“Thanks again for sorting out all our trip, the roads were fantastic and we both really enjoyed it”
Mark & Dee, Self-Guided Colmar Tour, September 2024
“Thank you so much for an amazing week and dinner tonight was the icing on the cake! Absolutely superb! What a fantastic way to end our week. Thanks for everything”
Elaine & Chris, Self-Guided Black Forest Tour, September 2024
“Hi John,
Overall I found the holiday to be fantastic from start to finish. Your level of customer care is rarely found anywhere else…
Hotels – perfectly positioned, wonderful, excellent evening meal, friendly staff, good breakfast choices, again excellent dinner, fine with safe underground parking…every hotel was a winner and I was delighted by them all.
Routes – no complaints here at all…the tour is all about the riding and for sure that was a delight, particularly in Germany and the Vosges. For me, a few more days with options to see off route sights would be the ideal.
So, thank you John for the tour and the top class customer service. A real adventure for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Regards, Simon Mogridge“
[A condensed review from a Self-guided Black Forest & Vosges Mountains Tour, June 2024]
“Hi John & Jen, we had an absolutely fantastic time on the tour, and will definitely be doing more in future! The hotels were all great, and served a very nice breakfast. The Hotel [Secret!] had great parking and the provided food was excellent, the only downside was that the pool/spa closed at 7pm. Hotel [Secret!] was a personal favourite, the food was great, the owners were friendly and the location was perfect for exploring Cochem on foot, although the highlight was definitely the final hotel. The room was very impressive, although we spent most of the time at the bar, trying all the different beers! The breakfast was also great here, although unfortunately the spa closed a few years ago so we couldn’t use it.
The routes were brilliant, I’d never ridden outside of the UK, so riding through the Ardennes was definitely a wake up call as to what’s out there! It’s difficult to pick specifics but I’d have to say the highlights route-wise were the Ardennes, and riding along the river Mosel in Germany, as we got very lucky with the weather so the views were fantastic! The free day was also great, we tried out the chair lift by the hotel, then went to explore the castle in Cochem and have a look round the town, and then we went and did a lap of the Nurburgring in the evening – a very entertaining and memorable experience!
Overall, it was a fantastic trip that I would highly recommend to anyone, and I’ll definitely be back in future to try some other tours!
Kind regards,
Ben Smith & David Nally“
[Self-guided 5×4 (Five Nights in Four Countries) Tour, April 2023]
“Morning John, we got back Saturday evening after a week of glorious weather; I’m sure I speak for the four of us in saying many thanks for an absolutely brilliant trip, the roads were incredible and the hotels were of your usual high standard that is except for the Leffe Hotel which is nothing short of stunning – the evening at the Casino rounded off the trip in fantastic style. This was the first time for Neil & Russell, however I’m sure it won’t be the last. I’ll ask Russ, Neil and Charlie to put the photos together and send them to you. If the self guided tours count on the leader board it will have been my 6th trip, can’t wait for number 7. Best Regards, Martin Newton-Mason”
[Self-guided 5×4 (Five Nights in Four Countries) Tour, July 2019]
Sharon Lee recommends Bike Normandy Page: “We have just done a self guided tour arranged and set up by BN. It was amazing, very easy and very relaxed as all of the hard work of booking everything is taken out of your hands! You can be sure that they will book you into nice hotels and ensure you have regular stops at scenic places. You don’t even have to worry about fuel stops as they are all planned in! Thanks BN for a fabulous week. Photos to follow…”
[Self-guided 5×4 (Five Nights in Four Countries) Tour, June 2019]
“Recently did our first trip (self-guided Black Forest & Vosges Mountains) with Bike Normandy – it exceeded my expectations, a fabulous time was had by myself and my mate. Even though John and Jen (tour operators) were on tour with a guided party they kept an eye on us (so to speak) with phone calls and eventually we met up with them in Schluchsee, Germany (2 nights in the resort). Their route itinerary and choice of accommodation was spot on and in great locations, the food was fabulous as were the beers of course and each hotel was very clean with secure parking for the bikes, we were also lucky enough to have glorious sunshine every day which makes the tour all the more enjoyable. There are far too many highlights to mention but riding through the Black Forest in Germany, visiting the Rhine Falls in Switzerland and of course walking around Château Pierrefonds, France are up there. If you’re thinking of a Euro bike trip and want to cut out all the hassle of choosing routes and booking hotels, look no further than John & Jen’s Bike Normandy website, can’t recommend highly enough, roll on next year ���”
Steve Middlemass & Rob Halidu, July 2018
“Great tour…your routes work perfectly on the Garmin and we are having a great time. Thank you so much for all your help and what a difference it makes to book through someone knowledgeable and who has actually ridden these routes which are so well thought out. Please see attached pic of Tiggy & I in Vianden this morning – a glorious day – wall to wall sunshine. Thanks again John for all your help, can’t wait for the next one! (In fact Tiggy has an interest in WWll and wants to do your tour – when is your next available slot?)”
Rich Russell & daughter Tiggy, 4×4 Tour, July 2018
“We have just returned from our week in the Black Forest on a Self Guided tour. John provided us with the routes for our SatNav and it worked a dream. A great mixture of fast roads and some very challenging and technical mountain roads with superb views and scenery. I never knew that the roads leaving Calais were so good and I will not want to get on the Motorway again. Hotels were all excellent as was the food served within them. All days were no more than 225 miles and we had the luxury of going at our own pace but John had incorporated all the fuel and drink stops within our route package. A very very enjoyable week and temperatures topping 34 degrees helped. I would highly recommend this company. Communication was swift and John even called us midway to make sure that everything was running smoothly. If you are thinking about doing a tour – do it, you will not regret it. We only took the self guided tour as we could not get time off work for the group tour which would have made the trip even more immense I’m sure. Thank you for everything, a truly fantastic and memorable trip.”
Paul & Leigh-Anne Corpse, Self-Guided Black Forest Tour, June 2017
“Just wanted to e-mail to thank you for all your help in arranging the Self Guided Black Forest & Vosges Tour. We got home yesterday and can safely say that a great time was had by all. Your choices of hotels were very good and routes selected offered everything that we had hoped for. As you may know we were blessed with some great weather (if not a little too hot !), but would rather settle for that than wet and cold conditions as encountered on previous trips. Thanks once again for all your diligence and patience with the Sat Navs before we left.”
Steve Ayres, Ian Willmer & 2 others, Self-Guided Black Forest Tour, June 2017
“As ever I am always the last to reply! I can see that Chris has written a small novel on our tour already so there is no need to go into detail. Myself and Trish would like to re-iterate Martin and Chris’s sentiments about how much we enjoyed the tour, we all had a great time and I am sure in time I will laugh loudly about my two punctures (what are the chances?? I have been biking for over 20 years and never even had one). The rooms Trish and I had and the hotels were superb. I felt the information packs you gave us were excellent as was the advice on places nearby to explore… You have done an excellent job in organising the tour for us, I would whole heartedly recommend your self-guided tour and company, and we will certainly be back!!”
Dave & Trish Hessell, Self-Guided 4×4 Tour, June 2017
“I wanted to get in touch with you to say thanks for organising our tour this year. We had a really good time and the routes and places that we visited on the tour were great. Some amazing roads, especially the twisty forest roads through Belgium and Germany. The Hotel Clairefontaine is absolutely beautiful and we were met by a very softly spoken old gent, who was very helpful and offered us a free beer (courtesy of you I presume, so we are very thankful. We really needed that beer!)…It was a great hotel and definitely one that I’d go back to… The whole trip was in such a great part of Europe and some of the roads were just fantastic. Some were in a pretty awful condition and didn’t seem fit for bikes, so maybe try to avoid those, but I guess that the road conditions change and so it’s hard to track what’s acceptable and makes a good route. But in general it was a really good mix of different roads and scenery. Some of those forest roads have some really tricky tight turns, so the concentration levels were high, but I really enjoyed them… Personally I’d love to do another one of your tours, and might come along on one of the fully guided ones. We’re going to have to book a stay at your farmhouse at some point as we have also discussed a trip with a single base and short ride outs to local historical attractions. I think that it’s safe to say that you’ll be hearing from us again.”
(Excerpts from Chris’s epic feedback!)
Chris Crawley with Martin Dorril, Self-Guided 4×4, June 2017
“Hi John & Jen, just dropping you a line to say all back safe and well. One of the best experiences I have had…roads, hotels & people we met on route were fantastic. Already looking on planning next year’s adventure.”
Paul Campbell & 3 friends, Self-Guided Black Forest Tour, May 2017
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