Traveler’s Feedback

Hello dear Ms. Sati,

Thank you for your e-mail!  Yes, my wife and I are back in Texas now for almost a week, after we had spent a couple of days in Munich since returning from Tblisi on May 22. In just one sentence:  The tour with ARARA through Armenia and Georgia, which you have put together for us, was 100 % success, pleasure and enjoyment!!!  My wife and I thank you so much for all your suggestions, planning, and organizing!!

Each one of our three drivers and guides we had (Mr, Avet, Mr. Gevorg, and Mr. Tazo) was a friendly  and sympathetic person, always knowledgeable, helpful and flexible, and a reliable and safe driver.   We enjoyed each one of them!

Each one of the cars was comfortable, air conditioned, and running smoothly; we had no car or traffic trouble.  We had good luck with the weather, and the spring season was simply delightful everywhere.

The hotels were friendly and comfortable, and we cherished the local  food and drinks.

And I had plenty of opportunity to photograph historical monuments and churches, and to soak up unforgettable scenery.

Armenia part of Armenia & Georgia Hiking Tour.
I am separating the two countries because we had different guides/ drivers
The guide Hasmik was very enthusiastic and accommodating in Yerevan where we had already seen the places included in the day trip. No assistance with lunch though. Not a problem for us.
The ecstatic comments on the culture and nature of Armenia wore a little thin at the end of the five days when the number of monasteries and churches started to overwhelm us.
On day 4 she suggested a substitute walk which we believed was a swap with a visit to yet another monastery . The walk was enjoyable but it turned out it was a swap for day five’s walk which would see us missing out on the Lastiver Caves. In the end we did both day 4 and day 5 program on day 5., Because of the extra driving we were asked to pay 15000 Drahms(31$) . No idea if it was appropriate but we agreed to it.
We did tend to start out a little late in the mornings. 10 a.m. or later, but maybe that is usual in Armenia. It did result in a couple of very late finishes and very little food left at the guesthouse on day 2. The host was very helpful though and did open the nice pool for us early next morning.
The last day was also very late because we packed more in than originally planned However the hostess at the guesthouse was to be commended for the meal she unexpectantly prepared for us.
Day 4 guesthouse was pleasant with a lovely verandah and garden. However the room would have been fine for one person, but really too small for two. We could barely open our suit cases.
All together the accommodations were fine given we were out in the country.
The tour was good but a little too many churches and monasteries. Maybe the tour name should be changed to: Armenia & Georgia, Churches, Monasteries and aHiking Tour.
The guide was very knowledgeable but could be clearer in the explanation of options.
In summary the Armenian part was good and the Georgian part great. Thank you for organising it. I am happy to recommend the tour

Georgian part of Armenia and Georgia Hiking trip.
The second part of this trip was fabulous. Although Sandro from "My Geo" did both the driving and guiding he carried out both jobs very well, anticipating and fulfilling any wish we might have. A very professional and well informed guide, whom I cannot recommend enough.
Breakfast at the Bonjormi Old Hotel was without much choice, but adequate.
Would love to return to Georgia

Dear Sati, How are you? I hope you are all well.
I would like to thank you for the educative and interesting tour through your beutifful country Armenia. We have found amaizing landscapes, ancient history, modern city and warm and kind people. We want especialy to note hotel Apricot for very warm and homey treatment. They did above and beyond to make our stay very pleasant.
And last but not least - As you said in the office he is the best.
Please send a special thanks and very warm wishes to our faithful guide Avet.
He was always attentive to our needs and wishes, full of knowledgr and facts which he was glad to share with us and a lot of good mood and humor to make our long driv interesting and joyfull.

Thank you again and all the best
Batia and Ruth

I would like to to thank Arara tour for this amazing hiking trip. I couldn’t imagine that Armenia is so beautiful. You made us to feel the spirit of Armenia, I have traveled almost whole Europe but the beauty of Armenia is different, its architecture, hidden churches in forests are just amazing, I can’t really explain what just had happened to me when I entered Tatev Monastery, I was cracked. The places we visited are unimaginably beautiful, I still remember Likani River Gorge, the architecture of Sighnaghi and Kakheti cities. Baku is also a very beautiful city. Hotel service, guides, drivers, food, people everything was just perfect. I will defiantly recommend Arara Tour to all of my friends. You made me to feel special by your service.

Barev Rima jan,

Thank you for this awesome trip we reached home safely, I remember only this two words in Armenian. We are satisfied with everything; hotels you picked for us were very good. The drivers and guides were excellent they took a great care of us, knew what they were doing, and the most important: they know their history. We enjoyed being in Khakheti, drinking lots of wine, eating Georgian khinkali and khachapuri. Many thanks to ARARA and the team which worked so hard, everything worked out great, we will defiantly come back next year.

Hello Sati,

We are finally home and I would like to state that we really enjoyed our trip, Armenia is much more beautiful than I expected. It’s nature, architecture, churches are amazing, our guide has been telling us that Armenia is a museum in the open air and for the first 2 days I could not really understand what he wanted to say until we reached to Tatev Monastery. Armenian cuisine is very delicious, their Xash, Spas are something that you need to try, I even took some of Lavash with me back to Brazile. Hotels in Armenia and Georgia have been very comfortable not like in Azerbaijan which hotel service I did not really like. I am in love with Tbilisi, the hotel called Old City & New City was gorgeous with full of old Georgian architecture. We had a free day in Yerevan and got lost there but people are so polite and ready to help you, that a man called Armen take us to our hotel by his car. Guides in 3 countries were well organized and knew their job thanks to Anahit and Tazo for their amazing tours. Thanks to ARARA tour agency for their amazing work, for being tolerant and very organized.

Hi Tatev! I just wanted to let you know that I had an amazing time in Armenia. Thank you for providing me with the best guide that I’ve ever had! Gevorg made my experience of Armenia something very special. I appreciated the way he tailored the tour to my interests and he really looked after me. He is so much fun as well. Thanks again, Tatev! And please send my best wishes and thanks once again to Gevorg.
Regards

Dear Sati, Due to circumstances Lars is not in the office yet. I’ve taken a closer
look at the reviews and I made a small selection. I will let Lars know about the feedback as well so you can both have a
look at it for next year

Great points:

* Special country with lot’s of great and new species.
* Highlights were; jeep expeditions, Amrash fishing ponds.
* Lunch with a view of a Bearded Vulture nest
* Great guides
* Comfortable and spacious bus

Feedback:

* Hotels closer to national parks or nature reserves, so you can take
a morning walk or pre-breakfast excursion.
* The hotel at the lake was the least comfortable.
* The driver was driving fast, also in the villages.
* Local guide was a little bit shy.
* Go south for the See see Partridge

Also some feedback from our guide: All restaurants were good! Great food was served.
Program: An extra jeep excursion to see the red tailed wheatear and perhaps
add a morning excursion to see the Syrian Brown bear.

Visited areas: A hotel is built in the area we’ve visited to see the
Bimaculated Lark, which is a shame. Perhaps, it’s good to look for another
location.

Guide/driver: Good driver, with a relaxing way of driving. Guide was good,
but sometimes difficult to understand. His English was not that good. Our
guide knew a few nice spots, where he had seen a lot before. However, the
initiative to stop at those places was low. Our guide knew of a Bubo Bubo
location, luckily they made a stop there.

Hotels: He recommends to pick another hotel instead of Nov Land, as their
is no atmosphere and the area around the hotel was not safe due to working
activities.
 

Dear Lucine, we reached home safely.
The group was very happy this time, as usual;
Thank to you and your Agency’s effort, everything was well made.
Hope can see you soon!

Anna

Hi Sati! Thank you very much indeed for organising such a great holiday, which Fiona and I enjoyed immensely. Please find below our feedback, as requested, and I hope you don’t mind the what I hope are constructive suggestions I have included. Please feel free to quote any bits you like on your website. I should be pleased to think that others will have as enjoyable a time as we did.

SUMMARY
This was an extremely enjoyable, fascinating and instructive tour, largely well organised and excellent value for money. We recommend it to anyone interested in this fascinating area. However, there are a few simple changes that could make it even better – less rushed and more relaxing – and an even more appealing holiday.

HOTELS

All the hotels were more than satisfactory, comfortable and well appointed. We particularly enjoyed Cascade in Yerevan for the helpfulness of the staff and the view of Mt Ararat from our room. We also liked the spectacular Brigitte in Sighnaghi and the large swimming pool at the hotel in Sheki, although we had disappointingly little time to enjoy them (more later). The Nobel hotel in Baku was the best all round as a hotel. The breakfasts provided by all the hotels were good, although those at the Cascade were perhaps the least generous.


COUNTRIES AND SIGHTS


We felt we obtained a pretty good tourist view of all three countries. Lots of magnificent mountains, spectacular scenery, especially after the cable-car rides, and beautiful, secluded monasteries. We were especially impressed by the architecture in Baku; the museum designed by Zaha Hadid was amazing.


Although Yerevan is possibly the least intrinsically interesting city we visited from the point of view of the tourist sights, I think we enjoyed it the most. The atmosphere is fun and lively and the people helpful and welcoming. The people of Tbilisi appear more reserved and there seemed to be a more sombre atmosphere. Baku may be the most interesting to visit of the three capitals but we left with the impression that Azerbaijan is a highly regulated country that reminded us a bit of other authoritarian states we have visited.

GUIDES

Our guide in Armenia, Lucine, was particularly good. We felt her knowledge was excellent and she imparted it freely and well in understandable English. She was also the most sensitive to the needs of the group. I think she was the most experienced of the three. Alex, who conducted us around Georgia, was also helpful and informative with a good knowledge level, particularly about folk history. He was, however, a bit inexperienced and found it more difficult to take control of the group, which by this point had built stronger internal relationships. This was even more the case for Amin in Azerbaijan, whose language skill, country knowledge and leadership qualities seemed more limited. In view of the politics of the country involved, I did wonder whether he had more than a tourist guide role.

BUSES

All the buses used were comfortable and the drivers helpful and committed. (The buses may have been rather more cramped if they had been more than two-thirds full.)

GROUP

We were fortunate to join a very pleasant group of people, with whom (with one possible exception) we got on well throughout, perhaps making some long-term friends in the process. However a very brief, minor argument I had with a member of another Arara tour paralleling us made us realise how critical it is for such a small group in the confines of a small bus to get on together.

PROGRAMME

We suspect that the majority of people taking this tour will be older and relatively well-off. It is therefore important that their requirements are taken into account.  The programme was in fact too rushed and intensive. A holiday should be more relaxed and we recommend that the following minor changes are made to the
itinerary:

1. The itinerary should be more strictly maintained. Having spent more time than allocated on some activities, we missed one or two scheduled stops and had insufficient time in some of the places we did visit, even in Armenia.
2. The schedule should be spaced out more consistently. We started with what were essentially two half-days in Yerevan, only to have the itinerary squeezed later.
3. The tour should be extended by a day or so to make it a full two weeks (with allowance for flights to and from the Caucasus), which is more in line with standard holiday periods, at least in the UK. This will clearly impact the cost but the price is currently quite low for what you get and I believe a higher price would be acceptable, provided it is kept below €2,000.
4. Consideration should be given to staying at more hotels. Although staying in one base for a few days has advantages, these are outweighed by the pain of a three-hour drive home in the evening, arriving too late for a leisurely dinner.
5. A lot of time was wasted over lunches (up to two hours at a time). I am aware that Fiona and I like light lunches and a proper evening meal; at least one of our group preferred to have a good lunch and skip dinner. Nevertheless, consideration should be given to asking the hotels to provide packed lunches for the group and picnic stops organised. I should have thought that the cost of such lunches could be built into Arara’s overall price without impacting too heavily on it.
6. People of our age – and I’m sure this view was shared by other members of the group – prefer an orderly day. We believe that morning hotel pick-ups should be 9-9:30am, lunch 12:30-1:30pm and arrival at the night’s accommodation about 6pm, allowing for a relaxing free evening. Lunching at 4pm and arriving at the hotel at 9:30pm is not really acceptable, not least because it results in frayed tempers all round!

Dear Tatev
What a trip you had organised for me! It was just amazing!! I haven’t had a chance to write anything for the pages you mentioned but I shall eventually. I would like to share privately that Armenia was one of the best tours I have ever taken!
The sites I saw and experienced were truly fascinating and my guide, while he cursed the roads a lot, was exceptional with his knowledge and keen desire to show me as much as he could - even sites that were not included in the itinerary but he knew of personally. We even explored sites that he had heard about but not yet explored personally. Unfortunately, the site was up a very, very steep mountain gorge and his estimate of just a few metres was not quite accurate. For me it was an exhausting 10-kilometre climb (Well I exaggerate, but it felt like it to me :-) ) It was probably only a kilometre climb.
He even helped me to purchase some local tomato seeds at a market which I have now planted in my garden and am hoping they grow well here in Australia.
He wasn’t keen though at hosting me back to Armenia to see the Pagan festival in August conducted by a local Pagan and Arts teacher where people dance naked around a fire near the monolith site. He laughed at the idea. :-)
My time in Armenia has left me with many vivid and wonderful memories. It was the perfect tour for me the only disappointment was not seeing the petroglyphs but I understand the reason this was cancelled. I shall just have to come back during Summer to see them.
Georgia was nice but I found too many sites had been reconstructed and served as marriage venues and rebuilt more for this purpose than for a historical one. There was nothing in Georgia that fascinated me as much as the sites I explored in Armenia. I even cancelled many of the places we were to visit because they were just too touristy for my liking and interests. The guide was excellent though and I highly recommend her for all that she did for me.
Armenia - Beautiful scenery, and wonderful, mystical and even mysterious sites, with an excellent guide, made a tour I shall always remember.
Again, thank you and all involved in making my tour such a memorable one!

Kindest regards,
Mark