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.

El Greco. I enjoyed reading your comments on your recent trip. I couldn't agree more with your comments, your honesty in positive critiques. For sure the toilet on the bus-you are right. Why is it advertised as a good feature if on the first day we're given the "do not use this....emergency only" I look forward to reading more of your tour tale. Christine

Thanks El Greco for your comments, we are doing Romantic European and Med. Dreams, so travelling some of the same routes. Can you remember the name of the restaurant(I've seen the name Lazarus written up on BB) near your hotel, and was it the Metropolitan Hotel in Athens?

The main reason coach toilets are 'emergency only' is that they have to be emptied at designated spots which are not readily available, a problem when you have a tight itinerary and passengers who don't particularly want a tour of the facilities rather than the attractions. They can't unload at the next toilet stop. Another reason is that they are chemical toilets and if the waste smells don't get you the chemical smells will. Better to let sleeping dogs lie, unless someone is taken short through illness or cannot wait another minute. Best to go before boarding and take advantage of stops along the way for meal breaks etc.

I'm sorry expom, I have to disagree with you. There are thousands of caravans and campers travelling around Australia carrying cassette toilets. When treated properly they do NOT smell!!! While I agree that the coach toilet should not be used for everyday purposes, the fact that this one smelt when it was used was the main problem.
AussieAnnie, I will have to go through our records and see if we have that info for you. I will get back to you.

elgreco

You're quite right it shouldn't smell and the driver should have been able to do something about it.

Aussie Annie
Yes it was the Metropolitan Hotel. Can't find the name of the restaurant, but I have attached a map with acouple of locations marked. Sorry I can't remember whether it was the first or the second corner down that street. The G is the hotel.

athens_restaurant.doc (84 KB, 10 downloads) Athens restaurant

quote:

Originally posted by El Greco:
Aussie Annie
Yes it was the Metropolitan Hotel. Can't find the name of the restaurant, but I have attached a map with acouple of locations marked. Sorry I can't remember whether it was the first or the second corner down that street. The G is the hotel.

thanks El Greco for the info. I'm sure we'll have a great time, I want to explore the central market area, sounds interesting.