Category: Boat or Barge

What place on earth have you maybe thought about doing a cycling trip but didn’t think it was possible or available? What about in Asia? Have you ever wanted to do a fully supported tour through Cambodia, Japan, or Vietnam? Freedom Treks makes that possible.

Who is Freedom Treks?

Based in the United Kingdom, Freedom Treks is led by Catherine Gray. The company was founded in 2003 as 2 Wheel Treks but changed its name to Freedom Treks in 2007.

Freedom Treks offers 180 cycling tours in over 30 countries. According to its website, the company “carefully selects the very best cycling holidays from our professional partners across Europe and Asia.”

Award-Winning Service in Bicycle Travel

The company received the Feefo Gold Trusted Service Award from 2018 – 2023. The award recognizes “businesses for delivering exceptional experiences, as rated by real customers,” which is no small feat considering that Freedom Treks is a small bicycle travel company.

When a guest books a trip with Freedom Trek, they can “expect leisurely cycling with the reassurance of local support and advice if you need it. Trips are either self-guided, with detailed route notes, or led by an experienced guide.”

Another point is that Freedom Treks is run by cyclists who all have firsthand knowledge of the places and tours the company offers. When you consult with the company, potential guests will receive “superb knowledge, honest advice and excellent customer service from an enthusiastic team.”

Destinations Where Freedom Treks Hosts Trips

Freedom Treks does focus on cycling tours in Asia, such as Cambodia, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka, though not exclusively. Predominantly, its trips are hosted in any destination you can think of in Europe. Here’s a graph to illustrate all the countries the company covers.

Types of Tours Freedom Treks Offers

One of the elements that makes a trip with Freedom Treks unique is that it gives guests the ability to use a boat or barge to take them to points along their journey. If guests choose a boat option, it functions as their floating hotel. It will usually have all the same amenities of a land-based hotel.

The company has 41 of these types of tours. It claims a boat or barge is an excellent way to see “Europe’s rivers and its magnificent coastlines.” But if that way of traveling doesn’t appeal to you, you’re sure to find a trip amongst the 131 more traditional hotel and bike tours.

The company also has many self-guided or guided tours, 187 altogether. And if you’d like to split your trip between hotels and the boat or barge, you can do that as well.

If you are unsure about where you’d like to do a cycling tour, you can select a tour based on your cycling skill level from easy to moderately challenging. So, Freedom Treks attempts to cater to every level of cyclist.

What Does a Typical Trip with Freedom Treks Cost? What Does it Include?

Since Freedom Treks has a wide variety of trips, it’s difficult to nail one down as “typical.” Atypical is probably more accurate. But if you want to do a cycle trip in Vietnam, for example, you could select the company’s Mekong River Boat & Bike Tour.

This trip involves 5 nights on a boat and 2 nights in a hotel for a total of 7 nights and is a guided tour. You would ride 137 miles in total. The trip is geared toward easy to moderate riding. The cost is 3,137 British pounds ($3,985.56 in dollars). It includes the following:

7 nights accommodation – 5 aboard an elegant river cruiser, and 2 in a boutique resort hotel

Local guides and support van

Bike hire and helmets

All meals

Water and snacks on board the boat and from the support van while cycling

Walking tours, entry fees, and regional flight from Ho Chi Minh to Siem Reap

Cycling jersey and water bottle

Departure transfer

Freedom Treks also makes it possible for guests to rent a bike if they decide not to bring their own. For this trip, a guest can rent either a mountain bike or an E-bike.

Last Thoughts

If you’re seeking a unique trip through Europe or Asia that mostly eschews the traditional hotel and bike model, then you should book a trip with Freedom Treks.

While not all of the company’s trips have a boat/ barge option, many of them do. That allows you to sample roads and terrain that many other bicycle travel companies may not cover. That means you are almost guaranteed to see areas of Europe or Asia that a lot of tourists don’t.