Tour Reviews

Wooden churches UNESCO tour

UNESCO Wooden churches Tour
Dear Barbora,

We are leaving Wien tomorrow for home. We had a great time in Slovakia, but I feel we would have an even greater time if we had the pleasure of your company on our trip.
Thank you for all the help and efficient service despite our almost last minute booking.

Regards


Patrick from Hong Kong

- rating 5

Tour of wooden churhes

Lenka,

We regard our tour as one of the best travel experiences we have ever had. The guide/driver was very appropriate and helpful in every way. The vehicle provided was comfortable and given the locations, the accommodations were very good. The castles and towns visited in addition to the churches were an interesting bonus which which we did not expect. Our group included 3 architects who have designed churches and they were fascinated by the churches and had to be encouraged to leave some of them so the tour could continue. The priests and "key keepers" we met were substantial people whose stories and dedication were inspirational. The other couple on the tour are already thinking about doing another trip with your company.

We have found that when we have recounted our experience to others we have detected a genuine interest. Maybe we can organize another church tour some day.

We are grateful to all in your organization who contributed to our experience.


Rodger from Canada

- rating 5

Tour of Wooden Churches

Dear Lenka,
Thanks again for your email. And thank you and Travel Slovakia for making all our arrangements so efficiently and charmingly. I enjoyed our email correspondence and we are grateful to you for taking care of little details as well the programme overall.
Our tour of Slovakia was everything we hoped for and more. We saw all the churches we knew of before we went and besides those saw others, as well as mountains, forests and lakes. Very much depends on the guide and we were excellently looked after by Lucia with help from Martin.
It is a great luxury to be driven and guided throughout and Lucia did it all beautifully. She drove with care and courtesy – which is reassuring to strangers on busy roads and made our journeys restful rather than tiring. She drove a long way – we went literally from end (Ukraine) to end (Czech Rep) of Slovakia and driving through the High Tatras on the last day even caught sight of the Polish Border. And L never seemed to be tired or lose her good humour. She told us about Slovakia, the countryside, the people…. as we went along.
Lucia always knew where restaurants were where we could have lunch and helped us to choose local favourites – potato dumplings, cabbage soup, garlic soup. She was also well briefed on the churches so that there was always someone to open a church when we arrived and also to explain its history and the paintings and sculptures there. It would have been difficult for an overseas visitor to arrange that without help.
Both Lucia and Martin were imaginative and generous in thinking of some extra things we might like to say and do (outside your itinerary). Martin found us an extra church, Lucia showed us the High Tatras and took us a walk round a mountain lake.
One point about the opening of museums, houses and some churches. Many of them open their doors only once an hour on the hour. So that if we arrived at say 10.10 am we might have to fill in 50 minutes before going in at 11am. I’m not sure that L’s brief included that.

Arrival, day in Bratislava
It was a very good idea of yours to arrange for us to be met at the airport. That worked perfectly and it’s very restful not to need to find transport, explain the destination, negotiate the price reasonably and so on. Our driver confirmed that the demand caused by the Hockey meant some high taxi charges for visitors. 15 euros didn’t seem expensive between three people. It was not too easy to find a nice restaurant at 9pm and a few suggestions from you might help others.
We thought Pension Virgo an ideal choice – smart, comfortable, informal and friendly. Being out of the famous part of town but close to it makes a difference if you’re there only for a day. In the evening we could walk to St Marten’s restaurant – a good choice we made – by the Church and walk back afterwards. Virgo’s street is a pleasure to be and quiet too. (You need to be down quite promptly for breakfast to avoid queuing for the quite small breakfast parlour!)
We enjoyed our day’s sightseeing in Bratislava – the streets of the old town, St Marten’s church, the Gobelin tapestries, the town hall, the view from the tower, the pharmacy museum, the weaponry museum – but were quite pleased we’d decided to go out to the country on the second day.

Spisska Sobota
We saw nowhere we would have preferred to stay in any town or village we visited. It was a good decision of yours that we should spend all the nights at SS – again it’s a luxury not to have to arrive-and-depart more than once. The amount of driving – expecially for the driver – was just reasonable though it would have been quite a different matter if L had not had a friend to say with quite close by.
SS itself is obviously an attractive village to be in. Nearly every house frontage has things about it to look at and enjoy. St George’s Church was not on our original list but would have been, if we’d known about it. The altars, and a sort of tableau of Jesus in the tomb, are special.
Pension Sabato was again an ideal choice. We had a really spacious room with kitchen and luxury bathroom in what had once been a timberbuilt outhouse of some sort which meant we had a few steps of refreshing walk through the garden to get to the main building. Again all the staff were efficient and exceptionally welcoming and friendly. Four dinners there with wine and a few occasional drinks came to E250 for the three of us. The equivalent of ?18 per head for dinner-with-wine seems very good value.

Tour as a whole
Our ideas and your research made an excellent programme. All the churches we saw are worth visiting. A week was probably long enough though it could be good to put in a day or two for some walking – say along the ridge of the Low Tatras.
It could be that a tour like ours could find a market in Britain among art-lovers. There are specialist magazines they read where it might be advertised. We estimate that the whole trip, including flights, airport car-parking, your charges, lunches and dinners will have cost us roughly ?750 each – which looks not all expensive when it includes car, driver and guide.

With many thanks from

Janet, Margaret and me from UK

- rating 5

Tour of Wooden Churches and Sightseeing of Eger and Budapest

Dear Lenka
We returned yesterday from our trip to the EAST. We had a wonderful time and everybody enjoyed every minute. Together with the tour guide Karin - she was great, especially with her historical knowledge. We optimized the tour, by changing the programm a little bit, by reducing it by unnecessary kilometers. Our private party in Jahodna was great too. In Hungary we had a wonderful time too and the last winetasting dinner was superb.
The bus driver was very careful and a very good driver.
Let me also thank you and your team in Slovakia and Hungary for a wonderful holiday.
Best regards,

Ekkenhard with his group from Austria

- rating 5