So.... we booked a Saga holiday, and this is our story. I'll try to write about the Saga experience, not the hotel, the flight, or the resort, but of course there may be some overlap, please excuse me!
We went to Turkey in November, we stayed in a large typical (but good quality) package hotel with an interational clientele of mixed ages. I obviously have no idea how typical our Saga experience was - but here it is!
Our first contact with Saga was on arrival in Turkey, where as usual, we were met by the rep' - there's always a tour rep at the airport, so no difference here - she shepherded the small group of arrivals onto a coach (where we waited ages for four non-arrivals - apparently it's not possible to communicate accross hundreds of miles using modern technology these days...grrrr...).
First difference: the coach to the Saga hotel dropped us off at the Saga hotel - we didn't drop off at 15 other hotels on the way - it was a single airport to hotel journey - how refreshing! And, it was the same when it came to going home time.
Welcome meeting the first day, at this point my heart generally sinks as these are usually a thinly disguised selling operation by a rep living hand-to-mouth on commission.
Second difference: the rep was barely interested in selling us any trips, in fact it became a bit of a challenge as the week went on to get her to run one of them! She knew the local area well and was quite competent, but a bit, well, vague.
The welcome meeting was in the 'Saga Lounge' - which we came to refer to as 'The Asylum' - the Saga Lounge (as the name implies) was a private retreat for Saga guests, with coffee making facilities, a TV, a private terrace with sunbeds and towels - nice. Apart from the other Saga guests - nice people, but, sorry, they were old enough to be our parents, and very, errrrr, middle class. I'll come back to the Saga crowd later!
Trips - now here's difference number three - the typical package holiday trip first picks up at seven hotels (yours is always the first to pick up and last to drop off) the commentary is in three languages and the English is always a bit shushpekt. The Saga trips were on the Saga coach with the Saga guide in excellent English. On one of our trips, to an historic site we had two guides, our regular guide was supplemented by an archeology proffessor from Istanbul Uni! Because the group on one trip was expressing an intrest in Islamic matters, the guide arranged a talk by an Iman. Definately not your average tour packages.
The overall cost of the Saga trip was almost certainly no more than the equivalent package booked on the high street, but the overall value was much, much greater. The only down side were the odd people in the same hotel - by and large it was possible to avoid them, but not on the trips, or if you wanted to use the Saga lounge. You might consider these people too high a price to pay - we don't we'll be booking with Saga again.
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