Leap Of Faith Travels: Italian Beginnings

Epilogue - Lake Garda, Venice and Verona

Italy

Leap of faith Travel review

When I first told my best friend about this journey and taking a coach he immediately said to me “you should have got a plane there”. Yes that would have been the easier option and be where I had been in a matter of hours. However, as this was my first time travelling alone, I wanted to experience the distance first hand and witness some incredible sights along the way. Although a plane will get you there quickly, a coach will immerse yourself becoming part of the incredible views as you drive by. Yes the coach is a lot slower but I wouldn’t have seen the spectacular sights of the Swiss Alps close up feeling the heat on my back and the sounds of the gentle rivers flowing through the snow topped mountains. I also wouldn’t have experienced Austria and Germany the way I did either. To be honest it was a shame there are less young travellers taking this up especially first time travellers. The system is very straight forward too and everything is done for you; all you need to do is sit back and experience everything along the way appreciating it too. The drivers were incredible and friendly too with a lot of useful information if you got stuck with anything along with a great sense of humour despite having to drive all those miles. That was another thing I appreciated, the fact the drivers were covering all that distance never complaining but only thinking about the passengers. As for the older passengers, it is a great way to relax and let someone else do the driving for you. To me it was an incredible start to my life of travel and I urge a lot of young travellers to do something like this.

I booked my holiday with Dawson and Sanderson and also with National Holidays.

There was a moment I thought I wouldn’t be able to take this trip because my trip was actually meant to be the week beforehand but it got cancelled because there weren’t enough people on the coach for the long trip. However, National holidays along with Dawson and Sanderson were extremely helpful and changed my dates with ease.

As for Hotel Virgilio of Riva Del Garda it was exceptional for the money I paid. It is a family run hotel within easy reach of both the beautiful town of Riva del Garda and the waters of Lake Garda, with stunning views of the mountains above the rooftops. This is one of National holiday’s favourite hotels to use and now it is mine. Another feature that the hotel has is a bicycle museum within its basements which for a cycle enthusiast would be worth a trip to witness all the vintage bikes and other trinkets.

The trouble with travelling alone though is some places and companies will charge a single room supplement but I was willing to pay the slight extra for this trip knowing the benefits I would get out of the journey. So with the coach trip, I got 1 night stay in Metz there and back including breakfast, 4 night stay in 4 star Hotel including breakfast afternoon drinks evening dinner with free drinks along with the excursions to Venice, Malcesine and Garda town all costing me £340 excluding spending money. The trip to Verona was completely free as the drivers gave us an option to stay at Riva Del Garda or a trip to Verona. Also the extra journey through Austria and Germany were on behalf of the drivers to benefit us.

I would like to thank the incredible service provided by National holidays and its staff as well as Dawson and Sanderson for making this possible for me. I would also like to thank the family of Hotel Virgilio for taking great care of us making sure everything ran smoothly. Again I urge young travellers to take up this life of travel using something like this as a starting point for your incredible adventure.

Live life to the fullest

It’s the best way

Live every moment intensely

Because life is too short

And the moment comes when we are going to die

And we’d have wished to do so many things we didn’t

That is why we have to enjoy every moment

One must enjoy life

Try not to acquire so many things

But instead have experiences

Accomplish everything you want to do