Summary
After lot of research, discussions and calculations(with friends and internet), I finally decided to go ahead with Thomas cook. Opted for 13 day Europe Premium Budget group tour. The tour was pretty hectic but I was any way knowing it as 9 countries were supposed to get covered in 12 days. The tour was well coordinated and properly executed(exactly as planned). My family is quite satisfied with the tour. I am giving more details on different aspects of the tour below
Booking Process
I booked the tour from TC Mumbai(Oshiwara) office. Zoheb was particularly helpful and courteous . The booking was pretty smooth
Visa Processing
Visa processing was well assisted and Sanket especially was very prompt. Got UK and Schengen visa pretty quickly.
Transportation
Did not get direct flight as TC wants other fellow passengers also to join midway from different parts of India. TC tour manager was waiting at the airport when we reached London. We also got a chance of overnight cruise(London to Holland) which was welcome addition. The cruise was pretty good. After that the journey throughout Europe was on Bus. Though the bus was Volvo, the leg space particularly was pretty small(considering extended hours in bus every day). I checked the buses of other tour operators but found almost the same case which means it is a standard European design. TC however should look for the buses having more leg space.
Hotels
Hotels provided were pretty good(except IBIS Paris). Hotels were always away from the city center which I did not mind(as after 12 hours of tiring journey, I never had energy to explore this city on my own). All the rooms we stayed in were well appointed with all the required amenities present in the room. However Tea/coffee maker was not available everywhere.
Best Hotel: Switzerland(Holiday Inn Express). Bigger rooms and wonderful view from the room
Worst Hotel: Paris(IBIS). Extremely small room
Food
The food was always served in Indian restaurants and was pretty decent(considering the part of the world where it was served). TC also added varieties such as Pizza in Italy, local dish in Switzerland, south Indian Lunch once and even’Pav-Bhaji’ once. The breakfast was always provided by the hotel in which we were staying and always was continental(got fed up of eating bread everyday). Best breakfast was at Hotel Thistle London and the worst was in Hotel Arcadia Munich. The best Lunch/Dinner was in hotel Radha(Munich) and the worst was in Belgium.
Tour Manager
Our tour manager Santosh was quite knowledgeable and he coordinated the tour properly. He ensured that nothing from the itinerary was missed and even added one or two more activities in it. He also went on to fight with hotel manager for discrimination against Indians (which is seen very often).
I definitely recommend Thomas Cook for group tours especially in Europe and also planning to book my next trip with them.