Never again with 'Mandroi Cheaper'.

It's been over a year since returning home from the Magnificent Spain tour. I didn’t write right away so as not to swear too much. But I want to note that this is the worst trip of all, and my wife and I almost ran out of passports.

The tour was called "Magnificent Spain" (27.04-4.05) and we bought it in "Mandrui Cheaper":

http://mandruy.com/tury/tours/ekskursionnyy-tur-po-ispanii-na-mayskie-prazdniki-za-968-evro-s-pereletom-i-ekskursiyami/

The tour operator "Orbita" was indicated in the voucher, the host - "Terramar-Tour".

This is not our first trip to Europe, so before visiting the office of "Mandrui Cheaper" we prepared all the documents. Unfortunately, the manager Alena was not aware of the necessary papers and called us for advice on them. She was not satisfied with a certificate from the bank about the presence of a large balance of money in the accounts. Instead, she offered to print a check on the balance from a bank card and make a copy of her number. Which is absurd, since the last name is not indicated on the check. As a result, it turned out that they requested additional confirmation of the financial situation. I had to print out a bunch of sheets with the movement of accounts in a few days. Although I did not have to go through half the city - the company sent a courier.

I repeat that we initially had all the documents that are listed on http://orbita.ua/countries/ispaniya/visa

Further, for the first time I encountered the fact that we had to translate documents ourselves. The tour has always done it for us. firms: paid or free.

I want to note that we fully paid for the tour on 2.04, that is, 25 days before the trip.

The itinerary of the tour was received on 24.04, and Thomas was listed as the tour guide.

The flight turned out to be at night, upon arrival we were given a new program. One of the hotels and the guide (Elena) has changed. We settled in already at one in the morning, although many tourists from the group arrived in the afternoon. We were not on the list of the hotel, but Larisa - the representative of "Terramar-Tour" - left us with some acquaintance, because the bus with other tourists began to rebel. He helped us check in, but somehow it's strange.

On the second day, the tour participants were met by two guides: Thomas and Elena. We got on the bus with Elena. After the roll call, it turned out that we still had a guide, Thomas. I had to stop another departing bus on the run. The driver tossed our suitcases, we listened to Thomas' complaints, and my wife and I had to sit separately, because there were no free double seats. In total, there were 66 (!!!) tourists in it, although "Mandrui" was promised "forty people". On a smoke break, while there were no other tourists, I approached Thomas and asked him to contribute so that my wife and I sat down together. He also expressed his complaints about our check-in at the hotel. Thomas turned on the microphone, although I was standing nearby, and began to yell that he was just a guide, not an escort, his leg hurts, so this is our problem. He used such tactics with "loud" communication in any problem situations, drawing attention to himself, appealing to "God, because he sees everything, Ladies and Gentlemen." It was uncomfortable to shout over him and people just kept their grievances to themselves. He did not take much part when a tourist in a 4-star (!) Hotel had their passports stolen. It becomes sad that we could be in her place ...

Instead of the expected vacation in the first two days, we were faced with a terrible organization and rudeness, the mood was spoiled. But we managed to switch places, so we sat together on the last row on the bus. Unfortunately, because of this, they were among the last to leave the vehicle. As far as I know, other travel agencies allocate seats on the bus in advance. Who pays first, he sits at the beginning. I don't think we paid last.

Another problem - Thomas never waited for tourists. Several times it happened that while we got off the bus, crossed 2 traffic lights and approached the guide, he had already finished talking and went to the next historical object.

I also don't understand the fact of smoking when he ran in front, and a crowd of tourists scurried after him and sniffed his smoke.

When buying a tour, we were not warned that it was more of a bus tour, sometimes we drove 750+ km in a day. I had to get up very early and check in late. There was no mention of this in the program. When we consulted with Alena what kind of tour to buy: with or without dinner, she said that there would be free time. But he was stupid! When we settled in the next hotel, I just wanted to sleep.

Our usual daily schedule was as follows: get up early, ride the bus for several hundred kilometers, stop for 45 minutes, take the bus again. Some kind of walking tour, after which time to choose two things from the list: lunch, toilet, photographing. It was not possible to do everything at once. The same toilet took many tens of minutes. It got to the point that women went to the men's room ...

The tour program sounded very tempting: many historical places and names of famous cities. But in the same Barcelona, ​​we passed many places by bus, and on Mount Montjuic we only went to the toilet.

I want to express my "fi" about the choice of shops for buying souvenirs. Thomas brought the group to some trading place and advertised it in every possible way (for a kickback?). But then it turned out that many things were cheaper across the road, the same sweets cost 4 instead of 7 euros, and so on. In Madrid, he gave 10% discount coupons and said that you can get an additional ~10% back on Tax Free. But I forgot to mention that the discount is not valid everywhere, and in Tax Free you have to pay almost half of the commission for services. So, when buying toys, we simply lost time on issuing a non-working discount.

Once again I want to write about "Mandrui Cheaper". I was surprised that no one contacted me after leaving a review on the company's Facebook during the tour. The main thing is to sell the tour, and everything else is not interesting? And where's the cheaper travel if it's just a regular tour that Mandroi just earned a commission from Orbita? Maybe if we approached them directly, we would fly on a daytime flight and sit on the bus in VIP seats that we only learned about during the trip?

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