We had a great time on this trip. The itinerary has a lot of variety -- city/cultural tours plus hiking and rafting in beautiful scenery. Our guide, Csilla, was outstanding -- very patient, upbeat, and calm. She also gave us so much information on the history of the three countries. The wine tasting experience was terrific because we got to interact with old-time, traditional wine makers from the countryside. We've experienced posh wine-tastings at art galleries and hotels in the past, and although they weren't horrible experiences, they felt much more pretentious and much less authentic. Having read some of the previous reviews that were less positive, our comments are: 1) if you want luxury travel, don't book this trip -- when you order a glass of house wine, it will be just that, and no more. It's fine to be a wine snob or a coffee snob or a hotel snob, but don't book a relatively low-priced tour and then be disappointed when you aren't given luxury treatment. Some of the hotel rooms are small and won't accommodate a queen size bed, so there will be two twins. If going for a week without a queen bed is the end of the world for you, find a luxury tour company and pay the additional cost to travel that way. Also, with respect to the hike, the description in the itinerary was totally fine and a reasonable assessment of the difficulty. It would be advisable to have appropriate shoes -- we wore hiking boots and were fine. But any time there is a hike on the itinerary, you should plan ahead and have a fitness routine at home (before departure) to prepare adequately. It is unreasonable to book this trip when you cannot even do the city walks.
