It is for me really difficult to criticise any of the travels I have made so far as they have been wonderful, nevertheless there was one which was kind of…. disastrous?
Not being used to travel in organized tours with charter flights, we decided to give it a try as we wanted to visit Washington and New York and this was the cheapest way. The first bad signs showed at the airport when we all met. It was not good to find out that we were only 6 out of 52 passengers, younger than 50 years old! The rest were in their golden age, which usually is not a problem, but this time it was as half of them had mobility problems.
To start with, we were stuck in the airport for 5 hours and when
finally on the plane, we went through the worst turbulence ever. When we finally got to JFK Airport half of our luggage was missing, so it wasn’t until 2 hours and 21 luggage claims later, that we got out and queue at the bus door hoping to get to the hotel as soon as possible. But seeing how lucky we were being so far that was not going to happen. A really nice old lady fell while going onto the bus and hurt her leg really badly. We had to wait then for the ambulance to come and the cleaners to clean all the bloody mess. When we finally got to the Hotel, our guide, who by the way had no previous experience, had mistaken the address and we found ourselves at the other side of the city, in a wrong hotel and in rush hour, great!
These kinds of misfortunes kept happening during the trip. 6 more people were injured in the most stupid ways (I specially remember that lady that knocked and opened her head with the grave of a soldier in The Arlington cemetery, it was really gross!!!).
Arlington cemetery
The guide was beyond useless despite being a nice girl. She did not know how to deal with problems (and we had many, believe me!) and do not get me started with her guiding system, which basically consisted in saying nothing.
The hotels were quite nice, as well as the restaurants we had included in our package. The bus driver was also really nice, but his patience ran short in many occasions as we needed at least 15 minutes to get down the bus. He tried not to disturb the traffic but being New York the city it is, it was pretty impossible and he got fined by the police several times.
People got lost, robbed and we got stuck in huge traffic jams due to the bad organisation of the trip (do not plan an excursion in rush hours, for God’s sake!!).
Well at least I visited two of the most wonderful cities I have ever seen, my family did not suffer any weird accident and we laugh a lot. But let me tell you one thing… that was our first and definitely last time travelling with that agency in their package vacations. I won’t say any names here, but I’ll give you my advice…: be careful while choosing the Agency, the package, and pay attention to minor details. When you do an organized cheap package tour with a Tour Operator, everything must be perfectly organized to avoid disasters!!!
And now, I invite you to post your funny or disastrous stories while travelling!!!
Archivado bajo: Crónicas | Etiquetado: disastrous, holiday, New York, package, Washington
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I see you have used your essay as today’s post
I still have to do it…
How the hell can anyone open its head with a soldier’s grave?!!=
Wow.. I’ve to confirm that yes, it was a disastrous holiday, althought i’m not so supporter of travelling with a company who sells you a package vacation… especially if it’s an westernized city, that you can freely move around it without any fear or limitation..
I’ve to say the same that Sara says.. how can someone open it’s head with a grave???? So… Gloomy. ^^
Kisses!
I really liked your blog!
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.