Freelance medical translator, and book indexer.PhD scientist and qualified information professional...
Freelance medical translator, and book indexer.PhD scientist and qualified information professional. Interested in classical music, especially baroque, literature, theatre, comparative religion and mythology.
Member since:05.10.2000
Reviews:67
Members who trust:7
Voyages Jules Verne (VJV) caters for people who want something other than a simple beach holiday. Its programme includes tours of ancient sites, journeys catering for those with an interest in geology, astronomy, botany and photography, walking tours, holidays by train, and trips focusing on music, art, or food and wine. Full details can be found at http://www.vjv.co.uk/. VJV will also arrange personalised itineraries for individualist travellers who want to do their own thing but also want to avoid the hassle of organising it all. Many of the tours can be booked online at the VJV web site.
The prices of VJV packages vary from the highly reasonable to the highly expensive, so most people will be able to find something to suit their taste and their budget.
I booked with VJV for a week in Luxor, Egypt,
including excursions to the major sites of interest in and around the area. On the whole, I had a wonderful time, but there were some niggles. In this opinion I will highlight the good and bad points of this trip, in the hope it might prove useful to others wanting to book with this company.
The first thing to note is that VJV will try to sell you insurance for the holiday. They say their prices are competitive, however, I was able to find alternative insurance for a lot less than the prices quoted. VJV also offer to deal with any necessary visa arrangements. Again, this service costs quite a lot, but since a friend had in the past experienced problems in trying to organise his own visa for Egypt, I did opt for this.
I received confirmation of the booking, and a lot of information. I then received the same information in two more mailings! However, I was not informed of a crucial point: we were put on a group visa and were not sent any papers of our own. I had to make a panic phone call to VJV to find out what was going on.
VJV chose to use Monarch as the carrier :( I have already expressed my feelings (vehemently) about this airline in another opinion, so will not repeat myself here.
There was chaos at check-in due to some technical difficulties at Gatwick. The VJV representative at the airport was totally unhelpful. She did not offer any information, made no attempt to reassure people that they would not miss their flight, and brushed off queries in an unfriendly way. Most of the time, she just stood there, and I wondered why she was there at all since she was not doing anything.
On arrival, we were met by the local representatives. These were not VJV employees, but members of a local Egyptian tour company who served as our guides and contacts while we were in Luxor. I was highly impressed with our guide and his colleagues right from the start, and the good impressions remained throughout the holidays. I have nothing but praise for the efficiency, courtesy and friendliness of the Egyptian guide and coach drivers.
We had booked an excursion package from VJV. We were horrified to find that each of the excursions could be booked on the spot in Luxor, at a total cost which was much less than we had paid. The local price also included all tips, but the VJV price did not, so all of us who had bought the package had to contribute a further sum for this purpose. One of the "excursions" that VJV sold to us was a guided tour round Luxor Museum which cost £15. We were taken there by coach, although it was only five minutes walk away. Since the museum is small and the exhibits are beautifully laid out with full explanations, a guide was not really necessary. In fact, our guide was deeply embarassed that he had to go through the motions of "guiding" us round the museum. He made it clear that he also thought we had been ripped off by VJV's package. We ended up paying another £125 per head to buy the tours to the most important sights of the area. Since we had to pay cash, this made a serious dent in our holiday funds.
Because this was our first visit, we opted for the guided tours, although we were aware that we could have visited the same places independently for less than half the price. I am not complaining about the prices of the tours as charged by the Egyptian agency. Our guide was extremely honest and gave us full details of how to organise things for ourselves if we wished. However, I am angry at the scam that VJV pulled on us with their package.
The hotel was pleasant, and the description provided by VJV was accurate and fair.
To summarise, I think that VJV do some good deals, and the holidays they offer are good. However, the company needs to be a bit more honest in its dealings with respect to excursion packages and insurance. I may well travel with VJV again, but I will be very cautious!
If you do book with VJV, be prepared to be inundated with mail about all their other tours. In the last three months, I must have had at least ten mailings from them.
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Apr 19th, 2001
(Apr 6th, 2001)
exceptional by (9%):
very helpful by (73%):
helpful by (18%):
