Laf

Looking for opinions of Grand European Tours Co. or GETOURS, if you have used them.

Mimi

Thanks for posting that question. We have booked with GETours for a fall trip and would love to get feedback from Fodorites!

halfpint

I loved the idea of a trip with them, had it all scheduled for self and 3 daughters. Then they consolidated it with another time when we could not get away so it DID screw up our plans. So have scheduled a guaranteed?? departure with Trafalgar. However the Grand European seemed like a little better deal financially. We could just not go the other date offered and were VERY disappointed. However we did get all our deposits back ;(but would rather have taken the trip). Halfpint

mile

I WENT WITH THEM ON MY FIRST VISIT TO
PARGUE,VIENNA AND BUDAPEST , IT WAS VERY NICE, HOTELS WERE GOOD, SERVICE WAS EXCELLENT. THE HOTELS WE WENT WERE NOT 5 STARS , BUT THEY WERE CLEAN AND
CENTRALLY LOCATED( MORE LIKE MARRIOTTS IN THE U.S) I HAVE SEEM THEIR' NEW BROUCHURE AND AT LEAST FOR THE SAME TRIP I TOOK , THEY DID CHANGE THE HOTLES. BUT IN GENERAL I CAN SAY IS WAY BETTER THEN GLOBUS. WHICH IS A TOTAL DISASTER.

jame

I went on a Grand European Tour to Vienna, Salzburg, Prague, and Budapest, and it was wonderful. Great hotels in really good locations, lots of free time in each city, really good guide, and excellent itinerary. And the price was good too. I would definitely travel with them again.

lscott

We went with GET on 13 day Rome/Sorrento/Sicily in 2000 (before they changed ownership)> Our only guided tour...we prefer traveling alone...but as far as tours go, I think they were very good. Organized well, excellent guide and bus driver. Hotels were fine (necessarily not in center of town to accomodate big bus) but not out in the sticks either. Included meals and tours were good; optional ones that you paid extra for, but not much pressure to take if you prefer free time, were excellent. Bus had restroom; many tour buses don't.
In my opinion, ours was an honest and well run tour and if we should take another tour would choose them.

MartinLA

May 24 Greece Turkey Cruise/Tour

Grand European Tours (www.getours.com) advertised a 12 day Greece & Turkey tour which included a 7-day cruise on Louis Cruises' ship "Calypso". The web site showed glowing photos of the cabins, lounges and shopping/casino facilities, still viewable at http://www.getours.com/trips/GCR/htl/303.html
From other web reports, the Calypso had TV/safe/hairdryer in each cabin.

Upon arrival in Athens the Tour Director remarked the ship was "practical", and named "Coral". Turned out to be a very old ship in poor condition with cramped dirty bathrooms, broken shower curtain fittings and closet hangers. Ship also vibrated under power as if the propellers were damaged or the shaft distorted. Even the cabin steward apologized for the condition of the ship. The ship appeared to be a recent fire-sale purchase from a bankrupt line - much of the china was stamped Royal Olympic Cruises.

Grand European MUST have known of the ship substitution and chose not to tell anyone on the tour. Everyone was furious about the "bait and switch" tactics. Getours website continued to advertise the Calypso for this tour until mid-June, even though they knew the Coral was supplied instead.

What made it worse was, the Calypso sailed to many of the same ports at the same time - Mykonos, Rhodes, Crete, Santorini, just to rub it in.

Louis cruises did not switch on the spur of the moment. It takes time and coordination to supply rooms/food/crew for a 700 person cruise, and if Grand European did not know of the switch, they should have. And if they did know, they clearly chose to be co-conspirators in this "bait and switch" scheme by not informing their customers.

Grand European Tours has no customer service. They did not reply to my phone calls or letter.

Use them at your own risk.

Nickolai

My wife and I recently returned (Sept. 19, 2006) from a GET of Slovenia and Croatia, which actually started in Vienna and finished in Budapest. It was the first escorted tour we have ever done, and would highly recommend GET, based on that experience. We had a wonderful time, and the trip was truly memorable! Everything was well planned, organized, and coordinated. Our tour guide was outstanding. She was from Slovenia, and spoke perfect English. She was conscientious, knowlegeable about the countries, helpful, and professional. She did everything she could to make it a successful trip and an enjoyable time for everyone. We have traveled independently to central Europe before (6 times)but chose a tour this time because we were less familiar with E. Europe, and although there are tradeoffs, we felt, overall, very good about having done a tour. I chose GET because of the itinerary and because of the "at leisure" time offered, which allowed us to have over 50% of our evening dinners on our own, plus there was time to explore on our own.
Nickolai