Review: European Vacation, France & England, London, Paris, Normandy, Bath, Stonehenge, Versailles, Windsor Castle, Theatre

It was a wonderful trip. We had not been to London before and our hotel was an ideal location. It was approximately 2 blocks to Buckingham Place and a pleasant 20 to 30 minute walk to Parliament and Trafalgar Squares. The tube was also very accessible and easy to use. Our tour guides for a ½ London orientation tour and for the Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge were exceptional.

In Paris, the hotel was more of a business hotel than a location for tourists. It was located between two Metro stops but on a residential street and many homeless people gathered in the evening at the church at the end of the street.  Therefore, travel to museums was several stops including transfers to other lines and we were not comfortable walking in the neighbor at night. Our day trip to Normandy was unforgettable and very emotional. We like travelling in a small van with four other tourists and a drive rather than a large bus. Our driver/guide was very congenial and gave us sufficient time at each site to explore on our own. He was new to the tour and not a certified tour guide as was the case in London.  He was knowledgeable but I question the accuracy of some of his statements. For example, “body parts and equipment still wash up on the shores of Normandy today.”

We were disappointment in the travel company's attention to detail concerning our trip. They never told us that breakfast was included with our hotels. The London hotel told us upon arrival and we had to ask at the Paris hotel. The staff at the Paris hotel did not know and had to check on it. We did not receive any tipping guidance on tours/trips that were pre-paid by our travel company. Were the gratuities included with the transportation to and from the airport, or the London and Paris tours?  We did provide our driver/tour guide with a gratuity but had no way of knowing if it was adequate. For our Normandy trip, we did NOT have a either a receipt or a confirmation number and the driver/guide requested payment for the trip. We told him it was paid for by the travel company and he checked back with his office and both he and his office apologized for the error. In addition, it would have been nice to know that dinner was included on our 17:01 pm trip back to London. Due to our late arrival in London, we ate a late lunch, so we passed on the pre-paid meal offered on the train.

The description of our ½ day London tour read, “½ day tour of London. The (morning) tour includes a panoramic drive around the city to see many of the well know landmarks.”  From this description, we did not know that we would stop and enter paid attractions. We did not plan to use the 2-day London Pass because we did want to waste it on the only a afternoon that would count as a full day.

 The travel company uses a pre-written itinerary and just drops in the traveler’s information. The never asked about our interests or the type of vacation we envisioned.