self-guided Beaujolais tour is a reasonable value and can be enjoyed without the guide (although the VBT guides are always great).  We appreciated the excellent lodging and quality bikes, per usual with VBT.  Locals in this region are very friendly but fewer folks speak English than in the big cities. The Beaujolais tour has a few really nice views, but the views and scenery aren't as good as other VBT tours. Twice on our tour, the hotels said they didn't have our luggage (not a great thing to hear when you arrive bedraggled after a day of riding) but eventually the hotel found it after some haggling. This tour includes a miserable hilly detour around what appeared to be a perpetually closed tunnel, and it was hard (for us and other riders) to find our way back on the route once we slogged the unplanned hills. The "Ride with GPS App" was okay in general but gave confusing and contradictory directions more often than I'd think...but it wasn't much of a problem.

Beaujolais, Chardonnay and beyond, this tour was all I dreamed of.

It was actually a 4+. The scenery, food, accommodations and guides were all top notch. Two minor problems. A nasty bartender in Switzerland and having to ride thru heavily trafficed streets on the last full day of riding.

Our leaders, Luigi and Jean Marc, were well organized, attentive to our needs, and delightful to be around. Chamonix, where the trip starts, is all about Mont Blanc. You can take a cable car to a nearby peak and see in all directions, if it is not cloudy. The cable car ride is still worthwhile if it's cloudy. You can also enjoy the river walk and ride a train, north and south, for free. The bike rides were mostly on bike paths and often downhill. There were three steep climbs which the ebikes and road bikes managed easily. Mountains were always in sight and so were rivers, especially the Rhone. We had rain several days, but no washouts. The trip ends in Lyon, a metropolitan city. There are museums, a river walk, river cruises, and shopping. Lyon is also the gastronomical center of France. We took advantage of Greeter Lyon Metropole which arranges free tours with local citizens. The strolls, as they are called, are usually two hours but our guide gave us a four hour tour. One downside is theft by pickpocket. In our group, one person had a wallet stolen, another a cell phone, and another thwarted a theft attempt. Take precautions and the thieves will look elsewhere.

This was our third VBT trip, and it strengthens our plans for future ones. Our guides Sophie and Bruno were professional, personable, highly experienced, and fun! They had the answer to every question, from biking issues, GPS, and we especially appreciated the the very deep local expertise they displayed. We loved having the ship as a luxurious "home base", and not having to change hotels every other night. The service and cuisine on the ship was excellent. Each location and the rides/tours were as beautiful as we expected; the GPS instructions worked very well.

Our tour guides, Sophie and Bruno were the best! We experienced rides along lovely canals, through gorgeous vineyards and quaint villages. Our accomodations on our ship couldn't have been better, and we met some nice people.