Sirmione

“Excellent holiday in every way except for the substitution of a coach journey for what should have been a rail journey (due to circumstances beyond your control) but no option to reschedule.

“I have 'done' the Simply Lake Garda before and was looking forward to repeating the experience with my sister who had never been to Italy. Unfortunately the beginning of the holiday was marred by the luggage service which never arrived to collect my suitcase, despite emails, phone calls and the offer of Google map and mobile number. The second disappointment was the downgrade by GRJ on EuroStar to Standard class, so no food or drinks on either journey, unless you struggled through several long, swaying carriages to collect them and then stagger back with hot paper cups and a bag of food. One member of the group grazed an elbow. I have made very many journeys with GRJ over the last 17 years and I have always felt that it is a cut above all other similar travel groups in every respect. Having a drink and some lovely food on Eurostar has always been one of the great experiences and a relaxing and enjoyable start to a holiday. Now you have to pay extra for an upgrade and I am sad that it seems to have been felt necessary to cut down on what could be a superb - even unique - experience to save a few pounds. The visit to Venice included long sea journeys round the industrial areas instead of short journeys across the Grand Canal, These, and an over-long talk where we only saw St Marks and one other square, cut down drastically on personal sight-seeing opportunities and meant that there was little time and no space to sit down to eat even a snack before embarking on a gondola ride (which was superb). Those were the downsides, but our tour manager was marvellous, and did his very best to ensure that, despite the poor weather as the week went on, we would make the most of every opportunity. The visit to Isola del Garda was wonderful and our guide, the very best. It was sad that the journey to Turin had to be by coach due to a major landslip, and a train strike on the last day meant another coach journey from Chambery, but Great Rail and our Tour manager had all that organised and got us to our destinations as soon as possible. I am very glad the GRJ have limited their guest number to maximum 25, As always on Great Rail Journeys everyone is very friendly and we all had a lot of fun. The hotels were great and the food superb. I am sorry not to be able to give 5 stars, as I have always done for GRJ and I hope that my comments will be read and considered.

“A mix up with the the coaches at Koln station after a long & tiring journey. We were first taken to the wrong hotel being used by GRJ. The train from Koln was routed down the so called scenic route of the River Rhine in December when we would have preferred a faster route vis Frankfurt. Why did we not have a direct service to Innsbruck, particularly as we had a real struggle to board our train in Munich. Why did the guide in Verona not take us to the amphitheatre in Verona and over ran her time marching around the city? The trip to Fulpmes would have been better on non-Xmas Day when hotels cafes etc would have been open?