It was a good holiday. There were too many trains! Some very tight changes. But also wonderful trips on Bernina and Glacier Express.
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Very hectic could do with more time between trains 🚃
A great holiday overall with fantastic scenery and plenty of trains which ran smoothly throughout our journeys across Switzerland. The only thing that let it down really was the hotel. This is our 32nd holiday with GRJ and the only time we've literally had no choice for the evening meals, which were somewhat hit and miss. It's a good job it was 4 courses and we're NOT fussy eaters, otherwise we'd have gone hungry some nights. The first starter was a salad bar, plenty of choice but too heavily dressed for my liking. Next came the starter, 4/5 nights it was watery, rather unappetising soups. The mains were very basic and sometimes a bit odd. Desserts were nothing special but passable. Interestingly, packed lunches on this "all inclusive" holiday was mostly pretty good we found, although once again, no choice. Breakfast was also decent, although a little limited and I found all the flies a bit off-putting. Our room was a little tired looking with frayed linen. I think we were just unlucky there, as many of the rooms I'm told looked freshly redecorated. I also found that the staff weren't exactly very friendly or helpful. Interestingly though, one night we had an "area performance manager" come to check out the hotel and that night was one of the better meals with noticeably more staff on duty giving a much better service! All in all, a very good holiday but the hotel could do much better in my opinion.
A wonderful full, interesting holiday with a great tour manager and group of people . Nice hotels, good food and great weather. The group was quite large, 40 of us including the tour manager, but we managed to navigated the train changes okay even with tight timings between some of the changes. I gave 4 stars due to the second day of travelling which involved lugging our cases on and off 4 different trains. On the return journey our cases where transported by van for us which made things much easier.
Very poor tour. Far too much time spent on public transport trains just going back and forth. Would not recommend this for anyone least of all older people struggling with their cases on a stupid journey to Strasbourg and then another whole day travelling on 4 trains to get to the hotel. When you could have gone from Paris to Basel and then a very short journey the following day. Very badly planned
Too much time on the clock. More tine at a number of the destinations would be better
Positives: The tour manager was exceptional. She had a very large party to manage and often had very tight schedules to adhere to and appeared calm and organised throughout. The hotels in Strasbourg and Basel were lovely, as was the tour generally, however it is very full on and exhausting in high temperatures. Negatives: Group size was advertised at 30 - 35 maximum, however our group was 40, should have been 41 but one dropped out last minute. This made travel uncomfortably crowded on occasions. A charge of £250 was made as a solo traveller, yet 5 out of 7 nights I was in a single room! Upon questioning this with customer services, I was told that prices for the tour were based on two people sharing. REALLY?? I would like to see them sharing a single room, it was merely an excuse to charge more. This tour was also advertised with a further £300 off just before I travelled (I booked 6 months previously) and I was told they had some vacant places to fill, yet the group size was much larger than it should have been. When questioned several times, the company simply apologised then varied the excuses, based around their general script. Would not use again.
Reply from Great Rail Journeys
Dear Mrs Kemp,
Thank you for your review.
We greatly appreciate your taking the time to provide your feedback for your tour with us.
I can see that you have been in correspondence with our Customer Relations team, but we were unable to reach a suitable solution for you.
I hope that despite this we have the opportunity to restore your confidence in the future.
Kind regards,
Alex
Having 'loved' train journeys for years. we joined this Glacier Express to celebrate my 80th birthday. We made a good choice.. interesting routes, fascinating details and one 'excellent' tour Manager
The tour was impeccably managed and I had a fabulous time but we had a couple of disappointments. The hotel in Tiefencastel where we spent 5 nights wasn't well located. There was a steep hill up to the station and the immediate surroundings weren't very special. The other disappointment was the lack of variety in the trips. Rather same-y scenery (though absolutely magnificent) and we covered a lot of the same ground to go to different places
Hotel in Tiefencastel could do better. Said to only open windows for 3 minutes but it didn't say why. The reason was mosquitos! I got bitten in the room a few times. They could put in mosquito nets on the windows. The room was very hot. Either provide air con or fans. Would have been better if we could have had drinks from 6pm, pre-meal. 1 tour guide for 39 people, not enough especially as John injured his leg on day 3nd had to use a crutch.
I’m not giving 5 stars as it wasn’t quite perfect - the food in Tiefencastel was good but not great, but the scenery and the train journeys made up for that. All in all it was great value for money and we had a blast. Special mention to Tour Manager John Grimwade who made everything easy for us.
Too many changes of train whilst carrying our luggage on the journeys to and from our destination hotel (4 trains). Too little time to get between Paris Nord and Paris Est on foot with luggage meaning the whistle had blown before we reached our carriage. Too many unnecessary changes of train on return journey from Tirano (Bernina Express there but 3 trains back). Very basic food in hotel resembling school dinners, with tasteless soups and miniscule portions for desert.
Lucky to have such livly bunch of fellow travellers.
We loved this holiday, the hotels were amazing especially the Albula and Julier hotel where we were based. the tour guide Deborah Moss was so helpful and friendly also very knowledgeable I don’t think it would have been the same without her. I would recommend this holiday.
Scenery was as expected but trains often overcrowded and cramped with insufficient luggage storage space resulting in the need to get heavy cases up onto overhead racks. The main 'hotel' (as picture) is not in our opinion a hotel at all but merely a hostel. Often occupied by at least 3 different groups of travellers all being served the same mediocre unappetising massed produced food. Room (no 1) basically ok but too hot and with no fan. If window opened the noise from the torrents of water flowing outside was intolerable and created conditions similar to what it must be like trying to sleep in a ship's engine room! We were glad to leave!
It was a magical trip.
Very comfortable seats with legroom glorious scenery table service pleasant staff
Amazing trip . Visited some beautiful places and met some wonderful people. The tour Manager was very informative and looked after all the group. Would definitely recommend to friends and family
Great trip, lovely scenery. Downsides were some lengthy travel days and a bit too much hopping on and off trains with a full suitcase. Family run hotel was as expected. Fairly basic, though staff were helpful. Somewhat limited menu options. Hotels in France were of a better standard.
The weather and consequently the scenery were amazing. The organisation was to its usual high standard, but at 39, it was a large group.