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“It's descent for the price but can be better”

written by Ward287 on 24/08/2014

We just returned from 14 day majestic Europe tour and I promised Adi, our tour manager that I will give me feedback. I will give feedback in different areas as they are all different.

Sightseeing - the trip was pretty good in packing many different places in various cities. I don't think we would have seen so many places without a guided tour. This is our first guided tour so we didn't really knew what to expect. Star tour could have done a better job if they has an introductory video of the next attraction in the bus or a detailed commentary on each site. I have seen many tour groups where the guide is continuously talking about the history in details. I thought we missed the history but got photo opportunity. Adi is very knowledgable and have done this tour many times. His sense of humor and also how he controlled the group was quite commanding. A few places could have been cut out for example, the perfume factory, wooden shoe etc and more time could have been given to Amsterdam, Rome or Paris. I have previously have seen both Amsterdam and Paris on my own, I was hoping my kids could see more places and get more history rather than spending time on the perfume factory to the wooden shoe factory.

Hotel - all the hotels were ok except for one in Italy. It was just gross. We didn't even unpack more than one set of clothes in that hotel on the fear that everything else will get some germs. One girl on the tour got bed bug bites on her eyes at the hotel and another lady got stuck in the bathroom. All hotels were supposed to be 3+ star. I am a marriott platinum member and I was expecting something like marriott courtyard. Most are like marriott courtyard type with smaller rooms and bathrooms which is pretty normal in Europe. But that one ugly negative rated hotel took the hotel experience out. Also most hotels are pretty far out of city taking 30-45 mins each way each day out of precious sightseeing time. I wouldn't have mind to pay little extra to stay in cities.

Food - we knew the whole trip will be Indian food but expected that everywhere there will be an option where we can buy non Indian food if we want to. First few days a food truck followed up. First day in Belgium, we had a vegetarian lunch in a dusty open tent with drinking water poured from a dirty big 5 gallon bucket. That was pretty depressing but later in the trip the eating environment got better. Most restaurants they took us to, won't even entertain feeding us from their regular menu even though we offered to pay as a normal guest. Every time we got a chance to eat out, we took full advantage of it. I can say for sure, I am not touching Indian food for atleast next 6 months. Also, it will be nice if the tour provided forks in addition to spoons. It's quite hard to eat a chicken with a spoon. Some of the restaurants, spoon was standard, if you ask you will get a fork. The tour food is really geared towards vegetarians from india. If you are a non veg person, your only choice everyday is same chicken curry. Breakfast is just the opposite. Almost everyday it was full western breakfast. We generally loaded up on breakfast, almost skipped lunch or had lunch outside and then a full dinner. If you are looking to consume a lot of curb, this is your trip.

Other- there were some other items in the trip that is worth mentioning. The trivia etc. on the bus was very good and kept the younger people quite engaged. A few unruly passengers behavior could have been avoided. Could have used a little bit more physical activity during the tour but few people barked on the hint of even walking a few steps. We all came back home with a few extra lbs of weight that we now have to work hard to shed. Some people stayed at quality inn near the star tours office and they said the hotel was bad. I booked IBIS even closer on my own from trivago.com and paid far less. The room was small though. We stayed in Regents Park Marriott for a few days before the tour started to see London on our own. Stayed in IBIS one night because of early tour start in the morning. When I compared what we saw in London and how much we paid, we came out ahead of star tours one day London tour package. When in London I want to see Tower of London not some temple. The bus was fairly good but some people complained about it. Maybe they have better buses in India now. These kinds of tours your tour guide makes all the difference. We were lucky we got a good person who kept the group intact and excited about the next place. One last thing worth mentioning, if you are planning to take this trip of any group trip, please go buy a deodorant and use it during the trip. Deodorants serve a purpose and in a confined place, it makes a hell of a difference.