If you want to live, don't travel with 'Accord Tour'

Beautiful Norway and the irresponsible "Accord Tour"

Our tour was postponed from June to July, because the group did not fill up in full. But dreams must come true, and does the month of transfer really matter if we visit the most beautiful places in the homeland of the Vikings! According to the program, the tour "Honey with blueberries ... And all of Scandinavia" promised to be the most intense and interesting. And here we are in the terminal waiting for the bus. We left there half an hour later, because “for technical reasons” we were given another bus. After passing the border, we moved on with smiles. We were accompanied by a wonderful guide Galina Shipunova. She has well-chosen video materials, and is always ready with interesting and detailed stories and stories about the cities that rush through the window.

Here I want to note that if you are planning to see “the ancient city of Lublin with its centuries-old stone houses, narrow streets and architectural monuments” as part of this tour, or “Jurmala, the city of musicians and flowers with an unusual aura of a coastal resort” - do not plan, because even with an operational there is no time left for crossing the border and a good guide; unfortunately, this is just a bait hidden in the program. As well as the ABBA Museum, the Stockholm City Hall, the Edvard Grieg Estate Museum and some other excursions (the set of "lures" may vary slightly, but you will not see much).

On the sixth day of the trip, we climbed the Troll Staircase for photographs and captured incredible beauty shots. And then…. Then there was a descent down, a sudden bus accident, ambulances and helicopters, firefighters and police .... And everything is like in a movie, where there is a lot of blood and tears, and the main character's ears are ringing. We all did not understand what had happened, and the last thing we thought about was who was to blame. I buckled up just a few minutes before the accident, even though I was arguing with my husband and didn’t want to do it. Does anyone buckle up on the bus, taking pictures of the open spaces? About 15 people were immediately hospitalized, and one man, who was sitting right behind me, in the next seat, could not be saved. These moments of despair and screams are impossible to forget...

The Norwegians took us to a local school where a doctor was examining us, they poured tea and coffee for us, but everyone had thoughts about how to tell home that we were alive, in time for the news. Many girls were alone, without parents and relatives. All things remained in the bus, telephones, cameras… and the life of a young, full of strength person also remained there forever, on a six-meter cliff.

Then there were interrogations of policemen, testimonies, and many days of fear that when we got on the bus again, everything could happen again ... Guide Galina did her best to support and cheer up our group; or rather, those who were still in it, since many were in the hospital or looked after relatives. On the advice of the group, it was decided to continue the tour, since there were no serious alternatives (it was proposed to return by plane at their own expense). We went on, taking those who could walk and no longer needed the help of doctors. This is how tourists appeared in group photographs with plaster bandages on their hands and head, with numerous bruises and injuries… We missed 3 days from the program. We tried to cover Norway in full, because everyone understood that this was the other end of the earth, where we would not find ourselves again soon.

Later, after discussing the situation in the hotel and having not waited for several days for information about the partial compensation of the base cost of the tour, we wrote a collective claim to the Accord Tour company. We did not blame the company for what happened, but sincerely hoped that they would appreciate all our hardships and the lost positive impressions for which we paid money - and the "city of umbrellas between the seven mountains" Bergen, and the "soul of Sweden" Gothenburg, and "the opportunity to drive through unique, unparalleled in the world" Øresund Bridge, and a myriad of impressions of Copenhagen - we have not seen all this.

The long-awaited response to our letter surprised everyone involved in the incident: it turns out that the company decided to completely disclaim responsibility for everything that happened. Director of the company G.I. Buchinskaya convinced us on three sheets that the drivers with no experience of traveling on mountain roads, which they provided to us, are not their drivers, but are employees of a completely different company, and a bus without film on the windows, on the windows of which so many people were cut and which they urgently replaced just before the departure - not their bus at all. And our money, which they did not spend, they are not going to return to us, but hide behind the fig leaves of various legislative acts (as if we were suing them). And if we have questions and complaints, then we must contact completely different companies (or better, directly to the driver, directly to the Norwegian pre-trial detention center), so their contacts are indicated for convenience - after all, they "value and care for every tourist." Accord-Tour credits itself with the fact that at its own expense it paid for one day of the hotel, which was not taken into account, and also (despite the current legislation) they thought and could, so be it, give us a 30% discount on next round.

I also want to note that we paid for a 2-bed cabin on a ferry from the Baltic States to Sweden, for 148 euros per person. But we, right on the ferry, were confronted with the fact that we would spend the night in a 4-bed cabin, and still have not returned a cent, although the 4-bed cabin, based on the previous letter from Accord Tour, is already included in the base tour cost. We immediately filed a claim, because Accord Tour refused to refund this money. Now we have fabulous photos of Norway in the album, memories of a terrible and tragic accident, a badly ruined vacation and an unnecessary bonus of 30% discount on the next route of this company, about which we already have so many negative impressions that we cannot continue traveling with them. go and talk.

When we go on a trip, we trust the company, which, in turn, should worry about the competence of the drivers, the quality of the bus and the living conditions of the tourists. We pay for a set of services provided, which we really want to receive in full, and remaining safe and sound.

"Accord-tour" looks somehow differently at its work and its responsibility to us. If earlier we could still somehow return to the services of this company, now by all available means I would like to protect my friends, relatives and all other travelers from the choice, which, as it turned out, could be fatal. It’s scary to even think that such a large travel company, which is proud of its diplomas and merits, can write such response letters and evade responsibility ... Every day, dozens of “not theirs” buses travel around the world with guides and careless tourists who are not even aware that that one of the most famous companies in the country does not bear any responsibility for them at all !!!

Comments (9) leave a comment

9 comments

Show other comments …