Napa Valley Bike Tours & Rentals — Attraction in Yountville

I have 2 major complaints about my experience here. Let's start at the beginning. My mother and I chose to do this bike tour in the summer of 2012. Although this review is a few months later I remember the day exactly.

My mom had called ahead to ask if the off road biking was tough for novice cyclists. She wanted to the the tour through the vineyards but wan't sure if she would have the skill to do it. The person who answered the phone was Matt; our future tour guide; and he explained that it was easy and it would be no problem for her. So based on his recommendation we ordered the "Cycling IN the vineyards" package.

From the moment we arrived and began the bike tour I could feel a time constraint coming from the tour guide. I constantly felt pushed to go at his pace and not enjoy my tour.

Problem 1) At the beginning of the tour he asked if anyone wanted a gel seat. So my mom says yes. At the end of the tour we find that we have been charged additionally for use of the gel seat. This is a problem: He should have announced that the gel seats would cost an extra whatever.

Problem 2) As the tour progressed we get to the "Cycling IN the vineyards" part and it gets tough for a novice. She has to learn how to change gears without proper instruction and learn how to navigate rocky terrain while using this new gear changing system. Very tricky.

From here my mom tries to learn as fast as she possibly can and cope with this new system, the tour goes on. Now I don't doubt the tour has a time schedule to keep to, but when someone (Matt) says that the tour is going to be manageable for a novice cyclist and then they start to try to move the tour like a Tour de France. Then we have problems.

Here's the bottom line. This tour isn't for novices, and it does require some experience to have an enjoyable time. Overall my experience with our tour guide Matt left a lot of room for improvement. Perhaps there are better tour guides for the company, but i don't know. I had no problems cycling, because i'm experienced. But when the person i'm vacationing with isn't having a good time, then i'm not going to have a good time. I wanted Matt to be patient and understanding of his customers instead he acted like a young hot shot who had better things to do, the sooner this tour was done. Nice try Napa Valley Bike Tours, but i think you could do better. I won't recommend this tour to anyone. But that's just me.

I believe my tour guide ruined this experience, the content of the tour was good and riding can be fun, but he's not a tour guide. Maybe he would do better as a personal trainer or slave owner.

The best part was the food provided by the local deli. Amazingly scrumptious...

I would highly NOT recommend bikes from here if traveling outside the little town of Yountville. There are 2 sites for this company. I can only speak for the Yountville site vs the Napa site. I would NOT rent e bikes from Yountville. I rented 2 ebikes. They have 2 manufacture styles that I saw, A) Gazelle and B) Specialized. The Gazelle styles are terrible and Napa Valley needs to replace them all. Upon renting, my Gazelle ebike did not work properly both with the gears and also the frame itself. They had to come out on the road and replace my bike almost immediately with a better Specialized ebike. They should have done this from the beginning for both ebikes, but they hand out these bikes when the specialized bikes are all gone, yet they charge the same price. Secondly, and most important, there are NO safe roads or stand alone bike paths for safe riding if you rent from Yountville and head North. Almost all the vineyards are North. The 2 main roads are Rt 29 and Silverado Trail. They are "major highways" with cars and 18 wheelers trucks moving at speeds from 50-70 mph. Limited traffic lights miles apart, no bike or walk crossings, and the connecting thru roads for these highways have no shoulders and are just as UNSAFE. It's downright unsafe, loud, windy, and chaotic to say the least. If you think you will leisurely ride your way around in the sunshine, chat, and visit wineries.... you are sadly mistaken. Nappa Valley Bikes should clearly explain this, but of course.... this would severely impact their business..... so we know the answer to this. Upon my return, I expressed this to Napa Valley Management. They listened to me for about 30 seconds and then rudely turned their back to me and walked back into their office to work. They did not even want to hear what I had to say for feedback or a satisfaction rating.....but they had no problem taking my $205 for the 2 bike daily rental!!!!. Very sad and disappointed in...

First time using Napa Bike Tours. Have used Sonoma Bike and Wine tours in the past. Such a great experience throughout. Process with planning though was a little confusing at first, and actually wished it was the way it used to be, where you can just go to any winery. But due to COVID I'm assuming, every where required reservations, so that was a little frustrating since booking was quickly sold out at many places or very limited time slots. Not that any of this was the fault of the bike place of course. Very helpful people with that process though via email and on the phone. At check-in, was very busy, but didn't wait long to get our bikes, brief description on the bikes, the maps, etc ,and we were on our way. Appreciated how they pick up your wine bottles for you, so you don't have to hold onto it while your biking! LOVED the picnic lunch that they arrange through Bouchon Bakery. You just pick which food (sandwiches or salad) you want and they set it up for you, along with water bottles, dessert and a side (chips), plus towels, utensils, napkins, all arranged in a cooler. Then you make a reservation for the winery you want to have your lunch and the time, and they drop it off! Overall, such a fun time!...