Our Terrible Journey

We went from 06/24/2013 to 06/30/2013 with the travel company "Chocolate" in the Grand Tour to St. Petersburg.

The tour is interesting.

The first day we had a sightseeing tour of St. Petersburg (we went to the Izmailovsky Cathedral, the Kazan Cathedral, we were near Aurora). On the second day we visited the Hermitage and went to Kronstadt (we saw the Naval Cathedral of St. Nicholas, walked around Kronstadt, watched the ships sail along the fairway). On the third day - the city of Pavlovsk (we visited the Pavlovsk Palace and walked in the park) and the city of Pushkin (we visited the Great Catherine Palace, walked in the Catherine Park). In the evening we had Night Petersburg with the bridges raised. On the fourth day we visited the Peter and Paul Fortress, took a boat trip along the rivers and canals and visited St. Isaac's Cathedral. The fifth day we went to Peterhof (we saw the launch of fountains, walked around the lower park). In conclusion, there was Gatchina.

But the organization of this tour was disgusting.

We traveled by bus MAN AE 6584 AA. Drivers Dmitry and Dmitry Vasilyevich. There are more than 50 tourists.

1) We were supposed to leave on Monday June 24, 2013 at 9 am, and on Friday June 21, 2013 in the evening they report that the departure is delayed until 12 pm (supposedly because some tourists do not have time to arrive). But on 06/24/2013 we accidentally find out that the problem is not tourists, but because the drivers arrived only on the morning of 06/24/2013 (if I'm not mistaken from St. Petersburg).

That's not all. From 11.30 to 12.00 we have to get on the bus. But the bus was neither at 11:30 nor at 12:00 (it appeared at 12:40). The bus was an hour late because it was being washed.

At about 13:00 we left (for half a day the group chatted in Kyiv).

2) The girl Victoria accompanied us to Petersburg. Driving through Kiev, Ukraine, Belarus, one could tell something interesting. But there were no stories. Acquaintance with tourists as such was also not.

It was announced that sanitary stops would be every 3 hours. Well, if they are done in 4-5 hours. In Belarus, they made a sanitary stop for us right in the forest with nettles and mosquitoes (explaining this by the fact that we won’t be able to pay anything for hryvnia or rubles). The people began to resent.

There was such an impression that Victoria accompanies the group for the first time. And how, what to do, she did not know. It felt like she was abandoned like a blind kitten without being informed. Maybe the management thought that drivers who know the route will help her.

On the way back to Ukraine, Vika, having drawn conclusions, made every effort to make us more comfortable (she found out where, after how many kilometers you can arrange stops) - well done and many thanks to her.

And we still had reason to be nervous.

3) The bus, the impression was that it was not checked for serviceability. If the air conditioner was blowing hard, people could not screw it over themselves (it was necessary to stick it with adhesive tape !!!). At a sanitary stop in Belarus, drivers were dismantling the front bumper and repairing something or changing a light bulb. Having reached St. Petersburg with grief in half, our microphone breaks.

On the last day in St. Petersburg, our air conditioner breaks down, it's hot outside (+38) and we have transit to Ukraine. They opened the hatches, which eventually fell and stopped rising. Then it started to rain. The roof started leaking and dripping on people. There was a terrible stuffiness in the bus, especially at the end of the bus. Vika approached Dmitry Vasilyevich so that he would make a stop every hour to air the cabin. To which he replied indignantly: "What can I do, it will be cooler at night."

Thanks a lot to Dmitry for repairing the hatches after the rain. And not a lot of air began to flow into the cabin.

4) The drivers smoked on the bus. Dmitry Vasilievich violated the rules of the road, then he drove on his red one, crossing Nevsky Prospekt near Gostiny Dvor (interfering with traffic along Nevsky on their own green), then at night he walked in the opposite direction, then he could get rude to tourists or the accompanying Vika, who asked him a question. If he sat behind the wheel, then something began to break. Maybe the person needed a little rest at home?

5) Hotel "LDM" does not pull three stars, maximum one star. Those who lived on the third floor were not satisfied with the rooms, because they were dirty, terribly smelly (it stank of rotten stuff), half of the sockets did not work, the toilet barrel and the shower faucet were leaking.

The hotel had a Soviet-era canteen breakfast (porridge, butter sandwich, cheese and tea, nothing else).

6) Since there are a lot of people, we were divided into two groups when we visited the sights. Each group had its own guide. So we arrived in Peterhof, we were brought to the launch of the fountains (they are launched at 11 o'clock, they turn on the music and gradually launch the fountain jets). We were divided, I got into the first group. The people who fell into the second group were terribly dissatisfied. Because their guide (her name, if I'm not mistaken, was Tatyana Anatolyevna or Alekseevna) did a bad tour. About the launch of the fountain, she said that when they launch, you can come up and take a picture anyway. Therefore, there is nothing to linger near the fountain. When asked about the palace, the guide said: "Have you never seen palaces and paintings with furniture?quot;

7) We have transit in one direction 1250 km. This is approximately, if we do not stand for a long time at customs, 18-19 hours drive. I think it was possible to arrange for people, somewhere in a roadside cafe, to eat for our money. So that we do not choke on sandwiches both in one direction and in the other. Taking into account the fact that some people have food spoiled due to the shifted exit.

This was our worst trip ever. Most of the tourists from our bus have already gone on sightseeing tours and had an idea how such tours work.

I would hardly recommend anyone to go with the travel company "Chocolate".

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