Poland with Selena)

Selena tour, I will have a lot of very diverse memories associated with this operator ... but first things first.

We decided to get out for the New Year to old Europe, but in such a way that it would be remembered, and at the same time, the personal budget did not drop to zero. Having considered several options, having asked friends, we decided to stay on Selena's tour with her proposal for a trip to Poland *In search of dwarves*.

Briefly about the tour: transfer to Poland from Lviv, to Krakow and Wroclaw, with a visit to the salt mines in Wieliczka and the Ksienzh castle. Declared no night trips, and accommodation in 3 * hotels with breakfast.

I can’t tell you in detail about communication with office employees, my friend did it, but everything seemed to go smoothly: visas were received on time, train tickets were taken by the company in accordance with our wishes and given to us in advance.

For those who need a summary of the main positive and negative points:

+ All technical aspects are well organized and worked out: the bus arrived on time, the drivers were adequate, polite and helped to load and unload things, the guides were always waiting for us on the spot, there were no problems with the settlement. To all the questions that arise, from the number of city residents to questions about the opening hours of the restaurant in the hotel, Anastasia (an employee of the travel agency accompanying the group) always gave prompt answers. All the problems that tourists had were quickly resolved, whether it was an unsuccessful seat or a train ticket taken by a tourist at the wrong time. I note attention to detail, well-chosen films on the way, a quest with dwarves, birthdays of tourists.

-I didn’t really like the fact that the transfers took up most of the daylight hours, and it was already dark to arrive in the new city, but there is already a controversial point: either live in a hotel, travel during the day, and skip some excursions if you want to walk around the city yourself, or else ride at night, forget about the soul and arrive in the morning in a broken state. I did not like the guide in Wroclaw, with whom the group spent a day and a half and listened to only the first half hour, since it is quite difficult to understand the mixture of Polish Russian.

AND IN CAPITAL LETTERS IMPORTANT: A lot depends on your neighbors and the group as a whole, we had two grannies, previously unfamiliar, but very talkative ... very ... you can’t imagine how much ... by the end of the trip we knew their biographies up to the seventh generation and the life and political views of all their relatives. But after all, you need to look for the positive in everything: it was these two tourists who helped everyone else to become friends :)) This does not apply to the travel agency, I just remembered)

And below is a more detailed description of the tour for the most curious:

So, on the morning of December 31, the scene is the Lviv railway station, meeting the group, a nice accompanying girl - Anastasia and the bus drivers. After reading the previous review, I was a little worried about the bus, since it was necessary to spend a lot of time in it in the following days, but fortunately the fears were not justified - our motor home turned out to be a Mercedes 350 as a whole, as the trip showed - quite comfortable. Of the minuses - a non-working toilet and a coffee machine, and a speed limit on Polish autobahns of 85 km. Why? As they explained, all this requires European certification, which results in an inadequate amount of money, so let the toilets in the parking lots and the loaded trucks with trailers overtake us;)

During the transfer, Nastya managed to explain all the details of the trip, answer the most tricky questions, and show New Year's films (although people did not want to eat the first or second Irony of Fate, but enjoyed watching Home Alone with pleasure). The journey to Krakow took about 9 hours, although our favorite customs took the lion's share of the time (long live Euro 2012;).

So 17.00 Krakow on December 31, the mood is never festive, there is a desire to score for the New Year and go to sleep normally. But the shower in the room and the optimism of the accompanying girl gives hope that not everything is lost, and here it is at night Krakow. The guide was already waiting for us - a lady who speaks very competently in Russian and tells the story of both the city in general and Wawel Castle, near which the tour began, in particular. Then there was the New Year, which we met as a group 3 times, in Russian, Ukrainian and Polish styles. I was surprised by the abundance of both the police and the employees of the security company, who behaved as correctly as possible, but at the same time stopped all the troubles, and the launches of unauthorized fireworks by young people. Also, compared to Kiev, the abundance of empty seats in cafes in the very center seemed unusual. With a crowd of 10 people, we easily found a large free table in the first cafe we ​​came across.

The breakfasts in the hotel, I will say frankly, were not particularly impressive, although what kind of breakfasts are on the first day. We did not go on an optional excursion to Zakopane, we decided to wander around Krakow, to experience what we never regretted. During the day, Wawel is completely different, the city center is charming in a different way, abundantly arranged fair stalls with a variety of souvenirs that provide a memorable Polish flavor. I advise you to go to churches, to the service, even if you are far from religious issues, the internal architecture of the temple will not leave anyone indifferent.

The excursion to Velichka to the salt mines impressed us with the scale of the underground facilities, and thanks to Nastya for waking us up so early - since if we arrived a little later, due to the large number of Tutrists we might not see musical surprises (which I won’t tell, because the surprises are: )). The guide (the mine has its own staff of guides speaking different languages) was Ukrainian-Russian speaking, moreover, when we said that it was possible in Russian if it was difficult for her, she replied that since we are from Ukraine, then the tour is in Ukrainian, for which many thanks to her ;)

Then there was Wroclaw, the University of Wroclaw and the Ksenzh castle, each of these places is impressive and unforgettable in its own way. What upset me a little was the tour guide in Wroclaw, whose speech was saturated with Polish words, which made it very difficult to perceive the information provided, and eventually led to the fact that half of the group stopped listening at all by the end of the sightseeing tour. Separately, I will dwell on a quest from a travel agency called *In search of dwarves*, the point is to find as many little gnomes (dwarfs) as possible in Krakow, photograph them and then on the way back the winner was determined, who was awarded a memorable souvenir, a trifle, but nice.

Also, several people from the group had a birthday, on which occasion a representative of the tour company presented them with memorable gifts, again a pleasant trifle, but our whole life consists of trifles, and as for me, attention to such things speaks of professionalism and desire work for the client.

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