Traveling with Intrepid

My Italy trip was the first group trip I booked with a travel agency. Intrepid was one of the main agencies that cater specifically to solo travelers. On their website, I did quite a bit of research about different types of Italy trips, and chose the cycling trip in Tuscany. Indeed, this was going to be fun!

As I finished writing my blogposts about Italy, I look back on my whole experience and wonder, what could have I done better? While I enjoyed the trip for the most part, there were aspects that I was not thrilled about:

1) accommodations were basic at best. A shared room in a hotel was expected, but the quality of hotels was not always the best. I have stayed at basic hotels like Holiday Inn and Choice Hotels and was quite satisfied with their rooms and cleanliness. Accommodations in Italy were not as good. Maybe it is the European lack of space or musty smell in some of the rooms, but even some of the AirBnb rooms were better.

2) my guide. He was pushy and intimidating. As I mentioned in my prior post, the main guide was quite mean with me at times rushing me to keep up with the group. Yes, I get it, as part of the group you have to stay in close proximity, but I was on my vacation and really should not have heard that I needed to rush because I was "making the trip longer for everyone else".

3) equipment. Bikes were older with worn handles, the rubber on which came off on my hands leaving them black and dirty. The saddles were very uncomfortable and the tires were almost bare. Also, when I needed to get an adjustment to prevent from brakes rubbing against the rotors, the guides was not too successful in accomplishing that (should that be in the "guide" section?).

4) feedback. I submitted a 3-star review for the trip on Intrepid website providing specific tips on what I would improve. Guess what? The review was not posted. In fact, only positive reviews are posted on their website, which makes me wonder just how honest the ratings of trips are.

I think next time I am traveling with G Adventures, another agency that designs trips all around the world and accommodates solo travelers.