Boat Bike Tours: What to pack and what to expect

I just got home from my fifth Boat Bike Tour, so I feel like I can give some guidance to first-timers. But before I go on, here’s an important disclosure:

The second article I wrote was after my second Boat Bike Tour, but I didn’t write more for my website on the third or fourth tour because I didn’t feel like there was much to add.

Why write yet another article about Boat Bike Tours now? On this most recent tour, it occurred to me that, although the company sends all sorts of information ahead of tours once you reserve, some of their advice bears repeating, or it could use a bit more emphasis and detail.

And another disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. Making a purchase through an affiliate link will mean a small commission for this website. This will not affect your price.

This article offers some advice about a) what to pack (or not to pack) for the trip and b) an idea of what you can expect from the experience, based on the five tours I’ve taken:

1. Hanze Highlights: a tour in the Netherlands that includes biking through lots of very pretty towns that were once part of the historical Hanseatic League;
2. Northern Tour of Holland: parts of North Holland, Friesland and the island of Texel, crossing the Wadden Sea twice;
3. Amsterdam-Maastricht: straight through the Netherlands;
4. Amsterdam-Bruges: some of the Netherlands and some of Belgium, including the beautiful cities of Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp;
5. Bamberg-Asschaffenburg: a lesser-known route along the Main River in Germany. All of the photos in this article are from this tour.

What is Boat Bike Tours?

In case you haven’t heard of them before, Boat Bike Tours is a company that offers biking holidays that provide, in my view, a unique combination of physical activity and pampering.

How do they do that?

• Physical activity: Each day you get up, eat breakfast, pack your own lunch, and set off on a bike or ebike. The route you follow has been carefully chosen to be scenic and relatively traffic-free, using bike paths as much as possible. Depending on what tour you take, you might bike with a tour leader, or you might follow the route on your own. Meanwhile the boat continues along on canals, rivers or the sea, and you meet up with it in the afternoon.
• Pampering: You don’t have to plan a route. If you take a guided tour, you don’t have to pay attention to the route at all – just be in the moment enjoying a leisurely bike ride through pretty landscapes and towns. You sleep on a boat in a cozy cabin with an en-suite bathroom. You don’t have to pack and unpack every day, and a three-course dinner rounds off the day.

Boat Bike Tours: What to pack

Much of this is already on the information you’ll receive from the company, but I want to expand on it a bit.

Clothing

Most of the tours take a week, and there are no laundry facilities, so bring enough clothing for the whole week. You won’t wear each piece all day, however, unless you choose to stay on the boat for a day. Most people wear biking clothes, which might just be bike shorts and a tee-shirt. This isn’t a race, and the bikes are all upright street bikes, so there’s no need to spend money on fancy biking clothes or biking shoes.

After the day’s cycling, most guests take a shower and change for the evening. That usually means pants or shorts and, again, a tee-shirt or blouse. There is absolutely no need to bring along any fancy clothing for the evenings. The atmosphere is very casual, so don’t waste suitcase space on dress-up outfits.

You also don’t need to take a different outfit for each evening. The clothes you wear for dinner and drinks and conversation, plus maybe a stroll outside, are unlikely to get dirty or smelly so you can wear them more than one evening. Believe me, no one will mind, or, for that matter, even notice! I’d say three outfits for evenings would be about right, so two pairs of long pants (It can get chilly in the evenings.) and three or four tops.

Do bring bike shorts, if you think they’ll help prevent you from getting saddle-sore. They didn’t help me, but I don’t cycle much so I’m not sure anything would have helped. Two pairs would be enough – when you take your afternoon shower, give it a quick clean in the sink (Shampoo or hand soap works fine.) and hang it up to dry. A day should be more than enough time. Just rotate between the two pairs all week.

Check out your barge ahead of time on the Boat Bike Tours website. Some of the premium ones have whirlpools out on the sundeck. If yours does, don’t forget your bathing suit! It’s probably wise to bring one in any case; guests often swim in rivers when it’s hot, or if you take a sea-based tour, you’re likely to want to take a dip after a hot-day bike ride.

Outerwear

Bring a light jacket or thin sweater for cool evenings. A thin windbreaker is a good idea if you’ll be biking in the spring or fall when it’s cooler.

Shoes

Make sure you have at least two pairs of shoes that you can cycle in. I brought, on this last tour, a pair of sneakers and a pair of walking sandals. On the very first day, in our departure city of Bamberg in Germany, my husband and I had some time before dinner. We decided to go take a walk and see the town. On the way back, we got absolutely drenched: it was a deluge, plus thunder and lightning. We were soaked within a minute on our walk to the boat.

The point is that my sneakers were soaked. I ended up wearing the sandals for the next few days while the sneakers dried out. If I hadn’t had that second pair, I would have been miserable in wet shoes as I cycled.

Rain gear

Which brings me to rain gear. Unless you choose a tour somewhere where it rarely rains – one of their tours in Greece, for example – it could rain. And since the boat is moving while you bicycle, you can’t just turn back. You can ride to the nearest café and wait it out, of course, but you’re likely to get rained on once or twice. Bring a rain jacket and rain pants.

Other odds and ends to bring along

Things to do

Depending on the mix of guests, evenings can be filled with conversation and laughter, or they can be pretty quiet. Bring something to keep you occupied during down time; for example, a book, knitting, a pack of cards, etc. The boats all moor for the night, so you can also always go take a walk in the cool of the evening, if you prefer.

Medications

If your knees aren’t the best, or you get backaches or headaches easily, bring medications for pain. They’re available in pharmacies, of course, but it’s easier if you have them with you. The same goes for things like bandages for blisters or salves for skin irritations.

Binoculars

If you like bird-watching, or you might just want to get a better look at that castle on a hill, bring along some binoculars.

A phone

Make sure you have an esim, a portable wifi modem, or that your home country subscription covers you overseas. The ships have wifi, but you may need to use your phone to reach a tour leader when you’re off the ship. Also make sure you have enough memory available in your phone for all the pictures you might take.

A powerbank

A powerbank would be a good idea too. The RidewithGPS app, which you’ll use to keep track of the route if you bike separately from the group, takes a lot of power.

Toiletries

Bring all of the toiletries you normally use every day, because the ships, in my limited experience, won’t supply much more than soap and body wash or a body wash + shampoo combination. If it matters to you what you use, bring your own shampoo and conditioner along.

Make-up is absolutely not necessary, but if it’s something you use everyday, just bring the minimum. The same goes for hair care: hairspray, curling irons and so forth aren’t necessary on such a casual trip. You’re bound to have helmet hair anyway, as will all the other guests! All the ships I’ve been on provided hairdryers. If you feel you must bring, for example, a curling iron, make sure you have the proper adapter and converter. The ships in Europe run on 220V and the plugs in most places have two round pins.

Flexibility: The most important thing to take with you

These tours require flexibility, both from the crew members and the passengers.

• Routes may change. For example, if the water on a river rises too high, the ship won’t be able to fit under bridges. If it’s too low, it risks running aground.
• Mooring places change. This is often not up to the ship’s captain. The harbormaster of the town where you moor might decide you should moor somewhere further out of town. Or it might be first come first served and another ship got there first.
• Schedules are just an estimation. River barges often have to pass through locks, which takes time. I timed one of the 27 locks we passed through on this Bamberg-Aschaffenburg trip and it took 20 minutes from the time we entered it to when we left it. That’s not counting the extra time the ship might have to wait if other ships are there first. If there are three ships in line ahead of yours, the wait might be a whole hour. (River barge captains have the patience of saints!)

Your cabin

Cabins on river barges are not big. Even if you pay extra for a “premium” ship and/or an upgraded cabin, it won’t be big. In general, the ships the company calls “boutique” have the smallest cabins, while the “premium” ships’ cabins are bigger and somewhat more elegantly decorated. All the cabins have private bathrooms, and they get cleaned every day, just like in a hotel.

You’ll need a bit of flexibility if you’re used to more space. Put your clothes away in the cupboard or closet and slide your suitcase under a bed. You can manage with a smaller space. The fact is: you won’t use it for anything but changing clothes and sleeping. All the ships have a lounge space and outdoor space – both shaded and unshaded – where you can relax.

Included meals

The meals are consistently good to excellent, depending on the on-board chef and their strengths and weaknesses. If you are a vegetarian or have other dietary restrictions, let the company know when you reserve your spot, and again when you board the ship.

Beyond that, you have little say over what you eat for dinner, which is generally a starter, a main course and a dessert. Be flexible and eat what you’re served, or don’t eat it, but don’t expect to get another option. There’s often a bowl of fruit and extra bread available if you need more to eat, but I’ve always found the serving sizes to be perfect.

Breakfast and lunch are more flexible. Breakfast is buffet-style, so take what you want. You also pack your own lunch from that same buffet. There’s bound to be something you like.

Cycling in a group

If you’re taking a guided tour, you’re likely to end up stopping sometimes when you’d prefer to keep cycling. Or vice-versa, where you’d like to stop but the tour keeps going. Be flexible and patient, but if you can’t, then just leave the group and cycle on your own – just make sure to let the tour leader know.

If you cycle with a group, the speed might be on the slow side, especially if some are using regular bikes and some are on ebikes. Be patient, or cycle on your own. Keep your distance from the others to avoid accidents in case someone has to stop suddenly.

Getting there

I strongly suggest getting to the departure city at least a day ahead of your Boat Bike Tour. Flights get cancelled or delayed, and you don’t want to miss the start of the tour! Also, the start and end points of many of the tours are worth a few days themselves. Get there early, get over your jetlag and see the city! Book accommodations here.

If you decide to book a Boat Bike Tour, use the code RCHASD to get a discount of 25 euros per person.

What to expect on a typical Boat Bike Tour

The bike routes

You’ll take daily bike rides along a pre-set route. The routes that Boat Bike Tours chooses are always the best. They keep you on separate bike paths or very quiet roads as much as possible through beautiful towns, countryside or nature areas. Occasionally you might pass through industrial areas.

Sometimes you’ll get a choice between a long and a short route. If you ride on your own, use the map that the tour leader gives you. Alternatively, you can use the RidewithGPS app, which I found pretty easy to use. It lets you know with audio signals when a turn is coming up, and an AI voice tells you as well. Your tour leader will give you the code, but download the app ahead of time.

If you decide to ride on your own, I’d suggest following the given route anyway. I’ve tried going to see things off the route, but always ended up on busy roads with lots of car traffic or having to ride through ugly areas. The company’s route will be the most pleasant.

There is no obligation, though, to ride every day. You can stay on the boat if you just aren’t feeling it or, as was the case for me, you get too saddle-sore to want to get near a bike that day. Staying on the boat means a very quiet day, since the staff will be busy with their jobs – cleaning, cooking or operating the barge. There’s no entertainment. I enjoyed working a bit at my laptop, punctuated by running outside to the foredeck to snap pictures of the pretty villages we passed.

Tour leaders and bikes

Each evening, the tour leader will call everyone together for a meeting to explain the next day’s route. They’ll point out what’s worth seeing along the way, show you the route, and point out your options for longer and shorter routes.

On all the tours, you’ll have at least one tour leader available. The tour leaders always take tools with them to deal with small repairs for things like flat tires and loose chains. Some tours are semi-guided, which means you cycle on your own and the tour leader just rides the same route. They’re available somewhere nearby if you call them. Some tours are fully guided, which means you cycle along with the tour leader and don’t have to keep track of the route yourself.

The bikes and e-bikes the company uses are excellent and always in good repair. You’ll get the seat and handlebar height set up on the first day, then use the same bike all week. You’ll also receive a pannier to use for the week to carry your lunch and raingear. You can see it on the bikes in the photo below; it clips onto the bike rack.

Passengers and crew sharing the trip with you

The other passengers will likely be a multicultural mix, and so are the crew. That makes for lots of friendly, interesting conversation, if you want it. Generally the common language is English. Over the course of a week’s tour, I’ve found that even the shy passengers, or the ones who are less comfortable speaking English, warm up and open up.

Besides one or two tour leaders, the ship’s crew is usually made up of a captain, one or two sailors, a chef, and at least two “hosts” or “hostesses” who staff the bar, serve the meals, clean up after meals, and clean the rooms every day. They all help out with tasks outside their own: I saw a sailor washing dishes, for example, and both the captain and the sailor help move bikes on and off of the barge.

You can expect tour leaders and crew who try their best to please, even when things are not going their way. Some may not speak great English. Be patient and repeat back what you heard to make sure you understood it correctly. This is especially important with tour leaders talking about schedules and routes!

Drinks and relaxation

Except for tea, coffee, hot chocolate and water, expect to pay for drinks: soft drinks, hard liquor, mixed drinks, wine or beer. If you’re likely to have wine every evening, buy a bottle of wine. The “host” or “hostess” will mark it so you can drink it over several days.

Each barge has a lounge of some sort inside and a deck outside where you can sit and relax. If you want to be alone, you should be able to find a place for quiet contemplation.

Don’t expect to be alone at dinner, however; you and your travel companion(s) are likely to share a table with other passengers. The seats aren’t assigned, so you’re not stuck with someone you don’t like all week. I try to sit in a different place at every meal so that I can meet different people.

If there’s a problem

Don’t expect the trip to be changed to accommodate you. The ship can’t just drop you off or pick you up anywhere along a canal or river – there are rules about this on waterways.

Having said this, the tour leaders and crew will do whatever they can to help if there’s a real problem: sickness or injury. You will not be abandoned.

If you have a bike issue like a flat tire, the tour leader has the equipment and know-how to fix it.

If you fall ill and need medical care, the tour leader and crew will help you get to a doctor or hospital. And they’ll help figure out how to get you back to the tour when you’re better.

A consistent theme of tours with this company is the lengths to which the crew will go to make sure everyone is getting the most out of the trip. That means it’s up to you to let them know if there’s something wrong. Let them know right away if something in your cabin isn’t working right or if your bike has a problem.

If the weather is bad, though, there’s nothing they can do about that! But they’ll certainly lend you a sympathetic ear.

One last piece of advice: bring extra cash for a tip. On the last night, you’ll find an envelope in your cabin to put your tip in, which will be divided fairly among the crew. Be generous – I saw, on the days I stayed onboard instead of biking, that they work exceedingly hard every day while the guests are out. They deserve a hefty tip!

Have you ever taken a Boat Bike Tour? Or is it something you’re just considering? Let me know in the comments below!

And remember, if you decide to book a Boat Bike Tour, use the code RCHASD to get a discount of 25 euros per person.