Europe Holiday -- Tips, Bits and Pieces of info

Planning for this had to be done pretty early--  Not an easy task—You had to plan at least four months in advance for you to get a good rates with the travel operator –

The first thing that we debated on was to whether to go on our own or to get one of those readymade packages that are offered by various travel operators – The choice became easy once we decided not to go alone as we wanted company/ new friends etc. etc.—

Do ensure negotiating an all Rupee rate than a mixed bag of Rupee and Euros – this was something that I found out later as I lost on the Rupee depreciating and ended up paying more for the Euro outflow – best to pay entire money at one go and get the best rate-

Then the discussion was on which travel package to go for – This was a very tough one – Each operator has a plethora of packages to offer – just to give you more options and make the decision tough. We were specific about places that we wanted to visit and the time that we would spend – There are umpteen packages from all the travel gurus but none would satisfy our requirement – either it would miss a place that we wanted to visit for sure or the total package days would not meet our timing – Finally settled for one that probably met our requirements the closest and we also landed on a travel operator with whom we had a very good outing to Bhutan.

Visa—Although the process is simple , people can build up tension on you, especially if you have locked the dates of your travel – They will get you appointment on the dates that you cannot make it !  You need to push constantly to get the appointment on the day  you want . Documentation is pretty heavy but not something that is unmanageable . The process at the visa agency is pretty smooth—

The Holiday itself –

1.      Generally everything worked well , no hassles – flights onward and return on time – travel through the entire duration was uneventful

2.      Get used to the 678 principle that the Tour managers are fanatic of – 6 is the wakeup call , 7 is the Breakfast and 8 is the check out .. this is relentless and there is no way you can avoid this  time schedule in the morning through the trip

3.      One of the things that we liked about this tour operator and I think several others have mastered this to ensure that the stomach is well fed – Your lunch and Dinner will always be taken care – If not best in terms of the cuisine itself , one can be guaranteed that there will not miss home food—this is something that I noticed that everyone in our group was happy about –

4.      One interesting thing that I found was that at most of the hotels that we ate , leases of the restaurant have been taken over by enterprising Indians – they take the lease of the restaurant for four months and bring in cooks from India but work with the support staff locally – they are assured of footfall of at least 150 people  a day for lunch and dinner with every travel operator getting his team to eat at their place. They work for four months , then wind up and get back to  India . I was chatting with the lady who ran the restaurant in Arezzo and realized that this was  a huge business opportunity and some of them run their business at more than one place – this model was consistent through the destinations that we travelled. I thought it was great entrepreneurship and showed agility in making the best use of conditions that was built around Indian tourists

5.      Taking care of the passport was a tension throughout the travel. We were warned every time( daily basis and multiple instance ) about passports getting stolen.. The tension remained till we got back and cleared Immigration in India !

6.      I carried less of cash and used the Pre-Loaded  Global Multi currency card – It was a great convenience and we could use the same for small expenses as well and was accepted everywhere- remember to change password once you get the card locally

7.      We had a tour guide who was at most times in good humor and behaved best –  Took great care of the entire team and was very responsible at all times. These guys have a tough job – they keep doing this 10 day/ 11 day trips through Europe for four months at a stretch and need high levels of energy and motivation. Our man had enough motivation to keep us engaged

8.      At times when you have the 678 schedule and daily travel , it was not looking like a holiday but as we made progress and looked at various places of interest ,  it overcame the travel blues.

9.      Best of the lot was the time we had in Zurich with visits to Interlaken , Jungfrau ( the restaurant at the peak is named as “Bollywood “ ! ) and Mount Titlis – Serene is the right word for time spent here.

10.   At times , we felt that we did not get sufficient time to spend but when you are on a package , this is the bane of being on a package. Now that we know how to work this out , next time trip would be a venture of our own.

11.   One thing that was funny was we had to carry jackets, gloves etc. and at the same time , hats and sunglasses !