Read some bad reviews but decided to try it out anyway because most the reviews were affected by Covid one way or another and this has added confusion to every touring business.

My wife and I were not disapointed. The Columbia River Cruise had beautiful rides and the American Empress River Boat was exquisite. The service and food on the boat was great, especially the Main dining area which had a great atmosphere and menu.

What they don't seem to tell you clearly int their own ads is its truly all inclusive. Any museum or visitor center and even the jetboat rides are included. However, only 3 of the buffet lunches were covered as most were on the fly catch as catch can while on the long rides, many which had interim stops in beautiful spots.

If your a regular rider that can do 30 to 50 miles you'll find this 7 days of consecutive riding challenging, but very doable. If you are a more casual rider there are variations of the same routes that everyone rides that are shorter. My wifes and my orbea internal ebike batteries were accomidated by letting us charge them in our state room. Ebikes with external batteries are accomidated by removing the batteries and taking them to the state room for charging. Rental bikes and ebikes are available from an associated but separate vendor.

They had 3 trucks on this trip storing bikes an moving them from stop to stop with bike mechanics driving them. They van can get to you in an emergency, but intermittent phone reception can delay a responce while riding these beautiful outlying rides.

It is best if you bring spares tubes and a kit to care of flat tires an minor issues yourself. However, many of the riders in the group will be passing by andif you cant handle it yourself and you can reach the SOS truck, you can flag another rider in the group for help or ask them to let the trucks up the road that you are having issues.

All in it was a great experience and we are going to book another as soon as we can manage to.

Our first trip with Santana (and, likely, our last) recently ended with a sigh of relief as we disembarked. My wife and I have traveled extensively by bicycle (16 trips and counting) and our trip to Japan was among the worst one we have been on. Given the terrain of Japan, we thought, what better way to see the country by bicycle than by ship, stopping from port to port. The Santana brochure gave a marvelous description of the tour, however, most of it was wrong.

Communication was poor. Do not expect much information about the trip until just a few months before you go. The first real information we got regarding this trip was December 29,2022, and that was just about a packing list and adapters for the cruise ship outlets, not particularly critical info for a trip like this unless you had never done a cycling trip before. The next update had some helpful tips, like what Santana did not supply, such as locks, repair kit and inner tubes, water bottles etc. etc. This was more for the folks renting bikes rather than bringing their own as Santana is quite popular with the tandem cyclists. We knew there would be a pre and post cruise tour but no information on that was available until Feb 2023 (2 months before departure). And when we did get the info, you had one week to decide, otherwise the price went up $500. Based on the price, we did not want to do either one (good thing we did not as we later heard the pre-tour was a mess). However, we did inquire about what hotel the group would be staying. Santana guarded the info like it was a state secret. Our plan was to stay at the same hotel thinking that we could do our own thing before the trip and then get a ride to the ship with the group. How foolish to think that. If you do not do the pre-tour, you are on your own until you get to the ship. I do not have any problem with that policy but why not say that up front so guests can make appropriate plans? With other bicycle tours, all this information is available at the time of booking, often 8-12 month before the trip.

Bicycles: Santana does not supply any bicycles for the tour. Santana arranges for rentals via a third party and you get your bike at the dock. They encourage you to pack up your own bike and bring it with you which was surprisingly easy except for lugging around a 32 Kg bike case. Be prepared for sticker shock if you rent. For a 10-day trip, a road bike will set you back about $800-1000. If you want an e-bike, $1300 (as a comparison, a cycling company we have used over 10 times charged $300 for an e-bike for a 13-day trip in Andalusia last year). And speaking of sticker shock, as this is a cruise, there are varying costs of the cabins based on size and location of your cabin. So, one person's $6000 10-day Japan trip may cost another person $10,000 because they get a room with 50 more sq feet on a higher deck. Not really a great deal. And there are additional charges such as port fees ($375 PP) and "cruise extras" (475 PP). This last item included off ship activities, admissions, guides, and rider support. As there were very few off ship activities with minimal admission charges, no guides per say (unless you took the bus), no support van and only 2 bike mechanics.

On other tours we have taken, ride profiles or the Ride with GPS maps are available for review so one can have an idea of what the trip will be like and decide what bicycle to rent (standard vs. e-bike). Not so with Santana. RWGPS routes were available the night before the ride on the first 2 cycling days. On every other day, they were not available until the morning of the ride. Most of the rides were not very scenic, involved long stretches on very busy streets just to get out of the port town and were lacking in dining opportunities for lunch. And on several rides the RWGPS route has us turn off the main road onto a side road for a short distance (0.5 km on one occasion) before taking us back on the same road while having us cut across traffic twice in order to follow this "curated route." Getting the RWGPS routes the morning of the ride left little to no time to plan for the day regarding cultural visits or possible stopping points for lunch. On 2 days when they did mention a lunch stop, one was closed leaving us miles away from even a Lawsons or 7/11 and the other ran out of food before we got there. And the support van was only for repairs or injuries. One rider asked if they had any food or bars on the day the lunch stop was closed and they looked perplexed, saying no, we only carry tools. Most off-ship dining involved getting a snack at the aforementioned convenience stores. Not exactly the cultural experience we were expecting. And unique to a cruise / cycling tour, if you took too long at lunch you may get left behind in port, waving at the ship as it sails to its next location. This meant time constraints on almost every ride in order to get back to the ship with time to spare.

The highlight of the trip was to cycle the Shimanami Kaido bike path. The ship was to dock at Imabari and pick up riders at the other end (Onomichi) of the 70 km bike path that crosses six islands. The ship was too big to dock at either port so it docked at Itozaki, 10 km from Onomichi (why was this not known 2 years earlier when we booked). Buses and trucks were then arranged to take cyclist and the bikes about halfway down the path to cycle back. Brochure – "the preferred starting point for this ride is the coastal town of Imibari, where our ship will briefly dock to set us off…Upon reaching Onomichi, enthusiasts celebrate at a waterfront bike shop that is also a pizzeria and cyclists' hotel." The only celebration to be had was packing my bike up on the ship's deck that day as it was windy and slightly wet and Bill discouraged cyclists from riding due to the weather conditions, which, as it turned out, were not as bad as predicted. Another port of call, Kochi, has 2 iconic sites to visit, Kochi Castle and Chukurinji temple. While mentioned in the brochure, neither were discussed in the briefing of this ride and so both were missed. They were an easy bike ride from the dock. Shame on me for not looking beforehand but isn't this what we pay the tour operators for? To quote the brochure again: "Santana's carefully curated choice of daily routes provide interactive stops at samurai villages, feudal castles, swordsmiths, sake breweries, bamboo forests, pearl farms…" Except for the castles, we experienced none of this and these activities were not even mentioned in the daily briefings. Bill did talk about one castle in Karatsu and advised us to look it up in TripAdvisor if you wanted more info for a visit. No stop at Hagi, "another small port that "rarely hosts cruise ships" per the brochure. Rather, we stopped at Fukuoka, the sixth largest city in Japan. You can imagine what cycling out of that port was like.
And finally, about the brochure - there are many misleading pictures that are either photo-shopped (there is one of Osaka Castle with Mount Fuji in the background) or nowhere near the port. For example, there is a lovely photo of Chureito Temple and Mount Fuji. This image was even on our cruise ID and bike license plates. Unfortunately, this temple was much too far from port to visit by bicycle (70 km one way). Another is a photo of a bamboo forest we were to visit while in Ulsan, ROK. Besides not even stopping in Ulsan (port changed to Busan, the second largest city in South Korea), the bamboo forest pictured in the brochure is the one in Nara. With a quick internet search one can easily find the "photos" Santana used for these examples. One wonders how many more of the photos in the brochure are misleading (hint, most of them).

This review is rather long but I think you can understand the level of disappointment everyone in our party had with this trip. We did almost nothing that was described in the e-mail brochure nor was much of any of it discussed in the daily briefings. Many rides involved navigating through very busy port towns and were not particularly scenic. Almost all dining was aboard the ship and was typical cruise fare. While it was good, there was almost no local flavor to the menu. Not having to live out of a suitcase for 10 days did not make up for the fact that we were not really visiting Japan, but merely cycling in a foreign county only to return to our English speaking, "westernized" floating home at the end of each day. The best 2 days of this trip were after we disembarked and met up with our private guide for a 2-day tour of Nara and Kyoto. While this review will not change any minds of the many repeat customers of Santana, it is not meant for them but rather those who are on the fence deciding on their first cycling cruise. While other Santana destinations and itineraries may be better, I am not willing to spend the money to find out.

My wife and I just came back from a boat bike tour with Santana Adventures in Japan. If you're looking for a nine day adventure chock fulll of chaos, unprofessionalism and just outright hubris by the staff, this is the trip for you. If you're a seasoned bike tour enthusiast like we are, run far, far away from this group as you'd be throwing your money at an individual who simply ought not be in the tour business.

Let's start with basic communication with Bill McGready, tour operator and owner. Bill and his staff treat e-mails with the same attention as junk mail, that is most of the them probably go in the trash folder, but certainly not responded to in a time, manner, if at all. The one response we did receive (after our second request) was to inform us that we weren't signed up for the post trip tour because we hadn't paid the requisite fees. The truth was we had paid, and we promptly sent him another copy of our paid receipt. Otherwise, regular contact was lacking both in attention and detail. If you wanted updates, you had to search through e-mails for a shared Google doc sheet for last minute trip changes, with no prior alert given that changes were made.

The point of embarkation (meeting point for the ship) was changed within a day of our departure, certainly not optimal when most of us were busy enough and preoccupied with international air/ ground travel. Check in to the cruise ship was abysmal, with a 1 1/2 hour wait just to pick up our rental bikes, which were lacking in promised features, and for which we paid the exorbitant price of over $500.00 each.

The AM and PM briefings were sketchy and unprofessional. Bill imparted to the group inadequate route details, minimal safety instruction and, at times, outright misinformation, all the while satiating himself with copious amounts of wine. On day 5 of riding we were finally told we had been making illegal right turns for the previous four days! This information should have been shared on day 1. The route maps he shared with the nearly 300 of us were illegible and obviously drawn up at the last moment. Since this trip was in Japan, we were forbidden from taking food off of the boat for sustenance during our bike rides. Not to worry boasted Bill (for the Day 2 ride), we've arranged for you to have lunch at a renowned Ramen noodle restaurant along the route. That restaurant, to the dismay of the cycling group was closed, which meant the entire group of mostly 60-70 year olds could either continue on with the 54 mile ride, or turn back towards the boat. Luckily, I had a factory sealed goo in my back pack to hold me over, but others in our group returned to the boat early basically running on fumes. On this particular day, an older gentleman in the group had a terrible cycling accident and ended up in the local hospital. Bill's comment in the end of day briefing, while himself cautioning the group about NEVER conjecturing or spreading rumors, was quick to assert that the gentlemen was probably not paying attention, and that he would be able to tell this "simply by looking at the gentlemen's bike." We know from the first-hand accounts of a physician who was fortunately on the scene that Bill's assessment was incorrect. Bill seemed indifferent to the fate of this cyclist who ended up with a three week stay in a Japan hospital.

Day 9 was fraught with adventure again as Mikey, the SA route expert was piecing together parts of the route on the morning of departure. He was bold enough to brag to the group about a special curry spice restaurant at the approximate mid-point of the ride, only to find out that they ran out of food before most of the group (not all) had a chance to eat. Also, and likely because of poor planning by Bill, many cyclists waited almost two hours to get off the boat that day because of unexpected and unplanned for customs/immigrations screening. While Bill announced to the group the process was moving quicker, it was actually moving slower. My wife and I were about 20th (out of about 300 guests) in line, and it took us nearly an hour to get off the boat and riding. Also on this particular day, our friend and travel companion took off with us assuming her rented e-bike was fully charged, as was part of the rental obligation. At about the 25 mile mark, the bike's battery went dead causing a 45 minute wait by the side of the road and a disappointing ride in the van back to the boat. The cost of the e-bike rental was over $1,200.00, but Bill's staff just couldn't be bothered with ensuring that the bike was ready to ride.

Lastly, we opted for the post tour of Osaka, Nara and Kyoto, but upon check in found that we didn't have a room. This was eventually corrected by the one staff member (Michael) who was actually very apologetic and accommodating. Michael was also instrumental in making sure the 150 or so post tourers understood the process of getting themselves and their bikes and luggage onto a train to the airport upon departure. Many were concerned and upset upon learning that they were responsible for their own transportation to the airport at the end of the post tour as they had expected a shuttle.

Also, Bill had decided (again, last minute) that instead of paying for tour expenses (museum entrance fees, lunches, etc.) that he would hand over 15,000 YEN instead. That barely covered our first night's meal at the hotel. The rest of the tour, was "on your own."

These are just some of the many faux pas that occurred with Bill McGreedy and his gang. Lastly, when you plunk down over $15,000.00 for a bike tour, you'd think that someone on staff would introduce themselves to you during the trip and maybe even thank you for your business. Not surprisingly, this didn't occur.

Like I mentioned at the outset, if you like chaos, disorganization and rudeness, go with Santana. My money will stay with the reputable bike tour companies like Backroads, who truly appreciate your business and pride themselves on genuine customer care and service.