Jules Verne Omdömen 

I had a wonderful time on my very first cruise and starting in my dream location. It is very hard for me to find gluten free and dairy free food so they did really well on providing me with this. I thought it was enough destinations along this cruise and getting a real surprise by getting a 1 hour boat trip on the last day on the river in the last location it made it for my first cruise. I really highly recommend it.

The actual holiday was great and to be recommended, but other aspects of the experience were poor. For example, there was zero communication between JV and ourselves between making my final payment and departure; there was no representative at the airport and no information that we needed to check in via group bookings; and, despite there being mention of such when we booked, there was no briefing on the first evening after arriving at our hotel - so some of the finer touches (which fellow travellers who had previously used JV and confirmed were standard) were just not there. We're well used to travelling independently, but for an organised package expected a little more.

The crew were great. However, the food was not up to the standard I expect from a holiday in this price range, I have had much better on some other Jules Verne holidays.

Danielle, our guide, was very informative and tailored our visits to suit everyone in the group. We loved this area and being able to eat beside glorious lakeside views was a bonus. This lost one star as the hotel had no provision for coffee and tea and dining. In Locarno, the funicular/cable car views and the basket car ride at Laveno, as well as boat rides were amazing.

The size of the group was perfect. There were 8 of us.
We had an excellent coach driver and our guide, Daffy, was outstanding. I would choose to have her for every holiday we have!!!!
The hotels were good and the places we stayed most interesting.

Well organised itineracy worked really well

Nice hotels, knowlegeable guide. Villa Matilde had a rude maitre d' and a mediocre meal although it is a lovely place. Some days were very long, so I would suggest at times to give people an option: e.g. the palace or the gardens.

We had a wonderful holiday in Florence. Our guide Marzia was superb with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Florentine art and history. It would be difficult to find anyone better. Our excursion to Siena with Renata was an added bonus. Hotel Kraft very comfortable and staff efficient and friendly.
Highly recommended but be prepared to walk a lot!

Our Guide, GianLuca, was excellent; very knowledgeable and thoughtful, interesting and interested. However, as always on continental Europe 4* in terms of hotels equates to 3* over here.

This was a very enjoyable, cultural trip travelling from Braga in the north to Lisbon further south. We had an excellent guide Pedro, who was with us for the entire week guiding our small group of 11 around palaces, convents and churches. The 3 pousadas were great places to stay and they all served an excellent breakfast. If I had a criticism, there wasn't enough admissions into historic places that we only viewed externally - but otherwise i highly recommend this tour.

Relaxed, well-organised tour giving a snapshot of central Portugal. The accommodation was excellent although the advice to book half board was unnecessary due to the close availability of local restaurants in all but the first hotel. There were a lot of long stairways inside buildings, many without handrails, which proved challenging at times.
Our thanks to Pedro, our guide, who did an outstanding job despite a number of problems with the buses and national strike!

This was a full on tour of some of the classical cities in Central Spain. We were fortunate to have an excellent tour manager. The City Guide in Madrid was not up to an acceptable standard.
The three hotels were excellent. I recommend the tour to anyone who wants to visit these cities

We recently returned from the Silk Road Explorer. It was a pretty full on trip for 25 days, but that was necessary to fit everything in. Four of the guides were fabulous: helpful, proactive, knowledgeable, friendly and interesting. The fifth one in Tajikistan was, I understand, on his first guiding trip. He failed to follow part of the itinerary and didn’t sort out meals or impart any information unless asked directly. The hotels were either 5* or the very best the areas had to offer. The food was surprisingly good for me as I don’t eat meat or dairy, but there was an enormous amount at every meal! The team at VJV were also really helpful and friendly, sorting out an issue we had with visas for Tajikistan. Great trip all in all.

Overall, an extremely enjoyable trip which was sadly spoilt by the extremely poor quality of the guide selected for us in Tajikistan. Little or no interaction, evening meals un-booked, and a general lack of interest tarnished the trip.

My friend and I have been on wonderful jules Verne holidays, but this just wasn’t the one for us. It was too big and there were only about ten English speaking guests. The boat could not be faulted and the crew were friendly and helpful, although when the taxi taking us back to the airport on our return was very delayed, nobody seemed to know what to do about it. The food was good and we were put on a table with other English speakers who were great company. Our problem was with the huge groups of passengers going on the organised excursions by coach. The English speaking guides varied in quality. The excursion to Bratislava castle was interesting as we arrived after a coach journey to be told that both the castle and gardens were closed.

Good guide, nice person too, and good local guides.
Too small a group (4) to be comfortable (literally: minibus, long walks from car parks, guide acting as both driver and commentator - missed out on latter) and psychologically (a bit too close for comfort), Too much driving along uninteresting motorways or routes but excellent choice of venues. Beautiful seaside landscapes (when one got to them). First hotel (Pamplona) excellent, professional staff, but stay there should have been shorter in favour of another location closer to eventual venues; second hotel much past its best with poor staff training but ideally situated.

Our tour of Puglia was excellent, made all the better having a fantastic guide in Lucia. She was very knowledgeable and great fun to be with, she really made the trip a great experience.
We had a small group all of whom were excellent company.
Lecce, Matera and Alberobello were fascinating places to visit especially seeing the Sassi in Matera and Trulli Alberollo.
I can thoroughly recommend this tour.

I’ve been travelling through Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 and Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬 for 11 days with a small group tour organised by Jules Verne.
I must say that these two countries are absolutely amazing and incredibly beautiful. The people are very kind and friendly, and the food is also very good 👍
It’s not overly touristy, and I hope it stays that way.
The accommodation was good overall. Some places were quite basic, while others were very comfortable, but I enjoyed every place we stayed.
During the trip, I took part in many activities such as horse riding, hiking, and archery 🏹, and I enjoyed them all so much. It was a truly meaningful experience.
I would definitely recommend visiting these countries if you are interested in exploring somewhere unique and less crowded.
The guides from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were excellent. They both had deep and extensive knowledge of history, culture, religion, traditions, and local food. I was truly amazed by their professionalism. They were also very kind and communicated clearly in English.
The trip also reminded me of my secondary school days in Japan. We learned a great deal about Central Asia, the Great Silk Road, Genghis Khan, and the famous Japanese Buddhist monk who travelled across the Silk Road to India to obtain Buddhist scriptures and bring them back to Japan.
I can’t even imagine how difficult that journey must have been. He had to face bandits, wild animals, and extreme heat along the Silk Road. He travelled with three strong guards who protected him throughout the journey.
I still remember those stories vividly. It felt as if the history I had learned long ago suddenly came to life right in front of my eyes. I was deeply overwhelmed.
Overall, this trip was a wonderful and meaningful experience, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to discover a different part of the world with joy and curiosity.

Of course the treasures of Sicily spoke for themselves but it really was an excellent tour. My first praise is for Beate our guide. Her talks were in line with first year at uni she was so knowledgeable and made it so interesting one could never switch off! She was sensitive too to the needs of the group. The other praise is for the hotels J V always find. The best was in Teormina. A lovely Sicilian villa high up in the hills above Teormina with amazing views to Etna. I have had many holidays with JV over the years and was so pleased to find that they are as good as ever. Many thanks.

The Uzbekistan highlights trip was efficiently organised and the tour leader, Viktorya, went above and beyond to meet the group’s needs. She was thoughtful, helpful, very energetic and knowledgeable of the history, customs and culture of the major Silk Roads cities. In short, I felt that the tour met the criteria set out in the VJV brochure. The historical sites were spellbinding and the markets and souks colourful and enticing. I had a lovely time and, being a lone traveller, was heartened that dinners were taken together with the group.

The hotels were all fine and the bathroom facilities (the most important factor in my view) good quality. I particularly liked the Devon Begi hotel in Bukhara, which is small and characterful and fits with the local cultural style.

The tour guided walks around the major sites were detailed and full of interesting stories and anecdotes. However, these walks were often very demanding of the group. We were sometimes wandering for 3/4 hours and, although we were supplied with plenty of water, many people in the group felt it would have been appropriate to stop for a half our or so for a rest, plus tea or coffee. I took the VJV Tunisia tour last October 2025 and also felt that, although it was an excellent trip, the group needed a coffee/tea rest when walking around Tunis or Sousse.

To return to my recent Uzbekistan trip, my other caveat would be that the dinners were somewhat sparse in content eg at one restaurant : salad, soup and one kebab skewer. In contrast to this, our Pilov dinner with a local family in Samarqand, was plentiful and delicious with lots of luscious fruits, nuts and sweets as extras.

Overall, I had a marvellous seven days. I’ve been travelling with VJV since the late 1990s and have done a couple of river trips, plus visits to Prague, Hungary, Jordan, Oman and, more recently, a Tunisia tour. I hope to do more VJV in 2027.