Catch The PLANE & get INSANE
This trip was very spontaneous and for the first time in my adventurous life I flew from a travel agency and this time not solo!
During my time working in Poland, I traveled with tour operators for 1-3 day excursions.
This time, wanting to find something similar (means cheap and fewer days only)
focusing more on trips by bus than by plane,
I came across a tempting offer:
"3 days in Cyprus, Suit in a ⭐⭐⭐hotel for $195 per person"
Looking at the prices of the flight tickets 'those days' - it's a great deal and direct flight!
I made a reservation right away because it was a last minute offer and I didn't want to lose it.
The trip was organized by the Exim Tours - travel agency.
In general I have positive opinion - professional and helpful staff, but their resident... ay ay ay...
I'll get into that later...
The care of the Tourism Specialist was really at a high level.
We have received detailed conditions regarding covid-19, guidelines what we need and all information about the procedures related to arrival to the destination and return to Poland. 48 hours before departure, a Tourism Specialist not only e-mailed us but called as well to remind about the required documents, thanks to which we passed border controls without any problems.
Current Conditions Of Entry To Cyprus:
Vaccinated persons:
- no covid-19 test required
- it is necessary to present the EU covid-19 certificate
Unvaccinated persons:
- the need to perform a PCR test up to 72 hours before departure from Poland
Necessary documents: - you need to fill out and print the Cyprus Flight Pass (you can find on the website https://cyprusflightpass.gov.cy/ ) which is checked both at the airport in Poland and after landing in Cyprus.
In some places, e.g. restaurants, shopping malls, museums, etc., Cyprus Flight Pass, negative PCR test result or Covid-19 vaccination certificate may be required.
We were only asked to show our certificate once, at a supermarket by the Coral Bay beach.
Regarding the return to Poland, the cabin crew collects Traveler Location Cards (KLP) after landing so you need to have it in paper or electronic form.
You can find the form here: https://www.gov.pl/web/gov/wypelnij-klp.
Passport Or ID Card?
We can go with an ID card and a passport.
Both documents are accepted on this route. When flying in and out of Cyprus, you must additionally scan your document and leave a copy of your data with a photo during border control.
What It Actually Looks Like
Check-in, Arrival And Departure
The entire boarding, check-in, control, etc. procedure looks literally the same as before the times of covid-19. At the moment, we will only meet a lot less people at airports and we will have more paperwork to fill out.
Other than additional control and the obligation to wear a mask, everything else looks normal.
If you are willing to go to Cyprus, but you are not sure because of covid, because of quarantine, because this, because that ... turn off the media that only show the worst side of the world, wait a week for your mind to clear and go ahead, enjoy this time and remember about sanitary rules that every person should follow anyway, whether it's a pandemic or not. :)
[Anecdote] - as I mentioned before, the resident of Exim Tours did not impress us, why?
Let's start with the fact that we haven't even seen him, AT ALL.
After landing, instead of finding the resident, we've got a printed A4 welcome card at the airport, on which the resident writes that he hopes everything goes as expected, is available by phone 24/7 and has prepared a lot of interesting information about the area.
At the bottom there was a message that we should contact him to arrange an appointment and we are invited to a welcome meeting at the reception the next day.
Okay, everything's fine FOR US,
But an older lady came right after us and
A local staff members started to talk to her in English, she didn't understand... he started waving his hands in irritated,
telling her to wait for a resident (who wasn't there).
The lady was probably scared, maybe she thought that they might want to rob her or kidnap her, who knows.
In conclusion, the resident did not show up.
We were picked up by a taxi as a transfer from the airport to the hotel.
The next day, when a meeting at the hotel reception was supposed to take place...
we forgot, absorbed in sightseeing and travelling.
The next and our last day, when we went to the reception to check how our (prepaid) transport from the hotel to the airport will look like, it turned out that the receptionist did not know anything about it...
We called the resident but he didn't pick up, I sent a message - he read it, he didn't reply.
We went to the reception again to ask them to call the resident and ask for details,
we were told that our resident had received our message and as soon as he knew anything he would let us know.
When he called back, he confirmed the pick-up time from the hotel at 8:30 and said that he had been at the reception the day before but had not seen us so he just left...
We asked if it would be a bus or a car but he couldn't answer...
As it turned out, he didn't even know that a taxi had brought us to the hotel!
On the day of departure we were waiting for the transport that our resident was supposed to arrange for us. He was a few minutes late, we wanted to be on time at the airport... We wrote to the resident, he read it, he did not reply, AGAIN! After a while, a taxi appeared, which was our transport.
It looked as if he had forgotten to arrange it earlier and ordered a taxi only after my message. ay ay ay...
Who Resident Is?
It's a person representing the travel agency in the destination direction,
which is designed to supervise the contracted services
and provide broadly understood care for tourists.
To be honest, we didn't feel taken care, not at all...
Working for so many years, in so many hotels, in so many different places, I met many residents, some were more motivated, some less, but they always performed their duties and if they couldn't, they asked the hotel staff for help.
Why Am I Sharing This With You?
When you send someone other than yourself, Mom, Grandma, Father-in-law or Brother on an adventure, in such a situation you will know what aspect you should ask your Tourism Specialist about so that the traveler does not have any problems after landing and can fully enjoy the afventure.
Let me know in the comment - where did you travel in 2021?