I opted for "Marvels of Europe" tour package in October 2017 through Cox and Kings, Netaji Subhash Place, Delhi.
Initially, while going through their website, I preferred a 10 days tour to Europe and wanted to book the same. When I visited their office, I was told that the required 8 seats are available for the 10 days tour package and I should get it booked on the same day otherwise the seats would get booked. I made the booking the same day by depositing the required booking amount. The very next day in evening, I visited their office again to provide passport copies of my family members and then I was informed that the 10 days tour package was fully booked and we couldn’t confirm your seats and the next suitable package available is for 7 days. Logically, if my preferred tour package was not booked, I should get a call to get informed about the problem but none of the executives was much concerned about the same. As it was my parents silver anniversary, we wanted to travel on the required the dates to celebrate the occasion. So, I opted for 7 days tour package(Marvels of Europe) which was for 6 nights and 7 days.
The next issue came during the visa assistance. One of my brother was travelling from Canada and we requested them to get his visa done from the Indian Visa Authorities itself as he was getting 16th October as an appointment date in Canada but our travelling date was 6th October. Their visa executive informed us that my brother is required to apply his visa from Canada itself as it is not possible to get his visa done from India . We made some enquiries from our own end by contacting the French Embassy and few other people about the issue. We came to know that his visa could be done from India and we need to submit few extra documents while applying his visa. We applied his schengen visa on our end and we got his visa within 3 days of application. Again, the company has very ill-informed employees who do not possess complete information about the visa system and weren’t even ready to make few efforts to get the work done.
After all this, our trip started and according to our bookings, we were supposed to get 3 or 4 star hotels on the entire trip. But our hotel experience, especially in Switzerland, was pathetic. It was the worst hotel I have ever stayed in my life with the worst food and by no means, the hotel could be rated as a 3 or 4 star hotel. Every other hotel was far away from the cities and would take at least two hours of travel to visit the nearest market or city. Now comes the biggest blunder of our trip which happened on the last day of our trip. On the second last day, we checked in to the hotel in Austria at 6 pm and we were informed that we have completed our tour according to our itinerary and we all need to check out the hotel at 9 am next morning to travel to the airport which will take 2 hrs. FYI, according to our schedule, our return flight was scheduled at 9.45 pm. We were told to wait for 10 long hours at the airport before returning home. Logically, if, we have a late flight, we should get a late checkout from the hotel accordingly. We contacted our travelling agent, called on customer care of the company and made few complaints through mails but their only reply was that the schedule is set and we cannot make help you in any manner.
The only good thing about the trip was a very helpful tour manager and comfortable coach services to travel in between the countries and cities.
So, this sums up my pathetic experience with the company. A company with least bothered and least knowledgeable personnel.:-(