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Post by chech on Jun 14, 2015 21:44:57 GMT
Anyone done Insight's Country Roads of Switzerland?
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Post by bet on Jun 17, 2015 1:40:16 GMT
Chech, I did this tour last year and did do a short tale. It does follow the theme of country roads and was quite a slow pace tour, some of the drives especially over the alpine passes were spectacular. The highlights are Zermatt and the Klein Matterhorn optional, Lucerne and St Moritz with the Bernina Express optional, and my favourite Grindelwald which is a stunningly beautiful village and the Jungfraujoch optional is a real must, even though it's expensive and it can be a waste in bad weather.
I thought 3 nights in Montreux was too long and better spent elsewhere. My experience was tarnished however by having a terrible TD, which had a big impact on the overall experience as there was not one person on tour that left happy. I've been to Switzerland before on my own and enjoyed it a lot more than with Insight.
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Post by chech on Jun 17, 2015 11:54:57 GMT
Thanks! What was the TD's name? I read some tales on the old Insight board and the recent ones were happy with their TD so hopefully I'll get one of them. I didn't pre-pay my tip for this one because I've heard several people complain about TDs from the central European tours from several companies. I'll re-read your tale today too.
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Post by tiffany on Jun 17, 2015 12:05:33 GMT
I don’t know if Trafalgar and Insight use the same guides, but if they do, let’s hope you don’t get Miranda! If you do, she’ll be trying to chain you down to coffee shops and restaurants during your free time!
I just found you that you can request a travel director if you book your tour early enough. I’ve kept in touch with the travel director from my Germany tour on facebook. He recently finished the Highlights of Eastern Europe tour, and when I mentioned to him that I will be going on that tour next year with some friends, he asked me the dates and told me to request him when I book the tour. If we all request him, and he requests that tour as well, he will probably be assigned to it. He was a good travel director, and much more laid back than Miranda, so I hope we get him and not her, as she occasionally does this tour as well.
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Post by bet on Jun 18, 2015 6:41:59 GMT
The TD was Phillip and he was English. I had read the Insight tales and was hoping to get one of them as well. Because he was so useless, tipping was an issue as people either didn't want to tip him or didn't know how much to tip. One couple tipped him the equivalent of 1 Swiss Franc a day between them, they didn't want to tip anything but being American they felt they had to. The TD even told me himself what some people had tipped him, he was pretty peeved, but what did he honestly expect. I did do the pre pay tip for the tour, just for the connivence factor even though I don't really agree with it, but it avoided awkward situations like what happen on this tour. The driver was Austrian and was a man of few words but he did a good job so his tip was fully derseved
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Post by tiffany on Jun 18, 2015 11:49:25 GMT
That’s why I would never pre-tip. You just don’t know what kind of service you will get until you get there, and if you have a bad travel director, you can’t get your money back if your pre-tip. Fortunately, other than Miranda, I’ve never had to question how much to give the travel director. I usually give the recommended amount and round up.
Did you or anyone else on your tour (that you know of) complain about Philipp? I thought about complaining about Miranda, but after she told us that Trafalgar was phasing her out due to her age, I didn’t want to complain and be responsible for her losing her job. She has a disabled husband at home, and told us she was hoping to continue getting a few tours a year.
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Post by chech on Jun 18, 2015 12:55:53 GMT
I asked Insight if they could tell me who the guide is so that I can ask. That's three names I have now. The tip pre-payment is new for non-Australians/New Zealanders. I had no problem pre-paying the Norway tour - I had read a lot about Amanda and they all raved about her and I can see why. She was exceptional. I even gave her a bit more at the end. I made a point of telling my TA not to prepay this one because I've heard so many guide complaints. When I'm on tour, I also take notes - a lot of notes - for the tale. So if the guide isn't up to snuff, I'll be taking notes...which might in itself perk them up....cause I'm watching!! LOL
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Post by tiffany on Jun 18, 2015 19:27:02 GMT
I asked Insight if they could tell me who the guide is so that I can ask. That's three names I have now. The tip pre-payment is new for non-Australians/New Zealanders. I had no problem pre-paying the Norway tour - I had read a lot about Amanda and they all raved about her and I can see why. She was exceptional. I even gave her a bit more at the end. I made a point of telling my TA not to prepay this one because I've heard so many guide complaints. When I'm on tour, I also take notes - a lot of notes - for the tale. So if the guide isn't up to snuff, I'll be taking notes...which might in itself perk them up....cause I'm watching!! LOL I was taking notes on my tour as well, but it didn’t seem to encourage Miranda. She knew I was keeping notes, as she commented on my note taking while walking by me on the coach. The problem with Miranda is that she didn’t think she was doing anything wrong by encouraging us not to wander off on our own during our free time. She felt responsible for us, and wanted to keep us all close together. I think she may have lost someone on a past tour, and that’s why she’s so overprotective now.
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Post by bet on Jun 19, 2015 11:49:43 GMT
I wish I had taken more notes while travelling. My Trafalgar TD last year was excellent, the exact opposite from my Insight one. I'm doing the pre tip this time for my Christmas tour, I just treat it like the single supplement as I'd rather pay the tip with my final payment and be done with it. It's only $76 and if I do get a 2nd rate TD it's not a lot of money I'm losing out on if i had wanted to tip them less & then the driver gets his tip out of it. I'll just show my disapproval in the evaluation at the end.
Miranda sounds really old school, herding her travellers around. They're the type that give group travel a bad reputation, as everything is over scheduled & one of the reasons why I haven't been a big fan of group travel in the past, but I'm getting old and like the convenience & company that group travel brings
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Post by tiffany on Jun 19, 2015 17:35:05 GMT
Miranda was old school. She still referred to herself as our “tour guide” instead of our “tour director” which is what they called themselves when I first starting touring in 2007. I don’t think she’s changed her touring style in years. She was very knowledgeable though.
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Post by chech on Jun 28, 2015 17:19:07 GMT
Good news....got my welcome email and my guide is not Miranda, Phillip or Paul. His name is Vincenzo DeMichael and his photo makes him look like he's gonna be a lot of fun!
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Post by bet on Jun 28, 2015 23:25:28 GMT
Thats a relief, I haven't heard of Vincenzo before, hopefully he's good, sounding Italian he probably will be. A bit of advice, if you do the Bernina Express optional, grab a seat on the right hand side of train, direction of travel, views are spectacular. For the Glacier Express train it doesn't matter as much.
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Post by chech on Jun 29, 2015 11:52:33 GMT
Now that's the kind of advice I love! LOL So, there was no assigned seating on the Bernini? Would the tour get it's own car?
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Post by tiffany on Jun 29, 2015 12:02:09 GMT
I agree with Bet regarding the Bernina Express optional. Miranda told us the views were the same on both sides of the train, but they were much better on the right side, and the people on the left, including me, were trying to squeeze into the right to get photos, which was somewhat difficult since our compartment was packed! There was no assigned seating on my tour. We had a compartment to ourselves, and seating within the compartment was first come, first serve.
I’m glad you got the name of your tour director, and it’s not Miranda, Phillip or Paul. I hope Vincenzo is a good tour director.
Have a great trip!
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Post by bet on Jun 30, 2015 0:37:15 GMT
I was lucky that our group was small and I knew to grab a right hand seat. We also had a reserved carriage but had plenty of empty seats as there were only about 15 of us. Im surprised Miranda would say that, just a little bit of research will tell you the right hand side is the best, unless she was thinking of the complete route in both directions.
Make sure you do the Jungfraujoch as well.
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Post by bet on Jun 30, 2015 2:18:22 GMT
I'll post some pics of the tour in the coming days, im hopeless at technology and resizing and posting any here so I joined Flickr. I thought its a good back up too, still sorting them out.
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Post by Boop on Jun 30, 2015 20:17:26 GMT
I wish I had taken more notes while travelling. My Trafalgar TD last year was excellent, the exact opposite from my Insight one. I'm doing the pre tip this time for my Christmas tour, I just treat it like the single supplement as I'd rather pay the tip with my final payment and be done with it. It's only $76 and if I do get a 2nd rate TD it's not a lot of money I'm losing out on if i had wanted to tip them less & then the driver gets his tip out of it. I'll just show my disapproval in the evaluation at the end. Miranda sounds really old school, herding her travellers around. They're the type that give group travel a bad reputation, as everything is over scheduled & one of the reasons why I haven't been a big fan of group travel in the past, but I'm getting old and like the convenience & company that group travel brings I'm not a huge fan of the "evaluations" as this was part of the problem with my Switzerland TD. He actually had the nerve to read them. I don't know how many but I do know he did read mine, which was why he arranged a "short" meeting with me in the hotel lobby. He wouldn't admit to reading it when I asked him but I know he did by some of the questions he asked me. For this very reason, I will never "pre-tip" or hand an unsatisfactory evaluation over to the TD. If I ever do another evaluation, I will be mailing it in. If that is not acceptable to the TD, then it will end up with its rightful owner - the trash can.
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Post by chech on Jun 30, 2015 21:19:04 GMT
Were they sealed in envelopes? If I ever thought a TD was reading the evaluations, I'd be emailing the company to let them know the TD had access to the evaluations.
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Post by Boop on Jun 30, 2015 21:34:28 GMT
Were they sealed in envelopes? If I ever thought a TD was reading the evaluations, I'd be emailing the company to let them know the TD had access to the evaluations. Yeah, they were sealed by each of us and then handed over to him. All he did was unseal the envelope, read the evaluation and then put it in a new envelope. When I was filling mine in I was using the envelope as a cushion and when I looked at the envelope you could see/read some of the things I had written. I asked for a fresh envelope, there was a stack at the front of the bus, re-sealed it and handed it over to him (to be read..lolol)
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Post by Boop on Jun 30, 2015 21:35:41 GMT
Were they sealed in envelopes? If I ever thought a TD was reading the evaluations, I'd be emailing the company to let them know the TD had access to the evaluations. Yeah, they were sealed by each of us and then handed over to him. All he did was unseal the envelope, read the evaluation and then put it in a new envelope. When I was filling mine in I was using the envelope as a cushion and when I looked at the envelope you could see/read some of the things I had written. I asked for a fresh envelope, there was a stack at the front of the bus, re-sealed it and handed it over to him (to be read..lolol) Live 'n learn........I will do things differently now......
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