MANTA FAQ’S

 

At Mantra holidays we want everyone to have a great experience on all our holidays. To help plan your holiday, here are some of the questions that we are frequently asked by our clients.

 

CLOTHING & ACCESSORIES

 

Some items recommended to carry are Umbrella, Rain wear, Sunglasses, comfortable clothing and walking shoes

Summer months it is advisable to dress in light garments but also advisable to keep a light jacket along as evening can get a quite chilly. In addition, it is advisable to carry one warm jacket and comfortable walking shoes if visiting mountains peaks like Mt. Titlis or visiting Disneyland etc.

If you are not sure of what to carry along, please contact Mantra Holidays representative for more advise.

 

Currencies

 

Western Europe travellers will need Euros for most of the countries, Euros is widely accepted in Switzerland but we recommend you to carry some Swiss Francs as well.

Credit and debit card are widely accepted throughout Europe, please check with you bank or credit card issuer of any charges of using you cards whilst in Europe, Bank also will can charge commission or exchange rates can be poor.

For any further information on Currencies please contact Mantra holidays representative.

 

Luggage Allowed

 

One Bag per person with maximum weight of 20kg is allowed on Coach Holidays. You can also carry one small handbag (weighing up to a maximum of 7kg, and not exceeding dimensions of 20 x 20 x 48 cm / 8 x 8 x 19 inches) per person inside the coach, which needs to fit in overhead compartment or below the seats. For flight tours please contact our representative.

Please note there will be no porter service provided by hotels or Mantra Holidays, Coach Driver will offload one bag per person from coach and passenger has to carry it to their rooms and back to coach next day where in coach driver will load it for you inside the coach. Any lost bag/s or item/s should be reported to Tour manager immediately, Mantra holidays or its suppliers and employees do not accept any liability for any damage or loss to bags or your personal items howsoever its caused.

 

Hotel

 

Mantra holidays choose the best hotels with a minimum 3* category (As rated by local tourist boards in that country), these hotels are mostly located at outskirts of city. Europe hotels usually have smaller rooms and most of the hotels do not have air conditioning in rooms. Mantra holidays always request rooms next to each other if you have multiple rooms in your group/Family but it depends on availability in hotel. Mantra holidays reserves the right to change any hotel at last minute due to unforeseen circumstances without any notice to passengers.

Facilities may vary from hotel to hotel and include en-suite toilets and bath, TV, Telephone etc.

Facilities like using telephone, mini bar items in your room are chargeable. No kettles will be provided by hotels for warming up water.

Please note that some hotel double rooms are equipped with a twin double bed joined together. Not all our hotels will have air conditioning.

WI-FI may be offered free of charge by some hotels. (But speed of download won’t be as fast as your home WIFI)

All our partner hotels will provide you with Fresh towels & bed linen (bed sheets and duvets).

We advise our passengers to carry their own toiletries, European adaptor for charging your gadgets

 

Holiday essential to carry along

 

All passengers should carry their latest valid passport with relevant visas, Travel insurance policy, Currencies for the country of visit, dry snacks, water, tissues, jackets, Camera, Travel adaptor to charge your devices, comfortable walking shoes, power bank, laptops, tabs etc with charging cables & Some basic medication.

Swim wears as some hotels may have swimming pools but please note due to our day wise itinerary it may not be possible to use swimming pool.

Hot food like Burgers, Fries, Pizzas etc., also ice cream, chewing gums are not allowed by coach companies to be consumed inside coach. For more information please contact Mantra Holidays or check with your Tour manager on day 1. Dry snacks like crisps, canned soft drinks, biscuits, Indian savoury snack etc. are allowed to be consumed inside the coach.

 

Travelling with Young Child/Infants

 

Mantra Holidays welcomes children and young infants on our tours. Infants under 24months old are only charged for seat in coach and hence they will not pe provided with entrance tickets to any excursions.

You make carry your pushchair with you. Pushchairs should be a foldable one so it can be placed in baggage locker of coach. Mantra holidays and our coach partners do not take responsibility for any damage/loss occurred to pushchair. You can ask your tour manager for push chairs at excursions but please note at some location it may not be possible to use them. Car seats are not provided on our coaches but you are more than welcome to get it along with you, as it is required by law to carry one for infants and young kids.

All children including infants must have their own passport to travel across the borders. Pregnant women should get advice from GP before travelling as we won’t be able to cater to better seats or more leg room requirements (as all seats in coach are same size and similar leg room). If your kid is sleeping and you don’t want to get down for an excursion or for any other reason you would like to sit in coach whilst others are out for sightseeing, driver can deny this request as they are on their rest breaks when passengers are out for sightseeing, and as per legal requirements when driver is on break nobody can remain on coach. You can check with tour manager for a coffee shop or restaurant where you can wait until others come back. No baby cots will be provided by any of our partner hotels, young child or infants shares the double bed with 2 adults.

Kids and infant are more than welcome to have food from buffet, as we do not cater to children meals. However, if they are allergic to some food we recommend parents to carry food for them as we do not cater to any special requirement of food for children, especially if they allergic to some food. Restaurants or Hotels do not provide milk for children, hence we advise all our passengers to carry ready to drink milk whilst on tour. Please note hotels will not be providing with kettle in your room for warming up water or milk, it is advisable to carry bottle warmer etc along with you.

 

Tour managers

 

All our Tour managers have been for 5-15 years in the tour managing field and with their immense experience and knowledge they will make sure your tours go as per planned. They will make sure to entertain you while you travel for long journeys in between sightseeing, Music & movies will be played during these journeys and some tour managers would also like to engage passengers in different activities while travelling. All movies played is solely by choice of tour manager, parental guidance is advised for all movies played. However, at the same time we recommend to carry some kind of entertainment for kids along with you.

Tour managers will be travelling throughout the tour with you, they will make sure to give you enough advice and suggestions for the main sights while they accompany you. However, they won’t be visiting any sights/excursions along with the group.

Tour manager details will be shared with you 24hrs prior to departure. Tours will be conducted only in English language, but many of our tour managers speak other languages in case if you need any help. Many a times tour manager will meet you at first excursion after you have been picked up by our professional drivers. In some instances, there will be no tour manager on your tours as some of our coach drivers are also qualified to be tour managers.

 

Food on Tour

 

You may opt for Veg or Non-veg food, which will be served on a buffet (most of the times). You can request Jain or Halal meals at the time of booking your tour but cannot be guaranteed. Unfortunately, we don’t cater to special diets due to operational reasons, food offered by our suppliers is to cater majority of passengers and hence we cannot cater to child or infant special diets.

Breakfast is normally continental buffet and is taken in the hotel that you will be staying in. Breakfast usually consist of Cereals, croissants, fruits, eggs, bread, tea/coffee. Lunch served at restaurants/packed will be strictly Indian Vegetarian food. Packed lunch/dinner will consist of dry items like chapatis, dry curry, fruit, yoghurt etc. Dinner will be served in restaurants or hotel you will be staying in. Dinner buffet consist of Vegetarian meals like Veg Indian curries, Indian bread, rice, lentils, yoghurt, salad, poppadum’s etc (please note food variety can vary from restaurant to restaurant). One or two dishes of non-veg curry will also be served during dinner. Non-veg items usually served are – Eggs, Chicken, Lamb & fish. We do not serve Pork or Beef and any other non-veg items other than mentioned. Halal food is difficult to find in Europe. Please check with your tour manager before consuming any non-veg food. All Lunch/dinner are served as buffet (Most of the times). Tap water will be provided at the restaurants. Any other soft/hard drinks can be purchased directly with restaurant at additional cost. Some of your tour will include Local cuisine instead of Indian.

We cannot guarantee food served will be allergy free, please make sure to check with your tour manager before consuming any food. If you are allergic to any food, it is advisable to make your own arrangements if you require special diets. There will be no refunds/reduction applicable for the same.

Someday/s there will be no lunch included, in this case tour manager will give you enough time to buy your own meal and will guide you for the same.

 

Transportation – Coach/Car/Minibus/Ferry/Euro tunnel etc

 

All coaches are fitted with armrests, Music/Movie players and toilet facilities. W.C. facilities on coaches have limited capacities and therefore we advise passengers to use them only on an ‘emergency’ basis. We try to make timely stops to make sure passengers are comfortable. All coaches are either air conditioned or air cooled. Small coaches/cars etc used for transfers and some small tours may not have above mentioned facilities. There will be no WIFI or charging facilities in coaches. Leg space in-between seats will be approx.... 7 inches on all our coaches.

Smoking & consuming alcohol is not permitted inside any of our coaches. You are allowed to carry them with you in coach but anyone found consuming will be evacuated from our coach and won’t be allowed to travel further with us (No refund will be applicable due to this). Car seats are not provided for children/Infants but you are more then welcome to bring your own. No hot foods like burgers, chips etc are allowed to be consumed inside coach, Dry items like thepla, cold sandwich any drinks with lid on the cup or bottles/can drinks are allowed.

Seats numbers will be given to you by tour manager on day 1 and cannot be changed under any circumstances, Due to various promotions or operational reasons such as promotional seating, health and safety, pickups and Mantra holidays discretion etc this can be amended. Seats are allocated in order of booking of tour (First one to book that tour gets front seats and so on). Mantra holidays holds the right to change your seats any time. Families with small children cannot be allocated front seats as per the European law. All seats will have a minimal reclining back except the last seats in coach.

After Passport and immigration process we use Ferry or Shuttle to cross English Channel; this is decided by Mantra holidays keeping in mind the days itinerary and logistics.

Shuttle will take 35mins pprox.. to cross English Channel while you are seated in your coach. Shuttle do have toilet facilities (subject to operation). Ferry will take 90 minutes to cross English Channel (depending on sailing conditions). In ferry, passengers have to get off the coach while it’s sailing. Ferry has facilities like Duty free shops, restaurants, coffee shops, kids playing area, open decks, currency exchange etc. Please note you have no excess to coach while ferry is sailing.

 

Tour days

 

Time given at each excursion by tour manager will vary keeping in mind passengers get enough time for photos and viewing the excursions or point of interest, however it may not be possible to all the feature of the excursion. You will be asked to queue up for all excursions/monuments within the group queue and this will be directed by your tour manager. Europe is very vast , and it takes long travel between city’s/excursions, hence some long journeys on your tour cannot be avoided.

All our itineraries are designed to make the most of the day, keeping in mind driving restrictions and regulations by law. Hence it is very important to report back to coach within 5 minutes of stated time by tour manager, Coach will not be waiting for passengers coming late to coach as they need to stick to days itinerary. Any loss/charges or missed excursions incurred due to missing coach on your return will be solely passenger’s responsibility and mantra holidays will not be reimbursing of any such costs.

Tour managers will offer passengers some optional excursions at extra cost, these are only possible if time permits and making sure regular itinerary is priority. Sometime due to operational/practical etc reasons optional tours cannot be conducted. Passengers are entitled to refuse for any optional tours offered. It will be not be possible to leave the planned days itinerary and do your own thing, but if you decide to do so you need make your own arrangements to meet back the group at next excursion or hotel – no reimbursement can be made by Mantra Holidays for this.

Lost tickets/pass for excursions or monuments are not replenished by Mantra holidays, passenger needs to buy another ticket at their own expenses. We advise to keep your belongings with you all the time as theft/loss can occur at hotels, coaches, excursions etc. Any theft/loss should be declared to local authorities at your own time and expense. Any items kept on coach is entirely done so at owners’ own risk.