VELTRA tours & activities, fun things to do

Very interesting and enjoyable.

We enjoyed the scenery and tourist attractions visited - especially the Melk Abbey!

Nice trip, the villages and scenery were our highlight.

We enjoyed the trip, however honestly with the warm beautiful weather, the highlights for us were the stop in the Wachau alley villages and the river cruise as opposed to the abbey itself.

Rainy Day Cruise

Despite the cooler weather and intermittent rain, overall a good trip. Pick up from the hotel went well but the transfer to the bigger buses was a little confusing. We did eventually make it onto the right bus and enjoyed the guided bus tour to Spitz where we met our boat. Plenty of room on the boat. Good cruise up to Krems. Great tour of the Abbey and quite impressive. Our guide was very knowledgable throughout the bus, boat and Abbey tours. Would do it again.

Good tour - some suggested improvements

We enjoyed our tour of the Danube Valley and Melk Abbey. We were happy to have enough time to visit the town of Melk outside the Abbey. This turned out to be a highlight, along with the scenery of the Danube Valley.

The visit to the Abbey, together with the overview of trends in Austrian religious observance given on the bus ride back, was very informative, and enhanced our understanding of Reformation/Counter-Reformation history in Eastern Europe.

The return bus trip through hilly countryside, together with music recorded at the Abbey, was very enjoyable.

Some suggestions for improvement:

1. While the commentary was good, some musical interludes on the bus ride to Krems would help to prevent the overload of non-stop talking.
2. Ensure a shorter wait time for the cruise boat - this would allow for more time at Melk and less concern about missing the bus.
3. Talk with your cruise boat providers about improving food and beverage service - we spent too much time waiting for our strudel to arrive, instead of enjoying the scenery above deck.

Tour was interesting despite the tour guide. His English was poor and was in a terrible rush when we got off the coach - not once did he wait for all the tourists to get off the coach. He changed the meeting place and time without bothering to check that everyone knew the new arrangement. Not a tour guide to recommend.

The tour was interesting. No food was provided, or even a snack on the boat. The guide was somewhat indifferent and unclear regarding the time and place of meeting to get into the abbey. I misheard him saying the time of meeting and the location and wandered in the garden coming toward the entry 10 minutes prior to the time intended just to find out that the group walked in not even looking for me. We had no group ID, and the number of groups was high, so no one had any sign as to how to recognize the participants. I had to ask a guide of a different group to assist, and she referred me to the group English leader. It was upsetting missed 20 minutes of the internal visit explanation. Overall, it was negligence, as i could have missed my connection in a different location. On the returned part of the trip, on the bus, i insisted that the guide drops me at the hotel. Luckily my hotel was on route to the drop off place, so the guide could not excuse himself from complying. In general, the English tour, was not a sole tour for English speakers, the guide switched from English to Spanish to Franch, thus creating confusion, and in my case misunderstanding regarding the time and place of meeting. It is misleading to promise an English tour, and in actuality speeding up from one language to another without any time for questions, or any other details.

BONNE ORGANISATION
CIRCUIT SUR DANUBE SUPERBE
ABBAYE DE MELK VAUT LE VOYAGE

We were only 2 french people in the bus and the guide would like to do it in english for us but i told Her that i have paid for this tour in french language and my friend doesn't speak well english so she does it at the end in french language and finily this guide speaks very well french