BikeTours.com
Well-respected as a clearing-house for 100 local bike tour operators around the world, BikeTours.com (formerly BikeToursDirect) offers 450 routes in 70 countries. We are big fans of this type of travel, especially since tours with regional companies are often 50-70 percent less than those offered by larger U.S. operators, and many offer the opportunity to ride with multi-national groups. Clients can contact BikeTours.com for tour advice and planning or use the web site’s various search tools to find tours that match their interests, budgets and abilities. BikeTours.com takes care of the complete booking and payment process. Founder Jim Johnson created this company based on his passion for bike touring in Europe while not wanting to pay the high prices charged by many American tour operators. He found he could enjoy the same experience at a fraction of the cost.
- Operator Type:
Full-Service Operator - Website:
http://www.biketours.com/ - Price Tier:
$$ - Avg Price Per Day:
$200-500 - Services:
Bike Provided, SAG Van, Tour Guide - Country:
Asia, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, South America, Spain, United States, Vietnam
24 Reviews
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We signed up for a tour on Germany’s “Romantic Road” with BikeTours. BikeTours sub-contracted it to Velotours. Here is the review that I have just written about Velotours. The TL;DR version: NEVER AGAIN.
We used Velotours for the “Romantic Road” tour in Germany over 6 days/7 nights.
First the good: the bikes were fine. No problems and reasonable quality – we had conventional bicycles (not e-bikes).
Now the “meh”: The support was OK BUT only because the route is so easy to follow. Basically, Velotours provided no support except a couple of guidebooks – a short, crappy one in English and a very detailed one BUT ONLY IN GERMAN – and access to an app. But the app and the route markings are so good that this was sufficient.
Last, the bad: The hotels suck. Several unbelievably cheap and crappy, and we elected the better quality hotel option – I can’t believe how shitty the lower quality option must be. One night we thought there might be an excuse because it was in a town (Wertheim) without too many options (and the tour operators always have to have a hotel that supports bicycles), but there have been other nights in larger towns and it is impossible to believe that better accomodations were not available. We still have one night to go, but so far the hotels have been 1 good (Bad Mergentheim), 2 OK (Wurzburg and Rothenburg), and 3 garbage (Wertheim, Dinkelsbuhl and Nordlingen). The rooms were tiny and often even the internet did not work. And air conditioning? Forget it (except on one hotel), so if it’s summer, you are out of luck.
Another problem: they only guarantee delivery of your luggage by 5:30pm at your new hotel, so if you arrive earlier (very easy given the length of the routes), then you might not have any clothes to put on after a shower. This happened to us once, with delivery of the luggage at 4pm. There is absolutely no reason for this since you are required to have the luggage available for pickup at 9am and the daily routes are only about 50km on average.
WE WILL NEVER USE VELOTOURS AGAIN, which is really a pity because they have great routes and this is a very useful service, let way down because of greed: there is plenty of money in their prices available for better hotels but Velotours decides that short-term greed is the better option.
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Jim Johnson took a significant down payment for a bike trip in Italy and then Covid happened and the trip was cancelled. Then there were regular emails from him promising that a refund of the deposit would happen as soon as they were back on their feet. I’ve sent numerous emails over the past few years requesting the promised refund and have not even had the courtesy of a reply.
I would not use this company to book a trip to the corner store. Jim Johnson is a BS artist, a thief, and a liar and should be out of business. Book a trip with him at your peril.
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We had a WONDERFUL bike tour in Tuscany with SICICLANDO.Dario put together a special itinerary four our group.We enjoyed the ride,the food and the italian hospitality.
This was the fourth time we booked with SICICLANDO…and certainly wont be the last -
Seven of us did a bike tour in Albania May 2023 brokered by BikeTours. Zero logistical issues (and this is from a bicycle tour guide!). Payment method was flawless, all tour details clearly explained, and the tour went smoothly. We opted to have a driver with van support and no local guide that would have ridden with us. Our driver, Niku, turned out to be a defacto guide who really, really was a huge asset assisting us with restaurant ordering, local sights, and was extremely pleasant to hang out with. If/when we ever do a “self-guided” tour again we’ll definitely look at using BikeTours.
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I used BikeTours.com to book a memorable six-day, self-guided bicycling vacation in Sweden, where four members of my family travelled in late July 2022. The tour, named “Sweden’s West Coast: Helsingborg to Gothenburg,” provides a nice introduction to Sweden’s rural areas, towns, and the city of Gothenburg. Throughout our 242-mile journey, I was reminded of a popular nursery rhyme that begins “Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,” thanks to the excellent pre-trip support provided by our bikeTours.com trip consultant, Kirsten.
Kirsten used her nimble planning skills to help us avoid unexpected logistical challenges with our tour. Multi-day concerts in Gothenburg meant most hotel rooms were booked well in advance, and Kirsten worked with us to devise alternative travel dates that made this trip feasible and affordable, with roofs over our heads. We spent each night in a different hotel, and check-in was always easy.
She was quick to respond to my inquiries on a variety of issues, including preferred types of bicycles, location of our hotels, desire for non-smoking rooms, and access to map routes.
The nursery rhyme ends with these words: “Jack jump over the candlestick.” On our bicycling vacation, we jumped numerous steams and other bodies of water on the well-maintained bridges on the national bike trail, the Kattegattleden. Mostly flat, the route is typically separate from roads, and traverses farmland and charming seaside towns along a pristine coast, ending each day’s journey at a centrally-located hotel.
The final word in the rhyme is “candlesticks.” The design of many restaurants and hotels included lit candles, and contributed to the Scandinavian “hygge” lifestyle. The staff at places where we stayed and dined were welcoming and efficient, though none could hold a candle to the excellent service provided by Kirsten. (DH)
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We booked a tour and because of covid 19 there was no option to go on the tour . The bike company refused to give us a refund . Shame on you. Don’t book with this company. They are dishonest.
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We’ve had two great experiences with BikeTours.com and just signed up for two tours in Europe this summer. We’ve found they picked the best operator available for each tour and we had a great time. In addition, they are strong communicators via chat and email. We’ve asked a lot of questions (tandem riders) and they’ve been great about getting back to us and always have an accurate answer. Prices are very competitive. We found for our last tour we could not have booked the hotels on our own for the cost. I highly recommend their service.
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HIGHLY NOT RECOMMEND! I’ve been doing bike trips and tours for years and have taken trips with these people before. On this trip I was not allowed on the flight, because my passport was to expire 2 months AFTER I was to get back to the US! Seems like Spain was now enforcing some old obscure law because Trump and the US was doing the same to Spanish citizens. Never heard of such a thing, but the airlines was enforcing it. So had to get new rush passport but trip would be half over by the time I got to Spain. No problem, I thought, we could reschedule. They run two of these trips a week for months. They refused to reschedule my trip and kept 90% of my money as well! UNBELIEVABLE- really was, still is. To keep 90% of the money and provide absolutely nothing, but a hard time and excuses. They blamed the German company that bike tours uses to actually provide the tours- that was their customer service. I contacted German company and they told me to contact bike tours as they were the provider. The perfect run around, like they had done this thing before! So they refunded $100 on over a $1000 trip and told me I should be happy to be getting the hundred bucks back! I spoke to employees and then insisted on speaking to Jim Johnson, the owner. Jim never bothered to call, but sent a email that this was the way it was. Then refused to have any more contact unless I apologized to his employee for I guess hurting her feelings. Guess I wasn’t suppose to be pissy about watching a thousand dollars and my trip just disappear into thin air. So thats what you can expect from Jim Johnson and biketours.com. I still find it hard to believe. If everything goes fine, all bike tour companies are great. You really get to find out what a company and its people are all about when the trip runs into a problem. Thats when a company can shine or tell you to drop dead and keep almost all your money. Jim Johnson and bike tours will fall into the second category. Dont find out the hard way I like had to.
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Mixed review, I’m afraid. The dark side: be very cautious when using a credit card. While they correctly informed us that there would be a charge for using a card, we were charged 4% PLUS we were were charged a lousy currency factor. We could have saved at least $75.00 by avoiding their “inconvenience” fees. For the three of us that amounted to $225!
The good: They worked with us patiently over a some time to come up with a good tour in Austria.
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Bike tours.com uses mostly Eurobike for a lot of tours in Europe. Eurobike in turn subcontracts out to mostly German based companies. We have been on a number of guided and self-guided and will never use Eurobike again. The tour leaders speak mostly German with a sprinkling of English which Eurobike never tells you. They also tend to downgrade the level of difficulty. Eurobike’s subcontractors do not do a good job of provided well translated instructors, especially for finding hotels and cue sheets are often inaccurate. The price is cheaper than you can find elsewhere but I know now there are other companies who do a better job and are not pricey; e.g., Van Gogh, and others on this tour list.
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We have used BikeToursDirect on several occasions, arranging trips in Italy and in France. Their website has a wide array of tours that you can search and they then help you expertly refine your selection. They handle the arrangements with the local operator and on two occasions their helpful travel team modified our base trip with a tack-on stay or substitution of a hotel better suited for our large family. Their assessments of what to expect are spot-on — the sights, the food, the route, the accommodations. I highly recommend BikeToursDirect and we will use them again.
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Easy accessibility to answer questions. Bikes, maps and equipement are good. Lodging and food are good as well and personel at the hotels are very helpful and friendly. The bike route was everything we had hoped for.
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Bike Tours Direct made a journey per bike down the Mosel River Valley a delight. Right from the beginning the staff of BTD helped and answered all my questions. This company’s planning was done in all details. I never found an unpleasant encounter. This trip was the best I’ve ever done with a traveling company. I booked this trip for 7 ladies, we all have the same feeling. I’ll use BTD again.
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We have taken 2 bike & Barge trips with them Amersdam -Brussels , The Danube Waltz from Germany to Budpest and back was great. Plan to go next year with BikeToursDirect.com
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I’ve done four self-guided family and friend tours through Bike Tours Direct -three in France and one in Italy. … BTD’s been extremely helpful in aiding me in finding the right tour for various groups (typically 4-5 twenty-somethings and 3-5 fifty somethings) – difficulty level, accommodations, scenery, etc. BDT’s ably handled multiple changes and additional requests. BTD’s partners on the ground have been excellent. The bikes have been great – size as well as condition. The ground team’s have been on-time, personable, and quite helpful. The inns have been fun – good locations and friendly, helpful inkeepers. I tried other companies before BTD and got less satisfactory service.
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Terrific from start to finish. We had a group of 20 and we charted the entire ship. This is the third summer tour we’ve made with the help of biketoursdirect.com. We’ve already signed up for another bike and barge tour for next year.
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BTD acts as a booking operator. When they made the original booking, there were many mistakes. When I pointed out the errors, it took a week for them to send me an acknowledgement that they were working to fix the problems. Many major errors were corrected, but the minor errors were ignored. BTD seemed annoyed when I asked them any question, if they responded at all. We had a great tour, but that was because the local tour operator in Europe was terrific, and fixed all the minor problems on the spot when I brought them up directly with them. In the future, we will work with the tour operator directly.
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My wife and I recently returned from a cycling tour in Italy and we used Bike Tours Direct.com as our tour company. We could not have been more satisfied with the service and the over all experience. If you are considering a cycling vacation especially out of the country I would recommend you use Bike Tours Direct .com. You will not be disappointed and they deliver exactly what they say they will. Great job and Thank you again.
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We booked a tour through Bike Tours Direct from Amsterdam to Bruges on May 4th, 2012. The tour was scheduled to start in Amsterdam on September 22 and end in Bruges on September 29. We found out when there was no boat at the Amsterdam dock, that they had changed us to a tour beginning in Bruges beginning that same day. At first they said the mistake was ours, but then admitted they had changed 8 other couples in the same way, and had not informed us. There solution was for us to take a train to Bruges and take the tour, which, due to other travel arrangements, was difficult for us. The boat operator, Boat Bike Tours, was rude as they could be when we tried to discuss our options, insisting they did not really want to discuss our problems and just to get on the train to Bruges. The President of Bike Tours Direct turned out to be of no assistance in the matter. We have not been able to get a refund of our booking fees. Be very careful if you use either of these companies. I recommend not using either.
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Very controlling experience You have to ride in a line with everyone else on the tour and you can not use the bike unless the guides are with you. The rooms on the boat were very small and storage is difficult.
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This is second time I’ve used Bike Tours Direct, and they’ve messed something up each time, not again. I suggest contacting the overseas bike tour company directly, reservations won’t have to go thru a translator/middle party, to leave things out of your requests.
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Lindsay of BikeToursDirect is responsible for creating our beautifully planned and impeccably executed custom private bicycling trip throughout India for five weeks. Her recommendations resulted in a relaxing, fascinating and culturally stimulating voyage through mystical, otherworldly Rajasthan and sultry, palm shaded Kerala. Our guides, hotels and transport could not have been any better and all travel needs were mat and exceeded – from finding a camera charger in the desert to buying a cricket bat in Agra – they’re 100% recommended.
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My husband and I used Bike Tours Direct to plan a bespoke bike trip from Passau, Germany to Vienna, Austria using the paths along the Danube River. We had a guide to show us the best routes to take (often, the bike “path” is not obvious) and even to make great restaurant reservations for us. We also had a van and driver to accompany us. It poured rain several days and I had the lovely opportunity to ride with him as my husband and guide biked on! We upgraded the deluxe hotels on their itinerary and we were quite pleased with each accommodation. Lindsay at Bike Tours Direct was a dream to work with. This outfit was first class!!
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We are about to embark on our third tour arranged by BikeTours.com. They have been super great to deal with, and provide excellent value. Our first trip was in Provence, and much enjoyed. We followed it up with a group of 17 to the Dalmatian Islands in Croatia. Fantastic! Now we’re doing six to Vietnam. Always, the helpful staff at BikeTours.com have provided quick service to the many questions that can come up when organizing a group of travelers. I would highly recommend them to anyone!
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