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• Major Disappointment with Untapped Potential!

  Marek G,May 11, 2025

  - Review from Viator

  1.00

  Major Disappointment with Untapped Potential! Let me start with a few disclaimers: 1. My wife and I have been traveling the world for the past 20 years (at least two, sometimes three trips a year). 2. For two decades we have been using Viator as the “to go” agency for our tours. 3. This is the first time we have booked a seven-day tour. 4. Iceland is a breathtakingly beautiful country. 5. Most local people were very nice and helpful to tourists (with the exception of the local grocery stores). 6. This is our first negative review. Generally, we are very open-minded as we have been traveling as much as we can and we do understand that sometimes things just happen. 7. We don’t understand the reviewers who granted five stars reviews. Incomprehandable! 8. This is our review of: “7 Day Iceland with Reykjavik Blue Lagoon Snæfellsnes | Golden Circle | South....” tour. These are our concerns and warnings for the fellow travelers: 1. Arrival: We were told by the Arago representative (apparently Viator uses them as one of the organizers) that “we are going to pick you up from the airport”. No one did. You will end up with a handful of vouchers in your hand and you are on your own. The bus takes you from the airport to the main bus station, from there another bus takes you to the bus stop in an approximation to your hotel – not to your hotel! We had to figure out which bus will take us to the city and then open our Google Maps to find our hotel. On foot. With baggage. In cold and wet weather. Nicely done Arago! 2. Communication with Arago: We were told by the Viator to communicate with Arago directly. There was no communication. There is no one person to guide you or answer any of your questions. Remember that there is only you with a handful of vouchers. This is it! A couple of times our tour meeting time was delayed. We were informed via email either too late or not at all – this caused us anxiety every morning! Nice going Arago and Viator. 3. Hotel: Apart from decent breakfasts and nice employees, the hotel was simply disgusting. The carpet in our room needed a thorough wash a decade ago. The bathroom reminded us of the 1930’s or 1940’s old movies. No bathroom amenities except for a shampoo/conditioner/body wash/soap in the same one bottle. The hotel called this “Green”; we called this being hyper cheap. And this is the best part: unless you ask, no one will clean your room, no one will change your towels, and no one with take the trash out of the room. And this is the kicker: According to the hotel POLICY, to be more “Green”, the hotel won’t perform these simple services unless you personally ask them to do so. However, we were told that after four days someone will come to clean the room and pick up the trash. This should happen every four days (you asked or not). Remember that this is the hotel policy (or so we were told by the hotel receptionist). Well, no one did. For a week. Finally, we ask for fresh towels and trash pick-up (end of day four). Upon our arrival at the hotel after a day trip, we found fresh towels on the bed. The used ones were still where they were. On the floor. Used and wet. The garbage was still in the overflowing bins (I guess that I forgot to ask to empty them! My bad!). Nicely done Vosshotel Baron! A newsflash for you Vosshotel Baron: All of this filth is about being “Greener”? Really? Or rather this is being cheap and disgusting! 4. Transportation: Public buses. You will not be picked up from the airport. You will not be picked up from your hotel for your day tours (or at least we weren’t). You will not be picked up from your hotel back to the airport. We were told that we could not be picked up from our hotel because of the nearby construction. My question to Arago is: Why did you book us into the hotel when you KNEW that the construction is going on near the hotel? (the answer is obvious though: It was cheaper!) 5. Tours (This is important): Under day 4 Viator advertises: “Fellsfjara: The Diamond Beach(*) is a strip of black sand located by Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. Here, the icebergs which fill Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon wash up on shore, standing dazzling and defiant in stark contrast to the black sand beach”. (*I used bold, italics, and underline for clarity and exposure). Please NOTE that you will not go to Diamond Beach. At all. Once asked, even the driver of our minibus was surprised as he stated that it is a six-hour (one way) drive to the Dimond Beach and he does not know anything about it. What a nice surprise for us (sarcasm Arago and Viator, sarcasm!). 6. Hotel following their own policies: a. As I mentioned above, we were told that even if we don’t request room cleaning, it is a hotel policy to send a cleaning crew every four days. This never happened. From Saturday to Saturday! b. The breakfast was served from 7:00AM until 10:00AM. Literally seven minutes after 10:00AM, the employees asked the hotel guests to vacant the breakfast room. While still eating! I guess that it is optional for the Vosshotel Baron employees which policy to follow and which one to completely ignore. 7. Final Thoughts and advice for the fellow traveler: a. Do not book a multiday trip. b. Book a hotel which you like. c. Book day trips of your choice separately. d. In order for any business to thrive, it must provide a quality service to its customers; however, Arago provided none. I could easily book my own hotel and then individual daytrips. For $3,204.00 per person for a week, we expected more. Much more. e. Breakdown cost to Viator and Arago: Day 1: Public bus ticket Day 2: City Sightseeing bus ticket (no guide; no directions. You are on your own all day long). Day 3: Daytrip Day 4: Daytrip Day 5: Daytrip Day 6: A half-day trip to Blue Lagoon Day 7: Public bus ticket All days: No food included TOTAL: Three bus tickets; three daytrips; one half-day trip. Cheap hotel. No food. No support from the agency. Extremally poor communication with Arago. This is NOT value; this is an abomination and a rip-off! Overall, this was the worst trip we booked with Viator in the past twenty years, or so. Viator – if you ignore us and do nothing about it, after 20-year relationship, we will switch to another provided all together. Best Regards, Marek and Rosie

• We loved this trip!

  RachaelRuble,Sep 25, 2021

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  5.00

  This was our tenth anniversary so we had a lot of high expectations and we certainly weren't disappointed. It was a great way to get all the highlights of Iceland in without having to do any of the leg work ourselves. The tour company was in touch with us right away after booking to confirm all the arrangements and make sure we were prepared for the trip, especially with all the covid travel restrictions this was extremely helpful and reassuring. We didn't have to think about a thing, just show up and have a good time. What an amazing, memorable experience for our anniversary!

  

  

  

  

• Amazing getaway from NYC

  adityashah95,Jan 16, 2021

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  5.00

  We booked the trip from New York, and we’d heard of Sarah through friends in India. The trip was very meticulously planned, and proved to be a very good respite during the pandemic. Iceland is a very beautiful country, and Arago added quite a few unconventional stops on our tripX which made it even more memorable.

• Wanderlust Iceland!!!

  Road33908743045,Jan 14, 2021

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  5.00

  Some of the best memories we have had during our visit to Iceland. Mesmerising sand and shimmering mountains. Thank you Arago Travel. Could not ask for more. Will definitely recommend it.