I enjoyed the tour very much, though its my first time to experience being a Ninja Tourist. Gives us more discipline and being orderly in the Tour. Our driver Sinisa was a very smooth driver and took care of our luggages. Jared was very knowledgeable about giving a history first of the places we've visited. I like Laurie and Jared because they know your name all of us being 44 onboard, that's amazing! They gave us extra surprises while on board like Macarons, Chocolates, Wine, little things matters. They were so organized and didn't experience much hassle at all. Highly recommended to new travelers.
Amazing sightseeing and a fabulous way to see so much in a relatively short period of time. You can't go wrong with the places visited. The amount of time in most places visited were ample enough to explore and get a really good feel for it. The hotels were very disappointing. 2-3 star at best. They were usually located 30-40 min outside of any major centre which left nothing to do in the evenings and if you opted out of an optional excursion you were on your own for transportation into a major centre which in some instances proved costly. Most hotels did not have lifts/elevators or staff to help carry bags. Older people on the tour found it very challenging to lift heavy bags up flights of stairs. The pace was fast and there was a great deal of walking so it is not for the faint of heart. On a few occasions we arrived after 8:30 PM to our hotel so they were also long days, people were very tired. I would be very selective on who I recommended this tour to. Certainly to those who are fit and have a good amount of stamina and don't care about the standard of accommodations (at least the bathrooms were clean in every establishment, but not really much else to be positive about). But I would not suggest this tour for someone over 70, or to someone who likes to stay in 4-5 star hotels. The places visited were truly beautiful and we certainly got an historical education that was delightfully entertaining. I warmed up to the tour guide toward the end but initially he was rather off-putting, unapproachable, disorganized and appeared to rush through information. As the tour went on he softened and became more humorous and helpful and actually had some redeeming qualities. But for some we were traveling with, those first impressions of our tour guide did not change.
We did the first half of the Coast to Coast, we were blessed with the weather. Everything was well organised, the accommodation was friendly and comfortable. The walk was great, challenging at times, the GPX files and the guide book helped as at times the trail was poorly signposted.