This tour combined a very well thought-out itinerary overall with much appreciated free days in several key cities along the way. The included city guides were excellent as were the included tour dinner venues. All of them. The included River/Canal cruises were great too! I participated in several ""optional activities"" and all were very high quality and worthwhile, particularly the Jungfraujoch in Switzerland. But even a great itinerary can leave participants unsatisfied without great leadership. I'd like to give SUPER-HIGH MARKS to SHAE HARRINGTON, our tour guide, as she kept the tour (morning bus departures, city visits, side visits, hotel arrivals, evening activities, etc.) on-schedule and Shae was always available to answer questions or lend help, all with a great sense of humour and a smile. I give the EJ tour high marks equally for the great itinerary and the great execution by Shae.
Had a wonderful time and every scenery and country we've been to is worth it and a dream come true for me. Only thing for solo travelers sharing a twin room with other travelers, I would like to suggest the tour operator to have travelers declare if they have sleep apnea all the more if they are to share a room with others. People with sleep apnea shouldn't be sharing a room with other travelers since the experience for the one sharing somehow declines due to sleep deprivation. I wish the operator would do something about your rules and be more considerate with your solo travelers. Thank you. Overall though the tour and itineraries works well for me and it was an amazing experience for me.
This was our 2nd experience with the tour operator. We had such a great time before, hence we booked again,It was generally good, tho I wish we were informed in advance during our email correspondence with Expat that they changed a part of the itinerary, since we already planned and booked our subsequent trip based on the one they emailed us!We already booked our train tix and hotel accommodations for our trip onwards from the last published lunch stop(since we were no longer going back to Ams with the grp) only to be told on the first day that we were no longer stopping there(Hannover).Nevertheless, Carly, the tour guide and Hans, the driver were considerate enough to drop us off at a train stop ,albeit small and obscure, somewhere in the vicinity before proceeding to their last lunch destination.Also, I would just suggest that whenever possible, they get real local tour guides in the cities we go to, because the one we had in Tallin, Estonia only lived in that place for 5 years and was more concentrated in impressing us with his "academic" knowledge-made us seat in the cold for 30 min "lecturing" us, instead of just leisurely walking us around and being sensitive to our requests.Carly, the tour leader, while being technically efficient and judiciious with her job, sadly lacked people skills. She hardly smiled and came off as grumpy, cold, even standoffish, to us , her supposed "guests". For instance,when we gave her our honest feedback on how we perceived that "non-local" guide, she got very defensive, and "berated" us even! Fortunately, the whole group was comprised of happy and easygoing people ( more than half were filipinos! ), hence,we enjoyed the tour ,inspite of her barely-there people skills Hans, tho, was nice and congenial, and a very good driver! Anyways, the whole tour experience was a good value for money.We just certainly hope that we will have better memories with the next tour leader should we try for the 3rd time..