18th Feb holiday - review

ham green — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:19:07 GMT

[b]Hotels[/b]
Usually of a very high standard. Holiday Inns were used for the overnight stops in Liege and Paris, and despite both being relatively close to major roads, there was very little traffic noise. My only gripe was with the food - almost everything involved chips. Would be nice to taste some local specialities, I can get spicy potato wedges at Tesco.
The Central Lowen Hotel in Feldkirch did have a few problems sorting out everyone's rooms, and some people were relocated to another hotel about a mile away, but once those problems were ironed out most people enjoyed their stay. I guess I can't put the blame for that on Leger.
In Switzerland we stayed at the Mothotel Pilatusblick. This was a much smaller establishment and the catering was not particularly good. Luckily the charming town of Lucerne/Luzern is a short taxi ride away. Some decent restaurants can be found there.

[b]Coach / Travel[/b]
We used the Silver Service coach for the tour, and they are better than the regular coaches. There is more legroom, and it is possible to listen to music, radio or watch a DVD of the driver's choosing.

The interchanges at Dover and Folkestone were pretty quick, but I do wonder why Leger don't use Eurotunnel for both the outbound and inbound channel crossings. The P&O ferries are slower (taking 90 minutes as opposed to the Eurotunnel's 45), the staff are unhelpful and rude and the boats are always far too crowded. Catering on-board is a joke, two people serving a queue of about 300. Why, Leger?!?

[b]Tour couriers / drivers[/b]
Some coach drivers can be grumpy, surly, sarcastic, unfriendly. On this occasion it was totally the opposite. Ricky and Nigel (I didn't catch their surnames) are two top blokes. A journey with those two is not complete without tasting the infamous Wobbly Chocolate (a beautiful blend of hot chocolate with a generous portion of Irish Cream). Your taste buds will love you for it. The on-board ticket system, whereby everyone purchases raffle-tickets which can be used to redeem drinks and snacks, is a real winner.

[b]Excursions[/b]
On this tour there are four optional excursions - the Innsbruck sightseeing tour, the Interlaken excursion, the Paris by moonlight excursion, and the Swiss glacier express. The latter three are all very much worth doing. The Innsbruck sightseeing tour takes in a couple of churches and goes up the hill to the ski-jump site used for the Winter Olympics, but as we were given a lot of free time in the city anyway it didn't really seem worth the money.
The amounts of free time given in each excursion do seem excessive at first, and on some occasions people found themselves returning back to the coach long before they were asked to. Particularly so was Bregenz, where apart from some nice views along Lake Constance and a small department store, there is absolutely nothing to do.
The Paris evening tour is a joy to behold, mainly because Paris is so stunningly beautiful in the evening, but also because the drivers seemed to know their way around the Periferique, which is a rarity.

[b]Summary[/b]
Tours like this are going to die out. It's a shame, but it took the best part of two days and an overnight stop for the coach to arrive in Feldkirch for the holiday to really begin. Hop on a Ryanair flight and it only takes a tiny fraction of the time. I already had a tour cancelled (Italian Dolomites Winter Wonderland) due to lack of numbers, four years ago I had an Imperial Capitals tour cancelled for the same reason.
Tours like this do have their benefits, and it was certainly worth the money, but the number of hours driving up and down the tedius German and French motorways did begin to eat away at my enjoyment (it certainly doesn't help that British coaches are obliged to stick to a meagre 62 miles an hour). Unless there is a "flying start" option added to every tour I'm not sure I shall bother again. But for the most part I enjoyed myself and I'm sure you will too.

Leger Holidays / After you Travel - Holiday Reviews / Austria / Alpine Winter Spectacular

18th Feb holiday - review