About DSBW and the 'Classic Switzerland' tour in October 2012

I first learned about the travel agency from an advertising program on the Ekho Moskvy radio. I went to the company's website and booked the "Classic Switzerland" tour. By the way, the site is organized well. Booked a trip at the end of September at an additional office on Barclay Street. I liked that the cost is moderate, the program is good. Submitted documents for visas. Once I had to bring an additional certificate, but otherwise the visas were issued without problems. Information about the status of registration can be found on the website. A few days before departure, all the documents were ready, tickets were issued. Drove them received + the final itinerary of the trip (including hotels). There are no comments to the office staff.

The tour started on 10/20/12. Departure from Moscow and arrival in Geneva early in the morning, there is a whole day ahead! Fairytale weather! According to the program, a sightseeing tour of Geneva + an additional paid excursion to Bern.

Our guide Gennady took pity on us: the excursion to Bern was rescheduled for another day. As a result, Bern was, but in cloudy weather, so we lost a lot.

In Geneva, there was a very good hotel Cristal, which corresponds to the declared three stars, even with an excess: a convenient location in the center, very clean, a good European breakfast, a kettle in the room and everything for tea and coffee.

After three wonderful days and nights in Geneva, we checked out of the hotel. On a cloudy morning on 10/23/12 we went on an excursion to Bern, to Interlaken, in the evening we were supposed to stay at the Du Lac Hotel on the lake. After all the excursions in the evening, tired, we arrived at the hotel and it turned out that they were not waiting for us, the hotel did not receive the money. Began a long clarification of the circumstances, calls, waiting. Finally it turned out that the local representation of the travel agency decided to save money and booked and paid for a hotel in Lucerne, without informing anyone.

We boarded the bus again and drove through the pass at night in the fog to Lucerne. They brought us to the Anker Hotel, supposedly also three stars. But the stars are very dim. The hotel is more like a hostel. Lobby, corridors, rooms - everything is old and unkempt. Creepy chipboard furniture, iron beds, dubious bedding. There is nothing to say about tea and coffee in the room. This hotel spoiled the impression of the trip. This is a complaint against the travel agency! It was even hard to imagine that there could be such a hotel in clean and rich Switzerland, but the company managed to find such a hotel. We saved money, but I think we lost customers. It is unlikely that my wife and I will use the services of this travel agency again: the memories of this hotel are still haunted.

However, the tour itself was very rich and interesting, though tiring. Organizing the trip ourselves, we hardly saw so much in such a short time.

This is a big plus for an organized trip. But here is also a minus - where it’s good, you want to linger, feel it, but no, it’s time to run further.

Our guide was Gennady Lezhenkov. He accompanied us from the airport upon arrival (10/20/12) to hotel accommodation in Geneva before the day of departure to Moscow (10/27/12). In general, everything is not bad, especially the additional excursions that he offered for an additional fee.

However, there are also serious disadvantages. Instead of clearly telling us what awaits us on the program, he loves to keep the intrigue and does not reveal his plans to the end.

Does not think enough about the composition of the group and the possibilities of people of different ages in the group (In Mürren, without warning, he led along a difficult route, which he himself did not really know), does not warn, for example, what physical effort the route requires, what is the length of the walking route, what you need to take with you what shoes to wear so that the ladies do not have to jump on heels along a mountain path, etc.

The whole trip we had one very good bus, which was served by two good drivers

In general, the impressions of a trip to Switzerland are very good and I advise everyone to go there.

At the end of the tour, none of the travel agency called and asked what and how. This also does not speak in favor of DSBW.

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