There was no worse trip in 8 years of travel

Yesterday we returned (thank God) from a 10-day trip to Europe: the Czech Republic, Germany, France. Tour from March 22 to April 2, 2013. Holidays. There were children from Kiev schools and adults accompanying them on the bus, 64 people in total.

On this trip, the management of the Azaria travel agency saved ON EVERYTHING.

There are many complaints, here are the main three:

1) a cheap and unprofessional carrier is hired:

The drivers were underdeveloped and semi-literate “male individuals in trucker clothes” (in Europe!) and they did not know the rules of the road (7-10 fines in Germany and France in 9 days and two more fines from the Ukrainian traffic police, both for the last day, at the entrance to Kiev).

These two underdeveloped people with category “D” rights and a license to transport PEOPLE taken from nowhere - did not understand maps of the area, did not understand road signs and road markings, did not know how to use a navigator and did not read stands on the roads indicating the way !!! In each move from place to place, the bus rolled in circles for an extra 3-4 hours in search of the right direction !!! Several times we even circled until 5-6 in the morning, although for each night an overnight stay was paid for in a hotel !!!

Beings-“drivers” Sasha and Vitya regularly drove through red lights, drove in the manner of minibuses - with sharp and hard braking in the middle of intersections, they could never stop BEFORE the STOP line, but only after crossing it; blocked traffic under bridges by driving under an unintended height for the bus; turned, turned around and moved backwards in prohibited places, even on the autobahn!!! They did not know the dimensions of the bus and because of this they did not fit anywhere the first time, they parked in front of the hotels for 10-15 minutes, forcing a full cabin of children to wait for the end of the maneuver inside!!! On the second day of the route, the "helmsmen" themselves TORNED the RIGHT SIDE DRIVER'S MIRROR to their own bus, hitting it against a pole at the entrance to the autobahn !!!! Then they beat him with a hammer for a long time, frightening all the children in the cabin with a night knock. And two days later they bent the right side of the bus pointers-arrows on a pole in Germany .. And they did many more terrible things ..

In addition, these unworthy of the title of "driver" did not know a single word, except for "surzhik" and mat. They couldn't talk to anyone! Neither at the gas station, nor with the police, they could ask the locals or the drivers they met for directions, THIS IS ALL the tourists had to do for them! It was terribly ashamed to look at such a low level of development ..

It was our great luck that the tour bus included people with serious driving experience and skills in working with maps of the area, and a guy who knows English helped us out in all situations that we got into due to the fault of illiterate drivers and an incompetent accompanying group.

The same guy was sitting next to the "drivers" ALL THE TIME instead of resting, with a map of the area and his own GPS to help the group get to the planned place !!!

In a double-decker bus (license plate AI 5250 BX) with a terrible inscription RUSSEL on all its sides, the heating and windshield blowing were poorly regulated, the “drivers” did not know these devices, confused their purpose and twisted all the knobs, moving all the shutters .. As a result more than 50 people constantly froze at night, and during the day they undressed to their shorts, often had to swear and go to adjust the heating themselves in order to get a comfortable temperature in the cabin (as a result, 32 patients with a temperature upon return).

The “drivers” dashboard, like the bus itself, was seen for the first time. What the instruments show - they did not understand at all, they could not explain to the tourists the red light on the dashboard that had been burning for half an hour, after which it turned out: it meant THAT THE FUEL IS OUT!!!!! And a huge bus stopped in the middle of the autobahn!!!! From the luggage compartment, these craftsmen of the Ukrainian hinterland removed a bottle of diesel fuel (storage of fuel in the cabin when transporting passengers .. Children !!!) and on this stock, groaning, dragged 5 km to the gas station !!!!

Everyone was just in shock.

Even the "drivers" smoked while driving, they always served the bus dirty, with impenetrable windows, uncleaned and unventilated interior. For technical stops, they chose a place convenient for their smoke breaks, in connection with which 50 children jumped through the snow and cold, sometimes 200 meters to a hut with a toilet, or to a gas station where they could visit the toilet in a shop. In a word, they did not know anything at all about the existence of rules for the transportation of passengers !!!

The equipment on the bus is old and broken. A small, worn-out screen could be seen somehow only from the first three rows. Declared as reading everything, the DVD player itself lost the control panel, could not make a choice in the menu and did not read ANY formats !!! Miraculously, in 10 days we managed to watch 2 historical films out of 16 planned. To all questions, the “drivers” creatures could not connect even a couple of words and, just in case, snapped.

In general, the carrier company, because of which Azaria screwed up so much, is: PP Bezdushnya (the name, in principle, speaks for itself).

Do not fall for this carrier, those that pick up buses for their trips !!!

It's not SILENT, it's LOUD HORROR!!!

Unprofessionalism and the lack of training of drivers for the transportation of PEOPLE, not potatoes, and FOREIGN, and not to a neighboring village, endanger the lives of you and your children on the road!!!

2) the head of the tour operator who accompanied the group on the trip.

This is a separate song.

Dear woman MARINA (hereinafter referred to as "she"), who:

- on the train, I didn’t even know at which station the group needed to get off in order to meet the bus (we traveled from Kyiv to Lviv by train, there we changed to the ill-fated bus that took us around Europe);

- she did not speak ANY FOREIGN LANGUAGES!!!! Tourists themselves negotiated for it in hotels, with guides, with transport, with an insurance company, with representatives of the authorities of different countries, who very often stopped a bus rushing along their roads, as well as with employees of ticket offices, museums and shops;

- she did not know and confused the routes of travel and the scheduled time of excursions, did not answer questions, pretending that she had not heard them;

- only after a few reminders she went to try to appoint some collection or meeting time in the hall; people ran to get information from it, so that for the remaining 3-4 hours at the hotel they would NOT SLEEP the tour or breakfast;

- she refused to organize the taking of tickets to the Eiffel Tower, arguing that tourists would be brought to it, and then they owe something to themselves there, although visiting the tower was indicated in the tour program ...

- she denied tourists a corporate travel mobile phone and did not want to give a phone number to contact the tour operator's management. And when everyone was upset by the behavior of the “drivers”, they were afraid for their lives and decided that it was time to ask to change something in this nightmare, for example, to change the “drivers”, we had to call Kyiv and through third parties find out the personal coordinates of the tour director. operator Azaria...

In a word, for some reason, an incompetent woman went with us from Azaria, without the skills of a group leader, who could not do anything, but tried to pretend that “everything was fine” and nothing terrible was happening.

Before the trip, the manager of Azaria Yana sent us the program of the tour by e-mail. After printing it out, everyone took it with them. And to each of our questions: where is THIS AND THIS indicated in the tour program and, accordingly, given to us, the escort answered that if THIS happens, it will be a personal favor to us from the Azaria company ..

To our request to the director of Azaria to change our drivers, who endanger the lives of the entire group, Alla Nikolaevna replied that she could not do anything, because the contractual system between the tour operator and the carrier company was too complicated. That is, in principle, the image of the company and the panic of tourists did not bother her at all.

3) Savings on hotels for a children's group of tourists -

TIN. Almost all hotels are ONE-TWO stars in the worst sense of the word. But not even disgusting hotels were outraged. A more or less decent hotel was rented to us only in the Czech Republic for a couple of nights in Krumlov and on the outskirts of Nuremberg. I was outraged that all the other places of lodging for the night were rented somewhere in the outback, where only trucks with truckers stop, where there are smoky and dirty rooms, doors that do not close and the atmosphere of a dirty industrial zone around !!! Although it was the cities that were listed in the tour program for the night, and not their terrible suburbs, from where it took about an hour to get on the tour !!!

All in all, the trip organized by Azaria was horrendous and at risk to health.

In the children's group there were teachers who saw and understood everything, like other educated people. It was clear to both adults and children that what was happening to us was wildness !!!

Apparently, with the tour operator Azaria never again and none of them will go anywhere.

And the question of the competence of the carriers, who brought the greatest horror to our trip, remains open and will definitely be raised.

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