Reviews

Most Inspirational Moment

I was surprised and enjoyed thoroughly the cities of Yerevan and Tibilisi

Thoughts on Group Leader

We had 2 group leaders. Rafik for Armenia and Nino for Georgia. Both leaders were different. Rafik was not religious and concentrated on the art and history of the buildings. He ran a tight ship and everything was like clockwork. His country was very leisurely and relaxed. The walks were very easy. The older travelers found him to be quite charming. Nino in Georgia was organised but lead the trip through the tougher stage of strict dress codes in churches and more walking with many stairs. Some travelers found this a bit tough. I think as she was religious some of the groups slack adherence to dress code and behaviour did frustrate her a bit, and frustrated some of the group too. I will mention more below.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Packing for trips is tricky and not knowing a dress code is confusing. Most churches have an English rule guide or a pictorial poster outside explains how to dress in their venues. In Armenia it was less strict. For men and ladies No shorts above knee and no vests. Ladies cover head with scarf. In Georgia men’s rules are exactly as Armenia. And sometimes there was a sarong/skirt at a rack by church door for you to wear. But not many so don’t rely on it. For ladies in Georgia churches. No shorts above knee, no vests, no trousers, jeans or leggings. But you could put a skirt or sarong over top (locals carried sarong with them to cover leg wear when they popped into pray). Behaviour in churches should be respectful. Please don’t photograph or film on your phone, people praying, having blessings, monks or priests. Take pictures of the building and frescoes and don’t interfere with locals going about their religious practice. It seems obvious but on holiday many tourists seem to forget their manners.

Most Inspirational Moment

Reaching the top of the hill on the Poljuka Plateau with views of Triglav mountain and into Austria.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Katija and Alaj were a great team both with good sense of humour.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Do some hiking in your local hills before you do the trip.

Most Inspirational Moment

Climbing to the summit of Monte Sumbra and Monte Prado

Thoughts on Group Leader

Excellent. Knowledgeable, encouraging and observant

Most Inspirational Moment

Desert night at Wadi Rum. It was so amazing to pull out the beds and sleep under the stars.

Thoughts on Group Leader

He was okay. I felt like we never knew what was going on it was always a surprise. It made it difficult to plan ahead and be prepared. There were a few times when I didn't pack correctly for the day because he never took the time to explain some of the small things. For example, our day at Petra. It was really hot so I didn't want to carry my backpack, so I used a spybelt and my pockets and carabiners to carry water, sunscreen and money. He had told us we'd be doing lots of walking so I made sure to wear the right shoes. However as we are unloading from the bus he hands us a bag which contains our lunch in it. He says to hide it when we go through security - well I didn't have a backpack to put it in! I wasn't the only one who didn't bring a backpack because we didn't know we were going to be carrying stuff. We made it in okay but then I spent the first 3 hours of my day carrying a plastic bag full of stuff and my sandwhich spend many hours in the sun before I tried to eat it. It is a small thing forsure, but his heads up the night before about the fact that we should bring a backpack because we would be carrying our lunch and would need to hid it would have gone a long way to make my day more comfortable. This is just one example of many days where similair things happened. There were other times when the water bottle was empty or he stored it somewhere in the hotel but didn't tell us where so I'd end up having to buy bottled water anyway. He told us that he is not the usual guide for this trip and had only guided 1 cycling trip before. I wonder how different my experience might have been with an experienced cycling guide. My friend who had done this same trip last year suggested that we ask the guide to organize Shisha for us for our night in the desert, which his guide had done for them. It sounded like a great experience to be under the stars, listening to bedoin music, drinking sweet tea and smoking shisha. I talked it up to a few people in the group and we were all excited for this opportunity. So I asked our guide if he could help us organize this and he said "we'll see". Needless to say, the desert night came and went and he never got us anything. Not only that but he didn't bother to tell me that he wasn't able to organize it. Communication was lacking with him. Perhaps if I had known he wasn't going to put in the effort, some of us could have maybe tried ourselves to organize it. I do feel like I missed out that night because I had gotten so excited about it and he let me down. Overall you could clearly tell he was knowledgable and passionate about Jordan and its history. I just felt he lacked good communication and going the extra mile for us.

Advice for Potential Travellers

There are no panier bags! So bring a bum bag.

Most Inspirational Moment

Watching those that are 20+ years older than me steam ahead and reach those steeps climbs and make it look easy!

Thoughts on Group Leader

Our leader Antonio was friendly, calm, patient!...informative and couldn't do enough for you, he went over and above when you wanted to do something in your own time for example of one of the days we had a few hours to ourselves in the afternoon and rather than walk around the town I wanted to jump in the nearest ocean! He enquired with the hotel where the nearest nicest beach was, the cost in a taxi and arranged all that for us. Antonio also asked us every day if we wanted to join him for dinner and he booked the table for the group and many nights we had the set menu with wine and it was so reasonable and delicious and made our evenings all the more enjoyable not having to think after a tiring day. Our support driver Peiro was a great guy and lugged our cases from one hotel to the next every day in the scorching heat, supplied us with fresh fruit and cold water all day long and presented us with the best daily lunchtime picnics without any effort and always with a big smile!

Advice for Potential Travellers

This wasn't the toughest cycle holiday I've done, but some of the days are long and for us very hot. There are 2 day with steep climbs, so you should do some training if you want to keep up, or go for the e-bike and enjoy the ride!

Most Inspirational Moment

Several of the monasteries were truly breath-taking and exuded a sense of history and devotion. Listening to small choir singing in one was wonderful. The scenery could have been taken from a geography textbook.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Both the leaders were good but the knowledge of architecture and cultural history of Armenia shown by Rafik really added to the tour.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Be prepared for some long journeys and not spending as much time in some sites as you might like and be prepared for 4 seasons in 1 day. Don't bother with water purification tablets (as per trip notes) - they are not required!

Most Inspirational Moment

Surviving the cycling in the rain!

Thoughts on Group Leader

Dhimitraq was quiet and efficient. He organised the trip well. He arranged some amazing lunches and dinners for us and kindly took the stress out of paying for them all in various currencies by paying for us and running an IOU. We had some good laughs as we got to know him better, largely at Juli’s antics! Juli our driver was a character never to be forgotten! Never still and always full of life, “Zebedee” had us in stitches the whole way. The transfers were always an experience and I still can’t believe that we did actually get to listen to the whole of Bohemen Rhapsody! Both went out of their way to take us on extra little tours or arrange guides for us and worked extremely hard.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Make sure you take a full selection of clothes to cover cold weather and wet weather.. Be prepared for cycling on busy main roads with a good amount of traffic including lorries.

Most Inspirational Moment

There was inspiration to be found in almost everything we did. The journey from Zabljak to Sarajevo was particularly wonderful. The wild flowers were stunningly beautiful particularly where we had a coffee stop, as were the views to and the journey in the Piva gorge.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Alen was an engaging guide full of useful information imparted with clarity. Always ready to help he came into his own when I slipped and broke my leg! He handled the situation in a very calm manner with excellent first aid skills. Moving on with the rest of the group Alen arranged support for my wife left in Sarajevo. What a guy!

Advice for Potential Travellers

Make sure you have travel insurance!

Most Inspirational Moment

Beautiful vineyard covered landscapes.

Thoughts on Group Leader

The guides Jon and David split the responsibilities for leading the cycling and we found them both to be extremely good - very easy to get on with and knowledgable about the area we were travelling through and made sure everything ran smoothly. We have only praise for them.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Be aware of how hot it can become in summer. We travelled early June and it was a warm as we would want it to be for an activity holiday.

Most Inspirational Moment

The coastal scenery was very interesting, especially the cycle along the Curonian Spit in Lithuania with its high dunes and woodland built to protect the landscape. The lunch spot was also excellent with smoked fish of all sorts to enjoy.

Thoughts on Group Leader

If you get Andrius as your group leader you've struck gold as he's one of the best guides I've ever experienced - informative, great organiser, great sense of humour, relaxed in approach to leading and goes the extra mile to make the trip a fantastic time.

Advice for Potential Travellers

If you go in late Spring or Summer take anti-mossie spray as you will get bitten when stopping in the forests during breaks. Having the latest cycle clothing isn't necessary but padded shorts will of course protect a delicate part of the body! Unless it gets exceptionally hot you only need one water bottle as the support vehicle provides regular fill-ups with water during stops. The recommended spending money is about right unless you plan to buy lots of wine/beer etc. As you'll be in plenty of towns and cities getting money from cash machines isn't a problem so I wouldn't take lots of cash and many of the restaurants will take visa etc.