First visit to Europe...Paris to Athens Overall, we had a great trip. We appreciated that Bookmundi booked our hotels, intra-city transportation, pick up from Paris and to Athens airport, and tours. However, the first hotel, Novotel in Paris, was terrible. It was absolutely horrible!! We were greeted very poorly by the French staff, treated very poorly in the restaurant where we ate one night, and, worse, the rooms were run down and dirty. It was very, very loud and in a terrible neighborhood. We really couldn't believe that was our first impression of Paris :( Luckily, once we got to our tour sites (which I might add were a little far and difficult to find.. maybe better explained in the itinerary), the tours were pretty good. Our hotel in Rome was much better, but again, it was a little far from the sites, so we had to take a taxi everywhere. You definitely need to allow extra money in your trip for taxis, trains, subways, etc...Our hotel in Venice, the Leonardo, was beautiful, but the location unfortunately was not so good. Our room faced the train tracks, so we heard the loud trains starting at 5 in the morning. I asked to change to the street side, but of course they had no rooms on that side left. Our last hotel in Athens, the Athena Grand, was beautiful! It was again on a busy street, but we didn't hear the noise as much since they had enclosed balconies. The staff there by far were the friendliest, kindest, and had the best breakfast of all the places we stayed. Once again, however, we had to walk 30-40 minutes to get to the nice restaurants and to our tour of the city. We did take a taxi one day, which I guess is always an option. My suggestion is that the agency books better hotels that are closer to the tour sites, even if the price is higher. Either that or give us an option prior to booking on where to stay.
Wonderful first cycling holiday This was my first cycling holiday so I was not sure what to expect. Since the trip is rated Moderate I thought it may be challenging as I have not done much cycling before and only bought a bike a month ago. At times it was a bit tough with windy conditions and since I wanted to stop and take photos to make it easier for myself Michele arranged for me to get an E-bike on the second day. This made a huge difference especially for the hills and I didn't have any worries anymore.
Best experience for a solo traveller This was my first experience of travelling solo and my first experience doing an organized cycle tour. So I had a few concerns about whether I would like the group, would the cycling be interesting and challenging enough, would I meet people that I could become long term friends with. Well I should not have worried. The group dynamics were fantastic with a range of ages and professions from all corners of the world and we all got on wonderfully. The cycling was beautiful - I had heard so much about the Amalfi coast so was very surprised that the Cilento coast was even better to cycle with a little less traffic and a lot less touristy. And it was certainly challenging - not ever so much that you think you can't make it but even the fittest of us felt some of the long hills. And we did develop friendships that are enduring - even looking at more trips together.
Two thumbs up to Paolo the guide - absolutely brilliant. Accomplishes everything with a smile on his face. He really did an outstanding job keeping us all on track and making sure we were all looked after.
But the most pleasant surprise for me was how relaxed you become so quickly. Everything is taken care of for you so the 100 decisions you normally make on holiday such as "where shall we have lunch?" or "what time should we have breakfast or dinner?" are all taken care of for you. In fact by day 3 you didn't have to care about where you slept that night or how far you were going to cycle - you just got on the bike and knew everything would be taken care of. A really relaxing experience!