Hotel in Vienna was better but still no air conditioning although food was buffet style which was better.

Budapest hotel was the best (air conditioning at last!!) but again the food at dinner was set meal and awful, although breakfast was the best hotel of the three.

I think for the price paid the holiday was not good value for money. Beware of the extra costs for excursions not included! I didn't buy many souvenirs and no gifts and still managed to spend a total of £450 over the 3 countries.

Hoping the next holiday to Andalucia in September will be better; as celebrating a special birthday whilst away!

It was the hotels and food that were a disappointment, having travelled to Europe a lot, I knew not to expect modern quality hotels but this is not a cheap holiday so I did expect a better standard from Just You. The rooms varied in size and quality and it was a bit like a lottery as to which type of room we were allocated and my complaint is that we all paid the same price for the holiday and so should have had equal rooms to a minimum standard.

In Prague, some people had two sleepless nights due to the non-stop rumple of passing trams. The eveining meal was a set meal with no choice and was really rather poor quality. The hotel in Vienna was a bit like Fawlty Towers with toilets that did not flush, showers broken, water pouring into a room from the shower in the room above and some ladies were initally expected to sleep in some old staff room accessed through a doorway off a main corridor and up some stone stairs into the roof space!! It was apparent that some rooms had not been cleaned before our party booked in and we got the impression that if people had not complained then they would not have been re-done, My room there was a cupboard, with just room for a single bed and a small table, it did not even have a wardrobe just a coat rack affair for my clothes and a broken shower! I had to have a hissy fit to get moved after one night but really I should not have to do that, Just You might need to look into using a better value hotel next year, it really was not value for money and many rooms were badly in need of refurbishment.

Most of us struck lucky in Budapest as it was a more modern, mid range hotel that could have been anywhere in the world, with airconditioning and newish fittings. The food though was a different matter, back to a set evening meal with no choice and pretty poor quality.

However, if you have booked already for this season, do not be put off, it is a great holiday and our tour guide was brilliant, you will have a whistle stop tour of three amazing cities with some good excursions of you want to go - just make sure you allow £90 for them.

Just You do need to consider if they are providing vaue for money for their clients though, there were a number of first times in the group who have said that they will not go with Just You again based on the quality of the hotels used - a shame as I have been on other wonderful holidays with Just You and will again in the future - as long as there is more choice of August dates!

I would suggest that when you get your holiday questionaire, that you fill it in with a covering letter expressing your concerns so that JY can look into your worries and get back to you.

Cindy.

I agree with Suziewales and Shyanne as I did this tour in Sept 2010. I think I posted something along the lines of lovely to see the countries but the hotels were a bit hit and miss. The Budapest hotel in particular was awful as I was given a smoker's room and I don't smoke!! I also remember Jana (and her grandmother!) and Karel the TM and driver.

Sylvia

Di x

I'm so glad you had Jana as your guide to Prague, Vienna and Budapest. I'm surprised that you had such very bad accomodation in Vienna - we were in the Vienna Woods in an hotel that looked like a Swiss Chalet. I'm partly glad that you agree that the meals were, to say the least, mixed. I felt that you thought I was exagerating.

I agree that trying to organise funds is the most tricky part of the getting ready ritual.

All the best

Paula

I agee with the comments about this trip, I thoroughly enjoyed the sights of Prague, Vienna and Budapest with a bunch of great people, especially those on the Manchester flight! I also spent more than I expected as there were three optional excursions that I had not budgeted for but I guess it was my choice to book them.

It was the hotels and food that were a disappointment, having travelled to Europe a lot, I knew not to expect modern quality hotels but this is not a cheap holiday so I did expect a better standard from Just You. The rooms varied in size and quality and it was a bit like a lottery as to which type of room we were allocated and my complaint is that we all paid the same price for the holiday and so should have had equal rooms to a minimum standard.

In Prague, some people had two sleepless nights due to the non-stop rumple of passing trams. The eveining meal was a set meal with no choice and was really rather poor quality. The hotel in Vienna was a bit like Fawlty Towers with toilets that did not flush, showers broken, water pouring into a room from the shower in the room above and some ladies were initally expected to sleep in some old staff room accessed through a doorway off a main corridor and up some stone stairs into the roof space!! It was apparent that some rooms had not been cleaned before our party booked in and we got the impression that if people had not complained then they would not have been re-done, My room there was a cupboard, with just room for a single bed and a small table, it did not even have a wardrobe just a coat rack affair for my clothes and a broken shower! I had to have a hissy fit to get moved after one night but really I should not have to do that, Just You might need to look into using a better value hotel next year, it really was not value for money and many rooms were badly in need of refurbishment.

Most of us struck lucky in Budapest as it was a more modern, mid range hotel that could have been anywhere in the world, with airconditioning and newish fittings. The food though was a different matter, back to a set evening meal with no choice and pretty poor quality.

However, if you have booked already for this season, do not be put off, it is a great holiday and our tour guide was brilliant, you will have a whistle stop tour of three amazing cities with some good excursions of you want to go - just make sure you allow £90 for them.

Just You do need to consider if they are providing vaue for money for their clients though, there were a number of first times in the group who have said that they will not go with Just You again based on the quality of the hotels used - a shame as I have been on other wonderful holidays with Just You and will again in the future - as long as there is more choice of August dates!

Hi there,

Thankyou for your feedback on the Prague, Vienna Budapest holiday.

I was definitely considering this for next year, but there is nothing worse than staying in grotty hotels with mediocre food. I shall go to Southern Europe instead!- regards, Pat

Best wishes,

Bob

Just returned from this trip. Enjoyed it immensely. Jana the Tour Manager was great - met us at the airport in Prague and stuck with us all the way, with lots of humour thrown in. She is great. The coach driver, Karel (stands for Charles in Chez language), was wonderful as well, helpful with the cases and a safe and steady driver. My only disappointment was the standard of the hotels used. The Prague one was quite old and basic; the food was a set meal (think school canteen!) and neither the hotel in Prague or Vienna had air conditioning; which was a major problem as the temperature was into the late 30's/early 40's.

Hotel in Vienna was better but still no air conditioning although food was buffet style which was better.

Budapest hotel was the best (air conditioning at last!!) but again the food at dinner was set meal and awful, although breakfast was the best hotel of the three.

I think for the price paid the holiday was not good value for money. Beware of the extra costs for excursions not included! I didn't buy many souvenirs and no gifts and still managed to spend a total of £450 over the 3 countries.

Hoping the next holiday to Andalucia in September will be better; as celebrating a special birthday whilst away!

I was really looking forward to this trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hotels look great on their websites. Going on 29th August. I was actually looking for info on optional trips as according to JY there aren't any but from reading previous posts knew there had to be some. So it seems to be take the cleaning materials, prepare to starve but most importantly take plenty of money and have the usual good time.

Hi Jenny, I hope you are well! I hope you have a lovely holiday and I wouldn't worry too much about the hotels as rooms vary as do people's views on them, food etc. When I was in Andalucia with JY, a number of people complained regularly about the food and I thought it was absolutely fine. There was a damp patch on the ceiling of my room which I could have complained about, but seeing as the room itself was dry, I didn't! If you look at Trip Advisor you will see that every hotel on it has positive and negative reviews. I am sure it is the same with the hotels on this trip and I'm sorry that some folks were disappointed, but I'm sure many others were happy enough! Hope you enjoy NZ later in the year; I'm off to South America with Travelsphere next month!

All the best,

Bob

Just returned from this trip. Enjoyed it immensely. Jana the Tour Manager was great - met us at the airport in Prague and stuck with us all the way, with lots of humour thrown in. She is great. The coach driver, Karel (stands for Charles in Chez language), was wonderful as well, helpful with the cases and a safe and steady driver. My only disappointment was the standard of the hotels used. The Prague one was quite old and basic; the food was a set meal (think school canteen!) and neither the hotel in Prague or Vienna had air conditioning; which was a major problem as the temperature was into the late 30's/early 40's.

Hotel in Vienna was better but still no air conditioning although food was buffet style which was better.

Budapest hotel was the best (air conditioning at last!!) but again the food at dinner was set meal and awful, although breakfast was the best hotel of the three.

I think for the price paid the holiday was not good value for money. Beware of the extra costs for excursions not included! I didn't buy many souvenirs and no gifts and still managed to spend a total of £450 over the 3 countries.

Hoping the next holiday to Andalucia in September will be better; as celebrating a special birthday whilst away!

Hi Jenny R

I was interested in going on this holiday to Prague, Budapest & Vienna but all the comments about the hotels has put me off booking this holiday. I was disappointed with the hotels on the Classic Cities of Italy that I went on last year, either no air conditioning or if there was it didn't work very well (the temperature was around 37 degrees). Also, you aren't always put in the hotels that are mentioned in the brochure and you aren't aware of this until you get your final itinerary so there is very little point in Googling the hotels beforehand. Although I did mention the problems on the feedback sheet, I never received a reply.

I love going on the Just You holidays and meeting new people but I do wish they would pay more attention to their hotels. Air conditioning is a must in hot countries. Hopefully I will be booking Egypt and the Pyramids for next year so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Kind regards

Iris C

Bob - I am looking at the South America trip with the falls for next year. report on how you get on. As I have read you saying somewhere earlier all hols now will be rated against SA.

Iris - So far all of JY hols have been excellent - will report on this one later.

Any one else who has already done the Prague etc how much local currency would you suggest as phone calls to JY still deny any optional trips on this holiday but from all of your comments there are obviously are.

For info, I took £50 of local currency for Prague but spent half of it on one of the excusions and just about managed with the remaining £20 as my lunch was provided on the boat trip. I was a bit worried about lunch on the journey to Vienna but had enough for a light snack. I took £100 in euros for Vienna and that was plenty for drinks, lunches, entrance money while sightseeing and evening bar bills, I had just 10 euros left which bought me a gin and tonic on the plane home! I then took £50 worth of florints for Hungary which was not enough even though I paid for the excursion (an evening boat trip) in pounds. Some things seemed expensive in Hungary although that might just have been me trying to cope with the third exchange rate of the holiday! Had I been on the London flight and left at 10am for the flight home I would have managed but the Manchester flight did not leave until evening so we had an extra day in Budapest and I changed another £40 in the hotel for the last day as I knew we were planning a guided tour of the synagogue (well worth it) and a decent lunch. I then had plenty left to spend at the airport.

Incidentally, the hotel we stayed at in Vienna Woods was the one described by a previous poster as a swiss chalet but it very disappointing with some of the worst rooms of the tour, poor, overcooked food and overpriced, weak drinks at the bar. It really does need refurbishing and updating with JY ensuring more consistency in room quality for their guests. Had I remained in my 'cupboard' for more than one night, I would be asking for the return of the single supplement that I paid!!