Jun 05, 2013 11:31 AM
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Frankly speaking I am not a big fan or have much liking for Group Tours. I executed my two vacations (2010 and 2011) through Cox and Kings but were personal tailor crafted and as per my needs. In 2013 it happened so that I was planning for a European tour.
For Europe tour I wanted the same as would anyone want, which is, if one lands once in Europe one would definitely like to cover the most in available time vis-a-vis just visiting one or two places in Europe.
Initially I planned couple of personal tours since I was natural at that. I planned one itenary through some other tour operator and then I planned the same itenary through Cox.
However the overall pricing was hitting way beyond my budget. Just for information we are myself, my wife and a kid of 8 yrs age.
Then I came across this particular tour of Cox and it was simply fitting my budgets.
10N/11D tour covering London, Paris, Rome, Switzerland, Austria, Florence, Venice with all major places in each country.
Coming to review part....
This review would be more on various aspects of GROUP TOUR. Reason is I believe many travelers do not know such aspects and then they later feel cheated.
Is your holiday planning at a risk in Group Tours
Answer is yes. The reason is group tours consist of a fix number of passengers. if this fix number is not achieved by the date of departure the tour may get postponed without any further firm dates. One has to be aware of such fact when booking group tour.
Are Group Tours Relaxing
Absolutely not. Group tours are normally designed to cover most of the places in available time. They follow their schedule and one has to abide by that. This is the only way to make most of the money one spends. If one is to visit say Rome on personal basis one would probably spend 3N in Rome where one would spend a day each visiting Trevi Fountain, Colleseum and few more places. However in Group Tour this happens in just one day. If we look at it properly it does not require more than one day if everything is pre-planned and thus saving money for rest of the two days of lodging and boarding in Rome. Pre-planning part is done by the tour operator and you just have to follow their plan.
Concept of Panoramic Tour
This is a concept which I found most of my co-passengers learnt only when they did their first one. Now this is a reason why many people feel they are cheated. Again its not that all the places are covered as Panoramic Tour. But many of them are. It is obvious that in 10N/11D tour the only way to cover the most is covering many not so important places and places where one can not get a proper coach parking is through a Panoramic Tour.
Hotels not in heart of city
As such all hotels arranged during the tour were decent enough and few were too good. However all of them were located on outskirts and usually a good one and half hour drive from main city center. This does not allow you to move in city during night time when you are free. This is one point which I personally did not like much. I believe this was done to save cost and make the tour available in the amount I got it for.
Can you make most of everything you paid for in Group tours
Now this depends on the weather conditions which are totally unpredictable. However if one is on personal tour one still has option to change his further itenary, but this is not possible in group tour. For example we were at Parc Asterix during our tour and it rained heavily through out because of which we could not do a single ride inside the Park which makes the entire reason of visiting Park meaningless. If I were on a personal tour I could have changed the itenary for that day and I could have visited the Park in second half of the day when it was not raining. So in a way I lost whatever I had paid for Parc Asterix.
Do you need to bother for tickets at various places
Europe is a place where everything is on paid basis. There are tickets for entrance to most of the places. In Group Tour you do not need to bother at all for any such arrangements. You need not even bother for the queues. Since a large group is visiting all places in Europe have separate facilities for such groups.
Do you need to bother for food arrangements
Good thing about Group Tours is even the dinners are pre-planned and at all places they provide vegetarian dinners which consist of Indian Cuisine i.e. Roti, Sabji, Daal, Rice, Papad which is more than satisfying. One does not need to bother anything about eating at all.
Coach Used in Entire Tour
Most of the group tour is covered by road and a coach is provided to members of the group. They board the coach often with all their baggage after breakfast at the respective hotel where they spent the earlier night to head to next destination. During the day coach takes you to various places where sight seeing is done and at many places as per the itenary planned group disembark the coach and perform a walking tour with the guide.
At end of the day after dinner coach together with the driver who is officially known as Coach Captain takes you to the hotel where you spend that particular night. It is evident that most of your time is spent inside this coach. Unlike India there are certain etiquette which need to be adhered to when inside the coach. One must not eat and drink inside the coach as it is offensive for the Coach Captain. Also one must take all precautions to keep the coach as clean as possible. It is very important that there be co-operative co-passengers who settle inside the coach for particular seats and do not bother to change those seats on daily basis. Seats in coach are something that lead to arguments.
Should you carry passports everywhere
Lock them up your safest and biggest bag which can be kept inside the coach trunk. No need to carry passports in pockets or even in bags that you carry everywhere. In Group Tour due to the nature of such tour because of short timings available at various spots one tends to leave the handbags behind causing all belongings also to be left behind. Apart there are pick pockets. Loss of passport means Police Complaint, meet the Indian Embassy and deportation and your tour stops then and there.
How much of foreign currency to carry
Note that in entire Europe except the road side vendors people accept cards. Your local VISA/MASTER Debit Card is enough provided you have sufficient balance in account. You can also withdraw cash from ATMs in that country's currency using the Debit Card. Carry as little foreign currency as possible. Just make sure you have atleast TWO different DEBIT cards of different banks and probably atleast TWO CREDIT CARDS. Your tour operator would try to convince you to carry as much as you can but that is not required.
Conclusion
Get yourself acquainted with all detailing of your Group Tour and be convinced enough for the same. Do not undertake group tours with any expectation which is not vetted by tour operator. You would get to know new people and in case you are travelling with kids they would enjoy group tours as there would be other kids as well.
Definitely you would enjoy your tour. So leave your worries behind and get organised to take one.
