This tour was a great value. Hotels were comfortable, bus driver was excellent, and the food was, for the most part, very good. The local guides taught us a lot.
This was a trip comprised of 15 Canadian women all of whom I knew. Hiking was what appealed to me the most. Second was supplementing the knowledge I'd gained from sailing in the Cyclades (2013) as well as hiking in Corfu last May. Moving beds every three days on average and catching ferries on five occasions. although spelled out in the tour's monograph, didn't seem so onerous until one actually lived it.
The Positives Yannis our tour driver was Excellent.. He was such a skillful driver, very helpful and gentlemanly as he would also help us alight from the bus. And he treated our luggages with care unlike during my Northern Explorer Tour last Septmeber 2017 where my luggage broke because of rough handling by the tour driver. The hotels that were good were Kosco Hotel which had complete amenities, Hotel Belvedere in Macedonia were the linens were excellent and the place had several grand pianos where one of my travel mates played the piano. Sky2 Hotel in Albania was also nice. Hotel VIS in Dubrovnik had a nice. location beside the water and breakfast.was good, Hotel Park in Slovenia was centrally located and walking distance to the the center of the city. Ibis Hotel in Budapest had a nice location since it was walking distance to Heroe's Square and a park but the airconditioning in most of the rooms were not working and since we were there on holiday, the place did not have the needed maintenance personnel. The food at Hotel Vicko in Northern Croatia was good and the owner very helpful but our room assignments were confusing although the apartel were we were assigned was nice. Ramada Blue in Sofia had complete amenities but the floor were we were assigned ( 4th floor) still needs renovation. I understand that hotel is still undergoing renovation. In general, the sights we saw during the trip were nice and the included dinner was okey but the one in Athens Greece on our first night was excellent I was wondering though if the included dinners in the other places reflected the actual local food of the place. THE NEGATIVES Since most of the tourists are seniors, I think all the shower areas of all the hotels should include a MAT inside the shower area and grab bars because the shower areas were always slippery and one had to be careful about slipping. The Hotel EL GRECO was terrible. Please skip MOSTAR. It is not worth the 6 passport checks.