Having yet to receive the promised questionnaire - I have now decided to put my thoughts down in this review. As both a first time solo traveller and first time using JY - I spent a lot of time considering whether I wanted to go on such a holiday and what it would be like - and there seemed to be very good reviews in the past re the JY holidays.
I have always fancied travelling to Tuscany and the hotel that was advertised when booking the holiday back in January looked idyllic - with the hills of Tuscany surrounding the hotel. I was looking forward to getting out seeing some fantastic scenery, as well as having some relax time by the pool - and some great Italian food.....For me the perfect holiday.
Unfortunately a few weeks before the holiday - we were advised that there was a hotel change - it would still be a 4* hotel - but the original hotel had gone into liquidation. This change of hotel made a huge difference to the overall holiday experience - and I already note this hotel is not being used for other Walking in Tuscany tours.
The holiday was half board for the whole 7 days. The food both at breakfast and the evening was poor to say the least.....I don't do watered down fruit juice of an indescribable colour! The evening meals (which we had to order at breakfast) were very much a lottery between getting a poor meal and a really poor meal, and as the week progressed seemed to decline.....perhaps because so many of the meals looked like the ones from the previous evenings.
On Day 6 some of us rebelled to get a decent meal in town - and one fellow traveller made the comment - I now feel I am on holiday - having had a good meal.
The final nights gala meal was a classic - one more course a small appetiser - but then no choice for the rest of the meal - and again along the lines of the rest of the week - only this time we had the chefs parading in front of us (twice!)- for us to show them our appreciation - you couldn't make it up! The second appearance of the chefs was after the "saltiest" meal I have ever been asked to eat.
I could say a lot more about the hotel - but just one final comment for here and that is to repeat a comment from one of my fellow travellers at dinner one evening "I just feel we are like 2nd class citizens here the way we are being treated".
The other downside to the change of hotel - was the location - which was quite a way from the location of the original hotel - this led to very long coach journeys to most of our walks. I really wasn't expecting to be spending 5 hours on some days in a coach! Really wasn't expecting to be leaving hotel at 7.30 for one of the walks.... and most days we were getting back with less than a hour before our allotted dinner time.
Now to the positives of the holiday - the places we went to and saw were brilliant - we had a fantastic Tour Manager - Sylvia - who for me made the holiday - so much energy so much enthusiasm - still laughing at the memory of her - lightening up one particular long coach journey by teaching us how to communicate in Italian by throwing our arms around in different ways!
In terms of the walks - I would say beware re the comment "some walks will be slightly more strenuous and may involve moderate slopes, tracks and hills, which may be rough underfoot at times". In my terms - the walk in the forest was more than a "moderate slope". It may have been moderate but it was a very long walk up the slope!!!
So in summary - my view as a first JY and solo traveller - loved the days out - loved the company of my fellow travellers - and the TM was fantastic. However, I will be a lot more wary and questioning about the hotels used in future - the length of the days out/start times - after all it is supposed to be a holiday!!!