Italy Bike Tour Reviews page 21
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★★★★★ Patrick
Beautiful and challenging
Florence to Rome
A great way to experience Tuscany and Unbria regions of Italy. At first we thought the bikes were somewhat heavy and cumbersome, but after a week we realized they were the right bikes for the road conditions. the road routes were carefully selected to get away from as much traffic as possible. The secondary roads were often not in the best condition, so we appreciated the stability of the bikes. Be prepared for hills. Intermediate rating was definitely on the upper side of intermediate, so prepare for the trip. Eurobike route stickers were very useful. We wish the bikes had water bottle cages.
- What was the date of your tour?
- May 27 - June 3 2017
- How many tours have you completed?
- 12
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Steven
Fun trip
Florence to Rome
Great way to see Medeval towns not jammed with tourists. Nice hotels, excellent local cuisine and sights. I wish the roads were better maintained with less car traffic and the bikes were lighter.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 22-29
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ carlosferreira
Florence to Rome
- What was the date of your tour?
- october 2017
- How many tours have you completed?
- 2
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ 0341MM
Pretty Scenery and Wonderful People
Florence to Rome
This is my third European bicycle trip but the first one in which I did not follow a river. The navigation was more difficult than I imagined.
I would strongly recommend three things: 1. Study your maps and instructions so you know what landmarks to expect on each day's ride. 2. Download the EuroBike app and be sure to load the gps coordinates into BEFORE your trip. (You may need a computer to do it.) You can find a helpful pdf document on how to do it via an internet search. 3. Watch for the cycling directional stickers at intersections. You hardly notice them when you first start the trip but rarely miss them once you get a hang of things. These stickers are very helpful and will keep you from making wrong turns.
Once I integrated these three things into my daily ride navigation was easy and I could just the beautiful Italian countryside and the wonderful villages.- What was the date of your tour?
- May 18 - 24
- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Thomas Albrecht
Fantastic Trip!
Innsbruck to Lake Garda Across the Southern Slopes of the Alps
The route is wonderfully scenic, riding through endless apple orchards and vineyards, with many picturesque villages along the way. Plenty of opportunities to stop for a nice piece of strudel and coffee/tea. The hotels were very nice, in fact a bit nicer than the BikeTours trip we took last year (Dolomites to Trieste via Lake Bled), and the bicycles were good quality and in perfect repair. Navigation on this trip is a bit challenging (although we were always able to figure things out using the various resources available — phone ap, map, and route signs. Once you get into Italy, the route signs are less helpful, since there are often multiple routes to the destination, and following signs won’t keep you on the recommend route (which usually really is better than the alternatives). One part of the route that perhaps should be simplified is the section just south of Merano, which seems needlessly complicated (for example, the southern part of Merano, and the diversion to Lana). It would be nice if printed maps showed locations of hotels in each town; we had to find them ourselves using our phone maps.
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★★★★★ Glen Field
Very scenic biking tour
Innsbruck to Lake Garda Across the Southern Slopes of the Alps
The trip was very good, excellent bike paths, great scenery, very good hotels, excellent breakfast at all the hotels. A few communication problems stop me from giving this a 5 star review.
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★★★★★ Paula Zoccano
Beautiful trail
Innsbruck to Lake Garda Across the Southern Slopes of the Alps
Pros:The hotels were very good. Wonderful cycle routes. Lovely towns.
Cons: In Riva I would have preferred to be in the old town beside the water. We had 2 hotels who did not have all our group booked. Unfortunately one couple had to stay by the airport a taxi ride to join us in Innsbruck (still trying to get reimbursed for hotel and cabs) and in Riva another couple were not booked but the hotel was able to give them a room. We also learned in one town we were not booked in the same hotel, our group of 5 couples were split up. I found that strange.
The meet and greet at the beginning was not at the hotel the company booked us to stay. We were expected to go to another location to get our briefing and bikes. I’ve never had that when booking with other cycle companies. We missed that in our notes and not until 7:00pm when the hotel gave us our booklets did we realize we should have been somewhere else. As a result we never had a meet and greet and bikes fitted to us. My husbands bike had a brake dragging and he needed a torque head screw driver to make adjustments and no torque head screw driver was supplied. He had to find one. The bikes should have been tested,
No water bottle cages on the bikes. -
★★★★★ Jane Fletcher
Good trip - lots of orchards and vineyards
Innsbruck to Lake Garda Across the Southern Slopes of the Alps
I enjoyed this trip through the Dolomites but didn’t see as much of the craggy Dolomites as I expected. We were almost always in the flat valley with the mountains along the side of the valley. As we went south the mountains seemed to shrink. I enjoyed the Germanic nature of northern Italy and was very interested to learn more about its history and how Austrian the residents still feel. It didn’t feel like we were in Italy until we arrived in Trento on market day. And then it was almost like a switch flipped and we were in Italy. The architecture as well as the countryside changed and became more Mediterranean influenced. Our ride was generally on bike paths that were very busy with cyclists. Weekends were especially busy but even during the week the paths were busy but it was great to see so many people out riding their bikes. Along the paths we found several bike bars that served drinks and snacks to cyclists and they were perfect places to find a WC. We enjoyed the scenery and marveled at the thousands of acres of apple orchards that we rode through. The hotels were generally fine but the hotel in Riva del Garda was a disappointment. I paid extra for single rooms after a friend had to cancel her trip and this room was a real disappointment, it was more like a cell.
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★★★★★ Pankaj Mulye
Dolomities
Innsbruck to Lake Garda Across the Southern Slopes of the Alps
Perfect way to explore and experience a region is by cycling. It was a great hassle free experience everything went as planned and would definitely recommend bike tours to all
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★★★★★ Pedalann
Interesting Tour around Part of the Adriatic Sea
Venice to Trieste and Istria
This tour gave us a chance to see much of the coastal region of the old Venice/Roman Empire. We enjoyed the lovely towns, pastoral countryside and views of the Adriatic. We sometimes had difficulty navigating as the cue sheets. maps and route marks did not always agree. The tour operators had warned us that some of the routes were being revised. However, we are good navigators and did find our way without too much back tracking. Concordia, Grado, Trieste, Piran and Porec were wonderful to visit. The new sections of bike trails were joys to ride.
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★★★★★ kiki1970
Venice to Trieste and Istria
The overall experience on this bike trip was good. The rain that occurred on 4 of the 7 days of the trip was unexpected. The locals informed us that it hadn't rained in 2 months so it caught up to us. The accommodations and food were excellent. The real problems were the maps that were provided. They need to be more tour specific. When arriving in the destination city, specific directions should be included in finding that hotel. We spent too much time looking for our hotel for the evening. Also the written instructions are a translation from the German guide. In some cases the instructions didn't match what we saw on the ground or what the sign posts indicated. In general, the people that we dealt with in the States and Italy were great. I only wish that we would have taken a day break some where in the middle(Trieste?) to refresh and recuperate. We didn't know we could do it. I highly recommend this before heading into Croatia.
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★★★★★ Garbo 55
Venice to Trieste and Istria
With this being our very first bike tour, and we had chosen the self-guided option we found the adjustment to the directions a little difficult (some vital information was lost in translation) but having said that, there was an incredible sense of accomplishment after completing each day. We also were not prepared for the climate we encountered, we had looked at the temps. before we left and it looked like 22/24 C., but ended up being in the high 20's and low 30's, this really depleted our energy levels. The destinations could not have been more diverse with each one having its own unique quality we really enjoyed. They all had an amazing breakfast to start the day with and were very helpful with storing the bikes etc... The journey through the countryside and along the coast was so spectacular, our only wish I guess would have been to have had more time to enjoy each day. After our first couple of days we were a little overwhelmed with trying to stay on track rather then enjoying the moment. Having been home for a couple of weeks now however and looking back we would challenge ourselves again in a different place.
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★★★★★ Karl57
Great trip
Venice to Trieste and Istria
Great trip. Would highly recommend. Every stopover destination was well worth exploring. If we did it again we would customize the tour with an extra day to explore each stopover destination.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2018
- How many tours have you completed?
- 2
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Croatia, Italy, Slovenia
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★★★★★ Juiti
Unforgettable!!! The hidden beauty of the Venetian region and Croatian Adriatic:
Venice to Trieste and Istria
I love this route. It combined beautiful nature landscapes with historic spot and charmy littles towns.
We had great experience sharing time with fun bikers around the world.
Even if the hotels were in general ok we would have preferred to pay a bit more for better quality and location.- What was the date of your tour?
- 8 september
- How many tours have you completed?
- now 3
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Croatia, Italy, Slovenia
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★★★★★ Visitor42
Unexperienced rider review
Venice to Trieste and Istria
That was nice and fun tour for me, however my girlfriend struggled a bit. It is not completely 2 stars. For example, last day is not plain at all and could be challenging for newbies without some experience (like myself).
It would be nice to have shortcuts for every day of this tour.
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★★★★★ Steve Srebnik
Great experience
Venice to Trieste and Istria
This was a great adventure for my wife and I taking us to small and not so small great beach towns as well as a pretty big city , Trieste, all in the Adriatic. Jasolo was a rocking town with a very nice beach. Most of the included breakfasts were very good and all were very acceptable. The hotels were also good, nothing special but certainly comfortable. Most of the hotel rooms were very small. Only reason I took off a star was I think I would have enjoyed it more if we were able to spend a stop over or two without a ride the next day. Since we typically arrived after 1 and sometimes closer to 2 or 3 we didn’t get to spend any significant relax time at the beaches. Overall I’d go again or do another trip. All was very well organized.
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★★★★★ ELHoo
A good first bike tour experience
Venice to Trieste and Istria
This was my first bike tour with a bike tour company, so I have nothing to compare it to. That said, it was pretty good. The person who presented the tour at our intro meeting was very nice and honest about what each day's route had in store for us. Bikes were OK, they suited the varied surfaces we rode on. The hotels varied from fine to nice. Luggage delivery was great. The towns we stayed at along the way all had something interesting about them. We were given an app, maps and cue sheets for navigation as well as arrow stickers along the route. We did not get lost, but I would suggest refreshing the faded arrows along the way. I would do another BikeTours.com tour.
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★★★★★ TF and DD NYC
Great destinations!
Venice to Trieste and Istria
A highlight of the trip was seeing all the different towns and cities along the way. The route varied from day to day – coastal paths, farmland and former border crossings. We stayed in modern seaside towns, ancient inland towns and cities. We even saw flamingos in the lagoon!
The biking was challenging at times, with strong headwinds the first couple of days. We rode on roads, bike paths, dirt farm roads and raised dike walls. The navigation, directions and app were easy to follow, but many of the arrow stickers should be replaced. Bikes were standard hybrids, but note: step through bikes do not have water bottle cages!
We opted for trains and boats when available. This allowed us to have more time to explore the towns, while still having plenty of biking. Each place we stayed was unique and a couple of the hotels were better than expected. It was nice visit the towns just before the summer season. There were many tourists, but not big crowds.
We would recommend this trip to those who are confident riders. Plan to stay a couple of extra days in Venice and/or Porec if you can, as there is plenty to see and do!
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★★★★★ Suzanne Skinner
Good but bikes poor
Venice to Trieste and Istria
The hotels were great. The app worked intermittently which meant we got lost with some frequency. The bikes were heavy, with crazy bad seats, and in generally poor condition (worn chains). We were lucky we did not have break downs.
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★★★★★ Todd Kadas
Italian countryside, Slovenian coast, Croatian beaches. What more could you want?!
Venice to Trieste and Istria
This trip offered a nice mix of countryside and coastal routes with plenty of options to shorten or lengthen each day's itinerary. We were lucky enough to arrive in the second town on the same night as their annual grape harvest parade. So much fun! Tractors pulling floats, free wine, marching bands, and views from the restaurants on the street.
We chose the self-guided option for this tour and met up with at least a dozen other cyclists who were doing the same. We were never alone, had amazing weather, and every day except for one (when we cycled too fast and didn't stop frequently enough), our bags were waiting for us on arrival at the hotel.


























