In August I decided to take a coach holiday with Gold Crest, take a friend of mine abroad to Paris. It seemed cheap and I've always liked coaches! However, Gold Crest send out the tickets 7 days before the coach picks you up. I wasn't informed of this, so I telephoned the travel agents every day. After five days they started to phone ME, and two days later the tickets arrived, to the travel agents relief.
I start to read my travel documents. Pick-up time: 0400. I wouldn't of minded, but when we booked it said 0600! Pick-up point: Preston Bus Station. Nothing said exactly where in Preston Bus Station, so I started phoning the travel agents again. Two days later, Gold Crest didn't know and Wardle Travel were sick of hearing my voice. In the end we just got a lift to the hotel next door and waited on the pavement expectantly with our bags. Luckily the coach arrived early. Our driver leapt out of the cab, far too energetic for four o'clock in the morning and quickly shoved our bags on for us.
Three hours and a whole load of pick-up points later, we find that the grey thing at the back is a cupboard, not a toilet. Six desperate people force the driver to pull into a bus station. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the only bus station without toilets, so we were back on the coach, driving as quickly as possible towards Stafford Services.
At Watford Gap services we changed to the main coach, which was a lot better. A toilet, hot and cold drinks, air conditioning, we could even watch a DVD! However, an hour later we were getting a little fed up of 'The Cat in The Hat' and we were glad of a cup of coffee. Our two drivers, Frank and Jacko were always making the journey more interesting with jokes over the microphone, but we were glad to get to Dover, where we boarded the ferry. The SeaFrance ferry turned out to be very nice, with cafes and a bar, onboard shopping. We didn't really want to get off!
From Calais, we continued to a service station where we found a fast food restaurant. It turned out the staff knew good English relating to the menu, which we found very useful. Neither of us could speak much French after being on the coach since 4am!
The hotel was very nice, and right next door to a hypermarket! Everything was clean, tidy and generally better than we expected, but the Gold Crest brochure did say 'Paris City Break', and we later found that Paris was a 45 minute drive away. Not what we were expecting, but generally very good.
Our four days in Paris were very good, a half-day tour around Paris and then a cruise along the Seine, a trip to EuroDisney and a trip to the Palace of Versailles - the only bad part. The Palace was overcrowded and expensive. We even had to pay for the toilets. When I finally got into the Men's toilets, the female cleaner was just standing around in there, not making me feel too comfortable. I turn around, and another woman comes out of the cubicle. This was definitely the Men's, but it didn't seem to matter to them! My advice: don't go to the Palace of Versailles!
The trip back went much better, but I was astounded at the security. Going into France, no one even checked our passports once. Going out, they were checked TWICE. Our journey continued, back on the ferry, back on the motorway, back to Watford Gap. We met our previous coach again and drove back to Preston.
Overall, the holiday was great, but Gold Crest really need to get things organised and improve their feeder coaches.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
An outstanding description of Goldcrest, archer7. You have really described your experience with this company in great detail. Well done.
COOOEEE 28.09.2004 13:32
A warm welcome to ciao. The ciao competition this month for a £20 prize is in the Travel Agencies & Tour Operators category which this fits nicely into so I will include the review in the competition. Fionaxx
joycarole 26.09.2004 15:10
Hi..thanks for commenting on my review of Goldcrest. It would seem that our experiences have been similar.
Joy
NH Hotels, the hotel chain leader in Europe, with more than 300 hotels in 20 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Enter into our web site and find the best available tariff at all times
Splendia, a unique selection of luxury and design hotels with character in the most beautiful locations: Marrakesh, Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Dubai.... Book directly online or contact our customer service available any day of the week.
Record Rent a Car is present in the main spanish airports and has a very wide fleet. We offer: exceptional discounts, free additional drivers,
unlimited mileage... subscribe to our Club Record and take advantage of special offers.
Sep 25th, 2004
exceptional by (5%):
very helpful by (89%):
helpful by (5%):
