I am going to be off the grid for a few days, so here goes my last post until then – the story behind the Greece Turkey Tour.
A friend and I had booked “Midnight Sun with Scandinavia” in 2019 Oct, as early birds for a trip scheduled in June 2020. We don’t prefer group travel but Scandinavia being relatively difficult to do by ourselves, we opted for it.
And then in COVID, no travel and no response for our queries from this company Veena World, except that the ‘refund rules’ will apply if we asked for it. Probably get only 25% back, with much chasing.
After two years of silence, they asked us to use the money for any other trips in India or even sponsor family members, but we weren’t interested.
Early this year, they announced the same Midnight Sun in June and we were a bit excited, but I couldn’t join as it coincided with my son’s graduation in Paris. So I asked to book a different trip.
Now VW’s policy was that they would give price protection only for the Midnight Sun tour. For double occupancy the tour now costed 4.25L but they would take us at about 3.25L that’s lying with them for almost 4 years.
But for any other tour, I had to pay today’s price and also single occupancy which is usually 20-30% (on current listed price) more depending on the segment.
So I booked another Scandinavian tour scheduled in Oct 2023, but it had 3-4 days of Moscow and St Petersburg. So it was cancelled in June due to the political situation. And finally after mind-boggling calculation for minimising extra payment, I ended up in this Greece-Turkey trip with 40 people, still paying extra for single room. You see, after you think you’ve nailed it, they come up with GST and TCS and because there is a “credit” of some amount with them, the computation needs a PhD in patience, if not mathematics. They promised they will find me a partner, but they never got back. Their customer care is very good until we book, but then it just goes cold.
So I signed up half-heartedly. Then early September while jogging in a park, I got knee-pain. After a few days of waiting/physio, an MRI revealed stress fracture in both knees! While the pain disappeared with some medication, the bone needed 4-6 weeks to heal with complete rest. My first thought was about this jinxed trip that was precariously timed (Oct 10-22)
I went for a review after two weeks, all was well, the doctor said. I booked a wheel chair for all airports, used a knee-cap and was quite confident (from my previous experience) that unlike India, most places are accessible by wheel-chair. The tour manager was assigned and he told me a day before the departure that there will be a lot of walking, but I thought it was just a customary warning.
So you see, I embarked on this tour with zero interest, some bitterness and a lot of anxiety.
And I WAS quite taken aback with the ground (literally) reality. All walking in both these countries is either uphill or downhill, on cobbled or rocky places, most hotels/restaurants are 1+2 floors with no lift, usually the wc is on a different floor. One has to wait in long queues and stand a lot. The day activity is generally 13-16 hours long. Luckily I had no trouble, in fact didn’t use wheelchair after the first flight. But after returning, I am advised further rest due to mild pain.
Anyway, due credit for the tour itself. I think it is great value in terms of money – all their hotels are 3-star plus, elaborate spreads of breakfast and lunch/dinner wherever we went, even packed for transit, good bus. All flights, meals and entrace tickets were paid for. This group was also quite friendly and no problem makers, except a couple of women who were very loud, especially making fun of the local guide in Hindi which was in bad taste. Unfortunately the tour manager didn’t control, he slowly joined them.
There are more drawbacks of group package: the overhead as I mentioned before, of check-in/check-out, group assembly/dispersal at every stop, wc queues (and btw, 90% wcs are not western, that’s an added tension for knee injury and means longer queues). The restaurants (other than at the hotel we stayed) were always very small outfits and buffet meant a long wait.
More important, we have a cocooned experience – never interacting with anyone outside. Our meals are also pre-ordered – so we don’t even know the menu or the prices. There was almost no time to even a pick a coffee somewhere.
And the saddest thing, in such tours, we see very briefly, only the well known sights which are invariably overcrowded – unlike the leisurely self planned trips with small groups/alone where we take local transport, eat out, spend as long as we want at any location etc. Other than the “international” tourist spots, every city/town has a lot to offer if we go there. But such a luxury is not always possible/affordable.
So to end it: Did I enjoy the tour? Hmm, yes. Will I do such a trip again, perhaps no.
Click below links for the two parts of the tour.
the path.. 