Spain

VBT never disappoints. This was my 4th trip with VBT and it was fantastic. Our guides Oriol and Martin were outstanding. Loved the visit to the Dali Museum and came away with a new appreciation for his work. The landscapes were beautiful and the visit to the cider company was fun. The post trip in Mallorca was a pleasure.

Enjoyed the bike ride, the small cities and towns, the archeological site at Empires and the trip leaders. A delightful corner of Spain.

We thoroughly enjoyed our first VBT experience. The tour route was very well laid out and we cannot not say enough about how impressive our tour leaders, David and Frederico, both of whom are natives of Portugal. Kudos to VBT for the way they planned and conducted our tour!

We loved this trip! Beautiful and varied biking routes; knowledgeable, competent and engaging guides, top-notch hotels, delicious food and interesting cultural activities. I wish I could do it all over again!

This trip was so amazing. The VBT company had everything in order right down to the last detail. Our tour guides, Oriol and Xavier, treated everyone with dignity and respect. They were kind and helpful and a joy to work with. The group met each morning to have a review of the day. Our guides also suggested restaurants along the way and their advice was excellent. Our hotels were beautiful! Everything about this vacation was top notch. Thank you, VBT for an amazing trip. We are already planning our next one.

The tour was wonderfully planned with very minor improvements needed. Hotel selection was outstanding, ride support was terrific, chosen routes were thoughtful and beautiful while also being a good mix of hard and easy but still safe, the area is tough to beat for sheer beauty. Travel directions on transfer to/from Barcelona need updating or correction in some cases but hotel staff were able to give excellent directions. Fantastic trip.

I would highly recommend this trip. We travelled in mid May as a family of four with our two sons who are in their early 20s. The cycling was great for different levels of cyclists. I had a road bike while the rest of the family opted for e-bikes so they could relax more. Each of the hotels were great from Palmas to Barcelona! Meals provided were excellent. Bibi and Juan Carlos could not have been better! We had excellent weather and a great group to help enjoy the week.

I can see why bikers love Mallorca! This is a lovely tour - great scenery on safe secondary roads, terrific accommodations, great food and wine, and excellent guides.

The guides and the boat and staff were great. However, the trip did not meet the usual VBT expectations. The trip itinerary lists a warm up ride in Porto. This does not exist. The "warm up" and bike fitting are in a small parking lot the next day where there is no space to adequately test the bike. So you're immediately out on a road with no shoulder in heavy traffic for 16 miles along the river. No doubt there are some nice views, but when you're only concerned about safety and figuring out the bike, there is no time for scenery. The next couple days riding were moderately uninteresting scenery. The best ride was the Rails to Trails - Safe, beautiful, interesting. We were looking forward to the final ride to the Atlantic Coast but got rained out. Because of being on the boat there are daily transfers by bus of up to an hour each way to get to the biking areas and back to the boat. Too much time on a bus!! While it was nice to only unpack once, the trade off of charming hotels and villages with our bikes on the property was not worth it.

We love VBT and the best part of this trip was our leader, Manu. He is awesome! All VBT leaders are great, and he is at the top. It was the initial offering of the trip, and some kinks will be addressed, I am sure. Coordinating the boat and the buses (there were A LOT of buses) and biking is complex. We enjoyed the chance to mix with other travelers on the boat. We enjoyed unpacking only once. The Douro is not a river where you can bike alongside, like the Danube--so there is a lot of bus transfer time on twisty steep roads (some complained of car sickness). It is a hilly area--definitely on the "moderate" scale, not the "easy-moderate" scale. Climate always a question-in late April we had both cold (40's) and wet and warm (70s) and sunny. The olive oil mill and winery were good experiences. The archeological site was sketchy.... If you like hills and don't mind the bus, a good trip to some less accessible areas.

Great way to experience Andalusia from rural, small town, big city. Very much impressed with it all.

This was the best VBT trip I've had. Great biking,and mix of culture. Excellent unique hotels,and our guides were extremely fun and happy to share their culture.

Fabulous trip! The guides were great, landscape unbelievable and the rain made it an adventure

Manuel and Alberto were both excellent guides - good communicators, they kept us all on track. overall it was a good balance of walking and cultural activities. we covered a lot of ground which meant many hours in the bus - would have preferred a little more 'walking'. One the other hand the cultural activities were a highlight.

Mallorca is, of course, a spectacularly beautiful place to explore on foot. And when the explorers have the most personable and knowledgeable local guides ever, daily delights abound! We loved the gorgeous views, the satisfying and educational snack breaks (where we enjoyed fresh local fruits and treats, and even sampled the traditional mallorquin sausage, sobrasada, prepared and cured by our lead guide, Jaume!), the cultural and historical education shared by our two proud Mallorquin guides - everything!

This Mallorca hiking trip met almost all of my expectations.