u/Illustrious_Gur9482

Family of 4, lacto-vegetarian (3 of them), vegan (1 of them), any tips and guidance on how to survive ? For Italy, I believe the trick is to stick to Margarita or Marinara Pizza, Pasta Arrabiata, veg carbonara (apparently few trattorias do that), salads and Indian restaurants. What is the similar trick for Paris, that has elements of French cuisine as well ?

Also, we plan to walk around the tourist attraction clusters, and take public transport between the clusters. Are there specific hints on how to avoid the "tourist-trap" restaurants ? From some youtube videos, I gather that the general rule-of-thumb is that eateries closest to attractions would be traps, but further out might be better. In fact, for good places, we don't mind taking a bus/metro ride out. Specific recommendations would be wonderful.

Does anyone here know, how long can travel agents who help with Visa application, manage to "hold" refundable air-tickets and hotel reservations ? We came across a travel agent (through several strong recommendations), who will manage the air-tickets and hotel reservations for what seems like a reasonable fee, until we get the visa, and then release those holds, for us to book, much better priced non-flex tickets (non-refundable) and similar fixed hotel reservations. I would not have been surprised with this arrangement, had she also not said that we need not pay her anything for the tickets she is holding. If I had to do this myself, I'd end up blocking a pretty large sum on my credit-cards.

The travel-agent, time and again confirmed that this is not a "dummy booking" i.e. fake ticket with fake PNR (like a counterfeit ticket), but a genuine ticket with real PNR. So how does she manage to get away without charging anything... is she really investing her own money ?

Reading some really negative reviews about VFS Chennai, where they do not honor the appointment times at all and rather encourage people to buy the premium lounge access, to the point of deliberately splitting up families including small kids to go to different queues ? This is based on the google reviews.

Also, somewhat confusing accounts (also on google reviews) that indicate that there is ample car parking, versus others who say that there is no parking.

What is the real truth ?

Reading some really negative reviews about VFS Chennai, where they do not honor the appointment times at all and rather encourage people to buy the premium lounge access, to the point of deliberately splitting up families including small kids to go to different queues ? This is based on the google reviews.

Also, somewhat confusing accounts (also on google reviews) that indicate that there is ample car parking, versus others who say that there is no parking.

What is the real truth ?

Need advice and guidance as I find myself in a soup:

• Family of 4 (3 adults i.e. parents, 1 adult child, 1 teenage child) - from Bangalore.
• 1 adult has several Shengen (business) visas from past, others none
• Europe itinerary of 3 days Italy (port-of-entry), 3 days France, 3 days Czech Republic (port-of-exit)
• Non-refundable flights booked already for all legs including intra-europe tickets. Hotels are not yet booked (thankfully)
• Leaves (all 3 adults working) approved, locked-n-loaded (HR NoC letter etc. done)
• Realized now on checking VFS queue for Italy leaves be with 5 working days (if applying in Bangalore) and barely 18 working days (if applying in Chennai/Hyd), but the site shows availability of 1 slot at a time (from what I understood), i.e. no way of knowing all 4 slots will be available on same day. Our original plan was to enter Czech first, for which VFS queue was pretty okay (near term slots available), but last minute itinerary changed and we got into this soup.
• We have no other reasons (hopefully) for rejection -- property, extended family, significant investments/savings, stable jobs here.

Only solution that comes to my mind is, either of the 2:

• Change France/Czech booking (at loss of about 50-60K INR non-refundable fare) to increase Czech stay to 4 days, and France to 2 days.
• Buy a refundable ticket (air, rail, bus etc.) that is a day earlier for France to Czech travel, for visa purpose (hotel itinerary will be done to keep no gaps in the itinerary submitted for visa (backed by solid bookings and day-to-day plan), but keep the option of availing the non-refundable original ticket ? As it is anyhow near total loss anyway.

I do not think any "shengen visa agent" would be able to pull off any miracle with the VFS appointment books system, right ?