Trafalgar Travel
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the worst of Belgium, Luxembourg and holland
I have recently returned from a Best of Belgium, Luxembourg and holland with Trafalgar. This was my first trip with Trafalgar and will definitely be my last. I am a seasoned traveller having travelled with different companies throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, north and South America. Trafalgar certainly did not hold up to its reputation. Firstly most of our hotels were too far away from any city centre. Our tour director Roderick, although very knowledgeable was not a good travel director. Several times he left people behind because he did not do a head count. Totally unacceptable. He greeted us each day with a good morning in Dutch. He accentuated his Dutch accent in a loud and disgusting voice. I found this disgusting and annoying and offensive. He also referred to us as his children. Ridiculous. The city tours were pretty well non existent. He would point out the odd cathedral, church or government building but gave very little history. The tours consisted basically of parking the bus a fair distance away from anything, then walking 20 to 30 minutes, Roderick pointing out restaurants and the shops that were closed, giving us approximately 1 1/2 hours free time and then meeting him to walk another 20 or 30 minutes back to the bus and then driving 45 minutes to our hotel. I asked Roderick 3x to find me a pharmacy in Belgium. Each time he said he would get back to me with directions. He never did. The same thing happened in Amsterdam. I asked him about taking a train or bus to Volendam from Amsterdam and again he promised he would. Again he never did. Most of the stores were closed when we were in Ghent and Brugge due to public holidays so the wee bit of free time was basically useless. He sold us on the idea of going to Germany for a day as we would have several hours to shop and the stores were amazing as he put it. They probably were if they were open. Another big disappointment. He led us down the garden path again. Amsterdam was a bust. We parked the bus, walked 30 minutes to the Red light district, had to grab lunch there then walk back to the bus and again drive 30 minutes to our hotel. So disappointing. We drove to The Hague with very little documention but Roderick wanted to show us the “jewel” of holland. The “jewel” was his house. Really!!! Note this was the only time the bus parked with only a 4 minute walk. This stop was totally unnecessary as we could have spent the time sightseeing this beautiful city. Then there was keukenhof. Roderick built us up the see the beautiful tulip gardens. The tulips were finished. I realize Roderick had no control over this but please be honest with us. On the flip side we had two nice canal rides, a tour of Luxembourg, a good tour in Brugge and a tour of the windmills. The side trip to Ypres was wonderful. The tour itself was very disappointing but having a really bad travel director made it worse. I will definitely not reccommend Trafalgar tours to anyone.