Barge cruising on the Rhine, or in France

Have some friends that would like to "barge cruise" either on the Rhine or in France. They want the ones that have electric bikes and you cruise at night and then bike during the day. Any info or comments would be great thanks.

Have some friends that would like to "barge cruise" either on the Rhine or in France. They want the ones that have electric bikes and you cruise at night and then bike during the day. Any info or comments would be great thanks.

I'm not sure that barges cruise during the night. I think that they cruise while you cycle and then you meet up. There are only a very few crew members on a barge. I know CroisiEurope has barge trips, but I'm not sure that they have cycling ones. You can look.

To help your friends better it would be good to clarify what you/they mean by barge cruise. There are barge cruises that are classified as such as they actually sail on modified barges, or barges that are built specifically for that experience. They can accommodate few people, sometimes only a dozen or so. CroisiEurope has such (modern) barges and offers them on the French canals: https://www.croisieuroperivercruises.com/boats/canal-barges-fleet

There are other companies that do this and you would need to look closely if they offer electric bikes.

The other variation is small river cruise ships that specialize in smaller groups and the cycling experience. One such ship is the MS Patria. She was also a barge by the way, but is larger and is therefore more considered a cruise ship. She can carry 68 passengers. This is one of the companies that charters the MS Patria, sailing the Rhine, Neckar, Moselle and Saar: https://www.rad-schiff.com/en/cruise-boat-ms-patria?language=en Again, yourfriends would need to check with the company what bikes they offer.

notamermaid

There are a lot of companies that offer bike and barge (just google bike and barge with whatever country you want to visit). These vary greatly in quality, from quite moderate to fairly luxurious, but the cycling is generally reasonably intense. Some companies will offer ebikes. The barge is basically your floating hotel, but the daily excursions are under your own power (with perhaps an electric assist). I'm not sure if that is what you are looking for.

I did a bike and barge tour in Holland a few years ago, and the barge was definitely not luxurious.

Here is a link to one site that consolidates a number of different boats.

http://www.biketours.com/find-my-tour/popular-categories/bike-and-boat-tours/

and here is another

http://eurosailtravel.com/guided-bike-barge-tours/

Note that some are self guided (you need to navigate yourself to the next stop) and some have a tour guide.

I think this might be a time to ask a TA.......

I don't think that TAs generally deal with this kind of trip. The operators are usually small and don't pay commission. (CroisiEurope excluded, I assume).

European Waterways features barge cruises, high end. Some have bikes.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPkxw_W0IX9LlfTKgPEdeQQ

Thanks for the link:D…….some of these canal cruises look pretty cool!!!!