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My wife and I recently had a holiday on your lovely island (17 September to 24 September). We decided to take a couple of trips with Nova Tours – one trip to the Blue Grotto and the Crafts Village on Tuesday the 20 September, the second trip on Thursday 22 September to the three cities of Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua. We were staying at the resort of St Julians in the Intercontinental Hotel, St Georges Bay.
The minibus was supposed to pick us up at 9.45 but he didn’t turn up until 10.05, he only had one passenger on the bus and we were to pick up the remaining passengers in St Julians Bay. When we arrived at St Julians Bay the driver told us that the other passengers, who were arriving on another bus, had been held up. By the time the remaining passengers had boarded the bus, we were running 35 minutes late.
We arrived at the Blue Grotto at 11.05, the driver then said if you are going on the boats, you had better do that first – not thinking anything of it, we went to the toilet first, we then went down to the boats, where there was a big queue.
After the boat trip to the Blue Grotto we got back to where the bus parked 10 minutes late at 11.50, only to find that the bus driver had left us behind. We had to hire a taxi to take us back to St Georges Bay at a cost to us of Lm10. The fact that my wife has chronic asthma and the fact that we tried to get back to the bus on time, and the fact that my wife had an asthma attack by trying to rush up the hill form the boats was totally lost on Nova Tours.
When I phoned them from our hotel, they were not interested. Needless to say we cancelled the second trip and managed to get our money back for that trip, which really is secondary to my concerns that these people can operate in such a way. The driver knew where we were, there was nowhere else for us to go.
Did he think that we would go there and not go on the boat to the Grotto? It wasn’t our fault he was running late. It took my wife two days to get herself back to what she regards as normal breathing for her.
I am really concerned that they can get away with doing this to people.
P.M. Lannen
Swansea
South Wales, UK
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