This was my first trip with Travelsphere, having done 15 holidays with JY. It was 4 nights in the Grand Hotel, Riva del Garda in Italy and 6 nights in the Plankenhof Hotel in Pill, Austria, and there were 5 singles and 16 couples. The weather was blue skies and sun every day, but no snow, except on the hills!
* The Travelling - British Airways from Gatwick to Verona and then from Innsbruck to Gatwick. Airline fine. I upgraded to Club Europe on the way out, and the meal (and champagne!) made the 2 hour flight very pleasant. The coach and TM met us at Verona Airport (although I kept going over to the JY group who were doing the Lake Garda Xmas trip!). 1 1/2 hour transfer to the hotel, which normally would have been shorter as there was an accident on the way. We had 2 coach drivers during the trip (Marcus was Austrian and excellent, as was Tommy). The main problem was that the hotel in Pill was at least 1 hour away from all the daily excursions which were based in the same area, so we got to know that stretch of road pretty well!
* The Hotels - the Grand Hotel in Riva del Garda is large, modern and the only good thing about it was the location right on the Lake! Food acceptable, staff surly, entertainment so loud you had to yell in the lounge! Do not be fobbed off with a single room (403) even if it has got a double bed - you could not swing a cat in it and there was nowhere to put your clothes - I changed my room immediately! I think it was the luck of the draw though as one of the other "Singles" had a slightly larger room, but with a balcony & a lake view. I gather some of the couples were not too happy either. TripAdviser do not give this hotel a good review.
In contrast, the Plankenhof in Pill (half an hour from Innsbruck) was fantastic. Family run hotel, with the best food I have ever had in any hotel in the world - seriously! Again I had to change my room, but only because the bathroom was a bit "neat" for my new hip! Michele, the owner makes his own schnapps and we had a tasting downstairs in the cellar - highly recommended. Location is not great - church, Spar, "Upside down house" and a walk through the woods/up to the waterfall.
* Excursions - these were daily and all included. If you have the same TM as we did, take your own guide books, as we were not given any information whatsoever of any of the places we went to or the surrounding areas!! We did have "proper guides" in Verona, Innsbruck and Munich - most of these guided tours lasted about 2 hours, and the guides were excellent, although the one in Innsbruck was an acquired taste! We had at least 3 hours free time after these tours, and normally you had to find your own map at the Tourist Office. On the other excursions we were on our own and just told what time to be back at the bus! My personal recommendations are the "The Ice Man" museum in Bolzano, and a good and enormous pizza in Verona! It is also well worth taking the various cable cars up to the top of the mountain (7,400 ft) in Innsbruck - you can get a combined lift and zoo ticket, but the zoo wasn't worth it apart from the brown bear! On a lot of the trips we were far too early, and Kufstein turned into a bit of a farce as they wanted us to stand in the freezing cold for 3 hours until 12.30 AM to see the fireworks - only 5 people decided to do this, and the rest of us went back to the hotel! Christmas Day we had a boat trip on Lake Garda (at the request of a guest) - the TM made out this was especially for us and at a "special" rate of 25 Euros instead of 35 Euros - the JY group were onboard, paid nothing,had a fantastic hotel and food, and a really good TM - I nearly joined them for Christmas Dinner! New Year's Day in Kitzbuhel started with a horse drawn carriage ride and then late afternoon the famous torch-lit ski display down the Hinterstadt - be aware you are packed in, on the ice and snow, with 30,000 people - wear appropriate footwear!
The other excursions included a dairy farm (Grosser Stinker cheese recommended), a schnapps factory, a glass shop, a frozen lake, the fort at Kufstein etc. One of the best included events was an amazing choral concert (just for us) with 19 singers in a church in Ellmau one evening (the church was freezing though!).
* Costs - in Austria you have to pay to use the loos at motorway service stations (50c - 70c). Wine and Gluwein was really cheap. As most of the shops were closed when we arrived for afternoon excursions, we didn't spend much money! The wine in the hotel in Lake Garda was about 14 Euros a bottle (Bardolino), coffee about 2.50 euros, bottle of beer about 3 euros.
* Travelling with TS as a Single. Well, what can I say?! There were at least 3 couples who were very "territorial" and downright rude. With such a large group, there were some people I didn't get to even speak to. All 5 of us Singles got on well, and 2 sat at a different table from the beginning as they had got friendly with some couples. I was shunted from table to table in Lake Garda, and we were told we could not have a table just for the Singles on Christmas Day - the said 3 couples said it was "their table"!! I have done 2 Xmas/New Year trips with JY and we always got a Xmas card, chocolate Santa or something, but with this trip you did not know it was even Christmas Day! There were 2 other British tours in the hotel, and they were having a good time! Be adamant about getting a decent room - we were paying an extra £400 single supplement which is high even by TS's normal tours.Trips with JY, in my opinion, were far better than TS - you are looked after so well, and to date I have always had pretty good Tour Managers who had done their homework! On New Year's Eve we had an excellent 8 course dinner, but no music, dancing, countdown to midnight, no Auld Lang Syne (I was the only Scot!), no drink in hand at midnight (except for me), but they fireworks they laid on were good! Half the men made no effort whatsoever to dress up either, so it was a bit of a damp squib for me.
* Conclusion - would I travel with TS again at Xmas and New Year? Probably not! I would go again with JY though! Unfortunately on this trip we had a TM who didn't speak German in Austria (he was Italian), didn't keep us properly informed, but recited all the football results for every club in the world - great if you are in to football, not so good if you are not! If you are going to do a TS trip (and I know that some of you have), I would recommend going with a friend (even if you have separate rooms) - JY really look after you and make sure you are enjoying the holiday, but on this occasion the TM only checked if I was OK as he knew I was going to do a review!! Having said that, I got on quite well with him - well he was quite good looking!
Cheers,
Hils
