Austin AdventuresReviews of austinadventures.com

After signing up for a trip with Austin Adventures, 9 months in advance, I was told 3 months before the trip, that the trip was cancelled. They refunded my payment. But, they also advised me to get travel insurance, which I did. When the trip was cancelled, I lost the $700 I paid for travel insurance. When I requested a refund for the travel insurance, they declined and said we don’t require travel insurance. I also lost money on the cancelled airfares. I told Austin Adventures that I lost over $1000 trying to do business with them and by following their recommendations. I asked if they were OK with that. They told me that they have been in business for over 40 years and they were highly rated. Be very careful dealing with this company. Seems suspicious to me that they recommend travel insurance, provide a link to the provider, then cancel your trip and their provider pockets the non-refundable travel insurance. I noticed at least one other review where a potential Austin Adventures customer had a similar experience and lost money. So, this is a systemic flaw in Austin Adventures business practices. I am sure many of their trips are wonderful. But be very careful about investing money in the trip until you are sure it will happen. They may pull the rug out from under you.

After booking the Mighty Adventure tour in Utah for May 2023 in October 2022, in January 2023 the company decided to change the dates of the trip after my vacation time, non-refundable flights and hotels were already booked. Their reason was that they didn't get enough hikers booked, over 3 months before the actual trip. As a result of them not going to make enough profit, I was out thousands. When asked about the new date they suggested, they couldn't commit to confirm it. What, I'm suppose to going this experience a 2nd time? At what point does the company live up to what they offer?

Buyer Beware! Austin Adventures sold me something that did not exist and then refused even a partial refund. This is because Austin largely resells other company's trips, at a markup, without independent local knowledge. In my case, Austin resold a Mountain Lodges of Peru trek from Cusco to Machu Picchu. The trip itself, as run by MLP, was fantastic. But using Austin as a reseller was a huge mistake. Not only did I pay more, I also received less in terms of information. Before the trip, any questions took several days to answer because Austin had to reach out to MLP behind the scenes, and I often received several different answers because Austin lacked local knowledge. But by far the worst part of the experience was my "added day" -- the only part not prepackaged by MLP, or the only part for which Austin was directly responsible. Austin sold me, in July 2021, a guided hike to the Sun Gate. But the Sun Gate had been closed since 2020 due to COVID, and I was not even provided a guide for the day. When I requested a partial refund upon my return, Austin refused. Do NOT use this company.