Overseas Adventure TravelReviews of oattravel.com

I liked my tour guide, Kazu, who was very pleasant and knowledgeable, kind and funny. Good pick. Enjoyed him a lot. I disliked the fact that lots of dinners were not included into the package deal, which wasn't cheap at $6700 per person WITHOUT the transatlantic flights that I purchased myself. The hotels were okay, good locations but nothing special, and in Kanazawa, the Holiday inn hotel was awful: very small rooms, smelly rooms, and the breakfast buffet was terrible. This hotel should have not be on that small group Discovery tour. I didn't liked that program, schedule, activities were changed on us, if not often, often enough that we got confused more than once. Overall I enjoyed my trip but I had a way more luxurious and better experience in India, another small group tour with oversea Adventure Travel. I noticed a big difference in hotel grade, and restaurants food quality between these two trips for the same budget more or less.

I would never recommend OAT for anyone who wants even the slightest bit of independence when traveling. Our itinerary as provided in the final documents changed significantly on 6 different days two days before our trip started and we also returned over two hours late on two days of our tour for no unavoidable reason. We had to cancel and repeatedly change dinner reservations at the last minute as well as a tour booked for what was scheduled as a free day. Information pre-tour was also poor for anyone who chose to book their own air. Incorrect and missing information made it necessary to contact OAT several times after receiving our “final documents”. If you are looking for a tour where you simply follow a tour leader and have no interest in independent exploration or dining, OAT might be acceptable, but for me, their poor planning was a huge disappointment and caused me to miss several things that were important to me.

A trip to Uzbekistan. The guide was excellent and I loved the country. But Overseas Adventure Travel chose some subpar hotels and offered me no option except use of Turkish Air, which has a notorious and ongoing problems with bedbug infestation. My business-class ticket DC to Tashkent return was outrageous at more than $6000 and I did indeed get bitten by a bedbug on my right hand on the return trip. As a travel agency OATS had to have known of the problem. I can only think they must have a hell of a deal going with the airline.

I have traveled 4 times with Oat, it seems the quantity of Oat sponsored excursions is decreasing, but not the cost. Less included meals and tours. My recent issue is for an upcoming trip in October. We are staying an extra night in Paris at the conclusion of the tour. In the past Oat would book the extra night at the same hotel providing us with the negotiated hotel rate, which we would pay to Oat. Oat has recently changed the policy and will no longer book for us. They will book on the front end but not the back end. I’ve called 3 different people, written 3 emails to support and they will not budge. The hotel even told us that Oat had to make the arrangements. Seems customer service is not a priority once the trip is paid for. Very sad since I had enjoyed touring with them.