A very satisfying trip, but it can be still improved
VerifiziertWe booked the tour really randomly just two days in advance, since the weather in October is less predictable than in the really summery months. The request was processed very quickly and the staff answered questions really fast on WhatsApp and left us a good, friendly impression. Of course, everything in German.
We haven't expected so many fellow travellers: 14 to 16 in total, maybe even more, mixed nationalities. We'd like to have less but more people means Go-Etna is somehow more famous and reliable than we thought. Something positive. But I believe, in a smaller group, we could have more chances to know the other travellers and to communicate more with our tour guide.
To be fair, the Cons (or suggestions for improvement) come at first and then the Pros:
- The tour was somehow relatively pushy, besides the lunch time: it was relaxing. Maybe the most German tourists were tend to have a tour in this way...? I've no idea. I took my camera but had the feeling that the others had to wait for me several times only because I was taking pictures? We came back to Giarre around 15:30 if I remember it correctly.
- We underestimated the climate up there. We've read comments before, seen pictures here and thought: tour for everyone and difficulty "easy". What could be so bad?? All the pictures here on the homepage were also showing good weather and even tourists with shorts... One fatal mistake. We underestimated the wind up there... it was SOOOO strong... Even when it was 5 or 10 °C, as reported, the strong wind made us feeling like walking in a - 5 °C weather, with only one hiking jacket. Hoody or a warm hat would be reaaaally helpful. Hand gloves are also strongly recommended if you wanna take pictures without getting frozen fingers. What we also unterestimated was the cloudy weather. At the begin it was really good sunny. But as soon as it got cloudy, the temperature felt DIRECTLY and unfourtunately, you could see barely something else than frog and the lava sand around you. Maybe it's because of the October weather. But we should have taken more clothes up there... (even if the temperature in Giarre was like 22 °C or even warmer that day).
- You could actually make the introduction about the historical and geological stories before we go up to the 2900 m. Like in the classroom: we begin with the theoretical part at first and then start the practical part. There were just too many things to be seen and remembered. On the "top" it was too windy and therefore not easy to hear what the vulcanological guide was saying. The same as we were in the Unimog. There are too many names of craters and too many stories how and when they were formed... we understood after the "theoretical part" afterwards much more, but have also already forgotten a lot of things we saw. The italian vulcanological guide, which is not our tour guide, could speak actually only limited English and didn't tell us more than our own guide did. (I guess not every german speaking traveller could understand him)
- A group of travellers from different countries makes the work of our tour guide more difficult and less efficient. He had to shift among German, English and Italian the whole time... Really respect!
- Sturdy shoes are really needed but the shoe size of the rented ones may vary from your own. So I would recommend to take your own trekking shoes with you. (Not the fault of Go-Etna)
Now the Cons:
- The tour, despite of all the bad lucks we had, was a fantastic one. The highest active vulcano in Europe is just unique and imcomparable. We have seen everything we expected.
- Our tour guide, Francesco, was such a humorous and nice guy! As I've written, he told us a looot of interesting things about Etna and much more than the "vulcanological guide" did. Grazie!
- All the transportation vehicles were in good condition.
- The lunch was really good! Please, just don't waste the Canolos as dessert!
We hope that we could come back one day again and take maybe the most difficult tour with you! Best regards
