Cindy

Sorry to hear you had a few problems on this tour. Some of this was beyond JY control even so not the best start for you all. 22 JY holidays well done to you. I am glad you all pulled together and the rep was good so you still had a good time. When you say there are more pre holiday groups do you mean people that know one another are travelling together? And WI outing would you care to explain more. As if people have not used JY before they might be confused.

Cindy

Hi Cindy,

I might be wrong but I think what is being said is that there are now more cases of women especially, travelling together or in little groups on JY holidays. With so many now taking this type of holiday you meet a lot of other people and in a lot of cases make new friends who you may subsequently go or join up with on future holidays. On all the holidays I have taken there have always been at least 1 couple of women who travelled together for whatever reason and in 1 case there were 3 together. JY holidays in my opinion are no longer just for singles travelling alone and although I do not have a problem with this I agree that the more couples/groups that travel together it can leave the other travellers feeling perhaps a bit out of it especially if it is the first holiday on your own.

As a man I also find I am always in a minority and again although this is not a huge issue for me I always hope there will be other men on the trip as well and for any holiday I consider, I always ask for the breakdown of men to women. Age is not a problem for me but I would not be so keen to find I was the only male in a group of 20 - 30 women.

I know some men might not agree but personally I like there to be a nice mix within the group and to have at least 1 other male to talk to.

Mike

I agree with Mike's comments. Whilst I too do not have a problem with 'groups / couples' travelling together on Just You holiday, it can be a bit daunting for those travelling on their own for the first time especially if the 'groups / couples' stick together and do not mix. Also, it is good to have a nice mix within the group. Hopefully more men will be encouraged to travel with Just You! I thoroughly enjoyed the June holiday as we had 8 men in the Group and everyone mixed in well.

Jaya

Sorry to hear you had a few problems on this tour. Some of this was beyond JY control even so not the best start for you all. 22 JY holidays well done to you. I am glad you all pulled together and the rep was good so you still had a good time. When you say there are more pre holiday groups do you mean people that know one another are travelling together? And WI outing would you care to explain more. As if people have not used JY before they might be confused.

Cindy

Hi Cindy,

I might be wrong but I think what is being said is that there are now more cases of women especially, travelling together or in little groups on JY holidays. With so many now taking this type of holiday you meet a lot of other people and in a lot of cases make new friends who you may subsequently go or join up with on future holidays. On all the holidays I have taken there have always been at least 1 couple of women who travelled together for whatever reason and in 1 case there were 3 together. JY holidays in my opinion are no longer just for singles travelling alone and although I do not have a problem with this I agree that the more couples/groups that travel together it can leave the other travellers feeling perhaps a bit out of it especially if it is the first holiday on your own.

As a man I also find I am always in a minority and again although this is not a huge issue for me I always hope there will be other men on the trip as well and for any holiday I consider, I always ask for the breakdown of men to women. Age is not a problem for me but I would not be so keen to find I was the only male in a group of 20 - 30 women.

I know some men might not agree but personally I like there to be a nice mix within the group and to have at least 1 other male to talk to.

Mike

I am totally with your thinking Mike, I just wanted the original posters thoughts. I do know what you mean about people travelling together as this happens for me more often than not, I travel with a lady that I met on my very first JY tour in 2006 (I also do travel alone). The thing is when you do a tour you will meet peple with very similar taste thats why your on the same tour, and for me this is a bonus I dont meet the lady inbetween times we live different ends of the country, but when a new brochure comes out we both send our wish list to one another and if the same tour crops up and the dates work then we buddy up. We never cut anybody out infeact I think we make more of an effort to go round the group, and we normally end up with others in a group. I also keep in touch with others via e-mail christmas cards that sort of relationship. so I think its great that sometimes people find a holiday buddy. My buddy and I have looked at going away with out JY but we like the feel and security of a group and the way JY works it works, it works really well for me with or with out my buddy.

I agree men are in the minority on some tours the Nashville and Memphis one I did there were just 2 men!!

Cindy

I've been on 5 holidays now and I've only been on one where none of the group knew each other. I don't mind the odd couple of friends/family members travelling, especially when they mix with everyone else, but when I went to Tuscany last year there was a group of 17 people who already knew each other from a previous holiday travelling - some were ok and mixed, others were horrible nasty people who looked down their noses and made snide comments about us Northerners - that's just people though, and we just ignored them and got on with enjoying our holiday. I did complain to JY about the group being allowed to book in the first place, but they reckoned they knew nothing about it, even though one of the ladies in the group was given a gift by the other 16 members - for organising the holiday for them - so I'm not sure who to believe. I don't think it's acceptable really, and I notice JY still state in the small print in the back of their brochure that Group Reductions are available for groups of 10 or more people - I don't think this should even be in a JY brochure, it defeats the whole object of running holidays for single travellers. I'm still monitoring the situation and if I come across a large group travelling together again, I'll be going away with my local travel agent in future, and it's a great deal cheaper than JY too.

I totally agree with your thoughts, I would be extremely annoyed if there were a large group travelling together as I believe that the whole idea of JY is that it is for people travelling on their own. On my recent holiday there were 2 ladies travelling together and they were not good at mixing.I appreciate that it is difficult for the company to monitor but large groups should be discouraged.

I've been on 5 holidays now and I've only been on one where none of the group knew each other. I don't mind the odd couple of friends/family members travelling, especially when they mix with everyone else, but when I went to Tuscany last year there was a group of 17 people who already knew each other from a previous holiday travelling - some were ok and mixed, others were horrible nasty people who looked down their noses and made snide comments about us Northerners - that's just people though, and we just ignored them and got on with enjoying our holiday. I did complain to JY about the group being allowed to book in the first place, but they reckoned they knew nothing about it, even though one of the ladies in the group was given a gift by the other 16 members - for organising the holiday for them - so I'm not sure who to believe. I don't think it's acceptable really, and I notice JY still state in the small print in the back of their brochure that Group Reductions are available for groups of 10 or more people - I don't think this should even be in a JY brochure, it defeats the whole object of running holidays for single travellers. I'm still monitoring the situation and if I come across a large group travelling together again, I'll be going away with my local travel agent in future, and it's a great deal cheaper than JY too.

I do remember reading about a large group on a tour before so that must be your posting. I agree that's a very large group, and I did read in the small print about groups, it would be acceptable if the group took up a whole tour and there was no one else but not a huge group travelling also with single travellers, the most I have seen is a group of 5 friends travelling together they really didn't mix with others beyond a smile and a hello. It's a hard situation for JY to monitor to satisfy us all.

My friend and I book separately so JY wouldn't even necessarily know we know each other...

Cindy

Fellow travellers have told me about how it spoilt previous tours for them.

My friend has just returned from a JY holiday ( I won't name it as she is going to do a review herself ) and said never again as almost the entire group were travelling with a friend or friends and didn't mix.

If this is happening you might just as well book from the wider choice of holidays offered by other companies and go by yourself.

I've usually found that although the male travellers are usually in the minority they do mix well. Well done guys! :thumbup:

Incidentally we had a small group for the Slovenia trip in May and it was brilliant because everyone mixed together really well. No sign of cliquing at all. Loved it.

Going back to the original review. And thank you to the reviewer. I have been many times to Sorrento and have thought often about going back with JY, but to be honest I have read quite a few reviews and not been impressed.

Other peoples posts remind me somewhat of when I did the NPs, Canyons and LBH holiday. There were about 38 of us on the trip of which amongst us there were 2 of what I would describe as cliques of 4 people, all women. One of the cliques seemed to have a problem with other people and made no real effort to hide the fact that they were talking about you, you know what I mean, the look, the leaning over to whisper something and then all heads turning around to look, more like a bunch of schoolgirls than women in their 50s. This was the first time I had come across this on a JY holiday and to start with I found it quite intimidating but it was a full on holiday with plenty of nice people, so they were easy to forget about. Luckily I have never come across people like that since.

There always seems to be the odd couple or two who are together, I have no problem with that, they usually mix well but, there are some who keep themselves to themselves, there has been the odd occasion where I didn't even exchange words with them because they seemed oblivious to the fact they were part of a group.

I have had the privilege to meet some lovely people on my travels and had some great holidays, I hope the future of JY doesn't start coming down to pre-arranged groups and more cliques, no fault of JY. If people already know each other before hand other singletons are going to start to feel like outsiders, especially the newer people, after all JY advertise themselves as "The Single Traveller Specialists" which to me, if I where a newcomer, would paint a picture of people travelling alone, not in groups. I have been travelling with JY since 2005 but I think if I was on a holiday where there was a group of 17 together, some of which were seemingly not very nice people, it would make me start thinking if I still wanted to travel with JY.

I personally prefer smaller groups. One of the best groups I had was when there were 15 of us, nobody knew each other beforehand and it was the only holiday where I actually managed to remember every ones name (I'm useless with names) because we all mixed well together.

Its surprising what one persons comment brings to the fore, only a fraction of JY customers use the forum, I wonder how many more stories are out there that people have not spoken about and just put down to a bad experience.

Avocet

I was part of a small group of 9, who were on a Highlights of Tuscany tour in September of last year. Before we left Edinburgh Airport for Gatwick our Organiser, who was not going on the holiday, met with us and advised us that, as the remainder of the group were all single travellers, we should make sure that we mixed with them. I did this and had a most enjoyable holiday. However it was obvious that there were at least a couple of groups of two who knew each other.

Even some of our group of 9 had not met before, as some came from Edinburgh and some from Glasgow - so what makes a "group"? We were all single people.

This was my first trip with Just You - I had never heard of the company, until advised of the holiday by our organiser.

Douglas.:shy:

When you say "single people" do you mean "single travellers", not everyone who goes on a JY holiday is single, some travel without their partners for various reasons.

A vast majority of people on a JY holiday have never met their fellow travellers before until they meet at the airport. The groups and cliques referred to are people who already know each other, some of which don't mix easily with others who are on their own.

I was part of a small group of 9, who were on a Highlights of Tuscany tour in September of last year. Before we left Edinburgh Airport for Gatwick our Organiser, who was not going on the holiday, met with us and advised us that, as the remainder of the group were all single travellers, we should make sure that we mixed with them. I did this and had a most enjoyable holiday. However it was obvious that there were at least a couple of groups of two who knew each other.

Even some of our group of 9 had not met before, as some came from Edinburgh and some from Glasgow - so what makes a "group"? We were all single people.

This was my first trip with Just You - I had never heard of the company, until advised of the holiday by our organiser.

Douglas.:shy:

When you say "single people" do you mean "single travellers", not everyone who goes on a JY holiday is single, some travel without their partners for various reasons.

A vast majority of people on a JY holiday have never met their fellow travellers before until they meet at the airport. The groups and cliques referred to are people who already know each other, some of which don't mix easily with others who are on their own.

Yes, I should have said "single travellers". However, the group that I was with from Edinburgh were all single "people".

Perhaps, when you want to book a particular Just You Holiday, the Bookings Office should advise you, where appropriate, that there is a group of ??? travellers booked on that holiday and that would give you the option of going for another date if you wanted to? That would not stop the problem of the people, who already know each other and don't mix easily.