RSD Travel
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Gross Misrepresentation
Some years ago, we booked a tour of Turkey with RSD Travel and were impressed by its organisation and the quality of our guide, staying in comfortable 4*and 5* accommodation. As a result, my husband and I booked RSD's French Tour to visit the 10 most famous World Heritage Sites with 7 nights in 'selected comfortable hotels'. What a disappointment. I quote from both the brochure and their email dated 10th April in reply to asking where we would be staying: "The accommodation offered on our cultural tour of France with the most notable highlights is in 4 and 5-star hotels (country category), as advertised”. This was a gross misrepresentation. We were accommodated in 2* Ibis Budget Hotels and 3* Campaniles with only one night in a very acceptable 4* Novotel. The Ibis hotels were filthy, the second with peeling paint and something horrible spilt on the carpet. Our night in Arles was beyond a joke. We'd been given a 'family' room, consisting of a fixed double bed jammed against the wall, so it was impossible to get out of bed at night without considerable effort. There were no dedicated points to charge our devices in any of the hotels. Our two adapters were ill-equipped to charge with the voltage. We paid for the optional ‘Gourmet Food Package’, which covered dinner only. One night at an Ibis, we were served overcooked tagliatelle with an indescribable, inedible 'sauce'. The dessert consisted of stale biscuits. I doubt if any of the meals in these budget hotels cost more than 50p per person. Again, the notable exception was the Novotel. On our last night at the Campanile in Dijon, our guide announced that he would need to order a meal as the only option was a microwaved meal to be selected from a vending machine. If you book with RSD, ensure you know what's included and what's not. Last time, bottled water on the coach was free of charge. This time, it was Euros1.50 a small bottle. We had to pay for entry to most sites. There were two redeeming aspects. Our guide, Tobias, was delightful and entered into the spirit with our jokes about the accommodation and food with 20+ extremely disappointed professional and well-seasoned fellow travellers. The second was the modern, comfortable coach and our driver, Eddy, who was very helpful.