Lovely France with Barcelona (including Beynac-et-Cazenac)

Customer Reviews

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  Martin

  · September 20th, 2021
  This was my first tour experience and perhaps last. While there were highlights to the trip like the visit to Monet's home and one of the beaches from the D-day invasion, I felt that the trip suffered from poor design. Here are some examples: - Too many stops at tourist traps. Most places we visited included stops with one historical destination of note, like a castle, which required an extra out of pocket cost of 10-20 Euros. If one elected not to pay to visit the historical site, you could basically wander around the area for 1-2 hours until it was time to go on to the next stop. - Too many castles and palaces. Other than Versailles and one or two other castle/chateaus, there really was no reason to visit so many castles and palaces...esp with the added cost for entry. - Too fast paced. We literally got to our hotel on most nights close to 8pm. Too tired from the full day of being on a bus to really relax. I think had we skipped some of the unnecessary stops, we would have been able to relax a bit more each evening and enjoy the area where we were spending the night more. - Lack of dynamism. Forgive me for harping on castles again but I think the trip would have been better if we had taken advantage of other activities in the areas with castles like kayaking, etc. Instead, we zipped through a castle, got back on the bus and went on to the next castle. - Hotels too far from the city center. The hotels in Paris and Barcelona were too far from the city center. After all the daily travel, etc. no one wants to spend time traveling on the metro if they choose to visit the city centers. Also, the hotel in Paris was on the outskirts of Paris in a grittier area where I was a little concerned about getting cash out of an ATM. Here are some ways this trip could be improved: - Provide a pre-trip packet of info that allows the tourist to learn about the sites they will see BEFORE the trip. When one understands what one sees, s/he is more likely to appreciate it. - Hire a designer/developer to improve the Europamundo site. The links and sites provided look antiquated and suggest a company that is not really top notch. Another example: I rec'd a survey from Europamundo that had questions with boxes below...no identifiers or explanations for the boxes...so I don't know what the point of the survey is and whether the box I am selecting is a favorable opinion or bad one. - Less is more. The trip could have been better by cutting the afternoon, post lunch stop, and getting to the hotel sooner. This would allow travelers time to catch their breathe and process what they are seeing more. - Less tourist traps and castles!
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  Europamundo commented on this review

  We apologize for any inconvenience you encountered during your tour and once again, We are constantly working to improve our services, and your input helps us make necessary adjustments. Europamundo team
  Trip date: September 2021