Hungary City sightseeing Trips

Visiting 3 great cities on my bucket list! I liked that we were at each hotel for 3 days. Director Anne-Elyse was excellent also our drivers were great. We did all the optional excursions which added 2 more countries. The length of the tour was perfect.

We were offered plenty of options. Better walking descriptions of each city and tours (optional or not) would be appreciated. For example, cobblestone streets in Prague and small cities were difficult to maneuver for one 80 year old. Our guide, Anne-Elyse, was very good. Some of the city guides felt they needed to talk the whole time. A brain rest would be nice.

Excellent itinerary, got to see the most frequented visited historical areas. The additional optional tours were also an added benefit while visiting these countries. Our tour director kept the entire trip running smoothly even with a few unexpected hiccups. The local experts were all friendly and knowledgeable in their specific areas. I was amazed at all the beautiful architecture, the histories and the lovely people I met within my tour group as well as the people of each specific city visited.

It was a great itinerary. Good optional tours. Only downside is we would like more time in Cesky Kumlov. The 3 cities were amazing. We added on 2 more nights on each end. Totally worth it. We thought Gerwin did a great job leading us. And Tony did a great job driving.

The Itinerary was was excellent, also it wasn’t a fast paced tour we had ample time in each city to enjoy the sights, listen to the history and we had some really great dinners

The single most important reason I chose Collette, honestly the only reason I chose Collette for this tour, is hotels. The reality is that the tours per se with the bigger and better tour companies are basically the same. I compared several other tour companies for this trip and the itineraries, meals, etc. were all essentially the same. The only difference was the hotels. I went on another tour, to Costa Rica, with Collette and the hotels were very good to outstanding. I expected the same on this tour. Better class hotels, in locations that allow for easy self-touring, particularly since this tour included a lot of “on your own” time, and was a tour largely of cities where one can explore on one’s own. The second hotel on this tour, the Intercontinental Hotel Wien, was outstanding. Beyond my expectations. Lovely and in a great location. The third hotel on this tour, the Up Hotel Budapest, was essentially the opposite. Cheap cheap furnishings, and not a good location. Let’s start with the bathroom. The sink was broken in two places along the upward-pointing rim – if I had inadvertently put my hand down on either of those, I would have cut my hand on the sharp ceramic. The bath towels and mats were extremely thin and rough and, worse, threadbare with strings of threads hanging off of them – pretty much falling apart. Other people on my tour told me theirs had actual holes in them. The towels were what you would find in a cheap motel in the US. The room furniture was also very cheap. Perhaps some optimists may call it modern or minimalist; I call it cheap ****. Bare metal poles supporting laminated shelves, no closet at all. It all looked like worse than IKEA furniture. Again, the place felt more like we were in a cheap motel than a nice city hotel. The location – with the sex shop and ********** a block or so away, not a great neighborhood – also not up the standards I expect from Collette. And not located near to sites or things we would want to see on a tour of Budapest. I advise you, at the least, not to use this hotel again. Back to the positives. The Tour Manager, Marius Curea, was great. He spoke to us at length of the history and culture of places we visited and life in Central Europe, particularly under the Soviet communists. He went out of his way time and again to solve problems. When I got separated from the group just before our evening cruise on the Danube, he called me and helped direct me back to the group. A great guy as well. The tour per se was excellent, although we really did not see much of Vienna. We actually had only two days in Vienna, and on the original itinerary, one-and-a-half of those days was “on your own” – Day 6 “afternoon at leisure” and Day 7 “Choose how you spend your day because it’s your choice”. Happily, while the tour was already in progress, Collette offered us a cruise up the Danube to another village on Day 7. Of course, that full day out of the city did not allow us time to see the city. But, the day was lovely.