A short(ish) review for a short trip! This was an excellent holiday with a very good group and tour manager, Susan Burn. We stayed for four nights in the Chateau Bela in southern Slovakia, which was renovated ten years ago and is a stunning building in lovely grounds. The rooms were wonderful, each with individual character - I discovered to my surprise that Prince Harry stayed in my room a couple of years ago for a wedding! The food in the chateau was very good and beautifully presented. Wine is very much a personal preference and I found the wines served to be good, rather than outstanding but they were very drinkable! We were offered a choice of red or white each night, but we weren't given any details of what we were drinking. The servings were small but most nights we could have a third glass if we wished. On the final full day, we went for a walk up the road to the vineyard in the company of a member of staff and afterwards we met the owner of the winery and he gave us a very informative and humorous talk on its history.
The chateau is two hours from Budapest and two and a half hours from Bratislava. The scenery was a mixture of gentle hills and farming land and was very green. We enjoyed full day visits to each city in the company of local guides and both cities are charming and well worth visiting. The included lunch on board the boat in Budapest was most enjoyable and there was lots of free time in Bratislava to find somewhere good to eat - prices were not that high. At the chateau, drinks you buy yourself are put on a tab and we settled up on the last day - prices were a bit cheaper than they are at home. There is a shop two minutes walk away which sells water very cheaply and it was also available on the bus. The rooms had eastern European style sockets, which took two pin adaptors - but be sure your adaptor has a hole above the pins, as the sockets have a pin in them! Google this, if you're not sure what I mean. The hotel has wifi in the reception area, but not in most of the rooms. The rooms didn't have air con and some/most didn't have hairdryers, tea/coffee facilities or room safes, so make sure you bring a padlock for your case. Having said that, the chateau is located in an isolated and very small village and it felt very safe. After the wine tasting (two whites and a red) some of us wandered up to the local pub, which was an experience! Beer was only 80c a pint!
The group were very friendly and we got on well - a very sociable bunch! Ages ranged from 40s - 80s, with 11 women and 4 men. The weather was very good - cool first thing in the mornings but it quickly heated up. There wasn't any need for insect repellent when we were there, but it might be a different story later on in the year. Thunderstorms were forecast but apart from a couple of brief showers, we had dry weather all the way. People dressed up slightly in the evenings but there was no pressure to do so. I'm sure I haven't covered everything so I will rely on some of my wonderful travelling companions to fill in the blanks!
All the best,
Bob
