'Two plus Two... France and the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Germany...'

Due to the fact that the administration of the site "Accord-Tour" removes reviews about tours, I post my review on this site

Flight 116, 11/18/2012 - 11/27/2012

The very name of the tour contains the idea of ​​acquaintance of tourists with four countries of Europe. But, by the end of the trip, you understand that the acquaintance happened superficially, mostly from the bus window during long day trips ...

However, in order.

The bus to the landing of the group was filed on time, the accompanying group, Natalya Voloshin, seemed to be a very pleasant young girl.

We went on this trip as two married couples, and when booking the tour, we indicated that the seats on the bus should be one after the other. But, when boarding the bus, it turned out that our seats are located through one. The escort of the group kindly gave us the opportunity to solve the situation ourselves ... When approaching the border, to my question about the purchase procedure in the "duty free" store, it was said that there would be no opportunity for this on this trip. After the border guards collected our passports for registration, we stopped 20 meters from the "duty free" store, and my repeated question about the desire to visit the store was refused. And, at the time of a 5-minute absence, the accompanying group and the bus driver themselves were seen visiting this store ... An untenable argument was put forward to the remark about the use of my legal right to visit the store: since there were only 8 people who wanted to visit the store - they are denied. And the bus continued to stand waiting for the return of passports ... For those 20 minutes that we spent in disputes and discussions, we would have returned long ago from this store!

The first city in which we had an overnight stay was Zakopane, Poland. 11 people signed up for a visit to the thermal springs, young people. On our offer to accommodate us in a hotel, and those who wished to be taken to the springs, the accompanying group replied that we would determine our further actions later. At 20 o'clock the bus dropped people off at the springs, the rest were offered ... 2 hours to walk around the night suburbs of Zakopane! And only after the indignation of the elderly (and there were many) we were taken to the hotel. It took half an hour to return to the city, half an hour to find a hotel! And in general, why deviate from the route of 200 km. (Krakow-Zakopane-Krakow), if 8 people signed up for a visit to the thermal springs!? And why was it impossible to visit these sources if there were people who wanted to come back? Not enough people gathered to visit the Wieliczka salt mines, according to the group accompanying the group, the excursion to the mine did not take place.

Germany. In the center of Berlin, the tour is interesting, but short. Free time - only for visiting the supermarket and dinner. The night tour of Berlin also did not take place, although it was promised that those wishing to join another group.

Netherlands. The tour is short, but also interesting. The next one day was not enough to visit all the interesting places: you have to choose: either a trip to the cities of Zaanse-Schans-Folendam-The Hague, or an independent acquaintance with Amsterdam. To pay tribute - check into an excellent hotel on Leidseplein, in the city center.

France. We arrived in Paris in the evening. An uninteresting bus tour with two stops, a disgusting guide with a disdainful and boorish attitude towards tourists and a faded, inconspicuous voice ... A walk along the Seine River was also disappointing: the pleasure boat was of a closed type, it was not equipped with powerful lighting lamps. One day is also not enough to get acquainted with the beauties of Paris.

On the way back we again passed through Germany. We arrived in the medieval city of Rothenburg in the evening. Street lighting is poor. Due to Sunday afternoon, various souvenir shops were closed. The tour is interesting.

Czech. We arrived in Prague in the afternoon, it's already good. The guide, Vitaly, is above all praise. But again, the tour is very short, only in the city center, we didn’t even reach the Charles Bridge. Themselves for a walk along the river. The Vltava was not present, but according to the feedback of satisfied tourists, an unambiguous conclusion can be drawn.

Shortcomings in the organization of the tour.

- unsuccessfully built route according to the time of arrival at the places of excursions, without adjustments for early sunset

- due to the two-day stay in Poland, very little time was left for the Netherlands and Paris. Taking into account the fact that in Poland, apart from visiting thermal springs, the group did not visit anything else.

- video playback hardware was working very poorly and crashing all the time

Disadvantages of the accompanying group during the tour.

- ignoring the legal right to visit the "duty free" shop on the border with clumsy argumentation: "those who want a minority", "other buses will bypass us, and we will be delayed", "it is not customary to visit the shop at this checkpoint" ... I repeat that the bus stood outside the store for 20 minutes, and only 5 minutes would be enough to visit it ...

- Orientation to the desires of their friends who rode in the back seats of the bus in matters of allocating time for various needs. So, in the city of Rotenburg, the whole group was waiting for a 4-minute latecomer

accompanying group, and another 23 minutes of her friends who were in the restaurant and were not present on the tour. To the indignation of the elderly, the accompanying group found arguments in favor of those who were late. And in Paris, when, for objective reasons, tourists were late from visiting the Eiffel Tower (only an hour and a half of free time was allocated), the accompanying group gave a dressing to the latecomers ...

- garbage bags were not issued throughout the entire route: there was a standard answer to repeated questions - it was not possible to purchase ...

- failure to respond within half an hour to repeated written and oral requests from one of the tourists to stop the bus for a sanitary stop. Although during this time passed two refueling.

- the thematic video support of the tour was not selected at the proper level. A review film on Amsterdam after several attempts was not included. Films were shown mostly old and uninteresting, the sound was constantly asked to increase.

- poor temperature regulation in the bus: messages were constantly sent to turn off either the heaters or the air conditioning.

- the potential of the group in terms of fun pastime was high. Usually, in the first days, the accompanying group takes steps to make tourists friends with each other, finds an opportunity to gather a group in an informal setting for easier communication. The accompanying group did not properly respond to numerous proposals to organize such a meeting.

Taking into account the fact that we have been using the services of tour operators on our trips for a long time, the following conclusion can be drawn about this tourist route, its organization and conduct.

The route is generally good, but at the expense of Poland, more time should be given to stay in the Netherlands and Paris. In autumn, the time of arrival in the cities of excursions must be adjusted taking into account the early sunset. Unfortunately, attention was often diverted by the poor quality of the video system and the temperature in the bus. The escort of the group, Natalia Voloshin, is a good person. She responded quickly to requests, both positively and negatively. Special thanks for the quick and professional resolution of the issue of restoring one of the tourists lost their documents. Excellent knowledge of literary Russian and Ukrainian languages, very good knowledge of English.

I cannot recommend this tour.

Sincerely, Oleg Kravtsov

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