Tour Details:
Booked in Jan 2015 - received early bird discount.
Traveled as a couple. Pure Vegetarians.
Traveled on a very comfortable coach for 3500+ Kms in 9 days. Fortunate to get the first seat just behind the driver and enjoyed 180 degree view all through the tour from the coach. TIP : Booked very early - as first customer. Seat allocation is based on the order of tour booking.
Tour Manager : Kushru (wikipedia)
Coach Driver : Tony (Captain)
Coach # : 11
For some reason we did not get the call before the trip to give us heads up on the coordinator details. we were asked to wait when we called early in the week and had to follow up the day before the trip to get to know the contact details.
Travelers range from 1 year infant till 76 year grand pa
Travelers from India, UK, US (All Indian origin passengers)
Covered every aspect of advertised itinerary and tour manager was kind enough to cover additional attractions whenever possible.
Few words about the Tour Manager & Driver:
Kushru was very experienced, knowledgeable, calm, polite, understanding and very friendly. He ensured the drive was not boring. He knew every detail about the attractions on his finger tips. You will be amazed to hear the statistics for every location. He speaks very slowly (in English), if you know little bit of English you will feel very comfortable and of course you can talk to him offline for any doubts (in your comfortable language).
Tony was the captain of the coach, we were fortunate to witness his driving skills from the seat behind him - no doubts whats-soever anywhere on the route, he drives the coach very brilliantly. Louvre musuem, dover channel crossing and most of the toll gates just exactly fits the coach and he drove right into them without any second thoughts. I wow 'ed many times appreciating his driving skills.
Meals:
Breakfast is continental breakfast offered by the hotel most of the days and not too many options for vegetarians (if you take eggs then you are fine no concerns here). Few days we had continental bfast offered by Indian restaurants and in those days we had options like paratha's, upma's etc.,
Lunch & Dinner : Buffet at proper Indian restaurants most of the days with variety of buffet menu. Eat as much as you want and whatever you like.
Very minor -ve-- on few days * tours arranged meals in their canopies for many tour packages and on one day close to 6 to 7 coaches dined at the same time causing commotion. We had similar situation on few other days but timing was managed better by the tour managers.
Hotel Stay experience:
Stayed on the hotels as listed on the brochure and on few days due to the unavailability of the rooms offered similar or better hotel on the same location.
At Aran park, Italy - the shower was bad / clogging and there were no curtains. At La go verde - they had all green themes in the rooms. It felt like a motel. we removed the green comforter and slept on bed with just white sheets.
Other hotels no complaints - you get 4* treatment.
At Le Terraze, we were asked to pay 3 euros for internet and all other hotels offered free wifi. Star tours could have payed that 3 euros and made whole trip as wifi included trip. At La go verde the signal strength was very poor.
Coach Drive Experience:
In the trip we traveled close to 3500+ Kms and on an average 400 km per day. Coach had good music system and Kushru had some hindi collection. If you have any specific taste - you can carry the dvd with subtitle and enjoy in the journey
we played Bingo, anthakshari on the bus. Rest of the days - we enjoyed the scenery & took rest.
Neck pillow came in handy on this trip and I strongly recommend carrying one.
Coach is fitted with toilet but we were advised to avoid using it. Per rules, driver cannot drive continuously for 3 hours so they stop in a service station for a 45 mins break. Except in Venice we did not pay anywhere to use toilets. Keep some change just in case.
Load snacks / water from Tesco - you can have them on the coach when you feel like eating something in the evenings.
Site Seeing Experience:
Kushru is a wikipedia, he knew about all the attractions very well. He would set us up for the upcoming attraction in the coach itself and we knew exactly what to look once we get down the coach. For instance in paris night tour, he knew the best photo spot location for illuminated Eiffel tower. We got down, enjoyed the view - took pictures back in the coach in 10 mins. We took selfie stick with us and it came in handy to take as many pictures as we wanted.
Day 1: (prepare for lot of driving)
- Boarded at Maidstone check in point, reached calais via channel tunnel train crossing.
- Reached belgian chocolate factory for lunch (* tours canopy)
- Sight seeing at Atomium (around 4 PM)
- Dinner at an indian restaurant
- Reached hotel
Day 2 :
- Checkout the hotel. All morning drive.
- Reach Drubba region in black forest / cuckoo clock location (at around noon). You can opt to ship the clocks to your home country directly if you buy one.
- Lunch at *tours canopy
- Travel to Rhine falls (at around 4 PM)
- We had some time so took the boat ride to visit the peak location (paid 7 euros per adult) of the falls to enjoy the view.
- Reached Lucerne, visited chapel bridge, walked for 10 minutes to see Lion Monument (around 6 30 PM)
- Dinner and reached hotel.
- we stayed at seehotel kastanenbium, on the banks of lake lucerne. super dooper view from the balcony.
Day 3:
- Checkout the hotel. Reach mount titlis around (9 30 AM)
- Take a cable car and then a rotair car to reach the titlis mountain (10K feet above the sea level).
- Opted for ice flyer & sledging (paid 12 euros per adult). We were lucky, weather was fine and the area is operational that day.
- Enjoyed Glacier cave walking.
- Return to the ground level around 1 PM. Lunch buffett at an indian restaurant.
- All evening drive to reach Italy and Indian dinner / stay at hotel.
Day 4: (this day * tours reserved a lot in venice and they insisted everyone keep time)
- Checkout the hotel and drive towards Venice.
- Boarded a local boat (time sensitive) - around 11 Am
- reached main island
- spent free time approx 2.5 hours in venice including gandola trip (time sensitive)
- Returned to mainland italy. Lunch buffett at an indian restaurant
- All evening drive to Roma and indian dinner / stay at hotel
Day 5 : (walked 15 K steps / 6.5 miles) - prepare for lot of walking
- Checkout the hotel, visit time elevator at around 10 30 AM
- Local guide will take you around roma (rome) and show many famous attractions such as pantheon, roman forums, churches etc.,
- Lunch buffett at an indian restaurant
- Photo spot at collosseum & constantine arch
- Drive to Vatican city
- Stood in queue for 45 mins to visit the church
- At around 6 PM returned to the coach for early dinner and rested at hotel
- We were not offered rome night tour. I speculate the actual reason may be, there were many coaches in Rome that day and they could not coordinate dinner better and they may face criticism if they offer night tour only for few packages.
Day 6:
- Checkout the hotel, all morning drive to florence
- Experienced birds eye view of florence (at around noon)
- Lunch buffett at florence
- Local guide showed us around florence. Lot of free time to explore this ancient city. Tried Gelato icecream in florence.
- Returned to hotel for dinner and stay
Day 7:
- Checkout the hotel and travel towards Pisa
- Reached around 11 30 AM, took a local bus to reach Leaning tower of Pisa. * tours offered Gelato ice cream in Pisa.
- Spent till 1 PM for photo spot in Pisa.
- Lunch buffett in an indian restaurant
- Reached Geneva lake to witness 135 metres tall Jet d' Eau, UN head quarters, Broken Chair
- Reached hotel for dinner and stay.
Day 8:
- All day drive towards Paris
- Lunch on our own as it is not possible for *tours to pack/ coordinate indian lunch this day. Vegetarians are advised to manage with french fries and soft drinks.
- Cruise at River seine (at around 5 PM)
- Early Dinner buffett at an indian restaurant
- Entire coach opted for Paris night tour.
- Finished the night tour around 11 00 PM and headed to hotel for stay
Day 9:
- Checkout the hotel, visit eiffel tower. Queued for an hour to reach the top of the tower.
- Spent time for photos around the tower. We felt view from second level is better for photos compared to top level which is surrounded by grills and was not a great photo spot.
- Lunch buffett at an indian restaurant
- Drive towards Calais to board the ferry at around 5 30 PM
- Back to the drop off point in UK.
Suggestions for this package:
- On Day 1, Brussels City square can be included. We felt there was time to include this in the package.
- Add a castle in germany on Day 2
- Squeeze Pisa with florence on Day 6 and re-organize the rest of the itinerary so that more time can be spent in Paris / France (cathedrals / monument).
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