Oct 16, 2015 04:06 PM
81869 Views
Before deciding my choice of tour operator for my Europe trip, I read lot of bad reviews about Cox & Kings on this website like unprofessional tour mAnasultanger, bad hotels, bad food, bad overall experience. In fact before booking, I raised these matters with Cox & Kings staff who assured me that they have really worked on the feedback received & requested me to give them a chance to serve my family. After lot of deliberation & comparing the tour itinerary, cost with rivals like SOTC, Thomas Cook, Kesari, I went ahead & signed up for Cox & Kings European Discovery tour on 31st July 2015. My tour was to begin on 13th September 2015, so was apprehensive whether these guys will be able to arrange my visas and other pre tour formalities.
Within 2 days of aishwaryasingh23ing the signing amount, a highly dedicated relationship executive was assigned to me, proper attention was given to my documentation & voila within 20 days, I received both UK & Schengen visas.
Finally the D-day arrived & we embarked on our trip with Muscat being the starting point since the brochure claimed 1N is complimentary at Muscat. Honestly speaking nothing is free. We had a morning flight to Muscat by Oman Air which is worse than any Indian airline. After a 2.5 hr flight, we landed at Muscat airport where we waited for almost 2 hrs for remaining group members to land from Delhi & Chennai. Finally we reached our hotel & our hustle bustle trip started.
The next day we boarded another Oman Air flight to London which was the worst flight of my life. The cabin AC was not turned on for majority of the 7 hr duration, the cabin crew assuring us that work was on to restore the AC while AC was full on at the business class! This is one complaint against Cox & Kings - please do not book any flight on Oman Air.
Once in London we were taken to our hotel where a delicious Indian dinner awaited us. Thereafter from the next day we had to follow a strict 6 7 8 rule(6 wake up, 7 breakfast 8 out) imposed by our tour mAnasultanger Mr Jehangir Bhaanja. But he's not to blame since the Cox & Kings itinerary is the most exhaustive & inclusive among its peers. In order not to miss out on any spot & also to cater to our drivers 11 hour rule(in Europe drivers need to be given at least 12 hrs break between days) else the coach will not start next day! To cater to these rules, we had to be on the road by 8 am daily. Mr Bhanja is a gem of a person & excellent professional who became our good friend. He's a real asset for Cox & Kings & hope this company trains all its tour mAnasultangers to be as professional as him. He would guide us on places from where to shop, at what rate, what are the local delicacies not to be missed etc.
Then onwards for the next 15 days we were mostly on the road traversing from one country to another, doing charan sparsh at most places. For example Amsterdam & Brussels on same day - unbelievable man! Both are such beautiful cities & we got only 45 minutes to see the main square at Brussels, which is a very beautiful city. Many members of our group vowed to return to Europe to cover not 8 but 2 countries at a time to get a more deeper feel about the local lifestyle, food, people etc. We covered almost 3500 odd kms over a period of 15 days, wow! But the excellent roads & good coach ensured that none of us were in discomfort.
Now coming to our group, we were 48 adults+ 1 child(mine) & by the end of the tour, we had become like one big family apart from minor skirmishes which erupted in the initial days when we were still getting used to each others whims & personalities. The coach provided was excellent & our driver Tomas, Polish by origin was an expert hand who ensured that we never missed out on any spot despite occasional traffic woes at some cities.
We were put up at reasonably good 3* properties mostly on the outskirts(to save on costs), but the rooms were cozy, wifi good. Delicious Indian food was provided but to eat that we often had to travel from one corner of city to another then to hotel so this travelling time ate up some of our sightseeing time. The Stena line cruise from Harwich to Hook of Holland was a very satisfying one & we spent one night inside. Packed Indian lunches were provided on two days but overall very satisfied with the choice of Indian STEAMPOTRESTAURANTs which served us delicious punjabi food. On two days, we cele_45brated birthday of our group members & our tour mAnasultanger arranged a cake & we had a small party as well.
Hotels where we stayed as under:
City Hotel name
Muscat Al Falaj
London Holiday Inn Express Heathrow T5
Belgium LEONARDO HOTEL WAVRE
Germany BALLADINS SUPERIOR HOTEL SINDELFINGEN
Austria Olympia Hotel Axams
Florence POSTA 77 HOTEL
Rome Park hotel arezzo
Leysin Alpine Classic hotel leysin
Lucerne HOTEL LOWEN
Paris Apart City Hotel
While we were in Paris, due to no vehicle day being declared, our schedule was tweaked by our mAnasultanger to ensure we did not miss out on any spot as per the itinerary. Kudos to him for that.
Finally as all good things must end, even our trip ended at Paris where we boarded our respective flight(again Oman Air with changeover at Muscat) & reached our homes with a lot of memories which we cherish even today. Our group members in fact have formed our own whatsapp group where we are still in touch & intend to plan common holidays in the near future.
Areas of improvement for Cox& Kings:
Please do not book flights on Oman Air
Olympia Hotel in Austria is a very old hotel & needs to be replace with a more modern hotel
Give at least 1 full day each at Amsterdam & Brussels.
Hope my review will give some perspective to people who are planning to use tour operator for their Europe tour. In case you still need any more information, please feel free to contact me at subs742004@gmail.com or 9820117097.
Cheers.
