Jun 12, 2014 12:49 PM
40440 Views
(Updated Jun 12, 2014 02:58 PM)
The so called "European Glimpse" tour service offered by Cox and Kings was nothing less than horrible. Add to this the pathetic service offered by Cox and Kings Bangalore.
I was on a honeymoon and it was an extreme strain for me instead of a vacation, thanks to the detour due to a changed itinerary which I got to know from my fellow travelers after I reached Paris. We traveled over 5000 KM in 9 days.
I was promised Qatar Airways while booking my travel, but ultimately it was an Air India flight to and fro in which around 100 odd Cox and Kings travelers from different groups were clubbed in.
Horrendous Pre Tour Experience:
Believe it or not, I got all the documents like Travel Insurance, Hotel List( Which had the clue for changed itinerary) only on 20th May evening and that too after contacting them on phone over 10 times!(I was to leave at 3 AM in the morning on 21st May). I was not at all informed of the change in itinerary by any means by the Cox and Kings Bangalore office.
Dates of travel kept changing. Mine was originally booked for May 24th 2014, But first changed to 23rd May 2014 and later to 21st May 2014.
No updates regarding visa status, ticket status, travel documents, hotel list etc. I had to follow up everything with them, and it was as though a favor is being done to me.
I had a couple of conflicts when the travel date had changed to 21st May 2014. It annoyed me, and I had asked the office guy to confirm if 21st would be the final date, because any further movements of dates would have meant a cancellation for me.(I got married on 11th May 2014) . I never got back an answer on this. When I tried following up on this and the visa status, I was told that my visa has been stopped from processing!
Equally Horrible Reception and Tour service
Tour Hightlights:
Itinerary: The original itinerary was changed to a completely new one, which involved travelling from Paris to Italy and then back to Paris.(The total distance travelled was over 5000 KM in 9 days! And all this was done in a single tour bus.)
False Promises: We missed Mt. Cox and Kings with Gala Dinner. A Gala dinner was promised at Bombay Villa in Paris on Day 9. We had gone there for lunch as well. The same menu as lunch was kept for dinner, with some soft drinks. Some of them asked for Beer and it was refused.*
Most of them left the restaurant and went for their dinner elsewhere on their own.
Pathetic tour manager service( Special reference to Mr. Durga Prasad):
For the first 3 days Tour Manager was Mr. Durga Prasad and then it was Ms. Dipti Raje
Never picked us up at the Paris Airport. Due to his negligence, we were made to wait for an hour in the rain outside our Dinner hotel bhojan, where we were taken to from the Paris Airport.The dinner hotel management made a loud and clear statement, that Cox and Kings had not made the appropriate payments.
Made us miss Mt. Cox and Kings stating Weather as reason, while there was a parallel Cox and Kings travel group that went there on the same day and same time.
Made us walk from the Parking lot to Leaning Tower of Pisa instead of taking us in the local Bus. Didn't even bother informing that the walking distance is long, due to which the older members of the group were put through a lot of trouble.
Lied to us that the distance between Paris and Geneva would be covered in 5 and half hours. When it actually took 8 hours and the whole day to cover the same.
Didn't utter a single word about the various photo stops at Geneva, Leaning Tower of Pisa and the other places. Showed a sea at a place called Genova and told us that there is a sea port there(Like Duh! We didnt know!).
Spoke bullshit like don't waste time in toilets!(When we got 5 mins late at a break stop)
On the final day, we were taken to Eiffel tower(level -2) and were made to stand in a queue for climbing stairs instead of taking us through the elevator. By the time we waited it was almost 45 mins before we realised this. It is strange that so called "experienced tour managers" dont have a clue on which is the queue for stair case and which is for the elevator!
Food:
Food experience was horrible at Bombay villa in Paris. Where quite a few families chose to opt out and eat on their own.
The packed lunches were ordinary, especially on day 9, when we travelled from Interlaken back to Paris, we just got half a box of bland friend rice and nothing else to go with it. That was a pathetic experience.
Food experience for rest of the days was pretty good.
Original Itinerary: https://coxandkings.com/duniyadekho/euro/european_glimpse/tourId/1714/
Modified Itinerary:
Day 1: Arrive in Paris and check in to hotel.
Day 2: Left Paris at 9 AM and reached Geneva, Switzerland at around 5:30 PM. Left Geneva around 6:30 PM and reached leysin at 8:30 PM .
Day 3. Left for Glacier 3000 at around 8:30 AM from leysin and reached by 10:00 AM. Left Glacier 3000 by around 1 PM in the afternoon and reached leaning tower of Pisa at around 7 PM. Left leaning tower of Pisa at around 9:15 PM and reached our hotel at Arezzo at around 11:30 PM.( We missed the Mt Cox and Kings with Gala Dinner on this day!)
Day 4: Leave Arezzo at 9:30 AM reach Rome by 12 PM. City tour of Rome and the Vatican. We were back to the hotel around 8 PM.
Day 5: Leave Arezzo at 8:30 AM and reach Florence at 9:30 AM. The City tour was followed by a visit to Venice where we reached in the afternoon around 4 PM. Night stay at Padova hotel.(I think we reached late, but atleast we were informed well in advance of the same for a change.)
Day 6: Leave Padova to InnsBruck. We reached InnsBruck in the afternoon. Had a city tour there, went to swaroski and other places and had a night's stay there.
Day 7: Leave Innsbruck to Liechenstein(Vaduz). We had a city tour of Vaduz and left for Lucerene. Had a city tour of Lucerene and reached interlaken by 8:30 PM.
Day 8: Visit to Jungfrau and back to interlaken for an overnight stay.
Day 9: Morning we left for Paris at 9:30 AM and reached Paris around 6:30 PM. There was an illuminated eiffel Tower tour and the Lido show.
Day 10: City tour of Paris
Day 11: Parc Asterix from 10 AM to 5 PM( We were offered to visit Eiffel Tower level 2 this day instead of previous goof up but we refused as it was a Saturday and both Eiffel Tower and Parc Asterix would be crowded)
10 PM was our Air India Flight Back!
.
