Review: Luxury France Tour, Avignon, Corsica, Loire Valley

Although, there were several wonderful aspects of our trip, we were unhappy with the hotel that we stayed at in Avignon.  In other words, four nights out of a total of eleven, were not up to our standards.  After a long day of touring, it was not a place that we wanted to return to for a few hours of relaxation.  As soon as we checked in, we called the travel company to complain.  The representative insisted that she had stayed there on numerous occasions and that it was quite nice.  It was a four star hotel, but there was no comparison to the hotels in Corsica and the Loire Valley.   There was no ambience, it was run down and in need of a complete renovation.  When we entered our room, it always smelled like a sewer.  The representative offered to find alternatives, but they would have cost $300 to $500 per night more for each night.  This was unacceptable.

There was another incident in Corsica.  Our bill had not been paid which put us into a bit of a panic.  We called the travel company, and even though it was in the middle of the night, someone answered and rectified the situation by speaking to the hotel. 

One of our guides in Avignon was rude and lacked even the rudimentary knowledge of the area.  She could speak about the farm crops in the area, but little else.  We were 5 minutes late returning to the van and she chastised us for our tardiness.