I would strongly caution anyone from using VBT air package service for travel. I found the whole experience stressful from beginning to end and ultimately did all the travel planning myself at a huge financial loss. VBT booked us on incredibly long flights with awful departure times and seat assignments, across two separate airlines - an itinerary no reasonable person would book for themselves. The VBT team travel team was either completely inexperienced in international travel or, worse, just completely uncaring of their customers. With their reputation and the cost of the trip, I expected VBT to provide stress-free travel planning. Instead, I ended up having to redo our entire itinerary myself, made extra complicated by VBT's initial terrible bookings, and at an extra cost to what we already paid. Honestly, I couldn't believe the lack of concern for me as a customer throughout entire process. I will never use the travel service again and strongly recommend that no one use the air package/travel service as part of a VBT vacation. read more

Many promises when you call to talk about tours. Not much love once your deposit has been paid.

I must say I'm puzzled at these reviews. I have been on 8 VBT trips and cannot say enough positive about them. If I had a complaint about rooms, it's that some of the accommodations are too upscale and offer more than I need to pay for. The stays at wineries are the most memorable. The guides are all local and offer little insights that help make the trip all the much better. Bikes are excellent. Planning is all well done. The customer service/ sales people are most helpful and quick to act on special needs. I just booked two more back-to-back trips in June. read more

The bike tours and scenery are spectacular , and the guides are excellent. The accommodations on the other hand are ordinary at best The rooms and the hotels were poor to average if you are looking for upscale accommodations, this company is not for you read more

My husband and I went on a VBT bike trip to Italy and the Dolomites last June. The biking was not well planned. The paths were narrow and crowded with bikers and pedestrians. Part of the trip involved biking on a narrow mountain road with switchbacks and a precipice on one side and a rock wall on the other. The VBT van hit my husband on this road which resulted in multiple injuries and a trip to the hospital. Neither VBT nor Xanterra(parent company) has responded to any of our inquiries nor offered any condolences concerning this accident. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY OR THEIR TOURS read more

There were 5 couples on the tour. The bikes: Most of us felt like the standover of bikes were sized without enough gap, especially the men. When I straded the cross bar it made contact with my groin. One of the guides said he would check to see if the next smaller size was available, it wasn't. The other guide suggested that we tip the bike to the side to get on and off, which was awkward but we had to make it work. Three of the four women on the ride had falls on the warm up ride when their front brakes locked up and then had some serious falls. I know at least my wife is an experienced bike/e-bike rider. Another less experienced female continued to have problem and did not ride the last two days. Two bikes had so much moisture in their displays that they were very hard/impossible to read. Hotels: We signed up for the 3 night extestions at the beginning and end. The hotels were great for the most part. The beds in all the rooms were comfortable. The only issue we experienced was in the Premium room (rm 322) at the Hotel Cavour in Milan at the end of the trip. There were mesquitos in our room at night (wierd for October). I managed to kill 4 or 5 of them but woke up two mornings with mesquito bites. I tried sleeping with a sheet over my head but it would come off sometime during the night. The rides: The rides were spectacular for the most part. We were very lucky that we didn't have any rain during any of our rides. We started out with our warm up ride in Bolzano. This was an easy ride complicate by riding in a busy urban area for parts of the ride. I feel this was not a good choice for a warm up ride since between having some less experienced riders, the crowds, and the bikes needing adjustments, we had three separate rider incidents during the ride. Also due to the unfamiliarity with the area and urban nature a few wrong turns were made. The Ride with GPS app has great potential, but it wasn't always apparent when a turn was to be made and it would make comments like, "In one and a quarter miles, take notice". There were multiple problems with those statements, my bike didn't display in miles as far as I could tell, one and a quarter miles was far enough away that by the time I got there I had forgotten I needed to take notice. It would be far more helpful if it told me what to take notice of...A turn, a beatiful sight to see, a busy intersection. I would rate the ride "easy to moderate" for experienced riders. I would go solid "moderate" for inexperienced or timid riders. As a matter of fact I would not recommend this as a first VBT trip. I would recommend starting with something rated as "Easy" to begin with. I feel like I have focused on the negative too much...The scenery was great. The food we ate along the way was really good. It was a bit tricky to find open places to eat on Sunday, especially in the early evening. Top tips for trip extension in Milan; Get the CitySightSeeing (Hop on Hop off) bus tour to familiarize yourself with the city. Get gelato at Cioccolatitaliani near the Duomo in Milan (way better than CIACCO in my opinion, and a shorter line). Tour the Duomo of Milan early in the morning and pay the extra 3 Euros for the elevator ride up towards the roof. The line to the elevator was shorter and you have fewer stairs to climb. Also, if you buy the tickets in the evening when the lines are shorter you can gothe next day or day after as the tickets are good for one visit over three days. Top tips for trip extension in Innsbruck; Get the Innsbruck card. It gets you on the Hop-on Hop-off Bus "The Sightseer", recommended. It also gets you up the Nordkette (3 lifts), dress warmly, highly recommended. It also gets you discounts to various other things like the Tiroler Abend Show Familie Gundolf Innsbruck, kind of corny but entertaining. Get a reservation in advance for diner if you are there on a Sunday. We enjoyed watching jumpers at the Bergisel Ski Jump. Note: Have them send you a copy of the current, "VBT GUEST PARTICIPATION AGREEMENT", before you sign up. That way if you don't have to risk your deposit if you don't like the terms. read more

I dont care what the situation is; it should never take over an hour to get an agent on the phone to ask questions about a booked trip. They also erase negative reviews from their website. read more

Loved, loved my bicycling tour in Italy!!! Roberto and Giovani were great guides!! I loved VBT taking care of practically everything. The hotels and restaurants were wonderful and the little picnic snacks at breaks were fun. This is a great tour for people young to old. read more

I went on a biking tour through Germany and have signed up for another trip this year - gateway to the Dolomites. The tours are great but the airline pricing of booking through VBT when requesting an upgrade to business class is so over-inflated, this will be my last trip using VBT. I requested an upgrade to business class and the additional cost given to me by VBT was more than if I booked the flights myself through United. So in addition to a charge of $5200 for biking and airfare flying coach, I was charged an additional $6500 for a business class upgrade. At the same time, I could book the same business class flights for just under $6000. This is completely ridiculous and when I contacted VBT, they refused to offer any support to help with the cost discrepancy with exception of taking red-eye flights. I am traveling with family members and this was not an option. Use VBT if you don't mind overpaying for your airfare. read more

We signed up and pre-paid 11 months in advance for one of VBT's "most popular" Croatia trips. 3 months prior to departure they contacted us to say they had to cancel our dates due to a lack of sign-ups, despite this being one of their most popular trips. It was too late at this point to find an alternate tour that worked with our available dates. Plan on having a lot of flexibility when booking with VBT and think twice about pre-paying and letting them use your cash as they will not reimburse with interest if they cancel. read more

I took a VBT cycling trip in the Pelopenesian peninsula of Greece in October 2022. The scenery, choice of routes, rental bikes, and accomodations were excellent as were the two local guides. So why the three stars ? I was under the impression that VBT's roots were as a bicycle touring business. I did understand that ebikes have become very popular and that they open the trips to many more people, but I did not realize that they, in fact, have grown to dominate the trips. In reality, VBT is running ebike trips and you can, if you wish, attempt to do the trip on a regular bike. My group had 19 guests, and 14 of them rode ebikes, as did the two guides !!! Unfortunately, as a rider on a regular bike, I definitely felt pushed by the pace even though I was perfectly capable of managing the rides under ordinary circumstances. When I returned home, I checked out Backroads to see if the same evolution had happened with them. It appears they are running separate trips for ebikes and regular bikes, which makes a lot more sense to me. read more

we just got back from Portugal, I would give my guides Carlos and David a wonderful rating. they were knowledgeable and polite, the hotels were nice the food was good, and Portugal was a beautiful place to bike and vacation. I am only giving vbt one star, because their customer service is so bad. First of all you can't even reach any agents over the phone or by email. Secondly they are rude and knowledgeable. I booked my air through them, and was very clear that I only wanted to fly a certain carrier because I always get upgraded. The agent when she booked it should've disclosed that when they book air they book in a low bulk rate class, that is not upgradable, even with a certain status on an airline. needless to say, this caused a lot of stress. vbt was very unhelpful and rude about this situation. they should have compensated me and my companion when they learned about their mistake. they knowingly mislead us!!!!! I had an aweful experience with the agents at vbt!!! for that reason I give only 1 star!!!!!!! read more

A very bad experience with one of the VBT guides on the Amalfi Coast walking trip. Allesandra was negative, sarcastic, and completely indifferent to the fact that she was the guide and we were the paying customers. I spent six torturous (like a poke in the eye with a sharp stick) days with her on this trip. Our group was small so there was no getting out of earshot from her. I payed more money for a fully guided trip and the guide turned out to ruin the experience. I feel very strongly that I can not trust VBT ever again. There is too much of my money and time that goes into these trips. I will look into other companies for my next adventure or go self-guided. read more

I've gone on three bike tours with VBT and in all of the cases, except for the last one which was worst, the guides were unprofessional. The first trip was to Maine. Unprovoked, the white supremacy guide on our first meet and greet let me know, a Black woman, about why it was the fault of Africans that blacks were enslaved. He unnerved a ride along passenger telling her the same, thinking she'd agree because she was white. The second trip to Martha's Vineyard, the two female guides were constantly bickering and seemed fake in enjoying themselves with the group. One was so anti-Hillary that it turned off my partner and I to a point where we gave them the bare minimum of a tip. The third trip on a bike and barge in Europe was fine until the cook poisoned my partner and I at the end of the trip. No kidding. It was from the processEd chicken salad that only I was to have since I did not eat red meat, my wife ate some too. She immediately started throwing up after we got off the boat, and within a half hour, I got so sick I went to the emergency room. I couldn't stop vomiting. VBT reimbursed us for the hospital visit, but the chef did not apologize. He just said that the second mate had the same salad and did not get sick. We are a same sex couple and every time he looked at us, it was a scowl. I would never take another trip on VBT. Three strikes you're out. Now that being said, I loved where we went, the rides and the scenery. Perhaps, if you're white and heterosexual, you'll enjoy the trip. read more

I took a VBT bike tour in Vietnam. The staff waS exceptional. The guides awesoMe. The hotels exceeded my expectation and while the foOd was interesting and tasty, it was repetitive. Mostly the bike ride took us far from the beaten path... on some pretty rough paths too! Thanks for the mountain bikes! read more