Hi folks.
Well the dust has settled and it is now time to record my thoughts and impressions about the tour.
1. Tour Director, Johnathon : Incredible!!! I had the privilege of thanking Johnathon on behalf of the tour members and I won't go in to detail, only to say that Johnathon's contribution to our enjoyment of the trip was massive.

2. The coach drivers : Amazing!!! Their skill was only equalled by their patience. Being Italian with very little English Dino and Ciro were not able to communicate very much with us during their respective stints as our driver. We very quickly realised that we were in safe hands and were able to sit back and enjoy the passing scenery - often finding entertainment in the behaviour of the drivers around us. The ability to navigate us safely through so many countries and cities speaks volumes for their professionalism.

3. The coach: Wonderfully comfortable -BUT - right from the start of the tour we were requested, (very nicely - but nevertheless with some emphasis) not to use the onboard toilet except in case of emergency. We were told that there were only limited facilities available for emptying it. Like good little school children we complied with the request until about half way through the tour one of the members was caught short and had no alternative but to use the toilet. From that time on a strong unpleasant smell permeated through the bus. It did not go away until the cassette was emptied by the driver about 2 or 3 days later. This is NOT GOOD ENOUGH !!! A number of the ladies on the tour had commented that the presence of the onboard toilet had been a contributing factor to their taking an Insight Tour. Given that we stayed in major cities almost every night on the tour it seems unreasonable that some arrangements can't be made for the toilet to be cleaned daily.

4. The Hotels : Generally speaking they were excellent. It's hard to pick a standout but probably the Radisson in Nice because of its location right on the beachfront. Most of them were close to the centre of their respective cities. In a few cases we felt somewhat remote. Florence, Paris and Athens come to mind in that regard. In Athens I had the impression that the hotel was owned by Insight. The restaurant up the street where a few of us went on arrival even had a separate menu for Insight clients. The hotel in Dubrovnik was a fair way from the city centre but was close to the beach and had a huge swimming pool. The downside was that the room was dirty and we were put off to find pubic hair on the bed. The hotel in Venice was certainly central!!! Right on the edge of St Marks Square. But it was a bit tiring to have to walk up the 72 stairs every time we wanted to go to our room. One disappointing aspect was finding that most of the hotels consider the provision of wireless internet as being part of their income stream and charge like wounded bulls.

5. Meals : The meals that were part of the optional tours were almost always excellent, Although it seemed that every restaurant in Italy serves the same Penne Pasta as an entree. Unfortunately the same can't be said of the meals that were provided by Insight. We sometimes had the impression that the provider had been screwed down so tight by Insight that we were being given absolutely basic fare. The meal at Gresna Gorica in Croatia on the option trip to Kumrovec was amazing. We had 7 or 8 traditional Croatian dishes and were probably only able to identify about 2 of them. At all of these option tour meals there was plenty to eat and drink and oftentimes we were treated to entertainment as well. Without a doubt the worst meal was the box breakfast we were supplied by the London Thistle on our first morning.

6 The Options : It was a bit of a shock to find that all the options listed on the sheet sent to us by Insight were not available. It seems the sheet should be headed up "Your tour director will offer you some of these options when you join the tour. Only one option will be offered in each city.!" On day 2 or 3 of the tour the tour director announced the options that would be available for the remainder of the trip. He then required that the next day we nominate the ones we would like to do and pay for them. He spent some considerable time explaining each of them, and the reason/s for choosing that option over another one. As it turned out we did all of them except the Louvre in Paris which we had visited earlier. None of them disappointed us, although on occasions we found the local guides a bit tedious as they carried on in depth about local history or architecture. Throughout the tour we had local guides whose knowledge was excellent - but being a group consisting solely of Australians and New Zealanders we were put off by the European custom??? of tipping each of them and further by being told in no uncertain terms that it was not acceptable to "pass the hat around" and give them the resulting collection.

The best options???
That has to be a purely personal thing. Without putting them in any order the ones we enjoyed most were : The Vienna Concert, Moulin Rouge, Delphi, Ephesus, The Florence Dinner at La Certosa, Tyrolean evening in Innsbruck and the Eagles Nest. Please don't think we did not enjoy the rest - they were all excellent. And of course, your appreciation of something is often determined by the company you keep , and we were lucky enough to have a great team on board. The only complaint we had was that on occasion we were given "free time" after or during a tour and sometimes these periods just dragged out because we had seen it all. An example was when we went to Cilipi. We were given a guided tour of this tiny village and then left to our own devices for over an hour, in the HOT SUN, while we waited for the cultural display to start. Everyone just stood around and fried. The options whilst on board the Greek Island Cruise are separate from the ones offered by Insight. We chose not to do the Patmos tour. Instead of paying 49 Euros each we went ashore on the ship's tender (free) and hired a taxi. He charged us 25 Euros and drove us to the Cave of the Apocalypse, picked us up at an agreed time and drove us to the Monastery, left us there and picked us up again at an agreed time and took us back to get the tender back to the ship. We saw exactly the same as the people on the tour and saved 73 Euros, although we did not have the benefit of a local guide.

Our favourite locations : Mykonos, Rhodes, Rome, Positano, Nice, Paris.

General Comments: A great tour led by a truly professional Tour Director. The countries and cities we saw in such a short time were amazing. Obviously you only scratch the surface in any particular location, but the places we were taken were the pick of the crop. One feature of the tour was the way we managed to get priority everywhere we went. We were first into Schonbrunn Castle in Vienna, first into the Vatican Museum, went to the head of the queue to enter the gallery in Florence to see Michelangelo's David and had the most incredible front row seats in Moulin Rouge.

thanks for the story of your tour. maybe you could move it [or copy it] to the Tour Tales section below?

Thanks for that. I didn't look far enough to find the appropriate place. I have copied it over.

El Greco, thanks for posting your thoughts on your tour and recommendations on optionals.

I am at a loss to understand the reasoning behind the use of the toilet on insight coaches. We are always informed that the toilet is there for an emergency and so on your tour it was used for this purpose. Why have a toilet if it cannot be used at all??? And the poor person who had no option but to use it must have felt very embarassed until the toilet was emptied. I also do not know why it cannot be emptied in large cities as it should be part of the premium price you pay on an Insight tour IMO.

Included meals are another issue and on my insight tour many people complained that the food was not a good standard at several hotels.

Glad you otherwise really enjoyed your tour, it certainly is a hassle free way to see the best sights in Europe and avoiding the entry line ups are certainly a bonus

Langers, re the toilet, we have a cassette toilet in our caravan and I have never had the problem with smell that we had on the coach. Perhaps the coach company should seek the advice of an australian caravan manufacfturer about the chemicals to use.

quote:

Originally posted by El Greco:
Perhaps the coach company should seek the advice of an australian caravan manufacfturer about the chemicals to use.

Could be you are on to something here

I have checked my insight tour book and your were on a coach for 35 days. Can I say WOW !! I am a single female traveller and the longest on a coach for me is 13 days. I was on a Trafalgar tour with only 30 and mostly Americans, we all became firm friends and had the BEST time, but I do not know if I would feel the same after 35 days

You saw so many places and as you said it gave you a great overview, now you have the rest of your life to return to all the places you fell in love with

You were unlucky with the smelly toilet - I've been on a number of tours and the toilets have been used sparingly but the smell hasn't been noticeable. I'm not sure it's not exactly Insight's fault. As a caravanner I'm sure you're well aware you can not just empty the toilet anywhere; it has to be done in a designated facility and these aren't available everywhere apparently.

Colleen, I too have been on tours where the toilet has been used, and sometimes frequently, and there has never been a smell, thankfully.

Yes there are only certain places you can empty the toilet, however, it would have been very unpleasant for the poor passengers to endure 2 or 3 days of smell. I am sure something could have been done about this as the person who used the toilet did so according to the emergency use rule.

I'm sure it was unpleasant and no one blamed the user (or certainly shouldn't have). I wonder if anyone raised the issue with the TD and what the response was.

I can assure you the tour director was aware of the problem, as was everybody in the coach. No one blamed the user - it seems to be the problem of the coach company - not Insight, as you know Insight contract everything out, even the Tour Directors!!!.