France

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.

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 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!

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

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.)

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.

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!

The biking trails every day were excellent and guides were exceptional. The only drawback to the trip was the adjustments due to the high water level on the Rhine. In an effort to include what we would have seen traveling down the Rhine, we ended up being transported in buses. An understandable adjustment but the original itinerary would have been truly enjoyable.

It was a great trip. Everything thing went well-even the weather.

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!!!'.

We couldn't not possibly have enjoyed this trip more. To begin with, the setting of the Mosel River exceed my expectations—it was far more beautiful than I'd anticipated. As someone who's always been comfortable with self-organized travel, I didn't know how I'd feel about a guided trip, but it was flawless. The cycling routes were excellent, the support on the road was everything one could need, and the accommodations on the barge were outstanding. All the personnel were delightful to deal with. I particularly want to call out our guides Axel and Arnoud, who were deeply knowledgeable, funny, and personable in a way that set a tone for all the tour's participants. They helped create an atmosphere of relaxed congeniality.

The bike guides, Axel and Chris, were very knowledgeable about the area's history and customs. They also worked endlessly on the bikes to keep them in top running order for the cruisers. During down times at meals they shared about their lives and asked questions about our lives. They were patient with all the different personalities of cruisers.

The boat part of this trip was wonderful. As usual, VBT leaders were excellent. The scenery along the Mosel was gorgeous. Our difficulties were with the pre-trip to Munich, and the post-trip to Berliin. The hotel in Munich was very small, we couldn't unpack our clothes because there was no where to put them, the shower was small and the water temperature went from hot to cold in an instant. There was no elevator - we had to climb 2 flights of stairs with heavy bags, others had to climb 4! Since many of VBT's travelers are 60, 70 and up, it's not as easy as it used to be! The location was far from the Old Town, and we had to take trams or the U-Bahn or taxis to get there. Not the worst thing, just not very convenient. We didn't find out about details for our transfer for the boat trip until late the night before, which isn't very good communication. The hotel in Luxembourg was FABULOUS! We all wished we could have spent more than just one evening there. Gorgeous hotel, spacious, near sites to visit, etc. The boat trip was great all around with great staff, excellent food and beautiful views. If only we could have had more time to visit the small towns to shop and explore...and maybe at least one day to sleep in would have been appreciated without having to miss a ride. But it was still awesome. The hotel in Koblenz was fine. The bus transported us the next morning o the train station, and just dropped us off with tickets, but only 15 minutes to catch our train. There was no representative from VBT to tell us where to go or what to do. Some of us have traveled the trains in Europe before, so we were able to get to our train just in time. However, it was such a mad dash, that some of our group just jumped on a car and we didn't even know if they had made it. We had to call on cell phones to tell them what to do and which car to go to. This was an awful oversight from VBT, and very surprising/disappointing. We were also verbally told by one of our bike leaders that Berlin was the train's last stop, when in fact, our station was the next to the last stop. I had to go around and tell everyone and make sure they were ready to hop off with bags, as loading and unloading goes very fast. The last hotel in Berlin was very nice, bedrooms and baths were spacious, but again, no place to put unpacked clothes except on the floor and some hooks! I don't want to sound like an ugly American, because we're really not. Even the boat did have some shelves for us to organize our clothes! But the breakfast buffet and bar were very nice with very pleasant staff. And VBT's communication for airport transfers for everyone's different venues and schedules was very good. Overall, my take -away for this trip was that VBT needed better communication with the shuttles, transfer times and help at the train station. Hotels with closet space or shelf/dresser space would be very much appreciated. A little more free time in Luxembourg and along the Mosel towns would be ideal.

This tour has a little bit of everything we wanted. Great riding in gorgeous French countryside, excellent accommodations (as always with VBT), our bikes were perfect and GPS maps were easy to follow. Having an affinity for wine doesn't hurt, but this ride would be great just to experience the culture and atmosphere of the area.

The trip was amazing and very enjoyable. The only glitch was the tunnel was closed on one of the day trips and the copied map provided for the alternative route wasn’t very clear and we got lost. We called the support person but it was 2 hours before he called us back.

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.

Sophie and Eve, our guides, made this early October trip on of the best. The weather while riding was fabulous and the scenery exceptional. The bike routes, the hotels and the food were all excellent. I would highly recommend this trip.

Great trip! Wonderful leaders!!! Sophie and Bruno are two of the best leaders we’ve ever had on a VBT tour (we’ve been on six). Food on the Emerald riverboat was superb. Only criticism is that on my step through hybrid, there wasn’t room on the bar for my water bottle. That made it necessary to stop for a water break and that’s difficult.

Guides were great. Riverboat was better than expected. Be sure to upgrade to a balcony cabin. Rides were a little monotonous- flat and windy. Excursion to chocolate store was a waste of time.