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

Most memorable were the great cycling and the choice of chateaux, restaurants, wine-tasting, etc we had in very good cycling weather. Good that cycling on French roads turned out to be easy, even though there were not always cycling paths.

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?

Other travellers should take time before the trip and familiarise themselves with the cycling route on the map, as there is not always a clear indication on where to go once you are on the road. Mistakes are not really grave as distances are short and detours generally lead to other nice discoveries, but may get annoying towards the end of a cycling day.

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?

Definitely, yes.

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

We got extraordinary support from the hotel staff in Bracieux and this, with the pleasures of biking through the dominial forest to and from the Chateau at Chambord, plus the Chateau itself, made this portion really memorable.

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?

This is a well-conceived holiday, with great places to visit, good accommodations, and pacing that permits a range of cyclists to enjoy it, from weak to strong. However, you will do much better getting from place to place by following the ubiquitous and clear bike route indicators, or acquiring a bike route map from local tourist offices ("Loire et Cher" is especially fine) than by trying to follow the sketchy and sometimes deficient trip notes. And you should prefer to bring your own bikes or rent them elsewhere in the region (Amboise, 70 Euros/week; Blois 57 Euros/week) rather than the company the tour operator will send you to, where we were rented bikes in poor mechanical shape for 80 Euros per week.

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?

If you count exorbitant bike rental... more seriously, biking is a low-impact activity; and we were inevitably contributing to the local economy by our activities.

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

Our experience with the bicycles, in particular - including the rental company's refusal to reimburse the expense of what had seemed a necessary repair - makes it hard to associate this trip with "responsible travel." We have asked the tour operator for that reimbursement and, over a week later, have not yet had a reply to this request.

Read the operator's response here:

I'm sorry to read of your concerns about the Cycling in the Loire Valley trip. Apologies for not responding to you sooner however I hope you appreciate that given the depth of your complaint I felt the need to go into a lot of detailed discussions with my operator in France regarding it.

I'm glad that you felt the accommodation was an enjoyable experience but obviously the rest of your issues are of concern to me. Regarding the price of our bike rental the shop that we use in Amboise is a well respected family business and the owner, Pascal Richard, also runs the local bike club, so he does have huge expertise in the area. You are correct in saying that you can find cheaper bikes at 70EUR in Amboise however we do not specifically choose on cost, we choose on quality. We have been working with this bike shop for well over 5 years and rarely have complaints regarding the bikes which is why I am surprised. I appreciate you had difficulties with your bike and I do apologise for this but it seems that once the problem was fixed you managed to complete the tour trouble-free. We do include phone numbers within the route notes should you encounter problems and as you found out we also advertise bike shops along the route. I'm sorry that the bike shop were unable to refund you on the spot however we will shortly be sending you through a refund for the amount of 13.60EUR.

Specifically regarding yours and the others bikes on the trip - I will be personally advising all clients within the route notes to test their bikes out in Amboise when you collect them and if there are any problems please contact our operator or visit the bike shop before it closes on the Saturday to eradicate any problems before the start of your trip. The gearing problem can simply be remedied by a quarter of a turn with a screw driver and if something obvious goes wrong with the gear or brakes you should find out on your way from the shop to the hotel. Pascal at the shop in Amboise is professional enough to fix it or change the bike but would not let clients leave the shop in such a bad state.

With regards to the map - without being detrimental I believe this is a personal preference. We have used the IGN maps for the last 8 years and never had such a complaint regarding this. I do agree that the maps on the Pyrenees are clearly highlighted however here there are less minor roads and it easier to supply a larger scale map that details each day's ride. It is certainly not the case that we want our clients to think that our route is original - our main priority and concern is that our clients have a comfortable and trouble-free ride. The IGN maps are certainly not car maps and just to cover the 200km from Paris to Tours (in the Loire Valley) you would need 6 of these maps. Thank you for informing us about the Loire et Cher maps and this is something I will consider advertising within our trip notes however I do feel that our current map and route notes are sufficient. Generally I would like to apologise if any of this sounds negative, please be assured that I do take such lengthy criticism on board as I take pride in my job of managing our self guided trips.