10 Awesome Things About a Backroads and AmaWaterways Biking River Cruise in Bordeaux
Colleen and I joined 14 other active travelers for an incredible week of cycling and exploration in Bordeaux with AmaWaterways and Backroads.
We’re finishing up a lovely morning ride, covering just over 10 miles through quiet neighborhoods and then into the coastal wilderness as we approach the Arcachon Bay area in southwestern France.
Today, we’ll pedal the final stretches of road during our biking river cruise in the Bordeaux region of France on our group trip with Backroads and AmaWaterways.
This is a day of celebration as our group of 16 new friends assembles with our Backroads trip leaders in this beautiful area. Our ride brings us to Dune du Pilat to spend a little time hiking up the largest sand dune in Europe.
We visited the largest sand dune in Europe at the end of our weeklong adventures in Bordeaux, France.
We scale the 300-plus-foot-high hill to take in the amazing views over the region. The winds are strong at the top, and we take turns learning into the gusts and snapping fun pics as we dance on the crescent-shaped dune that formed over many millennia by the wind-blown sands from the continent. From here, we get a stunning view of Arcachon Bay, the Banc d'Arguin, Cap Ferret lighthouse and the forests of the region.
It’s a wonderful moment and one of several we had during our week together. By the end of the trip, while cruising along the Gironde and Garonne and Dordogne Rivers, we had cycled 202 miles, savored dozens of great wines, tried new foods and traditions and made memories to last a lifetime.
Colleen says her first group bike trip was one of her all-time favorite experiences, and I’ve discovered 10 great things to love about taking an active river cruise with Backroads and AmaWaterways.
1. New Friends
We made some wonderful new friends on the voyage.
One of my favorite parts of these kinds of trips is meeting people from all over who share similar interests. This was my fourth Backroads active cruise and Colleen’s first. Within the first two days, all 16 people had become quickly acquainted. We fell into easy and fun conversations about where we are from, some of our favorite travels and how we came to book a trip with Backroads.
Some were enjoying their first trip with the company and first-ever river cruise (or any type of cruise). We also traveled with a couple on their 10th Backroads trip.
We shared laughs and conversation over lunches and dinners onboard the ship or in small French towns during our daily activities. My favorite time was sharing daily post-ride drinks and snacks while leaning on our bikes at another scenic spot on the river while we chatted about our experiences before heading back onboard our ship, AmaWaterways’ AmaDolce, to get cleaned up for an evening of cocktails, dinner and live music in the lounge.
2. Energetic and Engaging Guides
We had a team of four passionate Backroads guides who love to ride and explore new destinations as much as their guests. Ana and Connor cruised with us on the river ship and took care of all the details of our daily rides and itinerary as the team leaders for the trip.
Anthony and Stefan served as the support team ashore, having our bikes and other gear (plus drinks and snacks!) ready to go every morning.
They were truly fantastic. Ana, who is from Slovenia and owns a seemingly permanent cheerful smile, always knew when to pick up the ukulele for impromptu song-and-dance sessions during the day as we traveled from town to town.
Anthony, a world-class cyclist, was proud to show off the beautiful Bordeaux region of his home country. And Stefan and Connor, who are from Canada and the U.S., respectively, but now essentially travel the world as young adventurers, both were always available and eager to answer questions, chat about any topic and do anything they could to make our trip extra special.
This is how it has been on every trip I’ve taken with Backroads. The passion for adventure is in the DNA of the company, and the guides they hire have always displayed this same makeup. You start out the week as strangers and end it as friends.
3. Fantastic Foods
The team put out a wonderful picnic spread during for one of our lunches.
A luxury river cruise ship is your home base, so you have amazing meals everyday onboard. We had wonderful seafood, steaks and regional specialties available on the menu each night for delightful dinners. Breakfasts and lunches were more flexible with a buffet that allowed us to build a meal to suit our tastes, with fresh-made eggs and omelets, fruits, mueslis and tasty breads and pastries always available at breakfast. Lunch service offered a carving station, pastas a la minute, soups and salads and a few menu items to choose from. I liked that we could also order a burger or pizza if we were in the mood for such high-calorie comfort foods after a full day of pedaling those challenging miles.
Snacks were always set out for pit stops during our rides.
The onboard meals were nice, but it was the special Backroads events and the daily snacks available along the road that make this experience fantastic for foodies. We had a couple of incredible lunch spreads (charcuteries of meats, cheese, breads, salads, fruits, nuts and dips) at stunning chateaus. We would have a tour of the vineyard, learn about the varieties produced on site and sip these wines while filling up on the freshest food you can imagine.
We also enjoyed stops in towns for coffees and sweets, as well as our daily roadside pit stops for beers, waters and the traditional “Snackroads” goodies, like candy bars, fresh fruits and trail mix.
I think most of our group would agree that our special dinner outing at a rustic dinner right alongside the river in Bourg at sunset was their favorite. After cocktails around the bar, our group of 20 gathered like family around a large table to down an amazing array of tapas. We emptied plates of pork belly, octopus and other delights during the fantastic night of conversation and laughs before strolling back to our ship.
4. Stunning Scenery
We always enjoyed taking in the river scenes onboard AmaDolce.
Colleen and I are not really wine drinkers, but we knew we would love this biking trip because it also offers the promise of seeing so much of the amazing countryside and scenery. Plus, you also are treated to beautiful stretches of sailing that you can enjoy while cruising on the ship.
Bordeaux is beautiful!
I’ll talk more about the wines in a bit, but the vineyards themselves are incredible landscapes, and it was magical to be zipping along the country roads past the greenery of the leaves and amid the smells of the fresh grapes during the height of the harvesting season in September.
Our bike routes varied, with stretches on traditional paved roads, narrow paths through the vineyards and on charming streets in hillside towns. Our days typically had us riding along the river, through the towns past historic old churches and little boutiques and into lush vineyards.
5. Luxurious Accommodations
AmaWaterways’ AmaDolce ship can carry up to 146 cruisers in 73 well-appointed cabins onboard the four-deck-high ship. We sailed with the ship about half full — with 75 cruisers enjoying the voyage. Our Backroads group numbered 18, and we blended in with the rest who were enjoying a traditional river cruise.
Colleen and I joined people for the daily morning yoga and stretch classes with our AmaWaterways Wellness Host Teo, as well as the evening cocktail hours and entertainment, with several special musical guests.
The cabins offer a comfy place to relax and get a good night’s sleep. The rooms offer a large floor-to-ceiling french balcony window so you can lean out to get some fresh air and soak in the views of the sunrise and flowing river waters as you sail to the next destination.
The ship also has the restaurant offering delicious cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner (as outlined above), a small gym and sauna, a hot tub on the top open-air sun deck and a beautiful bar and lounge space that serves as the main hangout space for cruisers to enjoy music, drinks and scenery through the large windows.
6. Options for Everyone
Ana discusses the ride options for the day during our route talk each morning.
The Backroads program is fantastic because it is accessible to all levels of riders. You might be an avid biker and seek out really long and challenging rides on a standard high-quality road bike. Or you can join the group and easily keep up by choosing an e-assist bike for your week of riding.
These e-bikes were a popular choice for our group, with 12 riders using the bikes and loving them. They really help you get over the challenging hills a little easier. Ana and Connor designed daily rides that included shorter routes and longer routes, typically with three or more route choices.
You might do the hardest rides the first two days of the trip but then need to take it easy for a day or two later in the week as the miles pile up. We had riders ranging in age from mid-40s to 80-plus years old on our trip.
Some people also chose to ride in the morning and then take the afternoon off to enjoy the AmaWaterways tours or free time in the afternoon to explore the town where the cruise ship was docked for the day. For example, some in our group chose to enjoy shopping in Cadillac instead of riding the afternoon mileage.
7. Plenty of Pedaling
Backroads and AmaWaterways have teamed up for more than a decade to offer biking river cruises. You can find itineraries on rivers all over Europe, and travelers who pick a Backroads biking river cruise with AmaWaterways obviously enjoy cycling.
Our program in Bordeaux offered plenty of time in the seat, too. By the end of the week, Colleen and I had biked 202 glorious miles. And we didn’t gain a single pound despite indulging in all the cheese, bread, sweets, wine and beer that we wanted.
It is a fantastic way to explore, away from the crowds on quiet roads and immersed in fresh air and idyllic landscapes.
8. You’ll See So Much
Here is where we went and what we did — port by port:
The cruise embarked in the city of Bordeaux, and Colleen and I booked a hotel room the night before to rest up and get ready for the week ahead, jet-lag free. We joined up with our fellow Backroaders at the large Bordeaux train station the next morning. This is where we first met Ana and Connor, our trip leaders.
Day 1: Bordeaux: We had a bus ride to Chateau Giscours vineyard for a tour, lunch and trip orientation talk. The group enjoyed a nice tapas-style lunch, our first wine tasting and then met our bikes. These bikes would be our trusty companions, and Stefan and Anthony helped set us up, getting them to fit just right so we would be safe and comfy all week long.
After lunch, we set off on our first ride of many, going 22 miles from the vineyard, through the countryside and to the river to meet our ship, Amawaterways’ AmaDolce.
We went to wine school to learn traditional tasting techniques.
Day 2: We sailed in the morning on our way to Libourne. Colleen and I awoke early to join Teo, our AmaWaterways Wellness Host for a morning stretch and Pilates session.
Our bikes were awaiting us at the shore once we arrived (Anthony and Stefan travel by van, with our bikes on a trailer along our route and meet us in each port with our gear and goodies), and we assembled for a quick route chat and some snacks. This becomes the daily routine and a ritual I really enjoy — to get properly fueled and excited for the day’s cycling.
We biked to St. Emilion for a wine school outing — learning how to properly taste, identify and enjoy the varieties. Then, we had some free time in town to shop and explore before pedaling through the vineyards of Pomerol on our way back to the ship. We totaled 17 miles for the day.
Day 3: We biked from Libourne to Bourg for a total of 34 miles. It was beautiful riding on a perfect day. We pedaled through the towns and countryside, with a stop for a wine tasting and charcuterie lunch.
Our afternoon cycling brought us to the riverside in Bourg. We enjoyed drinks and snacks while stretching and basking in the sunshine waiting for AmaDolce to pull up for a quick technical stop to pick up our group of bikers. We boarded the ship to join the rest of our fellow cruisers before continuing down the river to Blaye. I joined a few others on. the ship who were enjoying the hot tub up on the sun deck while we took in the scenic sailing on the way to Blaye.
Backroads organized an exclusive sunset tour of the iconic Blaye citadel for our group of cyclists. The ship remained overnight at Blaye, and Colleen and I enjoyed our dinner onboard while others went to the town for dinner.
The countryside is filled with special surprises as we ride through Bordeaux,
Day 4: We had great rides today, piling up 40 miles. There was a morning ride, then an afternoon ride to meet the ship in Bourg, where we had another overnight stay. This time, we had a Backroads exclusive dinner event ashore at the charming riverside Belle-Amie restaurant, with assorted delicious tapas and cocktails while a DJ played music. We enjoyed our meal outdoors watching the sun set over the Dordogne River.
Day 5: We rode through the Medoc region and had a day filled with treats. We totaled 42 miles on this activity-packed day, and the first stretch of 18 miles brought us to a beautiful picnic lunch at a chateau. Anthony showed off his skills as a master charcuterie chef (is that a thing?) with a wonderful spread that wowed our hungry group of riders. We picked clean the table he set up under a sprawling tree. It had breads, fruits, cured meats, cheese, olives, salads and sweets.
The meal was enjoyed on a sunny and warm day on the lawn of the chateau, and we sipped wines and chatted before hopping back on the bikes to make our way back toward the ship. However, we would have an afternoon stop at a cafe for drinks and a sweet snack and then another stretch of riding to Chateau Leoville Poyferre for a wine tasting.
Then, it was just six more miles to reach the ship. We were all still beaming from the fantastic day of pedaling in the countryside and getting our fill of fresh foods and wines.
Day 6: We’re in Cadillac as this epic voyage approaches the end. It seems like we just started, and the group has become a tight-knit family by now. It’s our last day of big mileage, and we ride 39 miles, including the biggest hills of the program. Riders who picked the e-assist bikes are especially pleased with their choices.
Included on the route, we have a stop for the region’s famous chocolatine croissants and to Vineyard Sauternes to try the lesser-known sweet white wine varieties that you can find in this region. The vineyard welcomed us with an array of their white wines, and a chef prepared some savory and sweet tartlets and a salad to accompany our wines.
Day 7: This is our final day together. Tomorrow, we’ll disembark the ship and head our separate ways back home. So, we savor a short celebration ride and a couple stops that offer a great change of pace to end the week.
In the morning, it’s a short ride to the sand dunes and then a wander around the seaside destination before boarding a ferry for Cap Ferret, an idyllic resort area where we enjoy a lunch and free time at the beautiful beach. Colleen and I stroll along the sands, and I jump in for a quick swim before we plop down in a spot of shade for a while. Then, we walk to meet the group for a great afternoon treat of locally farmed oysters, cheese and wine at the quaint eatery Chez Boulan right on the water.
The trip wraps up with a wonderful chef’s table dinner back onboard AmaDolce, with more, wine, regional dishes, stories, laughs, hugs, exchanging of contact info and maybe a few tears of sadness that our group would soon be going on our separate ways.
9. The Wine, Of Course
As you see, we had daily tastings and sometimes multiple tastings throughout the week, with a fantastic array of styles and varieties. A trip through the Bordeaux region will be focused on wine and the wine-making culture and history, of course, and Backroads does a wonderful job giving travelers a diverse and fun experience with it all. We had a fun wine school, visits and tours at both small and large chateaus, rides through stunning vineyards and chances to stop at shops to purchase any varieties that you might want to take in your luggage or have shipped back home.
10. A Challenge Completed
Connor tells us the plan for the week ahead. By the end of the cruise, we had biked 202 miles, sipped dozens of glasses of wines and created endless memories.
For hard-core riders, you get a week that can be as challenging as you like. The program offers scenic rides of all lengths, so you can get exactly what you want out of your trip.
Some did all the mileage and took on all the hills. Others mixed it up, choosing morning rides and then afternoon shopping and relaxing on the ship. No matter what you did with your day, by the end of the week, you felt a wonderful sense of accomplishment just keeping up with the activity-packed itinerary.