Santana AdventuresReviews of santanaadventures.com

We really enjoyed our first Santana Adventures bike cruise in the Adriatic Sea. This is a tailored experience for people who enjoy cycling through a different area each day. If you’re not comfortable riding on roads with vehicle traffic, this may not be the trip for you. The bike routes were well planned and offered beautiful scenery. Some of the rides were among the best we’ve ever done. The crew also did a great job adjusting the routes and itinerary to accommodate bad weather and rough seas, which we really appreciated. It was nice to have bike mechanics on board that took care of mechanical issues. Laundry was included which helped a ton. The food was better than expected. If you enjoy cycling and want a trip where the logistics are taken care of for you, Santana Adventures is a great choice.

Our first Santana bike cruise was British Aisles 2024 and we absolutely loved it. We did this trip again in 2026 and were joined by fellow Canadian friends that loved it and will be doing more Santana cruises as well. To bike and cruise is a unique, very comfortable way to see a country without having to unpack at the end of each day. The Santana crew definitely makes your cycling experience the best it can be. The bike mechanics and road support are top notch. It’s easy to message staff and they respond quickly. My husband’s chain broke in Scottland and they took care of things very well, found him the specific new chain he needed. The bike mechanics walk around in the mornings to see if anyone needs help with their bike, before heading out for the day. The Wyndstar ships are simply wonderful. The cabins are spacious, very clean and comfortable. The ship crew is friendly, helpful. They do a great job. The food on the ship is absolutely amazing. There are many options and the quality is incredible. I can’t think of anything lacking. You can go to main dining room, or to one of several, unique restaurants. Bill and his crew research and then set out short, med and long ride options for each day. These are well chosen, scenic, beautiful routes. You will visit awesome points of interest along the way. We couldn’t go to Isles of Man in 2024 because the TT race had been unexpectedly moved to the same day that we were scheduled to ride there. If you know about this motorcycle race, you know that you’d not want to be cycling there when this is happening… my point is that Bill is on top of his game and he has your back. This was a necessary call. He does his best to provide the best cycling experience in each location. We have our next trip secured and will do the Baltic and Norway trips when they come out for 2028. It’s our favourite way to vacation and we have the confidence in Santana to recommend them to all of our cycling friends. We plan to do many more Santana adventure bike trips. Thank you to Santana and Windstar for great vacation and biking experiences!! Tracey and Gary.

Our Baltic Sea Cycling Cruise with Santana Adventures was absolutely exceptional from beginning to end. This trip was so thoughtfully organized and expertly curated that it exceeded every expectation we had. Every detail was considered—truly no stone was left unturned. The accommodations were outstanding, the service was impeccable, and the food was consistently delicious. We especially appreciated the flexibility of the cycling program. Whether you wanted a more challenging ride or a shorter, leisurely route, there were excellent options available. And for those who chose not to cycle on a given day, the alternative sightseeing tours were equally well planned and enjoyable. The entire Santana Adventures staff was warm, professional, knowledgeable, and incredibly accommodating. They made everyone feel welcome and ensured that every guest had a memorable experience. This was our second trip with Santana Adventures, and once again they delivered an unforgettable vacation. Their attention to detail, seamless organization, and commitment to creating exceptional travel experiences keep us coming back. In fact, we’ve already booked our third Santana Adventures trip—to Japan next April—and we can’t wait for another incredible adventure. If you’re considering traveling with Santana Adventures, don’t hesitate. We recommend them without reservation and look forward to many more trips with them in the future.

This was our third cycling cruise with Santana Adventures — and there's a reason we keep coming back. We sailed aboard Windstar's Star Legend on the Baltic Sea itinerary, and both the ship and Santana's team delivered throughout. The Star Legend and her crew were outstanding. Cabins are large, well-appointed, and immaculately clean. Service was impeccable, the crew was warm and accommodating, and the daily food options were varied, beautifully prepared, and delicious. Santana's team was visible and responsive whenever we needed them — on the route and on board. We had one mechanical issue early on the day-one ride and had to call the SOS van. Adam arrived quickly, went well out of his way to get us sorted, and had us back on the bike in short order. That kind of support is reassuring. In our three trips, this was the first time we used the help and it worked exactly as promised. The cycling routes themselves were well-curated, with thoughtful options for short, medium, and long rides each day. One honest note for prospective riders: Santana's style works best if you have at least some cycling experience and are comfortable with a degree of independence. They provide a genuine safety net, but they also give you room to breathe — which occasionally means navigating a wrong turn or working through a small challenge on your own. We find that kind of travel more interesting and rewarding than being shepherded every step of the way. But if that sounds uncomfortable rather than exciting, it's worth knowing before you book. For us, it's exactly what we're looking for — and we've already booked trip #4 next year.

At 55 years old now, I have been an avid cyclist for over 40 years and have had the pleasure to ride and race my bike all over the world...but I never got anywhere to ride my bike by boat! We took two-crusises back-to-back and just can't say enough good things about our experience! The ship and crew were absolutely top-notch and we lacked for nothing on board. The curated routes were devine on roads that seemed (mostly) to be paved for F1! The Santana Staff was amazing too. Some people can be critical, and I can be too, but my experience is this: they always had the answers to my questions, bicycle related mechanical issues were always resolved quickly, AND very importantly, their communication (whether in person or via WhatsApp) was always immediate. We met many, MANY, couples who have enjoyed,4,5,6...even 19 trips with Santana...we hope to do the same!

Just completed the Tulip Time 2026 trip in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany with the Pre-Tour in Haarlem, about 10 miles outside of Amsterdam. This is our 5th trip with Santana and we love them, the community and the camaraderie of the other tandem and single riders. Everything you can imagine on a Dutch check list, we checked off, except for ice-skating. (wrong season). Like black licorice, the people who like it, really, really like it. And the people who don't, don't. If you want Bill to fill up your water bottle, and coddle your every need, this isn't the trip for you, but if you can go with the flow, have some self sufficiency and understand things change and not all events in life a planned perfectly. You can have a really great time. We'll be back for trips 6,7,8 and 9......

Barcelona-Lisbon, Sept 2026. My wife (67) and I (68) went on our first SA cruise. Had scheduled one before but chickened out because of SA’s hard financial commitment and some bad reviews. If you look closely, those bad reviews are almost entirely a result of the post-Covid Japanese cruise which sounded like a horror show and I recommend ignoring any review regarding that trip. Based on our trip, and conversations with many of the vast majority of repeat SA customers that were on our cruise, that Japan trip doesn’t represent SA. The truth: Pre-trip communication with SA was non-existent, just pay the bill (in full a year or more in advance) and hold your breath. If you need to communicate, don’t email, call instead – they do respond to calls. The flyer for the trip and activities (but not the pictures) was extremely accurate so studying the details of the flyer will provide comfort for what you are buying. However, as other reviews point out, there were no routes provided at all before the trip. Not having any indication of the routes, their difficulty, conditions, inclines, lengths, etc., was extremely disturbing to me as I am a planner and like to know what I’m (we’re) getting into, but once the stress of day 1 was over, all was good. Once on board, each evening we were given a detailed verbal and hardcopy (yes, hand-drawn but detailed) review of the route. Turn-by-turn Ride by GPS and Garmin files were provided the morning of the ride. All routes were SA created (and verified/tested for accuracy and necessary last minute changes by SA “runners” the day before) and are not found in any RBGPS or Alltrails library. Most routes were overlapping short, medium, long routes and most days SA would provide a “boost” to shorten the route for those who wanted it, usually on parts that were uphill. My wife and I averaged 45 miles per day (typically the long and sometimes the medium route) and didn’t take any “boosts”; we did walk up some hills. While we occasionally rode with others, it was not common to be in any significant group; just drafting a little sometimes. SA tried to provide flat-ish routes and people cheered when Bill would say that the day’s ride was mostly flat. We used rented road bikes (about 60% did also), 25% used rented tandem bikes, and another 15-20% brought their own (I don’t know about assembly, but watching them disassemble at the end looked like quite a task). The rented bikes were very good and SA had very good mechanics on-board and on-route to help with any problems (and flats which a few people had). Our ship (MS World Navigator) was terrific with terrific food including vegetarian/vegan, but repeat customers said it was the best ship they’d had with SA, so not sure what that means. Totally open bar but drinking was not what people came on the cruise for. As a matter of fact, after riding, except for dinner, the lounges, pools, etc. were almost totally empty all the time. Really great people by the way, as you would expect with almost everyone being cyclists – average age about 55. At the end of the cruise, SA told of a couple of open slots on another cruise which we signed up for but then cancelled a few days later. My wife and I decided that cruising was generally not our thing as we prefer “living” with the locals instead of hoping back on the ship for shower, food, etc.. Not a knock on SA, the cruise, or food, just want to provide full disclosure.

We were lucky enough to be on the first Mekong river cruise and the trip exceeded all of our expectations. Bill and Jan always have wonderful surprises, such as exploring street food on the back of scooters, that no other travel company would attempt. It was the perfect blend of biking, cruising and cultural experiences. One of the many highlights of the trip was the warmth and friendliness of the people we encountered. We were able to see and have experiences that you could only have on a bike. Traveling with Santana is a unique experience that can’t be duplicated.