330 kilometers, 14 bruises, 8 scratches, and 14 dirty socks later: I love Bulgaria!

Now plowing into my 3rd hour sitting in this internet cafe, I deem it absolutely necessary to get outside. There's too much English in here. Make it stop!

Ergo, you get the evaluation I just sent off to Penguin Tours...and in the process, find out what I was doing all last week! (What further blows my mind is that I went those EIGHT DAYS without checking my email. I tried to think when that last happened-- I got as far back as "the internet didn't exist then", and realized it had been a long time.)


Beth Nelson to ivailo
show details 3:15 PM (0 minutes ago) Reply


Hi Ivailo,

I was one of the travelers on the recent Balkan Cycling Tour.
I promised Andre I would send my evaluation via email so that you guys can actually read what I wrote. :-) So, here it is! I tried to refer to the questions/sections enough to correlate with the form that is given out.

Many thanks to you and Andre and all the others that make this tour so great. I had a really wonderful time -- we got terribly lucky with weather and traveling partners, but the rest, the stuff that has to be planned was organized, fun, and completely fascinating. I would love to do another tour with Penguin again, and will definitely evangelize Penguin to all my friends
(In the non-religious sense of course)!

Top section (untitled)
Balkan Cycling Tour, 9/27-10/4
I am from San Francisco, California
We found this tour by randomly searching on the internet -- lucky, huh!

Trip information
Highlights -- seeing a variety of mosques, well laid out bike rides, traveling & riding with fun & interesting people, feeling like I saw the "interior" of Bulgaria
Low points -- I really don't think we had any (Well, the Norwegians had some challenges just getting to Bulgaria -- naturally that was worse for them than for us!)
Itinerary -- excellent. I was really glad to see Bulgaria in such depth. Also, whenever we changed plans (e.g. skipping a monastery, driving a section instead of riding it), Andre would always tell us all the options, but we always decided as a group.
As regards interaction with local people & their way of life: yes yes yes! We found Bulgarians to be warm and accommodating people. I found it especially entertaining to be out in the country and have them fascinated by us almost as us by them. And don't forget the cats! We saw lots of lovely local cats as well.
Suggested improvements: I really don't have any; it was an awesome trip.

Guide evaluation
Andre was a fantastic guide -- but he was more than a guide. He was doctor, translator, historian, entertainer, friend...it's almost kind of pathetic how lost we were without him (we realized this when he left the restaurant table for 2 minutes, and we couldn't even get ourselves soda water...). Restaurants, accommodations, having fun but challenging bike rides -- these were all phenomenal experiences that would never have been so successful without his help.

Accommodation & food
Amazing, fantastic, beautiful. Especially nice was the hotel in that town where the rich merchants paid the Turks to stay away, and the pension run by the lady that used to be a professional cook. We ate well for three meals because of her! (i.e. dinner, breakfast, AND she fixed us sandwiches to take on the road. They were yummy.)

Transportation
Great -- our plans/arrangements came off without a hitch. We showed up in Sofia and there was Andre with a smiling face and a sign that had my boyfriend's name on it! Right away, we knew we were in good hands.

Miscellaneous
Is trip price-worthy? absolutely
Was pre-trip information correct? As I recall, yes, for the most part....it might be nice to have a little more information on the accommodations -- particularly with regard to the 1st night, since that one was in someone's home (I don't have any problem staying in someone's home -- it's just nice to know ahead of time...)

Personal information
I am female.
Age group 35-44
I booked about a week ahead -- we're not big planners. :-)
I typically travel abroad 1-2 times per year.

Next time -- I don't know -- what's good? It almost depends more on what's available during my vacation time than actually where the trip is to.
Usual travel times -- these aren't terribly consistent; they are usually coordinated with conferences or other meetings for my or my boyfriend's job.

Here ends the evalution. So...let the evangelizing begin! Take a Penguin tour! Fun fun fun! Pictures/additional promotional advice will be posted someday...