Holidays on the Ionian Sea
We went with the "Accord-tour", tour My summer romance or how sweet is the sound of the surf. Since the tour is new, I will try to describe it in detail for future tourists. We left Odessa on June 4.2018 at 9-30, arrived in Bucharest at 22-10. Of course, the Moldovan borders are something. On the Ukrainian-Moldovan border, they collected passports 3 times, after a few kilometers, which the bus traveled without stops, on the Moldovan-Romanian border everyone was dropped off the bus, the bus left for scanning, then they took out 5 bags to choose from, inspected them, warning that if something then they will find, then they will return the bus for enhanced inspection. Now at the borders with the EU there are very strict requirements for the transport of meat and dairy products, so keep this in mind. Fortunately, nothing was found, and the rest of the borders passed much more loyally and faster. I note right away that all the toilets were free along the way, except for one, but more on that below. I do not describe the hotel in Bucharest, it is not known what hotels in transit cities will be in the future. The next morning there was a walking tour of Bucharest, the guide Silvia spent it great, then free time and at 13-30 we left for Albania. In Bucharest, 2 excursions were announced, fortunately, they did not take place and, in principle, could not take place technically. Further, an excursion to Veliko Tarnovo was announced, which is not possible either technically or theoretically, since the bus could not have invested in 21 hours of travel, he and we had to stay in this Bulgarian town for 9 hours, respectively, we would not know when at sea . Therefore, a strong recommendation to Accord-Tour is to remove these excursions from the site altogether (as well as the flag of Serbia, replacing it with Bulgarian) so as not to mislead tourists when planning a trip.
Let me remind you that having left Bucharest at 13-30, we were in a hotel room in Ksamil at 8 o'clock in the morning. Since the main thing in this tour for most tourists is the sea, such a visit is ideal, you can spend the whole day at the sea. In Ksamil, we lived in the Tirana Hotel, the hotel is very comfortable, the staff is very polite, the rooms are large, the air conditioner is powerful, the safe, the balcony. There was no hair dryer, maybe you can take it at the reception, we did not recognize and there was no cooler. Cleaning, change of towels - daily, change of linen almost daily. Breakfasts are not like in Romania and Bulgaria (they were very good). There were bananas, melons, strawberries, milk, juice, something like tea, there was no coffee; It seems not an abundance, but you will not stay hungry. The serving of breakfast is interesting - not everything lies in mountains, as in Europe, but literally everything is piece by piece, according to the number of tourists, so the hand does not rise to take out, for example, a banana. But everything is instantly replenished if it runs out, but again in small quantities.
To those beaches that we have chosen - 7 minutes of a very leisurely step. A supermarket is 2 minutes away, there is also one of the exchangers, but in general there are several of them in Ksamil, there is also a bank, so don’t worry about this. In the supermarket (there are also several of them, by the way) they accept euros, the exchange rate is real and is indicated on the sign above the cash registers, dollars are not accepted. Restaurants, fast foods, etc. at every step, a large portion of mussels - 100 hryvnia, vegetables are many times cheaper than in Ukraine (shame) and much tastier.
There are a lot of beaches, there are those very famous ones with white sand, there are also rocky ones. Most of them have very high-quality sun loungers, umbrellas, the price is about 6 euros, you can bargain, because there is not a season there yet. You can relax without a sun lounger. On rocky beaches, the water is generally super, but aquashoes and attentiveness are desirable - where the stones are larger, there are a lot of sea urchins. There are fruit sellers (figs, raspberries, cherries, etc. ), there are very sticky ones, but this is inevitable on all seas. The people are very friendly, tolerant, in the village there is a mosque and an Orthodox church, on the beaches you can be in very revealing swimsuits without any problems. As the tourists who stayed in Saranda said, the water is a little colder there - a mountain river flows into it. There are buses from Saranda to Ksamil, the ticket is 100 lek. There are a lot of Ukrainians, Poles, there are practically no Russians. Well, everything seems to be according to Ksamil.
Excursions. For 6 days at sea, 2 excursions took place - to the island of Corfu and to Gjirokastra. Again, to the "Accord-tour" - do not declare such complex excursions as, for example, to Athens - a night move, a day there and a night move back. And there are several such. But about the organization of excursions, again below.
We organized an excursion to Butrint for ourselves, thanks to two tourists from our group (Novoukrainka - hello! ), They taught us. Butrint, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, is located 3 km from Ksamil, you can take the Saranda-Ksamil-Butrint bus, it runs every hour, but at 12 o'clock, when we still ran away from the sea, we went on foot, it took less than an hour, a ticket for 500 lek, we visited the fortress, the remains of the city, the park, the magnificent museum (it, like the toilet, is included in the price of the ticket), we wanted to go back by bus - they are in the cycle of 13-30.14-30 and so on, but before arrival the bus stopped the ride and after 5 minutes - in Ksamil. And from 4 p. m. - to the beach, so you don’t have to “lose” the sea and get impressions.
The way home. We left Ksamil at 8-10 am, from 5 pm to 8 pm a bus and walking tour of Thessaloniki, the guide Sofya - it seemed interesting, but did not focus at all on the unique objects that are included in the UNESCO list and were very close, it’s good that my wife and I managed to examine them on our own, at least from the outside, but the guide could have indicated them and more rationally arranged the time and route of the excursion. We arrived in the town of Sandanski at 11:30 p. m. , the next day we left at 2:10 p. m. and the next day at 12 p. m. we were in Odessa (instead of the declared 4 p. m. ). It is clear that the tour was for the first time, such overlays are acceptable.
Summarizing, the rest on SUCH sea is excellent. But…. how could Akkord-tour send such an ancient bus on such long night journeys, through so many tunnels, mountain bridges and serpentines??!! ! The fact that the seats did not move apart is half the trouble. And the fact that the engine overheated at the slightest rise and the bus had to be stopped and topped up with water is something. The drivers Vasily and Anatoly are great, professionals, they took water at every gas station, tried their best. But when the bus stalls on the bridge over the abyss, before entering the tunnel, or barely “puffing” passes a long tunnel, then the “Accord Tour” was involuntarily recalled, after all, on a weekend, for example, in Krakow, you can take a chance and send such bus, but on such a tour…. You must respect your tourists, especially since most of them have been with you for many years.
And now about the most important disappointment of this tour and "Accord-tour" in general. This is the accompanying group Vladimir Oleinik. Having received the information sheet, I found one short review about him on the Accord Tour website, where it was said that he was a young, energetic, active person and was glad that we would have such a person. Apparently, it was a review either about the namesake, or it was written by the defendant himself. Because the only true thing is that it is young, everything else is exactly the opposite - phlegmatism, passivity, inertia.
As I already wrote, this is not the first time we travel with the Accord Tour, we were almost always delighted with the accompanying groups, what pros, enthusiasts, etc. they are. I could not even imagine that the Accord - tour "and indeed in the field of tourism can work, although it can not be called a job, to be listed, or something, such a young man. As Muller said: "Stirlitz is a silent man, I love silent people. " Well, he didn’t know Volodya…
All these long journeys around the tour, our Volodya was silent for hours, during the entire tour he only announced that there would be a sanitary stop and again he was silent for hours. And he did not announce the sanitary stop in time, as indicated in the information sheet, but when the bus had already stopped at the gas station and began to open the doors, i. e. there was no time to prepare. During a night trip across Greece, we woke up, the bus stopped, no one announced anything, and as I wrote, the bus often made emergency stops, so it’s impossible to understand whether this is a sanitary stop or an emergency one, but Volodya is sleeping.
Absolutely no geographic information was given. The music never turned on. I tried to stage films, the sound was disgusting, for a minute the film would freeze, the frozen picture was on the screen for almost an hour, then Volodya woke up, tried to stage another film with the same effect, 2 films were shown in full. The only and, accordingly, the longest monologue of the senior group was when he monotonously read out the list of excursions from the information sheet, which everyone had already studied at home. After reading about half of the excursions, without explaining the reasons, he fell silent for 2 hours, then continued. Accordingly, only 2 excursions took place, although we know that the workers of the Accord Tour can describe the excursions so colorfully that even those who did not plan to go. And then he rode in silence again. One tourist could not stand it, asked why he was not talking to us, and in response - silence.
Information - zero, all the information received from the drivers, thanks to them. When checking into a hotel in Bucharest, while Volodya was at the reception, his wife asked him if there was a cooler, meaning that he would check with the hotel employee, Volodya immediately replied that there was no cooler in the hotel, although in the morning we found it at 3- x meters from the reception.
Upon arrival in Albania, Vladimir created 3 viber groups, for each hotel separately (divide and conquer? ). I did not include everyone in the groups, the tourists who stayed in Saranda asked us to include them in the group, since they were not there. Later, when Volodya began to be asked questions that were unpleasant for him, he removed 3 people from the group. Although, questions began to be asked because of his incompetent actions. At first, he wrote that he would have an early departure from Albania and, accordingly, an early breakfast. But about breakfast it was necessary to negotiate with the hotel administration. And in order to negotiate, you need to talk, and this is not for our escort. Later, he changes the departure time to a later one, but disputes have already begun in the group - some wanted to leave earlier, some later.
A similar situation was in Sandanski. Upon arrival, late in the evening, Oleinik announced that the departure to Ukraine was at 9 am, since the announced excursion had not been completed. The group began to resent the early departure, then he immediately announced that the departure was at 15 o'clock. Normal spread - 9 and 15 hours? At the same time, he said that things should be brought on the bus at 9 o'clock, and then by public transport, because the hotel is very far on the bypass, whoever wants to go to the city center. Several times he was asked what time we have the right to check out of the hotel, Oleinik reluctantly replied that at 11 o’clock, but things had to be brought on the bus at 9.
Later, the hotel receptionist explained to us that check-out was at 12 noon. In the morning, strife began again in the group over the time of departure, someone - earlier, someone - later. As a result, we left at 2 pm, arriving in Odessa 4 hours ahead of schedule. In these quarrels among tourists, the fault is exclusively accompanying - it was necessary to clearly and without alternative announce a reasonable departure time, if necessary, justify and explain it. Volodya did not give any information about Sandanski (as well as about anything else). And in the morning it turned out that the hotel is a 3-minute walk from a chic city park, where there are pools with mineral water, a river, ponds, fountains, etc. After passing the park, you immediately find yourself in the city center, where there is everything for pastime. But, I repeat, no information about this was brought to us. And about the paid toilet. On the way home, a 40-minute sanitary stop was made at the exit from Bulgaria. But there it turned out that all the toilets are paid. And before that, there was a stop near the store, where everyone spent the Bulgarian currency, although it was possible (and necessary) to warn them to leave a small amount. The list of such shortcomings can be continued. As some tourists told us, during one of the conflicts with Oleinik, he told them that he did not work at the factory, but his only function was to collect passports at the border. That's why I had a question, how can such a person be in the tourism business, especially with such a developed and popular tour operator as Accord Tour?
Well, in general, the tour is wonderful: Albania, Ksamil, the Ionian Sea - this is something, it is necessary to go on such tours, it's a pity that not all of them are recruited by groups. The main thing is that there should not be such escorts as Oleinik Vladimir, he is glad that at least 6 days of stay in Ksamil nothing depended on him, so even he could not spoil the rest. Hello to the whole group, see you on your next trip.