Reviews about the tour "SPO She… Slovakia!" from "Chord Tour"
Review of the tour "SPO She… Slovakia! " From "Accord Tour".
To begin with, I will say a few words about the purpose of our trip - "hunting" for a Schengen multi-visa, as well as a break from the hustle and bustle of the city and office work in the beautiful mountainous country of Slovakia.
The tour started from Lviv on 04.05. In 2013, we submitted documents through a travel agent in a month. We were told only on May 3 that we had received a visa. 2013 at 16:30 (after repeated calls from a travel agent and unsatisfactory communication on my part on the page "Accord Tour"), and the train to Lviv from Kiev was the same day at 22:40.
In Lviv we were waiting for cool weather +18 and sometimes rain, after +28 and sun in Kyiv. The tour of Lviv was not very exciting, so without listening to it until the end and freezing, we went to a nice cafe "World of Coffee" near the chapel of the Boims, and then to the "House of Legends" for lunch.
We left Lviv exactly on time on a not very new Neoplan, handed out passports to everyone and finally we could see that most tourists received multi-visas for 6 months, but with different lengths of stay in the country from 20 to 40 days. It took 4 hours to get to Uzhhorod, and during this time there was one 30-minute stop near the cafe (on the principle of "Belly House"), where besides us there were 3 more buses, so we had to stand in line to the toilet for 20 minutes. all the food was dismantled, and since it was the day before Easter, the cafe was closed and those who did not have lunch in Lviv and did not have food on the way, were left to gnash their teeth on the way to the Ukrainian-Slovak border. At the border, everyone was asked to get off the bus, and everyone with a passport approached the window with the Slovak border guard, bowed and was stamped at the entrance to the Schengen area.
At that time, other Slovak border guards were on the bus, we were a little worried about the purchased Lviv souvenirs, but fortunately, no one was missing . We crossed the border in an hour and a half.
Slovakia surprised with its purity and greenery - it is very similar to Western Ukraine, but cleaner and well-groomed. We arrived at the place of accommodation at 0:00 Slovak time (or on the first night in Ukrainian), during this time there was only 1 short ambulance stop. During the trip, I realized that the seat of the tourist sitting in front of me was broken and was in a lowered position all the time, so sitting was very uncomfortable and there was very little legroom. All the tourists were unpleasantly surprised by the fact that the guide-accompanying Halyna Pavliuk did not say anything about Slovakia, but was mostly silent and included entertaining films.
Those sitting in front of the bus could see the screen, and in the second half of the bus the TV hung somewhere on the side of the door and to watch it, you had to jump from behind the head in front of the tourist. Upon arrival at the hotel, everyone was dead tired from the difficult move, but everyone had to come with a passport and stay in the room, because the guide did not care to collect all the passports and get the keys to all at once.
05.05. 2013 In the morning we saw a wonderful panorama of the snow-capped High Tatras in the bright sun against the backdrop of fresh greenery. That was an Easter bonus. An hour's drive from our hotel was the resort of Beshenev.
Admission to the open and closed geothermal pools for 3 hours cost 18 euros, part of the group immediately bought tickets and rushed to the long-awaited pools, while others noticed that for groups of more than 20 people 20% discount on entry and 21 free.
Galina did not know this, but the activists of our group quickly found their way around and we bought discounted tickets. Everyone really liked Beshenev - it's a great place to relax. There are grill bars on site, so we had lunch and sunbathed outdoors after the pools. In the middle of the day, most of the group had to go on a tour "Zhdyarskoe wedding", but on the bus guide said that plans have changed and there will be no horse-drawn carriage, national costumes will not be given to everyone, but only to the bride and groom. groups, and in general, this tour will be only lunch at a national restaurant (for 38 (! ) euros) + a story about Slovak traditions.
The group massively refused this tour, causing great dissatisfaction with the guide. The bus instead of the hotel took everyone to the town of Poprad, where there is a water park.
Everyone was promised to be picked up at 20:00, and those who want to go to the hotel can find a train or taxi and go on their own. We didn't know anything about Poprad, but by some miracle we went to the church of St. Juraja and after paying 1 euro per person, we saw a beautiful old church with figures of the 13th-16th centuries and an organ. Apparently, this is the only attraction of Poprad.
06.05. 2013 - Lyubovnyansky Castle was open, although the guide thought it was closed, so it is unclear why we went to it an hour to stay there for 30 minutes. Instead of Pieninsky nat. park we were taken to Bratislava, where we had an unforgettable tour. Bratislava is very reminiscent of Kyiv.
Galina said that our hotel is in the heart of the city, but reality has shown that it is near the airport and to get from the city center you need to go by bus and tram, because there is no subway there. Instead, there were many large shopping malls near the hotel, but they closed at 9 p. m.
2013 - at 7:30 left for Vienna, on the 11th arrival. In Vienna, the guide Christian was very pleased, who humorously conducted an interesting sightseeing tour of the city and figured out what to see, where to get city maps, where to buy souvenirs. Until 17:00 we had free time in Vienna, so we enjoyed a walk through the center and a short express shopping. From Vienna to Kosice we drove until 1:00 am, but the route changed and in the middle of the night we suddenly found ourselves on the waterfront of Budapest. There was a 15-minute stop in Budapest's Heroes' Square for photography. There was only one sanitary stop on the way out of Vienna.
2013 - there was an hour-long interesting excursion in Koš ice, after which only 30 (! ) Minutes of free time were allocated.
In Kosice, unlike Poprad, there was something to see, as the city was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and preserved the architecture of that time, in addition, there was a national holiday and in half an hour you could only run through the main street. They arrived in Lviv exactly according to the program, they crossed the border easily and quickly.
I would like to note the complete unprofessionalism of the guide Halyna Pavliuk, who during the whole trip did not say a word about the countries we passed, or guided the area, did not check whether tourists returned to the bus, could not suggest anything. I would also like to note that sanitary stops were not made every 3 hours, the moves were very (!
) tedious and long, it was impossible to plan time, because it was unclear how much we will get somewhere, so we had to carry a supply of food and water.
The program of the tour changed during the trip, the driver of the bus was only one and drove mostly at a speed of 50-60 km / h and in one of the crossings he drove right behind the wheel and drove on the curb.
We liked Slovakia and Austria - both countries are interesting to travel: with rich history, traditions, beautiful nature and architecture, excellent cuisine, but you should not look at them on a bus trip! Chord tour was very disappointing as a tour operator.