Abercrombie & KentReviews of abercrombiekent.com

The quality of A&K service and local guides has gone down dramatically in the past 6 years. It used to be that your luxury travel consultant was nice, helpful, sent a “goodie” to your hotel room abroad the first day, and called upon your return to see how everything was. Now, it feels like you are bothering them to book a trip— they don’t even really want to do Tailor Made trips. I feel like I had to run down all the info (hotels, sites, etc.). They constantly try to force you to do 8-9 hour tours in a day (or sneak it in) to upsell you when you say you want a free day or half day. And they certainly don’t care to ask for feedback on return. I like to think when I’m spending $30,000 a week for 2 people that I will feel valued and appreciated. The local guides told me that A& K only contacted them 10 days before our trip (which we booked 7 months in advance), and it really showed that they’d thrown something together. No longer do the guides purchase tickets in advance and you skip the lines to museums. Now it’s “wait over there while I get tickets.” It’s impossible to email corporate A& K with feedback. I guess since the pandemic is over and more people are traveling, that A&K no longer has to try hard for business. It’s showing and I’ll rethink using them after 20 years.

We are now back from our trip. Although it is almost impossible to have a bad trip to California, I am afraid A&K’s contribution fell way off the mark. Let me preface everything by saying I thought I had made it clear at the start that I wanted this to be a five star trip, more or less, irrespective of cost. Given the above, I fail to see why you booked us into the Fairmont in SF. This hotel has a wonderful location but it is shabby and dirty. Moreover, it is heavily used as a conference hotel to the point that even if you are staying at the hotel, you have to queue for breakfast, even being a very early riser. The suite you had booked for us was appalling. Fortunately, we were able to secure a better one. There was an additional charge but is more or less made for a palatable stay. It is definitely not a five star hotel. In European terms, it would be struggling to hang on to four. The food, with the exception of breakfast, is simply disgustingly bad. The waiters were happy to take things back and made no excuses for it. If you intend sending people there in future, I suggest you use Sixt in the lobby for car-hire, which is far better than Hertz SF. The restaurant you booked for us in Fisherman’s Wharf was similarly dreadful, as even the conierge in the hotel was happy to tell us! Rebekah, the tour guide who showed us SF on Sunday is sensational. The Bernardus was fantastic in every way, although someone more fussy than me (if such a person exists) would have said the traffic is very audible from the garden during peak hours. That in itself would preclude it from five stars as a five star establishment. The food was not its strong suit (except for fantastic breakfast). Why you thought we would want to go to the Aquarium in Santa Monica, I don’t know.We had one look at Sly McFly and left. Have you been there? The Rosewood is a fine hotel although not really value for money. In the two days we were there we had to put up with workmen hammering away to set up a wedding; the wedding; dismantling of the wedding and setting up for another event. All of this in a public garden which was presumably for the enjoyment of guests. They were a nuisance and an eyesore. The hotel in Santa Monica was very good. Finally, British Airways deservers a special mention. I have always avoided them and they have only got worse with appalling food and largely cantankerous cabin crews. Rude in some cases, in fact. All in all, I am very disappointed. As you know, one embarks on a trip of this sort putting one’s trust in A&K; if something is not right on arrival, it is too late. Everything is paid for and there is no redress other than paying more and even that is not an easy solution. I would happily have paid for another hotel in SF, even if it meant losing what I had paid for the Fairmont, but I had no idea who to turn to and did not know what the alternatives were. A&K’s claim to tailor made holidays rings rather hollow. Needless to say, we will not be travelling with you again.

It is not about the trip, but about the staff ,lack of communication, unanswered mails, false bills, I cannot understand how such a big company has such incompetent staff.

We travelled to Turkey with A@kK in 2016 and it was five star all the way. Based on that experience, we booked a trip with A&K to Sicily, September 2023. The hotels were 3 star at best and the hotel in Palermo was appalling. Our view on the first floor overlooked an alley with trash cans! We sent a photo of this to A&k and was told our group of 15 was an entry level tour! Not only insensitive but totally lacking in degrading response given the price paid. I would never travel with A&K again, which the same response from the other 14 members of the group. They were disgusted when we showed them the A&K response. A&k is no longer a prestige company. I STRONGLY recommend you avoid them

The Villa we booked through A&K was gorgeous and as described, but the service from A&K rep was really really poor - didn’t turn up on our day of arrival to welcome us nor arrive the follow day to walk us through any issues (we sadly we had - not massive ones but still needed resolving). Eventually had to contact A&K back in the Uk after no contact through the numbers provided (one even said not accepting incoming calls!). Eventually turned up on day 5 of 7 and sorted most of the issues. We agreed for him to attend on the last day to collect the keys and to check the Villa before we left….. never turned up. For the cost, this level of service is simply unacceptable - I would have got better from TUI!

We have just finished 12 days 7:28-8/8 Kenya and Tanzania Africa holiday. A&K has pride itself to be a luxury tour operator which is definitely not our experiences. It’s more like flying economy plus. Issues are 1. A&K cars are old and have lots of wear. 2. We were stuck at a air strip in Kenya border for over 2 hours. The local representative of A&K did not give us updates and told us it’s operation issues in different cities (Arusha and Nairobi). I kept on calling the A&K customer service lines and was promised he would call back and he never did. 3. 1st Guides in Anbrosi English is difficult to understand. 4. Many members in our group all have stomach issues during our trip. 5. Our departure from our last spot was moved up about 2.5 hours and from our perspective, it’s for A&K convenience and cut short of our enjoyment 6. Our main guide instead of apologizing to guests to mid-handling and poor A&K operations, he keeps on saying “Let me tell you…”….this is my 3rd trip to Africa and have travelled over 110+ countries around the world and this supposed “luxury” experience has to be the worst. Our fellow travel members ran into various issues and very unfortunate.

Since A&K doesn’t care enough about customer satisfaction to request feedback after a trip, they can read mine here. I just got back from a disappointing A&K tour of Switzerland. As others here note, their pre-trip service is poor. My rep. didn’t return my emails or phone calls. The front page of the trip brochure is a big photo of the Matterhorn, which they hype as a highlight of this trip (“an endlessly fascinating sight”). What they don’t tell you is that it’s often covered in clouds and not visible, which was the case when we got there. This is pure misrepresentation – they give the clear impression that you’ll see it. Even Rick Steves’ Switz. guidebook says to skip Zermatt if the weather’s not going to be clear; the Matterhorn is the reason the town exists. I was really looking forward to seeing and photographing it. I feel deceived. A&K padded the end of the tour with three nights in Stresa, Italy, which was way too much. Should’ve been a day at most – there’s little to do there. Plus being stuck traveling and dining with elderly people (the typical A&K customer) and having to endure days of dull chatter about mundane topics can ruin a trip all by itself. I choose trips in cooler climates because I don’t like hot weather, but the locations were sweltering, 10-15 degrees F above normal (not A&K’s fault, but a travel consideration in the era of climate change). Lovely to travel dripping in sweat. My trip cost me over $20,000 including the single supplement and airfare. I feel like I wasted my money. It’s unlikely I’ll ever take a chance on an A&K trip again. * * * * * * * UPDATE: Per A&K USA’s reply to my review, I contacted them at the email address provided, and they said they’d get back to me. That was almost two months ago, and I haven’t heard a peep from them. Just like they never replied to my pre-trip emails and calls. They only go through the motions of caring about their customers; their behavior says they don’t give a damn. Look at the huge difference between the reviews on TrustPilot of A&K UK (ave: 4.4 stars) and A&K USA (ave. 2.1 stars). That tells you how poorly run the US operation is.

We were astonished to be asked recently to review Abercrombie & Kent (A&K) on TrustPilot. We have never been asked to give feedback on previous holidays we booked with them and when we did send in an unsolicited ‘report’ (before the pandemic) their surprise was palpable. All we got was a thank you that did not engage with any suggestions we made, creating the impression of an operator that was complacent. Their provision is not perfect by any means, and we would advise any dissatisfied customers to complain immediately both to the service provider in country and to their A&K contact in the UK (or wherever). A&K claim to excel at ‘bespoke’ long-distance travel. We have had good experiences with them, notably on safaris – though again their supervision of the operation of their own camps seems ‘light touch’; one seemed to be run as a private fiefdom by the ex-army officers in charge. The same is true of the quality of local guides, which often seemed hit or miss. The bespoke element may also be an illusion since there seem to be standard packages (half- or full-day trips to sites) which were cobbled together to suit the time available at a location. Overall, there was a lingering suspicion that one could have got superior value for money (and a truly individual holiday) oneself, with just a bit of effort. Indeed, A&K are expensive. Because they refuse to reveal the cost of the components of a holiday, it is, however, hard to find out just how pricey. We suggest you look at a single destination and hotel, and then explore direct booking online. Careful to compare like with like: many of the top end hotels A&K use include meet & greet, transfers, and other amenities in their prices. We did and discovered that you pay an awful lot for A&K’s service. The company seems increasingly to be targeting those for whom money is no object; more normally heeled clients could probably do better elsewhere.