From chania : Knossos Palace & Archeological Museum Tour

Posted By : Culture20750684715
I urge strong caution before booking the Chania-to-Knossis/Heraklion tour through Io Tours (and would probably think twice before using Io Tours for any excursions at all). I had signed up for this tour for this past Sunday (4/28/24) on the last day of my two-week Greece vacation, and, while I was pleased finally to see Knossis and the Heraklion Archaeology Museum (I've been waiting for many years), the process of getting there and the experience overall was very disappointing. Here are the problems I experienced:

Unlike every other Viator tour operator I had used for my Greek vacation, Io Tours did not contact me the day before with any information about pickup time or location. The morning before my scheduled tour, I messaged them, but they didn't reply. At 7pm the evening before the tour, I was compelled to contact Viator to complain, and only after I did that did Io Tour contact me with the logistics for the next morning's 7AM pick up time. That was a bad start because it felt like Io Tours put the whole thing together at the last minute.

For the first hour of the bus ride, including one transfer from my mini bus to the larger bus, nobody from the tour operator communicated what was going on. We had no tour guide (until we picked her up an hour into the ride) and neither bus driver spoke to us. We assumed we would be picking up the tour guide at some point, but nobody communicated what was going on.

Once the tour guide finally got on the bus just outside Rethymno (I believe her name was Stella), I learned that the tour would be in both English and German. To be clear, the tour was marketed as an English-only tour, so to find out I would only get half of the tour guide's attention/content was a big disappointment. Constant translation is disruptive to the flow of any tour, and it's clear Io Tour sonly combined the English and German tours for cost efficiencies. The tour guide's English was not advanced and was often hard to understand, and it was clear she preferred speaking in German.

On the way between Rethymno and Knossis, the bus caught fire and we had to pull over on the highway and evacuate the vehicle. We had to wait 45 minutes, with cars constantly whizzing past, for a new bus to pick us up. Granted, this could happen to any vehicle, but it added more grief to the other problems. It also made us late to Knossis.

Once we got to Knossis, we had only one hour to tour the ruins (presumably because we arrived late due to the bus breakdown). This is also when the tour guide's condescending personality became more evident. She often barked orders at us and became quickly annoyed by questions. But the kicker? I asked her one question the entire time, and it was, "Will one hour be enough time?" because the tour itinerary had allotted two hours. Her response was an eye roll followed by "Just go" (pointing to the entry gate) and "Don't ask questions like children." I was shocked by her behavior - even other tourists in my group commented on it. As it turns out, one hour was NOT long enough. At this point, I broke away from the tour and walked the ruins on my own, and had to skip several sections to get back to the bus on time.

By late afternoon, I completely ignored the tour guide to try to salvage the experience, and thankfully our free time in Heraklion and Rethymno allowed me to do my own touring and learning.

At the end of the day, a tour operator should add value and convenience to a tourist's excursions. Otherwise, what is the point of using them? In this case, I would have learned a lot more (and saved money) if I had just rented a car for the day and done it on my own.
Rating :
Posted On : 2024-04-30 16:19:32

Posted By : Karen_P
Excellent bus driver and very knowledgeable tour guide. Good balance of time spend in each location. Woukd recommend this as it’s such good value for money.
Rating :
Posted On : 2023-07-31 12:38:09