Sep 13, 2010 02:43 AM
21289 Views
My parents booked the European Extravaganza tour with Thomas Cook despite much opposition from me. Reason they booked was that TC had promised them 5 star hotels, 5 star treatment, and this was very important for my parents as they were over 50 years old and could not handle their own baggage on their own and wanted specialised service everywhere.
Of course, the usual problems happened which have been mentioned by other travellers over cancelled tours, unresponsive offices, misplaced tickets and bookings, passport arriving at last minute (TC kept the passport with them for 10 weeks!). Despite them canceling the tour, they would not refund the money and so my parents had no choice but to agree to another date 3 months hence which was inconvenient to them.
Once my parents reached Europe, they found that none of the hotels were 5 star- all were either 3 star or 4 star. The tour was for 12-14 days with about a night in each city. Despite my parents age and disabilities, they were forced to carry their own suitcases every day to and from the tour bus. The hotels were all way out of the city (for example, they did not stay at Venice itself, but at Padua, they stayed at a very small town Mainz in Germany), so it was impossible to either get food outside the hotel or sightseeing on their own in the evenings in the city. Even in Rome, the hotel was 20 km away from the city centre, and though the evening was ‘free for sightseeing’ it would’ve meant spending 50 Euros (roughly 3200 Rs) each way on taxi.
The tour itself was mainly seeing- not going inside. So they did not get a chance to get to the top of the Eiffel tower, they only drove past it, as with several other monuments.
In conclusion, I would sincerely recommend contacting a European tour operator based in mainland Europe for European tours. I would avoid Thomas Cook at all costs. Reading some of the other reviews here, I feel grateful that my parents atleast have confirmed return tickets and they are able to go on the tour normally.
