South of Spain with Lisbon
4.6
The tour was good overall and it was very convenient that the company can mix and match travellers of different itineraries.
However, just some observations :
1. The last hotel in the itinerary, Lagoas Park, though having excellent facilities, was too far out of the city and the trip to get into the city for the local tour took more than an hour because of traffic; the scheduled earlier start which may have meant a missed or hurried breakfast caused a lot of complaints among the tour participants. Then too, since it was the last hotel in the itinerary and there was no more service on the last day, it was more expensive for us to move out of the hotel on to the next destination.
2. It is understandable that tour conductors would like to stick to the tour schedule, but I found it inconsiderate of Montsie to leave one young traveller in Retiro Park in Madrid for being five mins late. The traveller had misunderstood the meeting place - she thought it was the first gate, but eventually made her way to the right gate when she didnt see the group. Since there were only 7 of us in the group, it wouldnt have been such a big deal to wait a bit more and then adjust the time in the next stop to make up (the next destination, the bull ring didnt need an hour). I found Montsie abrupt, inflexible and not too cordial with the tour members.
3. Anna was very, very friendly, enthusiastic, cheerful, eager to please and thought of ways to make the trip interesting (eg Eurovision competition). I just thought it was unfair of Europamundo to leave a very young tour conductor, with not much authority and experience to be in charge of a very large group > 30, who might be called upon to act in an emergency. The scheduled early start from Lagoas Park caused the whole Indian group to raise their voices in understandable protest and there was a big uproar in the bus over this. Thankfully, it was all sorted out at the hotel after calls to the main office.
Am sure, with more years in her position and more experience in dealing with large groups, Anna will be a big asset to the company.
USD 1,063
