Prague, Vienna and Budapest - departed 1st August 2012

[BGray]

(14/08/2012 12:36 PM)Jenny R Wrote:  I was really looking forward to this trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hotels look great on their websites. Going on 29th August. I was actually looking for info on optional trips as according to JY there aren't any but from reading previous posts knew there had to be some. So it seems to be take the cleaning materials, prepare to starve but most importantly take plenty of money and have the usual good time.

Hi Jenny, I hope you are well! I hope you have a lovely holiday and I wouldn't worry too much about the hotels as rooms vary as do people's views on them, food etc. When I was in Andalucia with JY, a number of people complained regularly about the food and I thought it was absolutely fine. There was a damp patch on the ceiling of my room which I could have complained about, but seeing as the room itself was dry, I didn't! If you look at Trip Advisor you will see that every hotel on it has positive and negative reviews. I am sure it is the same with the hotels on this trip and I'm sorry that some folks were disappointed, but I'm sure many others were happy enough! Hope you enjoy NZ later in the year; I'm off to South America with Travelsphere next month!
All the best,
Bob

[Iris C]

(14/08/2012 12:32 PM)Jenny R Wrote:  [quote='suziewales' pid='214272' dateline='1344509209']
Just returned from this trip. Enjoyed it immensely. Jana the Tour Manager was great - met us at the airport in Prague and stuck with us all the way, with lots of humour thrown in. She is great. The coach driver, Karel (stands for Charles in Chez language), was wonderful as well, helpful with the cases and a safe and steady driver. My only disappointment was the standard of the hotels used. The Prague one was quite old and basic; the food was a set meal (think school canteen!) and neither the hotel in Prague or Vienna had air conditioning; which was a major problem as the temperature was into the late 30's/early 40's.
Hotel in Vienna was better but still no air conditioning although food was buffet style which was better.
Budapest hotel was the best (air conditioning at last!!) but again the food at dinner was set meal and awful, although breakfast was the best hotel of the three.

I think for the price paid the holiday was not good value for money. Beware of the extra costs for excursions not included! I didn't buy many souvenirs and no gifts and still managed to spend a total of £450 over the 3 countries.

Hoping the next holiday to Andalucia in September will be better; as celebrating a special birthday whilst away!

Hi Jenny R
I was interested in going on this holiday to Prague, Budapest & Vienna but all the comments about the hotels has put me off booking this holiday. I was disappointed with the hotels on the Classic Cities of Italy that I went on last year, either no air conditioning or if there was it didn't work very well (the temperature was around 37 degrees). Also, you aren't always put in the hotels that are mentioned in the brochure and you aren't aware of this until you get your final itinerary so there is very little point in Googling the hotels beforehand. Although I did mention the problems on the feedback sheet, I never received a reply.
I love going on the Just You holidays and meeting new people but I do wish they would pay more attention to their hotels. Air conditioning is a must in hot countries. Hopefully I will be booking Egypt and the Pyramids for next year so I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Kind regards
Iris C

[Jenny R]

Hi Bob and Iris C
Bob - I am looking at the South America trip with the falls for next year. report on how you get on. As I have read you saying somewhere earlier all hols now will be rated against SA.
Iris - So far all of JY hols have been excellent - will report on this one later.
Any one else who has already done the Prague etc how much local currency would you suggest as phone calls to JY still deny any optional trips on this holiday but from all of your comments there are obviously are.

[shyanne]

Jenny, there were two optional excursions in Prague, a lunch time trip on a boat and an evening trip to some dancing fountains - I enjoyed both trips and would recommend them. Each one cost £29 or equivalent in local currency. I was not aware of the excursions before I left but always travel with plenty of English money so was able to pay in a combination of currency.

For info, I took £50 of local currency for Prague but spent half of it on one of the excusions and just about managed with the remaining £20 as my lunch was provided on the boat trip. I was a bit worried about lunch on the journey to Vienna but had enough for a light snack. I took £100 in euros for Vienna and that was plenty for drinks, lunches, entrance money while sightseeing and evening bar bills, I had just 10 euros left which bought me a gin and tonic on the plane home! I then took £50 worth of florints for Hungary which was not enough even though I paid for the excursion (an evening boat trip) in pounds. Some things seemed expensive in Hungary although that might just have been me trying to cope with the third exchange rate of the holiday! Had I been on the London flight and left at 10am for the flight home I would have managed but the Manchester flight did not leave until evening so we had an extra day in Budapest and I changed another £40 in the hotel for the last day as I knew we were planning a guided tour of the synagogue (well worth it) and a decent lunch. I then had plenty left to spend at the airport.

Incidentally, the hotel we stayed at in Vienna Woods was the one described by a previous poster as a swiss chalet but it very disappointing with some of the worst rooms of the tour, poor, overcooked food and overpriced, weak drinks at the bar. It really does need refurbishing and updating with JY ensuring more consistency in room quality for their guests. Had I remained in my 'cupboard' for more than one night, I would be asking for the return of the single supplement that I paid!!

[Jenny R]

Thanks for the info Shyanne. Big help