Santana AdventuresReviews of santanaadventures.com

Best cycling trip and rides I have ever done. Read some bad reviews but decided to try it out anyway because most the reviews were affected by Covid one way or another and this has added confusion to every touring business. My wife and I were not disapointed. The Columbia River Cruise had beautiful rides and the American Empress River Boat was exquisite. The service and food on the boat was great, especially the Main dining area which had a great atmosphere and menu. What they don't seem to tell you clearly int their own ads is its truly all inclusive. Any museum or visitor center and even the jetboat rides are included. However, only 3 of the buffet lunches were covered as most were on the fly catch as catch can while on the long rides, many which had interim stops in beautiful spots. If your a regular rider that can do 30 to 50 miles you'll find this 7 days of consecutive riding challenging, but very doable. If you are a more casual rider there are variations of the same routes that everyone rides that are shorter. My wifes and my orbea internal ebike batteries were accomidated by letting us charge them in our state room. Ebikes with external batteries are accomidated by removing the batteries and taking them to the state room for charging. Rental bikes and ebikes are available from an associated but separate vendor. They had 3 trucks on this trip storing bikes an moving them from stop to stop with bike mechanics driving them. They van can get to you in an emergency, but intermittent phone reception can delay a responce while riding these beautiful outlying rides. It is best if you bring spares tubes and a kit to care of flat tires an minor issues yourself. However, many of the riders in the group will be passing by andif you cant handle it yourself and you can reach the SOS truck, you can flag another rider in the group for help or ask them to let the trucks up the road that you are having issues. All in it was a great experience and we are going to book another as soon as we can manage to.

My girlfriend and I have had the most overwhelmingly wonderful experience on both of our Santana Adventures, Memphis to New Orleans 2023 & Tahiti 2022. Our trips were both incredibly spectacular, so much so we’re teed up for two more trips this year, Columbia River & Barcelona to Lisbon 2023. Tandem touring is not for the faint of heart, it takes dedication, planing & of course fortitude all of which my cycling partner share as well as the team at Santana Adventures. The packages offered & accommodations are exceptional, can’t wait for our upcoming adventures.

SAN-TAN-A My first review here so I’ll just do it my way. THE SHIP (Amadeus Brilliant) seemed reasonably new. It was immaculate and the staff was excellent. In fact I went out of my way to find and thank one particular crew member who was obviously in management but who regularly rolled up his sleeves and helped expedite everything, including loading and offloading the bikes as well as routinely walking through the restaurant at meals just to catch anything the crew couldn’t get to quickly. The food itself was nothing more than average but they handled special requests without hesitation and kept the process moving well so we all could get out and ride or get back to our cabin to rest. THE BIKE was a rental but the provider and the services available were truly excellent, as they had been on my two prior events with Santana. THE CYCLING on this particular cruise suited my style for the most part. Each day we docked at a different town and got out on the road quickly after breakfast. Among other things that also gave us a new city each day for exploring and dining ashore after the ride. The roads were well prechecked with any and all potential surprises identified and explained before we set out. This particular cruise was pretty flat, but that just made it easier to really enjoy the countrysides. To each their own. THE EXPERIENCE is best appreciated when one recognizes the difficulty in meeting the expectations of all the unique passengers aboard. There’s no “white glove treatment” for anyone, and everybody aboard knows that. I’m not the most sociable person, but everyone I met was delightful and delighted to be there. Why? Because that’s who Bill and Jan are, as are their partners and employees. Anyone who is particularly fussy about the exact parameters of each ride, or of the exact food, or whatever might want to look elsewhere for their travel. But if you want to be freestyle, to be around nice and friendly people having a great time, to have guidelines for potential problems one might face, and to see different places every day should really, really consider Santana Adventures. They know what they can and what they cannot do, and they’re very very good at it!

We've been on I think 11 cruises with Santana and the three things that keep us coming back are the people, the cycling in astonishing new places and the general ease with the entire process. The Ponant ship that the Norwegian cruise had was astonishing-- (with all the others we've been on being excellent). Tandem cyclists (maybe even more than usual adult cyclists) have a tendency to embrace lots of aspects of life which flows into the meals and side conversations. Take the plunge---.

We had a wonderful trip in Norway! The cycling was spectacular on scenic and well-maintained roads. We enjoy the stops along the way that provide a bit of the history of the area and a look at the life of locals. The ship was exquisite!

Our two trips this year were amazing. Holland , Netherlands and later Norway. The sites are lovely, the rides were breathtaking ; truly Norway is the most beautiful place to ride. The Ships were fantastic . Bill and Jan and the entire team went out of their way to make sure everything ran smooth and it did!

We joined Santana on their 2022 Baltic Sea adventure. This was our second cruise with them, as we did their Sicily trip back in 2018. Santana got it right in teaming up with Windstar. The cruise ship was a great size(312 passengers), and the ship had been thru a complete renovation, so everything was fresh and nicely done. Also, the food onboard was great. We really enjoy Santana and how they organize their rides. There is not a lot of structure, and there are a lot of options, depending on how much or little you want to ride that day. Also, chartering the entire ship has great advantages, as they are able to adjust the itinerary on the fly, because of weather or other issues that might pop up. They also picked a great company to use for bike rentals, and we rented carbon bikes with electronic shifting. Bill's meetings to discuss the next ride are informative, and not only does he discuss the three options for the rides, but has information on local sites to see and things to do, including for those that may not ride that day. My only complaint on this past cruise was that I think they tried to cover too many ports in a limited time. Consequently, there were a few times when we had to be back to the ship by 2pm, which is a little earlier than we would have liked. But, other than that, we've been really pleased, and I'm sure we'll do another cruise with Santana in the future.

We loved the beauty of Norway and the small, luxurious Ponant ship Santana utilized. The food and service were excellent. The cycling routes were beautiful and well planned.