Value for money: This was extremely poor, as unless one booked for all the "optional" excursions you would have seen very little, except a few buildings from the window of the coach! On the first morning, an included tour to Red Square proved to be a non-event as there was a festival on and our local guide, Elena, couldn't gain access. We were then left either to return to the hotel at 1 - 2 pm or to wander around and make our own way back - a bit much on our first day in Moscow and with little or no guidance on what was open or available to visit. When we later queried this with our guide, Richard, he tried to say that nobody knew this festival was happening..............one of the party had a guidebook which stated clearly that this festival had been happening on the first weekend in September for more than 800 years!!!

No preparation had been done by either Richard or Elena, not even to find out closing times of other museums or churches in the area.

There were two optional evening excursions, both of which I booked and paid for when in Russia, a total of €114. The first of these, Moscow by Night, was almost a joke, were it not so expensive. When I enquired, prior to booking, what was involved for €48, I was told that we would be seeing the lights o Moscow and finishing up with a "special treat" of champagne and Russian chocolates. Naively I took this to mean that we would be visiting a plush bar or night club and thought it would be worth it for the experience, as the hotel (Moscow Korston) was pretty dreadful, but that's another story. We were driven around a few vantage points where we could see the lights of the city, (including Red Square - still closed off!!) then taken to a park by a lake where Richard proceeded to distribute (cheap) champagne in plastic cups and pass around some chocolates...........the trip may have been worth 20 - 25 euro, but not 48. Similarly in St Petersburg, the "Russian Evening" was a bit of a joke at €66 - I don't think anyone who attended thought it was anything other than boring and very poor value. Even allowing for the different price structures in Russia, these tours can only be described as a "rip-off" - an opinion that seemed to be shared by most people on the trip.

While not wishing to be over-critical or nasty, I cannot get over how unsatisfactory Richard was as a tour leader/guide. He seemed to delight in never giving a straight answer to a question and to not revealing information when asked to do so. His style may have been popular in a Butlins Holiday Camp situation, but for a supposedly sophisticated tour like this he was a disaster. The contrast between him and our guide on the Peru trip, Jonny, could not have been greater.

Both hotels were quite mediocre, but food was not of great concern to me on such a holiday. However, I do think some decent entertainment/outings should have been organised for the evenings. In St Petersburg, a few of us made an effort (with no help from Richard or the local guide, Andre) to see an opera at the Marinsky Theatre and managed to do so at a very reasonable cost - less than either excursion - so it would have been easy to organise for members of the group who wanted a decent evening out.

I will resist the temptation to go on.........I think I have made the general picture apparent. Suffice it to say that many people on the tour were saying that never again would they book a trip with Just You, as there are many other companies in the single travel market now, offering much better value and a more comprehensive experience. I feel it is only fair to let you know this, so perhaps steps can be taken to improve the points mentioned above.

I’m really sorry that you felt disappointed with your Just You trip. We want all our travellers to have a wonderful holiday experience, so we are extremely concerned if this is not the case.

We do take all feedback, both positive and negative, on board when planning our holidays and I have spoken to my colleague in our customer services team who I understand has written to you directly to address the issues you raised.

Kindest regards

Julia

Thanks for the feedback- i have been l;ooking at this tour for a long time and it would be interesting to know what comes about as a result of your feedback. Please do keep us updated.

Thanks

Hi maglynn,

Thanks for the feedback- i have been l;ooking at this tour for a long time and it would be interesting to know what comes about as a result of your feedback. Please do keep us updated.

Thanks

I am reading these comments with horror, as I went on this trip a year ago and the group of 27 all had an absolutely brilliant time and we could not praise the arrangements, hotels, tour manager(Bernie) highly enough! Our guides were both knowledgeable and helpful and the tours were wonderful and awe inspiring! I am sorry about the disappointment felt by people on this trip, but I loved Moscow in particular. The train journey was interesting and st. Petersburg a real contrast to Moscow, with real opulent palaces and sights. I hope that others in future will have the same wonderful memories as I and I cannot fault JY in any way.

I will however say one or two things in defence of JY, having gone on six holidays with them and another one booked. I think they offer great value for money, generally staying in mid-range hotels (some have been exceptional and some basic, but I go on these holidays to see the sights, not for a luxury break) and including a good number of excursions - that way, those who want some time to themselves can have it, whilst those like me who want a full on tour, to get the most out of the holiday, can book the optional ones. Naturally they are somewhat limited in the hotels they can book, as they have to come to an agreement with each hotel regarding a group booking for solo occupancy with implications for meals etc. Also there is not a great range of travel companies specialising in solo travel - there are only two large companies, JY and Solo's - and the latter favour activity or sun holidays, with only a handful of touring ones. JY are the only company specialising in solo travellers which have a wide range of touring holidays and although no company is perfect, I think they offer great holidays at a reasonable price. Their itineraries (esp on long haul tours) are action packed and let you see the best of each destination. I regularly look at other companies to compare and I can honestly say that in general JY have itineraries that either match or surpass those offered by other companies, especially the few that offer solo tours.

All the best,

Bob

I will also say that a JY tour manager can make the difference for me from a good to a brilliant holiday, some managers are far superior to others, I remember the lady we had on the Nashville and Memphis tour, to be honest she might as well not been there! but we all mucked in together and sorted things out ourselves, I do understand other people on a tour would think why should we do this when a manager is there, well I am sorry this is my holiday and I have spent a great deal of money so if the manager isn't doing the job then I WILL sort things out for myself and others in the party. Another time when the main party was left behind as the add on group moved on with the rep, we were left in an unsafe area (hotel) I contact JY via email back in England, and by the next morning they sorted out a full on days itinerary for the group to remove us from the hotel early in the morning and take us out to museums in Washington before departure late that evening, which I was and everyone else was great full for. Sometimes it needs someone to roll there sleeves up and make things happen.

Don't be afraid of doing this while your away, as they can help you sometimes if they know there is a problem.

The other thing I have learnt along my JY journey is to try and chill out a bit, some things are worth moaning about and other things just let it go...

The managers can make or break a holiday so my finishing point to JY would be PLEASE please make sure the managers love the job they are doing as it really does show to us the clients the ones that do and the others that don't.

Cindy

Thank you very much for your honest review of your holiday. It is sad to say, that from what I have read recently, it seems like a holiday is only as good or as bad as the Tour Manager in charge. I certainly agree that JY should have planned their itinerary better to avoid the festival in Red Square, and for the TM to say he didn’t know a festival was taking place to me means he obviously did not do his job properly. Festivals just don’t happen overnight!! so perhaps JY should look at this.

Whilst I agree that everyone’s views on what spoils a holiday is different, holidaying for single travelers is not cheap and most of us have to work very hard to pay for our holidays. Therefore a certain level of service is expected, ie a TM who is properly prepared and the itinerary you were promised for starters.

Anyway I really hope that you next holiday proves to be more fun.

Thanks again for your review

Kezzer

I feel that to give honest feedback is constructive rather than negative, as I know that at least a few others on that trip were extremely disappointed but probably wouldn't bother writing once they got home. However, I would not let my comments put anyone off taking this trip as the cities themselves are extremely interesting, particularly St. Petersburg, and I am sure it is possible to see Red Square at most other times of the year - we were just unlucky. I still think that the two night tours were poor value, but I guess tastes and values differ.

For the record, I am resonably happy that JY listened and replied to my comments and I will most likely travel with them again in the future.

Best wishes to all fellow travellers!

It's good to hear your experiences, as it's the bad ones that will always stay with you. I don't see why some people feel the need to jump to JY defence whenever something critical is posted, especially when they werent even on the trip with you! What you experienced is personal to you and noone can say you didnt experience or feel that way. It sounded shocking, and the strength of any organisation is how they remedy complaints and things that go wrong. I hope Just You takes your points about the Tour Manager seriously and addresses it, as they really can make or break a holiday for a lot of people, me included. solo Travel is not cheap, Just you is not cheap, and we should not be expected to be treated second class.

I have been lucky on the trips I've done that nothing major has happenned to spoil them, and the Tour Managers have ranged from good to exceptional (in the case of Jonathan Clarke on the Tuscany tour I've just returned from).

This is why we need feedback about Tour Managers and how they are, with their names shown against the holidays, as myself and others I'm sure would choose holidays with Managers we know and trust, and those that have got good reviews.

I've looked at this tour a few times but will now wait to see if it improves and more favourable reviews are posted in the future. Thanks for your feedback, its been invaluable.

Bearing in mind quite a few people haven't been on holiday on their own before, I think a tour rep should be there as much or as little as needed, and needs to be knowledgeable and helpful.

I've been on 5 holidays now, and had 4 different tour reps - 3 of which were brilliant. I think it's important to feel safe and secure on these tours, which is why I use Just You. I feel having a poor tour rep is inexcusable for a company specialising in holidays for single travellers. Rolling my sleeves up and getting on with organising my own tour is not why I'm paying through the nose for a holiday.

I agree with the above about producing a list of tour reps for each tour. I have already refused to go on another tour with the rep I had for my Lisbon holiday, which probably means I'll be booking my holidays quite late from now on, but I'm not risking having such a poor tour manager again.

It would be good to know what has changed given the feedback as i am going to book this in April!!

Mark

My post seems to have disappeared.

I was wondering what changes had been made given the feedback made on this thread. This is a contender for next year!

Thanks, Mark

Sorry for the delay in coming back to you - I needed to check through all the details....

This tour generally has very favourable feedback receiving a customer rating of good or excellent by 90% of those who travelled with us in the last 12 months. That being said, on this particular departure there were some issues.

Sadly, parts of Moscow were inaccessible due to the city day celebrations and in the days running up to the event, the local authorities frequently changed their guidelines in relation to the celebrations and then, to add insult to injury, unplanned protests in the centre of the city had further impact on the trip. In light of these events, an errata has been created forewarning customers wanting to travel over that period in the future.

Historically we have not received poor feedback with regard to the quality of the hotels and repetition of meals and in 2014 we will be using the same hotels that were used for 2013. However, our team have been collating the views of all of our clients so that we can make a decision as to whether or not we continue using these in the future.

In terms of the Tour Manager – we appreciate how important these are to all of our travellers and aim to employ representatives who we believe will do everything possible to ensure our customers holidays meet and exceed their expectations. We take all negative feedback very seriously and the comments made from this trip have been investigated.

This is only a small look at the much bigger picture that our teams have been reviewing since this particular group returned, and I hope that is sheds some light as to how we are listening to the feedback received.

Kindest regards,

Julia

Thanks for the reply. I didnt know whether they had disappeared into the online etha or not, hence why i checked. I've wanted to do this holiday for ages and it looks like a suitable date has come up.

Thanks for your help once again.

Mark

I found it quite annoying that each time we went on trips either to the city centre or out of town we were always back at the hotel quite early. We then had a big gap of up to 2 hours from memory until we met for dinner. It would have been nicer to spend the extra time exploring wherever we were. It seemed such a waste of time hanging around the hotels with nothing to do as they were away from the centre of the cities. We had the option to find our own way back but I really didn't feel comfortable doing that especially as nothing was in English.

I went on a trip to New Zealand with Just You about 4 years ago and enjoyed it so much. The tour guide (sorry I can't remember the ladies name) was so helpful and organised that I didn't have to worry about anything. This is one of the reasons that I go on these type of holidays so that I don't have to worry and everything is in place.

I am looking at booking another holiday this year but am unsure if I want to book through Just You and take the risk of not enjoying it again. It is a lot of money and want to get the best experience that I can from my trip.

Like other people I am not one to complain normally but I feel I have to add my thoughts on this trip.