Iceland South Coast Tour - 7 Days
Iceland
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Oct 5 - Oct 11, 2018
The hotel accommodation arranged were overall good and the travel map was well marked with the route and locations of hotels and places of interest clearly indicated.
However the following negative experiences limited the extent and the peace of mind for us to fully enjoy the trip despite a well planned itinerary.
i) Upon arrival, to our surprised we were informed that Hong Kong currency (eventhough it is a major currency which is accepted internationally) was not accepted at the money changer at the airport; which led to some initial concerns and delays resulting in our arriving late to Reykjavik.. This was a disappointment as we had chosen the itinerary to spend an extra day in Klauster instead of Reykjavik and had planned to explore Reykjavik on day of arrival.
ii) The pickup by Enterprise Car Rental was late and we have to call a few times to chase them. We were also surprised that the pickup to their office was only for 2 instead of the group which meant that the rest had to wait at the hotel. This delay resulted in a rush to cover the place of visits and we only arrived at the hotel in Henna very late.
iii) The rental car developed some noise after we went off-road to visit some of the places of interest on the very first day which was a Saturday. Eventhough we managed to contact their helpline, we were unable to have it checked at a service centre since it was a weekend. This created a overhanging worry over us for the next 2 days as we were worried that the car may fail any time and in a remote location.
iv) We managed to send the car to a service centre in Klauster on Monday. The time spend waiting and checking again cause further unnecessary delays. We also had to pay for the maintenance in advance.
v) As we only reach back to Reykjavik after 5pm, we could only drop-off the car at the bus terminal parking area and email the claims for reimbursement as we had opted for a Zero access insurance coverage. To-date we have not received even a acknowledgement of my email nor reimbursement.
vi) There was an initial error in the number of pax (2pax instead of 4pax) stated on the voucher for the Flybus transport to airport. After we reported this, a replacement voucher was subsequently received via email. We only realized that the new voucher was issued with a wrong travel date when pointed out by the staff at the bus-station. Prior to that we had to endure suspense and worries of missing our flight as there was no pickup from Bus Stop at the designated time and repeated calls to enquire and chasing for a pickup. Eventhough it was our error to only check that the number of pax was correct and not double checking the travel date on replacement voucher, we had not expected an error since the first voucher had the correct date. Luckily the management at the bus terminal was kind enough to arrange for a taxi to send us to the airport at no extra cost so that we could be on time to catch our return flight.
Regrettably the above bad experiences soured what could otherwise had been a great holiday and tour for our family with what Iceland has to offer.
Regards