Riviera Travel, 4 Day Tour to Krakow

Krakow 4 day break with Riviera travel.

The flight from Leeds Bradford with Jet 2 was on time and no problems. Buy your sandwiches and drinks on the plane - cheaper than the airport. our guide met us at the airport and was great!! a lovely lady, nothing was too much trouble for her, and she gave you loads of information, especially about eating places, etc.

The Novotel hotel overlooks the river and castle, and is good value for money. The breakfasts are very good, ask for fried eggs - better than the scambled eggs. We liked the swimming pool, -towels provided. For ladies though, in your room there is no electric plug or a chair near the mirror!!! you will need a long lead on your hair straightners if you want to plug it in and then go to the mirror (can't use them in a bathroom). We thought the included city walking tour was excellent, gave us so much background to the city and afterwards we went back to the places we were interested in. We went on the Crazy Guides tour round the ex communist part of Krakow in a trabant (like Michael Palin) and it was excellent (about £30 each). We didn't think the tour round the Jewish quarter through Riviera was value for money though. In all, and excellent holiday and would recommend it. Check the weather forecast though, we had 31 degrees heat for 2 days then rain the next day.

Our 4-day tour to Krakow with Riviera travel was brought forward to an unmentionable hour (c. 04-00) and arrival at Krakow was so early that extra time was available. The hotel was quite good but slightly bare in decor.

The return flight was delayed by many hours with the party hanging around the airport, bored stiff.

The flight was by a budget airline so I suppose, if anyone is going to be delayed, it will be the budget traveller. You get what you pay for.

The city of Krakow is not for the beach party vacationer. If you are into the Baroque, then go and revel in it. Words like "magnificient " come to mind. I recommend the salt mines at Weiliska as an alternative to Auschwitz. You can visit Auschwitz by Internet.

The event that weekend was a celebration of the 750 th anniversary of the rebuilding of Krakow following destruction by the Tatars. To see Poles letting their hair down was uplifting.

We have just returned from 4 days in Krakow with Riviera Travel and had a great time.

The flight was good and on time, the hotel and restaurant were superb and the holiday was very good value for money.

our tour manager was a mine of information and was very attentive to our needs.

Our personal guides in Krakow, Auschwitz and Birkenau, also worth a mention, extremely well informed and very easily understood.

Booked for four days in Krakow with Riviera Travel, first dates were changed to two days later, and what was a 9am flight time was changed to a later time, then last week, the time of the flight was changed to after 5 pm which meant arriving at the Krakow hotel late evening and making the holiday a three day one not four. Despite cutting the tour by almost eight hours, the company refused to return our £50 deposit for each person booked.

4 day holiday to Krakow departing 27/10/07.

The holiday was booked 10.1.2007. Original flight times 14.15 from Manchester 11.55 from Krakow. There was no indication that these flight times could change. On 30th August 2007 (after the full amount had been paid) I received a letter that the flight times had changed to: 20.10 from Manchester landing in Krakow 23.50 and 17.50 from Krakow landing Manchester 19.40.

I immediately rang and said that the times were not suitable for me and I would rather cancel. I was informed that I would not get a full refund. On 12th September I received another letter that the flight back had been rescheduled to Liverpool arriving 21.50. A coach will take us back to Manchester, no arrival time in Manchester has been given. The hotel we were to be staying at had also been changed, without any explanation.

My complaint was

1. The changes to flight times are significant on a 3 day holiday and customers should be able cancel without losing a deposit.

2. They have changed for day time to night time flights which means that we can no longer travel by public transport from the airport.

3. The cost of taxi was going to be £95 but with the unspecified time and the fact that we will be travelling after midnight the cost has increased to £125.

4. The advertisement for the holiday is misleading as in is advertised as a 4 day holiday yet as the flight does not arrive until 23.50 that day can not be regarded as a day of the holiday.

I have contacted the company twice by letter with this complaint. The only compensation I have be offered is 5% off a future booking. When I suggested that this was rather mean I was informed that if we booked a long haul holiday we could get up to £200 off a £4000 holiday! Big deal. My maths was good enough to work that out and my common sense also good enough not to take them up on that offer.

However, they are still advertising the holiday in many national newspapers so be warned the flight times could change by anything up to 12 hours (even on a short break), the hotel may change and even the airport, but if you cancel you will lose your deposit.