Adventure travel is grassroots travelling on local buses and trains with most meals and entrance fees not included and, therefore, this trip should be changed from "traveller" to "adventure".
Having just completed the June 17, 2008 trip our group believes that:
- most of the hotels were out of the main areas and we had to walk, take a bus or metro to get to the town/city - and pay for same (this caused great problems for travelers as we had not budgeted these travel expenses);
- the majority of travel was by train and we had to carry luggage up and down the stairs at all stations (a good level of fitness is required for carrying luggage up and down great distances and levels of stairs);
- the majority of the hotels did not have elevators and we had to carry the luggage up and down the stairs;
- the only meals included were breakfast (which is standard for Europe);
An overview is shown below:
Budapest - Hotel Hid - 10 min walk to metro and 15 minute train ride (which we paid); hotel does have an elevator but if your room is between floors you must carry luggage up or down stairs; included orientation left us in the city to make our own way by metro back to the hotel;
Eger - Hotel Minaret - a blessing as basically in the town centre and not far from sights (however the walk to the wine village is 1/2 hr each way --downhill and back up so several of the party had problems) -- the level of walking fitness should be categorized;
Poprad, Hotel Satel - 10 min walk to hotel with luggage from rail station - thank heavens there was an elevator; required local bus (which we paid) to do any travel in the Tatras; the bus schedule is not regular and we waited over 2 hours for a return bus (wasn't aware that you could travel by train and transfer in order to get back to Poprad from Tatranska Lominca); the grade for hiking is shown as "easy" but everyone who hiked would disagree as you are climbing over large boulders and rocks;
Bruno - very long "ugly" train travel without a/c and two changes to arrive after 6 hours - lots of up and downstairs with luggage; Hotel Amphone entered thru a dark, smoke filled entrance but once you got to the main reception the hotel was fine - very small elevator; the hotel was a 15 min walk to the Old Town;
Cesky Krumlov - the best hotel - Pension Gardena for location and ambience but lots of stairs in this private pension within two blocks of Old Town and a view of the castle; needed a great hotel after the train/bus/train travel approx 7 hours and lots of carting of luggage;
Prague - Hotel Globus - a 5-10 minute walk to the metro and 20 mins outside the city(takes 1 hour by car into the city; great hotel but poor location as time is money when visiting;
Overnight train from Prague to Krakow - "disaster"; 6 people to a sleeper- luckily train not full and we only had 3 in our room; no a/c; train stops at least twice every hour and the stations have bright lights and announcements for the trains arrival/departure; everyone arrived in Krakow exhausted and hungry;
Krakow - Hotel System Pop -- new hotel in the middle of no where; we had to walk to a bus stop and take 1/2 hour bus ride #173 (our expense) into the city; upon arrival at 7:00 a.m. no arrangements had been pre-arranged for breakfast or for us to freshen up so we were charged for breakfast and then left for the city -- all of us very tired and as a result unable to enjoy our excursion in Krakow; took bus back to the hotel to shower and change and then back into the city again for dinner; bus stopped running at 11:00 p.m. on a Friday night and we had to chip in for a taxi to take us back to the hotel;
The cities visited were great but the accommodation because most of it was out of the city and we had to pay to get back to the city wasn't what we expected on a "Traveller" trip. I have travelled with ImTrav before and didn't expect this level of travel nor the extensive amount of carting of the luggage required. We had to pay for all admissions as none were included (again a budget issue for some).
Please review this particular trip for your future brochures so that your travellers will come back again and again knowing that they are indeed getting what they paid for and the level of travel they booked.
Thank you for your kind consideration.
UTCX
Hello mbarber,
Many thanks for your comments. I have passed these on to our operations team and I will await from a response from them.
Best regards
Kate
Response from our operations team
Hello
I have had this response from our operations team:
Thank you for your comments about our Central Europe Explorer tour. Whilst
we do try to ensure that the classification of our tours as 'Traveller' or
'Adventurer' style is as consistent as possible throughout all of the
countries where we operate, the hotels, transport and the level of
inclusions for each tour must also reflect the area where it is located.
Our Traveller Style tours generally use tourist-class hotels of a local
three star standard. We do always try to use hotels that are as conveniently
located as possible, and, as an example, have recently changed the hotel in
Brno to the Amphona as this is closer to the city centre. We choose hotels
such as the Hotel Gardena in Cesky Krumlov as they have more local
character, and we believe that this is something that is appreciated by our
travellers. This does mean that on occasions the hotels may not have
elevators, and in the case of this hotel it is because an elevator is
difficult to install in this type of old building.
However, it is not always possible for us to use hotels that are within
walking distance of the city centres as it is difficult to find reasonably
priced accommodation which accepts groups in these areas. The type of hotels
located in the centres of these cities are generally hostals, or hotels of a
four star or higher standard. We recognise that those travelling on our
'Traveller' style tours do so with a budget in mind, and to use these four
star hotels would add a large amount to the cost of this tour.
The Central Europe Explorer does also generally use local transport, and
this again reflects Europe in particular as a destination. In other areas
such as Egypt we might use private transport for Adventurer style tours, as
this is the most suitable alternative for that area. We believe that the
local transport used during this tour is of a good standard, and that it
allows the tour to run effectively. We also believe that using private
transport during this trip would make it prohibitively expensive for our
groups. As we state in our pre-departure information, our travellers will
often be asked to carry their own luggage on both Traveller and Adventurer
tours, and should bring a backpack or holdall that they can manage easily.
It is also the case that this tour does not include as many entrance fees or
excursions as Traveller departures in other destinations. The majority of
places visited during the tour are larger cities, and as such there are a
great variety of places to visit or excursions that travellers may wish to
take part in. As there is a great deal of choice of activities in these
areas, we do feel that it is more appropriate not to include these so that
everyone is free to pursue their own interests rather than having paid for
something in advance that they might prefer not to take part in. In Europe
there are also more options regarding meals that cover a range of different
budgets, and again we feel that it is more appropriate to allow our
travellers to decide how much they wish to spend on arrival.
We do appreciate though that there can be variations between Traveller Style
tours depending on their destinations, and where these occur do try to
highlight them in our trip dossier. Our publications team will be reviewing
the dossier for the Central Europe Explorer to ensure that it is as up to
date and accurate as possible. We are also looking to include further
guidance on how much travellers can expect to spend during the tour.
All the best
Kate