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ms Maasdam Bike and Boat review Montreal to Boston


epixx
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We, a family of two adults and one 24 year old, sailed the 23 June 2018 eight day Montreal to Boston itinerary and turned it into a "Bike and Boat" trip. Here's how, for anyone who likes to bike.

 

Against our usual practice and realizing that we might need to catch the ship at the next port (Quebec City), we flew to Montreal the morning of embarkation on 23 June. We therefore did not plan biking for Quebec City. Our research did reveal that HAL offers a Montmorency Falls Bike tour at $99 USD pp, and that one can purchase the same tour directly from the vendor at $66.97 CAD (http://www.toursvoirquebec.com/en/tours/bike-tour-to-the-montmorency-falls/). Instead of biking, we did our own walking tour of Quebec City. Oh, and our flight to Montreal was uneventful.

 

Charlottetown, PEI. There's a great bike "rails to trails" bike path here, the Confederation Trail (https://tourismpei.com/pei-confederation-trail)! From the port, we walked to MacQueen's Bike shop (https://macqueens.com), which is located about 20 minutes from the dock. We highly recommend renting bikes here, as they were clearly of the highest quality and had a huge inventory of many types of bikes. One of us rented a superb carbon fiber bike, another rented a fantastic hybrid bike, and the third rented an excellent e-bike. Note that they do not accept reservations. The shop is very well located only a short distance from access to the lovely and uncrowded Confederation Trail, which we followed in one direction and then return for approximately 4 hours.

 

Sydney, NS. Here we rented bikes from Framework Cycle, which did accept reservations with no deposit or obligation (http://frameworkfitness.com/category/bike-rentals/) and was located about a 10 minute walk from the dock. Our bikes, two hybrids and one e-bike, were very high quality, although not quite the same caliber as those of the previous day. Unfortunately, the Sydney area lacks very good, low traffic biking routes, so we ended up cycling along Route 28 near the coast, as this road offers a narrow sidewalk that was largely unused by pedestrians and follows a scenic coastal route. The road, itself, had a moderate amount of traffic with speed limits as high as 80 km per hour. We rode as far as the sidewalk was present and then turned around and came back.

 

Halifax, NS. This was a great biking port. We rented one cruiser bike, one hybrid bike, and one e-bike from I Heart Bikes (http://iheartbikeshfx.com), which required full, nonrefundable payment for a reservation and was located about a 10 minute walk from the cruise dock. We decided to reserve because their selection was limited, especially for e-bikes (total of 2). Fortunately, the weather cooperated beautifully! These bikes were not nearly the same quality as the bikes in Sydney or Charlottetown, but they actually served the purpose very well for our plans. From the bike shop, we cycled on wide, low traffic roads to the beautiful Victoria Park, which contained numerous scenic, wide, uncrowded trails for bikes and pedestrians. We then followed wide streets through the city to visit the Public Gardens, which can only be accessed on foot. We then continued on through the city to the Farmers Market and then finally returned the bikes to the bike shop. The bike shop owners were extremely helpful in planning our routes through the city to minimize traffic.

 

Bar Harbor, ME. The best was last! We reserved bikes from Bar Harbor's Acadia Bike (https://www.acadiabike.com/), which allows reservations with a $25 USD reservation fee that is refundable until noon the day before rental. Acadia Bike, located about a 10 minutes walk from the tender dock, offers hybrid, mountain, and comfort style bikes, but no e-bikes, as the latter are not allowed on carriage roads in Acadia National Park. All of selected hybrid types which were of reasonable quality. From the shop, we biked one block to the Village Green, where we caught the free Bicycle Express Shuttle to Acadia National Park. The carriage roads in Acadia are wide, amazingly uncrowded, and gorgeous. From the shuttle drop off, we explored the trails in a generally circular, counterclockwise direction and returned to Bar Harbor via the shuttle that departed from the same location where we were dropped off. Note that one could have biked just about half of the distance as a unidirectional route, as the shuttle also picked up at the opposite end of the circular route. We were on HAL's first tender to Bar Harbor and enjoyed the day so much that we returned to the ship on they last tender.

 

Overall, this was a fantastic DIY "Bike and Boat" trip, and I would highly recommend it to cycling enthusiasts.

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Wonderful way to see the ports if you have great weather and don't have any mobility issues.

 

I agree about the weather. We were extremely fortunate but had a backup plan for each port if the weather were not conducive to biking.

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It sounds like a great trip - can you tell us how you enjoyed the Maasdam?

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

 

I love the Maasdam! We have sailed the Amsterdam, Ryndam, and Nieuw Amsterdam in the past, and I definitely prefer the older ships rather than the Nieuw Amsterdam. The Maasdam was in excellent condition, and the passengers seemed to be generally younger in age than on most of the other HAL cruises we have taken. Our cabin (549) was the best and largest we've ever had, thanks to some insiders' tips posted on CruiseCritic. Food was very good. Gym facility was excellent, with plenty of new equipment. For us, HAL's major limitation is the entertainment, or lack thereof, but the library on the older ships makes up (a lot) for this.

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Good to hear - we haven't been on the Maasdam for a number of years, but will be sailing on her in February for 20 days. I see you were in one of the large insides; yes, they make great cabins! Our cruise will be pretty port intensive, so we aren't looking for a lot of extra entertainment - after dinner we might take in a show or hit a bar or the casino for a while before calling it a night. Thanks for your info!

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

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