Cycling and wine vacation in Bordeaux

COUNTRY:: France
LOCATION:: Bordeaux, South of France
HOLIDAY TYPE:: Self guided moderate cycling vacations
DEPARTURES:: This trip can be tailor made between March and November and can be adapted to suit your interests, budget and requirements as necessary
PRICE:: From €630 (5 days) excluding flights
MORE INFO:: Prices are per person based on 2 people sharing a double. Prices include: 4 nights in a 3-star hotel and 2 guesthouses, daily breakfast, 4 dinners, marked maps and/or cue sheets, route notes, tourist information, assistance if necessary, all tax and service charges.

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Cycling and wine vacation in Bordeaux

How this vacation makes a difference

Environment

As a member of several associations promoting the betterment of our environment (Transportation Alternatives in New York, Pro-Velo in Geneva and Bourgeons in Annemasse, France), we are proud to offer our clients an environmentally conscious way of traveling on pollution-free bicycles. By synchronizing the logistics of all our clients' trips in a single region, only one transfer is needed to transport their luggage. In doing this, we strive to limit our carbon while allowing you to travel with ease and piece of mind.

We are committed to carrying out this mission in all facets of our work and will happily extend our 50-euro cycling advocacy discount to trip leaders belonging to local advocacy groups.

Our Bordeaux's Medoc tour takes you through France's beautiful Medoc Peninsula, between Europe's biggest Gironde estuary and the Atlantic Ocean. It is organized on a self-guided basis, offering you the chance to experience such natural beauty while leaving behind a smaller footprint than would a guided tour.

Community

Over five days, you'll cycle through the region's many areas such as Le Pian-Medoc and Moulis-en-Medoc, where you'll no longer be an observer, but a peaceful and friendly actor of local people, environment and culture. Throughout the itinerary, sights like Chateau Lafite Rothschild - a wine estate owned by members of the Rothschild banking family of France - offer visitors the chance to contribute to the local economy while allowing these producers to showcase their materials to an international clientele.

Relying on local guides and family-owned hotels, you will be ensured a warm, personalized welcome. All properties are run by people who have a passion for their region and its cultural, gastronomic and historical heritage. We use genuine places with local charm, blending harmoniously into the environment. Our hotels offer guests a pleasant, nice-sized environment. Some of them have as few as two rooms, while others are small human-sized hotels.

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Cycling and wine vacation in Bordeaux

Reviewed 26 Mar 2012 by G S

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?

I cycled around bordeaux wine country. The scenery was spectacular and the atmosphere was breathtaking. However, the most memorable part of the vacation was sadly the lack of attention to detail by the operator. They didn’t even send us the correct size bikes though we spent time filling out detailed forms. The quality of the bikes was really poor. I didn’t think that they would get us to our final destination. The initial hotel was absolutely appalling - faulty towers was a 5 star hotel next to it.

2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?

Don't do it. Go to a different company who value your custom.

3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?

Yes - all the accommodation was run by local people.

4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?

Average.....a little bit spoilt by the operator they didn’t even ask for feedback afterwards.

Read the operator's response here:

We’re always dismayed to read negative feedback and comments we receive from
clients. Thankfully, negative reviews are very few and far between, but each one is
instructive and helps us refine our offerings so every guest receives unparalleled
service. Our goal, always, is to exceed expectations. In this specific case, we
feel some of the issues our guest mentioned aren’t justified, among them:

- Post-trip questionnaire: We send online questionnaires to all our guests. Since
Responsible Travel’s terms of service don’t allow us to post links in our
responses, we encourage readers to contact us for a copy of the post-trip
questionnaire we send each guest. Year after year, the questionnaire has allowed us
to improve the quality and standard of our tours. It’s an important part of our
business. We send online questionnaires to all our guests (we cannot guarantee that
our e-mailing system is spam-proof and our follow-up message has a 100% delivery
rate).

- Hotels: We always send the list of hotels (with website URLs) in our first
information message. In this case, the hotel in question was clearly listed. Given
the information we provide potential guests, each is responsible to check the
hotels’ websites and read their reviews on social sites or in guidebooks before
booking stays. In this specific case, the hotel in question is a 3-star property
that is well-rated on social media sites. Although the client stayed there prior to
the hotel’s recent renovation, the reviews from social media sites and our other
clients were quite positive, even at that time. The staff at the hotel is very
dedicated; indeed, it is a very far cry from Faulty Towers!

From the information we provide, if prospects like the sound of the trip, they’re
invited to fill out a booking form (no payment information is required to fill out
the form), which allows us to check hotel availability.

It’s only at this point that we send the hotel lists that have been booked and a
payment link for the required deposit—only after clients agree to the hotel lists and arrangements. If clients don’t agree to some hotels, changes are still
possible. In this client’s case, this procedure was definitely followed. No change
was required of the client before payment.

- Bicycles: Riders’ heights were sent properly to the renter and he assured us that
properly-sized bikes were delivered. Should this not be the case, riders are given
our local rep’s mobile number and ours and are invited to contact the rep or our
office if they experience bike issues (or any other problem) so we can take care of
them immediately. Our contact numbers are listed prominently everywhere (voucher,
our site, cue sheets, etc.).

We trust this explains our perspective on this matter. Of course, we’re extremely
sorry that our guest had an unsatisfactory experience! Anything less than a perfect
rating will always attract our keen attention so we can make the changes required
to ensure the complete satisfaction of every guest.

Vacation Reviews

We invite every traveler who books a vacation via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the vacations they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same vacation can have different views!

Read our review policy