Travelwatchdog - The only truly independent voice in Travel
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Accident & Illness Abroad - Legal Assistance and Advice

Travelwatchdog - The Travellers Assistant

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Objectives

For more than 10 years, Travelwatchdog has existed to help the traveller. Have you suffered at the hands of a tour operator, travel agent, holiday company, bucket shop, airline, hotel or any other organisation involved in the travel trade, or had an accident or illness abroad? Are you looking for interesting travel experiences? We report independently on trips for the traveller of which we have direct experience, some of which will not be found in the brochure. Do you have a particularly good travel experience about which you would like to tell others? We give equal space to both Saints and Sinners in the industry. You can contact our HELP DESK by clicking here.

There is no travel ombudsman and the industry has an extremely poor record when it comes to dealing with justified complaints. Without exception travel agents and tour operators will steadfastly reject even the most convincing of evidence, feeling safe in the knowledge that there is very little chance of ever being held to account. ABTA, being funded by the industry will support their paymasters in almost all cases, whereas we accept no support or travel discounts and promise 100% honesty. If you have a legitimate complaint we try to help, if you do not, we say so. Similarly, unlike media correspondents, we do not travel as 'guests of the company'. What we write about a trip is our honest opinion, not a fudge in case our free travel is cut off! The bottom line is that you can trust our advice and the information given in our travel articles. If you have a complaint or simply want some travel advice, please contact us using the form at this link.

Cruising. Get the Best Value

As a consequence of the growth in cruising during recent years, cruise lines have dramatically increased their capacity. Several new ships have been commissioned and capacity of others has been increased. What these companies did not foresee was the looming economic recession and its inevitable effect on the potential customer base. Eventually, capacity will disappear from the market place, but until that happens cruise lines will be fiercely competing for business by offering discounts and other incentives. Follow this link to read about cruising and the serious problems with Spirit of Adventure and its Black Sea cruise.

DO READ our travel features and travelogues for which there are links at the top of the page. We publish only genuine first-hand experiences. If you read travelogues in media travel sections, almost without exception they are based on trips PAID FOR BY THE TOUR OPERATOR. The writer is a guest of the company who roll out the red carpet and it is implicit in the arrangement "If you don't behave, this will be your last trip"! WE are never guests of the company and we write what we find. If we don't like it we say so. See Niuew Amsterdamreview.

The recent accident to the Costa Concordia will also depress market prices as the wary stay away. This should mean great savings. Our advice is to ignore the Costa disaster. Book a cruise now and you will never be safer!


 

Travel Regulation Care

Travellers must be aware that it is their personal responsibility to ensure that they meet all Visa and other travel requirements before commencing their journey. The consequence of not doing so can be profound.

Mr K's family recently travelled to Brazil without him, but when Mrs K and her children attempted to return to the UK, they were prevented from doing so by the Brazilian authorities who will not allow a lone parent to take children out of the country. In this case, not being aware of the regulations before travel has caused a great deal of distress and additional expense.

Expect travel agents and airlines to offer advice on such matters, but they do not have the final responsibility; YOU DO! Check with the visa section of the relevant embassy if you are not certain that you are absolutely aware of the requirements you must meet for your journey.


 

Beware Europcar on the Continent

Over the past couple of years we have had a number of e-mails about outrageous charges levied by Europcar for minor damage to hire cars. Europcar, owned by EURAZEO, is a franchise organisation with some very dodgy franchisees. Nice seems to be the worst place to hire from this company. The credit card of one customer was debited over €919 for a small dent in a bumper caused when they left the vehicle in a car park. More recently, another Europcar Nice customer's card was debited more than €500 for a dent in the steel wheel of a Peugeot and another in Malaga, €800 for a broken clutch cable! You can avoid such overcharging by using a credit card with a very low spend limit or avoiding this company altogether.


 

Stop being a 'sticky' customer

What is a 'sticky' customer? This is a term companies apply to those customers who either by design or ignorance can be relied upon to stay with the company. This happens where a company earns a reputation for being good value and despite market trends offering better value, the company retains its customers because those customers are too lazy or too foolish to research other opportunities.


A Message from the Editor

 

 

 

For more than 10 years we have offered free advice to the travelling public and, apart from an annual payment from one of Britain's top firms of Solicitors and a few public donations, we have personally met all of the considerable costs of maintaining the site. If you wish to help, please use the Paypal button below. A Paypal account is not necessary.

Yours sincerely,

Bob Braban

 

The Joy of Africa

Story Here

Feel like spending the Winter in Portugal

Read the article at this link

 

If you are going to the Auburn area of California drop in and see Charlie Green at his fabulous winery in the hills.

 

 

 

 


General Travel Advice

Even the experienced traveller needs to take a great deal of care in planning a trip. Most of the time nothing goes wrong, but if it does you really do need to be prepared. Take advantage of our printable travel trip check list and avoid the pitfalls that are regularly reported to us.


Travel Insurance

ALWAYS arrange travel insurance as soon as you make your flight or holiday booking. Each year we get hundreds of situations where travellers have suffered problems after booking but before travelling. Tour operators and travel agents will not refund in these circumstances. They make sympathetic noises but see it as a bonus rather than a problem Its a holiday they may be able to sell twice! Use our travellers check list at this link


Warning - Flight Only Bookings with Tour Operators

Ian M of Glasgow reminds us of a recurring problem when flight only bookings are made with holiday companies (in this case ThomsonFly). Mr M booked early at a low price for flights from Glasgow to Malaga and paid in full. Later the company advised that the aircraft size had reduced and he would have to fly from Durham on another aircraft. Subsequently he was told that the flight had been overbooked and later that it had been cancelled. Were any of these statements true? UNLIKELY ! The probability is that the seats were required for passengers who had paid more or were booking package holidays with the company.


TERRANOVA HOLIDAYS SCAM -    RED WARNING

Over several years we have received many horror stories about this company. This is one of the most recent. This warning comes from Mrs L H who writes (verbatim)
" I was on holiday in August 2006 and was stopped by a young lady and asked to visit their offices because I had won a top prize, but I would only get that prize after listening to a holiday promotion. On arrival I was given a drink of wine and sat and talked to a couple of very nice ladies who told me about a company called Club Class Corporate who if I bought into the club I would not only get good deals on any holidays/flights in 5* hotels anywhere in the world, I would not only get my £7000 back in total, a cash-back guarantee, but they would buy my Tenerife timeshare in Adeje for £2,000, in 52 months time.
In fact, I have just found out that they never passed those funds onto the the Reclaim company who invested the money in order for the cash back guarantee, which means I have lost £7000. I have since tried to contact them without success."
Establishment - Individual Concerned: Ros Davies, Terranova Holidays Promotions International SL, Locales 312/313, Playa de las Americas, Torviscas, Adeje,Tenerife.

DO NOT GIVE THESE PEOPLE MONEY - To read more click here TERRA NOVA HOLIDAYS TENERIFE


FCO Travel Advice