Some good points, some bad ones (Voyages Jules Verne)

Member Name: nimue

Product:	Voyages Jules Verne
Date:	14/06/01 (10778 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: offer some interesting holidays

Disadvantages: not totally honest in their dealings

Maybe it was beginner’s luck, but my experience with Voyages Jules Verne (VJV) has not been quite as negative as the other ones reported here, although I do have some reservations about the company.

Voyages Jules Verne (VJV) mainly organises trips for people who want something other than a simple beach holiday. Among its offerings are tours of ancient sites, holidays focusing on geology, astronomy, botany, photography, on music, art, or food and wine, walking tours, and holidays by train. Full details can be found at http://www.vjv.co.uk/. VJV also offer to arrange individual itineraries for travellers who want to do their own thing but do not want to organise it all. Many of the tours can be booked online at the VJV web site.

The prices of VJV packages cover a huge range, from quite modest to extremely expensive, so there is probably something to suit most tastes and most pockets.

I travelled with VJV over New Year 2001. The holiday was a week in Luxor, Egypt, including excursions to the major sites of interest in and around the area. Overall, my stay was very enjoyable, but some things did leave a bad taste. Below, I describe the good experiences and the bad experiences of the Luxor holiday, so that others thinking to book with this company will know what to expect and what to watch out for.

VJV will certainly try to sell you their travel insurance, claiming the cost is very competitive. However, I found other insurance for quite a lot less than the price VJV quoted. VJV will also organise visas, again, for quite a high price. However, since a friend had problems the previous year when he tried to get an Egyptian visa by hmself, I thought it was worth paying for this service.

I received a lot of information by post together with the booking confirmation. I then received exactly the same information in two more mailings! However, VJV omitted to tell me that we were being put on a group visa and so would not
get any papers in advance of the trip. I had to telephone VJV to find out what was going on.

Unfortunately, VJV used Monarch Airlines for this trip. I have reviewed Monarch separately on Dooyoo, so will not go into the gory details here.

Technical difficulties with check-in at Gatwick resulted in some chaos. There was a VJV representative present, but she 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.

In Luxor, we were met by the local representatives, who were not employees of VJV, but Egyptians working for a local tour company. They were our guides and contacts throughout the stay. I was very impressed with our guide and I have nothing but praise for the efficiency, courtesy and friendliness of the guide and our coach drivers.

When we booked the holiday, we paid VJV extra for an excursion package. We were appalled to find that each separate excursion from the package could be booked through Ahmed in Luxor, with the total cost coming to 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 in advance had to pay out more money for this. One of the "excursions" sold to us by VJV was a guided tour round Luxor Museum which cost £15. We were taken there by coach, although it was only five minutes walk away from the hotel. Since the museum is small and the exhibits are beautifully laid out with full explanations, a guide was not really necessary. Our guide was deeply embarassed that he had to go through the motions of "guiding" us round the museum. It was obvious he thought we had been ripped off by VJV's package. We ended up paying another £125 per head over and above what we had pa
id for the excursion package in order to see the most important sights of the area. Since we had to pay cash, this made a serious dent in our holiday funds.

We chose to go on guided tours because this was our first visit to Luxor. It is possible to visit the same places independently for less than half the price. However, my argument is not with the tour prices as charged by the Egyptian agency. Our guide showed great honesty in giving information about how to organise things for ourselves if we wished. I am very angry at the scam pulled on us by VJV with their package.

I was totally content with the hotel, which matched the description given by VJV in their advertising.

Overall, I do think that VJV have some good holidays at reasonable prices. However, they should be far more with respect to excursion packages and insurance. If I do considerl travelling with VJV in the future, I will be very cautious!

One last point, if you do book with VJV, you will be inundated with mail about all their other tours. Six months later, I still receiving 2-3 mailings each month from them.

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