Grand European Tours
 

Has anyone traveled with Grand European Tours, part of the Far and Wide "family"? My mother and I are thinking of taking their "Italy and the Amalfi Coast" tour in March of 2003. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has taken any of their "leisurely" tours.<BR>Thanks in advance,<BR>Lynn

There was a posting from someone last month who had a nightmare tour. She posted pictures of the very cramped bus on her website. Based on that, I'd avoid them at all costs. Search for "Farandwidefiasco".<BR><BR>Anne

I have traveled with GET and have had friends who traveled with them in the British Isles and there were no problems. The person who posted about the problem trip had made some assumptions about the tour package and was not well informed about what to expect. Her major complaint was the bus, which did seem to be sub-standard, according to any other tour company I've traveled with, but tour companies usually "rent" their busses from bus companies and obviously got a "lemon". I do not mean to imply that the person did not have some legitimate complaints. We've been on at least 10 tours,( with several companies) some much better than others, but we have continued to travel with the companies. I would travel with GET again, if it was a trip I wanted. I think that any company's "leisurely" trips would be a good choice. Any trip is a "gamble" because so much depends on the TD and the group you are with. At least, that is my opinion. M

I don't know about the quality of the trip, but I love the title "Italy AND the Amalfi Coast", as stated it's visiting two different places.

I went on a Grand European Tour to Vienna, Salzburg, Prague, and Budapest in May 2000. It was one of their "super leisure" tours. I thought it was wonderful, and especially liked the leisure aspect of it, as we had a lot of free time in each city. The hotels were very well located and our guide was excellent.I would definitely travel with them again.

We were happy with the London, Paris & Rome tour we took with GET. It allowed for us to make our own plans or join the group when we didn't feel like orchestrating everything. I was very glad not to have to switch hotels more than every 3 or 4 nights.

We did last summer (14 days France and Italey) and I would never recommend the Far & Wide / Grand European Tour companies in France or Italy. We had a terrible experience. Unreasonably long days (a 10-, 11- and 12-hour day), hotels not centrally located (the hotel in Venice was really in Mestre, a trainride away and the hotel in Paris was on the last stop of the Paris Metro line #8) and there were some seats on the bus with as little as 4" of leg room. Never again!

Karen's trip sounds almost like our trip, but we were on a 16-day (but we left the tour early because we were so unhappy). You must have been on the same Far&Wide bus we were on. I'm pretty tall and I was miserable - so were the dozen other people on the bus who were over 5'10". The situation on the bus was so bad that it made many of the other little things that we would have normally overlooked or laughed off seem much worse. We still love Europe and we still love travel. We'll do our homework before we book another trip. Happy travels to you.

We took a tour of Italy with them last September. It was the worst tour that we ever took. Hotel locations, bus, and meals were terrible. I know few people that went with them few years ago to Spain, and were very happy. I guess things have changed a lot after they were incorporated with Far and Wide.