Reviews

We loved the boat bike Tulip tour on the Zwaantje. The guides were excellent, the (standard) bikes were well-maintained, and the food on-board was high quality and delicious. One concern was that there were many people who were sick on the boat with bad coughs. It was clear that more became ill as time went on. Within the close quarters of the boat, I feel that masks should have been required for those with obvious virulent symptoms. My husband and I were not sick on board, but one week after the tour, we both tested positive for COVID, and while we can’t prove where we got it, it seemed pretty obvious when we came down with the exact same symptoms that those had had on the boat.

It was perfect. I loved the crew the itinerary and the ambience of the barge. The days were filled with fun adventures and I learned so much about the Netherlands, the water system. It was a perfect vacation and I plan to go on another boat and bike tour.

Such a great trip – everything was perfect – the boat, the bikes, the rides and the guides. Totally loved it!

We have just finished a bike an barge from Amsterdam to Brugge and it was fabulous!! The ship was beautifully maintained and a great size for the 38 guests on board. The food was delicious, varied, top quality and plentiful. What the chef managed to serve up from a small kitchen was a real credit to him. The 2 guides, Hesta and Esta were terrific, their knowledge and personalities made the days cycling, even in rain, fun. The wait staff were very attentive and friendly and always eager to help. The whole experience was very well managed, I would highly recommend this trip, they are a very slick team. This is a truly awesome way to see stunning the scenery of Holland and Belguim. Well done for helping us create some beautiful memories that we will treasure forever.

I would highly recommend taking this trip. The people on board were amazing! Everyone was so nice and friendly. I’ve never seen a staff work harder to make sure everyone traveling with them was having a good time. Thank you so much to all of the team on board for making this experience memorable for me.

Zwaantje – Home away from home! I recently took two groups, 11 & 14 people, back-to-back for the Tulip Tours round-trip Amsterdam. The crew was truly amazing at making us feel right at home! Frank’s food was amazing, Karen & Yoke’s hostess skills didn’t miss a thing and Captain Martin makes you feel that you are a very welcome guest! We are already planning another group for 2024!

Beautiful sailing ship.Excellent crew with a great skipper.Fantastic bike routes.Very good meals prepared by a great cook.

The staff on the Swiss Crown were incredible! The wait staff, room attendants, front desk folk, all exhibited the highest level of professionalism, all while being friendly and helpful. Anything we needed was promptly provided. The accommodations were wonderfully comfortable. We were surprised at the high level of quality of the bicycles as well. Everything functioned perfectly. The daily mileage, something that steers me away from most tours, was easily attainable, Now, if they could have changed the weather… It would have helped those of us non-German speakers if our cruise director spoke better English, the shoe, for once, was on the other foot! I always felt a little cheated that the Germans got a longer and seemingly more entertaining briefing. But our cruise director was fun and enthusiastic nonetheless. He could use a good assistant, he was running ragged for half the tour. The deboarding process could use better organization, things broke down during deboarding. An attempt was made to board taxis by room number but the first group could not be located and things got chaotic after that. Perhaps a bus assigned to take a group to the train station? A strong organizing hand would have helped. We had the best time! I had never experienced anything of that level of “swank” and I felt like royalty. I could have happily spent the rest of the summer with them.

On our trip they’re was a group of 18 from Texas. We will never use your services again until you are able to limit your groups to a max of eight. We almost always felt left out.About 3 of those couples made attempts to include us in their conversations.Thank goodness the other 2 lone couples were very nice.Otherwise the trip was a 10. The crew and boat could not have been better.

We thoroughly enjoyed our Tour! The food was excellent, the cabin was comfortable, and the bikes were great. We enjoyed our tour leaders, and especially appreciated their introduction to the biking rules of the road before starting out. The problems we encountered were relatively minor, but I offer my observations in the hopes of being constructive: 1. The breakfast service was challenging because the space was small and everyone wanted breakfast at the last possible moment. I found that the ship staff didn’t monitor the food very well, and most days some people went without because of the crush of people. 2. One day when I was riding, I developed problems with my bicycle. The tour leader did not appear to be in a position to assist me. Her advice was to keep riding, and maybe somebody could help me at the boat. That day we rode 43 km, under difficult wind conditions, and the issue came up prior to the mid-point of the day, so this was a disappointing response. Fortunately one of the members of the group was able to help me. I am not sure that the company has a procedure for when someone cannot finish the day of biking, unless they have a serious accident (for example), which one of our tour members did. (She was in a different group from me, so I cannot comment on the procedure.) 3. There was a lack of clarity about the optional canal tour in Amsterdam. In other tours I have done, there has clearly been free time when someone could take advantage of this, either by themselves or in a group. So I bought it (along with paying for the other tour costs), but when I arrived at the boat, there was no time in the schedule when it was really convenient to do the tour. Had I known that, I wouldn’t have bothered. 4. There was little to no creation of a temporary community on-board ship. On the first evening, when the leaders and the crew were being introduced, it might have been appropriate to have each participant also introduce themselves quickly.