After Charming Notes. Part 3. "Damned Tour Operators"
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My experience of traveling abroad is negligible - only 3 years. Before that, my parents and I traveled all over the Union - from Moscow to Baku-Yerevan-Batumi and from Vladivostok-Khabarovsk to Riga. Having settled in Ukraine, I fell in love with unhurried walks in Kiev and Odessa, involuntarily I often visit Koblevo and Ochakiv, I admire the hospitality of the Carpathian Hutsuls and the cheerful inhabitants of Transcarpathia. And with regret I remember the sunsets and chebureks of Sudak, Koktebel, Professor's Corner, Yalta and Gaspra... In general, a tourist with an experience of 40+.
Mastering foreign countries for a post-Soviet person (and I also have a mother in the kit) is a lot of stress, so I try to learn as much information about the area, sights and hotels before buying a tour. With age, a carefree attitude to tents, hostels, reserved seat and dirt in the dining room passes - you want comfort and safety. It’s not easy to earn money for vacation, and you don’t want to spoil your long-awaited vacations with unpleasant surprises. Over time, I developed a certain method of searching. Alas, the sites of tour operators and travel agencies do not provide much help in finding a tour. I share personal life hacks and impressions.
The travel agent profession is one of the dying, even the legendary Cook's firm went bankrupt. I don’t risk booking hotels on Booking on my own and buying plane tickets online. I travel with my mother, it’s easier and calmer for us to have a tour package with a transfer guide and a charter. In Egypt, it is better not to take risks and choose hotels with which our travel agencies work, otherwise there is a risk of being surrounded exclusively by the local population and becoming something like an outlandish little animal for them. Yes, and food in hotels accredited by tour operators is adapted for Europeans. I myself choose the region, the hotel and then I just arrange the tour in the agency.
Due to the physical condition of the mother, our trips initially have their limitations: a minimum of descents, ascents, steps and rocky beaches. It is a pity, but the data of tour operators regarding the characteristics of hotels cannot be trusted: the data is often not updated for years, the pictures are photoshopped, the reviews are filtered.
In the descriptions of hotels, the websites of tour operators are often cunning. In fact, the sandy beach stated in the description is loose sand under the sun loungers or a patch of 2x2 m for small fry. Hotel descriptions on many websites are typical or untrue. No wonder: the descriptions are written by hired copywriters, hastily copying them from each other. The more distorted copy-paste, the more errors. Something is constantly happening in hotels: the concept is changing, the owner, the chef, they are renovating or there is construction going on nearby. To avoid unpleasant surprises, get acquainted with information from other sources:
fresh, not later than a year, photos of tourists;
video reviews of hotels;
official hotel websites;
tourist reviews on 2-3 resources.
Ratings and reviews. The topic is sad. On many sites, the hotel rating is overestimated or underestimated simply because only one tourist left a review about the hotel (not the fact that it was not the owner or competitor himself). Hosts brazenly increase online ratings with custom reviews. In Sharm, a local entrepreneur persuaded me for five minutes to leave a review of his store on the Internet, not at all embarrassed that I did not need his pseudo-papyri. Refused - I do not like lies. The stuffing of paid reviews is easy to track by dates, lack of photos, specific information, or the same type of descriptions “about nothing”.
Reviews from real tourists are often touching. I noticed an interesting trend: the lower the level of the hotel, the more unpretentious tourists are satisfied with the rest (it’s cool to swim at low tide, the bus went to the beach almost regularly, they were poisoned only a couple of times, and even the towels were changed once). The more pretentious the hotel, the more active the pani, outraged by small shrimp, the lack of branded cosmetics and the fact that the servants did not give wet towels at the entrance, unsubscribe more actively. Nevertheless, the general impression of the future vacation according to the reviews of tourists can be made. And before you buy a tour, you should familiarize yourself with them.
When we were returning from Sharm, I got into a conversation with my neighbors on the bus. Two friends lived in the Gazala Beach hotel next to our Maritim. The difference in the cost of the tour is not very big. The difference in experience is huge. We are satisfied with almost everything, they are upset and discouraged: dirt, rudeness, total economy. They were the only ones on the bus who weren't given a lunch box. The anniversary celebration planned by one of her friends on the Red Sea was hopelessly spoiled. I consoled that the sea is the same for everyone. In response, I heard that in addition to the sea, I would like more normal conditions. They blamed the "damned tour operators. " Although my interlocutors read bad reviews about the hotel before the trip, the classic “maybe” overpowered the desire to save money.
Several tour operators carry from Ukraine to Egypt. I start my search with a friendly TurPravda site Otpusk. com. There it is easier to compare prices, conditions, dates and times of departure from different companies. Then you can look at descriptions on the websites of tour operators and specify the size of discounts. The tour operator who fills the hotel will have a higher discount. I specifically compared: for the same time in the same hotel, the price of different companies could differ by a couple of hundred bucks.
Tours are sorted out very quickly. The closer to departure - the less decent hotels with low prices. The residents of Kyiv live the best life - it’s really possible to buy a last-minute tour with an excellent discount there and quickly fly to the beach. For Nikolaev, Odessa and Kherson, really last-minute tours are rare, our planes are 100% completed 4-10 days before departure.
I am well versed in online maps, so I often start my search with a map. I noticed that tours to many hotels with a good location are not sold in Ukraine. Maps and panoramas help to figure out in advance the distance to the sea, shopping streets, promenade, stops. An offline map of the region in a smartphone will also not be superfluous.
Excursions. This is where tour operators are clearly failing:
I learned from a guide on the bus on the way from the airport to the hotel that it is now possible to get from Sharm to Cairo along a new road with a tunnel under Suez by bus in 4 hours. And the migration card with the inscription "Sinai only" has already remained at the airport. Pyramids, the Sphinx and the Cairo Museum remained in the plans for the future. In Ukraine, I have not read any information about this possibility anywhere.
When I asked how it is possible to visit a copy of the tomb of Tutankhamen in Sharm, the hotel guide completely froze and said that they did not have such trips (although tourists were taken during a sightseeing tour before).
Boat trips are mainly designed for the whole day - from 8 to 16. Tourists are collected from hotels, taken to the port and transferred to large boats. A whole day for families with small children and the elderly is not a rest, but a test of strength. At the same time, about ten boats hang idle in Naama Bay, which could easily be chartered for organizing short boat trips - for 1-3 hours. Short, inexpensive and interesting. Yes, there are boats with a glass bottom with an hour's walk, but they go along the same route, without swimming in the sea, without a sensible commentary on what is happening at the bottom of the sea. Nobody wants to go the second time.
Travel agencies are modestly silent about the fact that Israel refuses entry to very, very many tourists who enter the country from Egypt. As a result, you lose a day, a lot of money for the tour and nerves.
The voucher includes free tours around Sharm. On the spot, the guides categorically deny free tours and brazenly demand money. We did not go to the Sharm sightseeing tour. According to experienced people, half an hour in the city, then three hours in stores.
Prices for excursions are frankly overpriced. A trip to Soho with a guide from a tour operator cost "exclusively today" $15. The hotel took guests for $5 round trip. Boat trips with hotel guides are consistently 40-60% more expensive than the same boats and yachts, but in vouchers bought on the promenade in Naama Bay.
The guide who met us in Sharm was not in the mood. All the way to the hotels, he intimidated tourists with horror stories about late tourists, unpaid insurance, the need to pay for meals on the day of departure, and other nonsense. Instead of the joy of meeting with Egypt, there was an unpleasant aftertaste.
The transfer promised by tour operators is convenient and safe. In theory. In practice, the transfer to the airport for the inhabitants of Naama's hotels turned out to be Jesuit torture. From Naama to the airport on the road for about 20 minutes, no more. We were collected from hotels for more than two hours, curling lace along night routes. When, after an hour-plus trip, we drove past our hotel, I realized that at least an hour of sleep had been stolen from me. We arrived at the airport exactly 2 hours before departure. 5-6 flights were registered at the same time. The double check for security, check-in and passport control in the crowd of passengers took exactly two hours. Our flight was delayed for 20 minutes - some of the passengers got stuck in line at the second security control stage. But officially the transfer took place on time, everyone was collected and brought.
Despite the annoying little things, the opportunity to escape into the summer and enjoy the warmth and gentle sea a few weeks before the New Year is a miracle that you will certainly want to repeat. And in the case of Egypt, without a tour operator, organizing a vacation will be much more difficult and expensive. And worry about the quality of your future vacation yourself.
