You should do a better!

I hope you take the time to read this because I am going to take a lot of my time to give you my response. In general, I was pleased with the places and towns that I experienced during the tour.This was my first "tour" vacation and I liked the fact that somebody else planned out the trip, arranged for transportation and did the hotel reservations. It made it easy. However, I did not like being part of a 42 person group that took away my idividuality. There is a plus and a minus to a "tour" and I have not made up my mind as to whether I would travel that way again. The item that I really hated was the group dinners! Putting 42 people in a small restaurant, all at the same time, was a disaster. It resulted a din of noise that made it almost impossible to speak to the person near you. It also resulted in being served a set meal that strained the establishments ability to adequately present something appealing to the dinner. I felt like I was at a bad wedding reception. You should never use that approach if you want a traveller like myself to use GO Ahead again. It would have been far better to spit the group into smaller numbers; vary the dinner times so that you could go between 6:30 for those who want to eat early and 8:00 for those who want to eat later and to use mutiple restaurants when you are in a large location like Paris. In that way, it would have fely like I was in a charming cafe in Paris. The way it was set up, I could have been in Cleveland! I will take the time to comment on each event and location: Arrival Paris-the ground transportation was a disaster! The meeting location was not marked with signage; the written directions were not accuarate; the man in charge was totally lacking in hospitality skills and we had to wait 90 minutes for our overcrowded van. Grade:F Hotel Mercure - adequate with reasonable location as was all of the hotels during the tour. Grade: B Rouen And Giverny-beautiful places to visit with many interesting things to see. Hotel was adequate. Overall, Grade: A Normany Coast-Tremndous experience in ArroMarnche and at the D-Day beaches and museums. Grade :A plus The only inexplicable thing was stopping in Lisieux. Unless you were a devout Catholic, it was rediculous to see this town which is only noted for its 20th century cathederal. I felt like the Chamber of Commerce erected this building to get tourism. The whole thibg was absurd. Grade: F St Malo, Loire, and exta times in Paris. Wonderful places! Grade: A

Title was good.

It was an excellent trip.

Good sightseeing but awful food and hotels

Au revoir, Go Ahead. Your choice of hotels and meal choices prevent me from ever taking another one of your tours. For example, your Mercure hotel in Paris was located away from the heart of Paris and next to a train station complete with homeless people and panhandlers. The hotel rooms are often small and Spartan. The included meals offer no choices. The same meal is chosen for 32 people. Our pickup from the airport involved 4 other people not on our tour. We had to trek all over Paris before we finally got dropped off at our hotel. Baggage pickup by some of the hotels was late thereby cutting into our touring time. A cheaply run tour and it shows!

Fantastic Introduction to France

We chose GoAhead Tours to get us introduced to France so that we could function on our own after a few days. We enjoyed the history lessons provided, the off-the-beaten-path adventures, the suggestions regarding restaurant choices, and the provided safe and comfortable transportation. We were assisted with ticket purchases, metro transportation and sightseeing options. The group was very congenial and the provided meals and excursions were excellent. It was a great trip and we feel it as a super value. We would definitely recommend it to friends and we are looking into another GoAhead tour for next year.

Beautiful trip to a beautiful country

Great tour, great tour director. When you have a very talented tour director you are well taken care of and enjoy every aspect of the tour.

EVERYTHING was an 'optional'

The itinerary is good but nothing is included. Without paying for the optionals, don't think there would have been much value to this tour.

Small group, but packed with adventure

Our tour guide, Brian, was the best. He is extremely knowlegable, and because of his duel citzenship, he has a unique perspective. He took care of everyone's needs, including making sure our connections after the trip were smooth. Our bus driver was also remarkable. The history lessons we received while we rode the bus were fasinating. Brian gave us enough lively background to prepare us for each stop. We would have appreciated more time in Paris, and better weather. But it did ont dampen our spirts!

Enlightening Memorable Trip

The trip was leisurely pleasant from Monet's Giverny to Lower Normandy Deauville, to the memorable moving D-Day beaches, the tapestry of Bayeaux, scenic coast of Saint Malo and the verdant Loire Valley. appreciated the side trips offered like Saint- Malo.

Interesting

Interesting places and our tour guide Brian was very knowledgable of the various places we toured I en joyed it

A great way to see France

We have only traveled in Europe on our own before and we had some reservations about going with a tour group. But we didn't want to have to drive, and neither of us speaks French fluently; therefore we chose this trip because it provided the most of what we wanted to see. Our reservations were unfounded; we had a wonderful and memorable trip. Our director, Brian, was incredible and there were only 12 of us on the trip, so it was a very personal experience. Brian's insights, knowledge, and personality greatly enhanced the experience. We felt that we gained a good understanding of French history and current culture from him. We saw so much of France-Normandy coast and Loire Valley - with a little overview of Paris in our limited time in the city. The pacing of the trip was fine. We had enough time at each destination and there was a nice balance betwen free time and designated tour time during the trip. My only disappointment with the itinerary was that the full day in Rouen was on a Sunday when all of the stores and many restaurants were closed. The included dinners were very good and our accomodations were also very good and modern except for the hotel in St. Malo. Its location was perfect, but we had a room on the top floor that was really antiquated, didn't even have a shower, and the AC did not work. We left the window open but, as Brian had warned us earlier, the bars across the street stay open late and are very noisy at night. Others on our tour complained about their rooms on lower floors due to low ceiling height and antiquated accomodations. We had wonderful food and wine throughout the trip. Brian was helpful too in suggesting restaurants, bakeries, etc. as options for our lunch stops and for dinners on the nights we were on our own. in summary, I would definitley endorse this trip to future travelers.