We are extensive travellers and we are familiar with multiple situations of traveling in our country and aboard, but with cox and kings we had unpleasant memory. We had booked 15 days Europe tour. Initially things were ok. Bangalore office was promt in visa processing and handing over documents. Coming to our tour, initially things looked pretty fine but when we checked into our first hotel( hotel holiday inn, near heathrow London airport) we were skeptical about our upcoming arrangements. The hotel was not up to the mark, staffs were rude and food was horrible.
Let me precise the pros and cons of cox and kings to save your time.
Pros: 1. Few hotels were good, like in Austria, leysin, Belgium .
2.Tour guide in Florence and London were good.
Itinerary was covered and completed at any cost.
Cons: 1.some tour guide like what we got in Rome was pathetic, she spoke Italian with little English and wasted our time in Vatican museum .( name was Rita)
2.Food was absolutely horrible, no taste and same menu.vegetarians had tough time.
3.Packed dinner or lunch was totally miserable and was unfit to offer to any human with dignity. Once they asked us to feed the packed lunch in gas station, on open road, that was unacceptable .
- They must refine the itinerary as 3 days were waste as we travelled 7-9 hours in bus during day time.
The bus was seater bus not even semi sleeper and we had tough time traveling.
Sometimes A/C chilling did not work.
Tour manager was absolutely immature, she had insufficient knowledge and misguided us in various places. She was sometimes stubborn and adamant. Whatever happens she will blame us. And she used to scare us by mentioning about taco meter that monitors drivers driving schedule. As if we were responsible for 7-9 hours driving. She blaberred all the information that she wanted to convey about the particular place. Very much incapable of conveying information. I will rate her 1.5 out of 5.
Dinner timing was pathetic. 6 pm in evening sometimes 6:30 or 7:00 we were forced to eat even if we were not hungry. When we asked for parcel tour manager did not agree saying that hotel will charge her extra. We said we will pay the extra but she disagreed.
Huge rush and que in hotels for food was pathetic. In one sentence it was like torture. It reminded me of my hostel life. We did not feel it was holiday, slowly it was like punishment for us, no free time, no self choice shopping, no respect or hospitality during lunch or dinner.
They looted extra money on board instead of 150 euros they had charged us 158 euros for optional tour to Jungfrau. Until last moment lido show was not confirmed. When they say optional they never mention minimum number of participants but they make it mandatory 20 people minimum number on board, which is unacceptable again.
Long drive with one comfort stop was miserable.
Hotels were located in extereme outskirts of the city even if we had time we did not had any chance to explore the city. Rest we enquired other tour operators had lodging near or in the city.
Upon booking they said maximum number of people in a group will be 15-20 people but our group had 47 people.
We had majority of senior citizen in our group and of course our pace did not match we would like to advice them to kindly recheck age criteria before grouping.
Unnecessary waste of time while waiting in que to enter lunch place especially in Amsterdam.
Unimportant and unnecessary venues were given maximum time, which could have been better planned.
Shopping is commission basis so do not expect to get good deal. They will basically loot you. Try explore near by shops, we got good deals from nearby shops which cox and kings did not prescribe.
In short, it was like military camping and we decided not to go with any tour operator as when we travel we look for comfort, leasure time, good food and ambience, maximum sight Seeing and local shopping which was totally missing from what we experienced. 4 stars for visa and document processing, 2 star for giving us a bus coach. Rest it was not a good memory to share.
