About Us

International Barging Tours is the most recent venture from Frank Behrendt and the experienced staff who oversee International Bicycle Tours, Inc., in operation since 1976 and expanded to include Nordic Walking since 2007. Repeat customers are frequent on all these tours; bikers may well have a drawer full of IBT t-shirts, each bearing a tour name and the company’s logo. The expertise that makes these programs successful now extends to barging tours.

Frank’s intent is to provide tours at reasonable prices with the trimmings many tour companies omit. IBT participants are met at the airport, so aren’t required to search for taxi or train or bus to their first hotel. For International Barging Tour participants the hotel is the barge they will be traveling on, so the move is accomplished with dispatch. The convenience of one-time packing and unpacking is something any traveler is quick to appreciate.

IBT guides know the territory and the language, important as many of our on-shore visits are to small towns and villages where the distinct character of the country is not compromised by city sophistication. Meals are local and seasonal and dinner makes a friendly end to each day. On barge tours, breakfasts and dinners are on board, sometimes as the moving barge provides a changing riverside vista. The kitchen staff is experienced and expert. Lunches are usually on shore, in a local restaurant or picnic style with your own ingredients from the local shops.

International Barging Tours also provides educational travel programs for museums, universities and organizations. Our tours can be effective in strengthening the bonds within the organization, whether it is a group of members from a museum, a group of docents, or alumni from a university association. Individualized tours can also be arranged for groups of family or friends.

Experience counts. IBT has the experience. Setting out to provide the best tours in the business for people to whom knowledgeable tour leaders and safety in operation are important, IBT has grown but never forgotten the aims Frank originally envisioned. International Barging Tours continues the traditions first established for International Bicycle Tours, Inc. and now adapted to the special requirements of barging.