France

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.

Bike routes were beautiful and enjoyable! Loved the town of St. Remy and the location of our hotel. Really enjoyed Avignon and again, the location of the hotel made exploring the city very easy.

This trip was better than anticipated. We expected a great time, but this was outstanding in service, leadership and bike friendliness.

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!

Planning and ride with VBT was priceless!. Our bicycle hosts did a fabulous job taking care of our every need. We also did the 3 day in Paris pre-trip, which if you do the 3 day Paris pre-trip, make sure you book all excursions in advance. We pre-booked Eiffel Tower, Palace Versailles, Tuk Tuk Paris, Louvre Museum. My one negative comment was in the city of Dinan. We had a tour guide that was obviously very familiar with the City, Architecture and history. Unfortunately, we could not hear a thing she said. She talked softly, kept walking away, talking to 1 or 2 people....you get the idea. It would have been much better if she had us wear earpieces while she talked. Other than that, fantastic time and would recommend this trip.

Biking in Normandy and Brittany was recommended to us by a fellow VBT biker on our previous trip and we are so happy that we listened to him. The daily parade of classic French villages, farms, gardens, and estates were simply beautiful. Our guides Sophie and Jean were The Best, and we learned more about French culture, history, and language than we could have hoped for. We recommend this trip to everyone!

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 .

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 fifth trip with VBT, but our first bike and boat trip. Staying aboard a river cruise ship while doing a week-long bike ride certainly has the advantage of only having to unpack once. Like others here, though, I think I prefer a motel to motel trip where you get more immersed in the countries and cities you visit by staying at local hotels and eating at local restaurants. I think the bike group is also more tightly knit by the end of the ride when traveling with just your small bike group rather than a ship full of river cruisers. But I am glad I experienced at least one bike and boat trip, and if you are considering a bike and boat trip, this is a great one. We biked in four countries. The cities and villages we visited were beautiful, interesting, and quaint. The bike rides outside of those cities took us through beautiful countryside, along canals, and past vineyards. The ride is mostly on bike paths, mostly flat, and mostly easy. There is one significant climb that was tough for this 69-year-old and a couple afternoons of strong headwinds. Otherwise - easy riding. The guides were fantastic. The ship was nice enough, although not as nice as some we’ve been on. We wondered when we signed up for the ride why they were busing us to Den Haag after we left the ship at the end of the cruise rather than keeping us in Amsterdam. But we are glad they did. We thoroughly enjoyed our day there.

Great bike routes, the guides were knowledgeable and really cared about our experience. The ship we stayed on was excellent. The food was tremendous. We could not have had a better experience

This was my first VBT trip and it certainly won't be my last. It was beyond my expectations! The staff, crew and guides were phenomenal! I hadn't been to Germany since 1984, and it was even more beautiful than i remembered it. From the beginning all the way thru to the end, it was wonderfully planned out and the accommodations were wonderful. I made some great new friendships and learned so much about this country and they people who call it home.

The Moselle bike/barge bicycling was one of the best riding routes we've done. 99% bike trails. 1% on roads. Beautiful scenery. Disappointed VBT did away with hybrid bikes. Only choice e-bike or road bike. I've never been on either although I ride 6500 miles per year on my hybrid. This may be our last VBT due to no hybrids. The barge, billed as a luxury cruise, fell far short. The noise in the acoustically challenged dining room reminded me of the volume of a Deep Purple concert at San Francisco's Fillmore West in the 70s. We had to take our meals out to the deck. Speaking of meals, I heard the words, Stouffers, Swanson's, Green Giant, Ore-Ida, & Pepperidge farms being used as comparisons. The cabins air conditioning was inadequate. Unless you like waking up sweating. The guides were good. Not the best but no complaints. VBTs tipping suggestion policy is totally out of control. Note to VBT 'pay your people a liveable salary!!!'.

I enjoyed the biking, the other guests and the leaders. The mileage was perfect and automobile traffic was minimal. The flat trails meant the e-bike assistance was often kept at a low level or not needed at all. Biking through the vineyards and villages was great. We enjoyed Luxembourg City, Cochem, Koblenz and the Berlin extension. The castle tour was very good, but bell tour and wine tasting went on a bit long. The rooms on the barge were tiny, making it difficult to unpack and making it difficult for two people to move in the room at the same time. There were multiple instances when we received directions on meeting the barge only to find out the barge was not where it was supposed to be, resulting in a few pronged waits. We received some conflicting information about the extension to Berlin that was finally straightened out. Then, our train to Berlin was cancelled and the travel help line did not help much at all. The meeting spot for our driver in Berlin was not communicated clearly. We needed to go through multiple layers (calling the help desk who called the car service who called the driver) multiple times. It would have been easier to take a cab. Overall, we had a good time biking but the operations side of things was not up to the standards we’ve come to expect from VBT. Next trip - we will be back to moving hotels every 1-2 nights.

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.

A remarkable selfguided bike trip! Because it was selfguided, we took our own time pedaling and sight seeing. The bike app that loaded each and every turn and maps was amazing! It was also very good to have a short and a long loop biking so individuals can choose how many miles they want to bike every day. One suggestion would be to have rest days in between and make the trip longer. Chateau Pizay was superb as the other places we stayed. All in all i will give a 5 star rating. I am waiting for VBT to put up other self guided cycling tours.

Six fantastic days of biking! This was our first ever bike trip and we thoroughly enjoyed every part of it. We were very lucky to have such perfect sunny days that were book-ended by rain. We loved the two gals that led the tour...they were "over the top" in every way! I had never been on an E bike, but quickly took to it and now want one of my own. I still felt that I got a lot of exercise ...just loved it. Every morning the bike would be ready with a bike bag and fresh water with lemon and the helmet. The hotels were all top notch also. This particular trip has amazing scenery, so it was very lucky that clouds didn't obscure the magnificent peaks. Will definitely try another trip!

This tour had great cycling, fantastic hotels and stunning scenery! Each day was better than the previous but our stay at Abbaye de Talloires and day 4 cycling around Lake Annecy were highlights for me.

Loved this tour. A combination of riding through the scenic areas along the Rhone and Isere with all the support of great guides, experiencing local cultures of each area and then returning to a "floating hotel" with all the benefits of comfort and great cuisine--- I found a must experience combination!

Since this was our first bike trip, we were a bit unsure about the activity level…whether it would be too hard or too easy (it’s considered an "easy" trip). As it happened, it was just right. Some days there were two bike rides and some days one ride and one walking tour or trip. This was the right amount of each. We will definitely be doing another trip with VBT.