Ritz ToursReviews of ritztours.com

I attend this tour, what I thought would have been my trip of a life time, not only that my dream trip. Unfortunately we did not receive our itinerary until after the trip was paid for. Our host was not available at anytime of the planing to asked question or answer any concerns. We had to reach out to Olga from Ritz's. Our tour guide was very nice and helpful. The tour consisted of 98 people with 3 buses and if you didn't come with anyone you would have been lost. Nothing on Ritz's but our host should have had some kind of meeting with everyone that was attending the trip so that we would have been more familiar with everyone that was traveling. To start off there was too much walking and a lot of us were not prepared for that .There were a lot of elderly people on the trip. The hotels were definitely not what was expected.(no air, tv hot water, small beds, no refrigeration ,far away from everything etc..) no adequate staff to accommodate with your luggage that you had to carry from hotel to hotel. The meals were not French Cuisine as stated (chicken every meal and a lot of starches no green vegetables, didn't even offer sodas to drink, you had to pay for them separate after all the money that was paid out as stated French Cuisine Meals.Ritz's tours planned the trip and they were the cheapest hotels and meal that you could offer and our host didn't bother to check itinerary before hand. I paid for certain tours and did not expected to go on all the other tours. We had NO free time to ourselves to do anything and as I stated we were around nothing at night. We stayed on the buses from sun up to sun down riding all day long jumping off the bus quickly for a bathroom break. I know a couple of people that was on an European Tour the same time I was on mines and their experience was nothing like mine and they were with a GOOD TOURING COMPANY. The BEST feedback I can give moving forward is to give customers the QUALITY OF THE TRIP THEY PAY FOR. I will never travel with Ritz again..

The European Tour September 6 - 17, 2023 was the worst trip I have ever experienced.  We are worldwide travelers and was appalled at the way this trip was executed.  Ritz Tours switched flights at the last minute with lower class cheap airlines; we paid for excursions with the tips included, however, received an email for mandatory additional tips at the last minute and were forced to pay even thought Ritz Tour Rep. advised we were not obligated to pay and they were optional; Host was not available after we paid the initial deposit to answer any questions or guide us on the dynamics of the trip.  We had to carry our luggage almost every day.  Ritz tours promised stays at reputable hotels, however, the were not;  hotels did not have adequate air conditioning; did not have refrigerators for guest who had medication that required refrigeration; did not provide wash cloths; most only had twin size beds; did not have any American speaking television shows; were far away from central areas, restaurants or shops for refreshments and did not provide ice and very limited vending machines and did not have adequate staff to accommodate special requests.  Many meals were cold or barely warm and consisted of Chicken, no vegetables other than starchy potatoes or rice, high fat pastries and cakes without regards to dietary restrictions; there were no French Cuisine Meals as stated in the Itinerary; only had options of water, tea or coffee and no alternative drinks; elevators were very small with a long wait to get to your room;  Guests were not provided as much free time as stated in the Itinerary however was forced to ride the bus from sun up to sun down and was only allowed 15 to 20 minutes every 2 hours for restroom and food breaks; driver did not allow any eating or drinking on the bus even though he was selling bottles of water and many of the highlighted attractions were seen while the bus was moving; The Host was not known to many travelers and seemed to not know what was going on and did not seem prepared to handle such a huge turnout.  Our Tour Guide was the only saving factor and this is not about her because she only did what she was paid for and even accompanied a sick guest to the hospital late at night wherein the Host did not accompany, inquire and was not available by telephone in case of an emergency for the sick guest.  I am going back to the destinations without Ritz Tours or anything to do with because I do not feel I got what I paid for and want to enjoy my next experience.  For future travels I would definitely do the research because a lot of the tours were unnecessary and I would have rather had more time to explore and shop rather than all of the excessive walking.  When should we expect the refund on the flights as the ones we rode on only equated to $500 instead of the $1,400 that we spent. You have my mailing address as well as my friend and we expect to see it soon otherwise we will be seeking legal remedies.

First day when I get Athens airport, no body pick up us. After one more hour, a guy saw I wear name tag. He said we mistakes. Even no sorry. We were very nervous. And second morning. No body pick us up either. After one hour I called person I met first day, he give me a phone number. Then We got pick up later. Still no apologize! That’s make me real upset. I paid all money for the trip. With out service. I really want get my money back in that time . That’s why I give one star.

We have sent a letter of our concerns.

After I came back for 10 days 8 nights China Discovery Tour from Ritz Tours on July 2017, I felt very disappointed and did not recommend at all. This tour was totally different than a few years ago that my co-worker came back and told us to join this tour. We did left voice mails and emails and did not get any response and result from Ritz tours. Unprofessional and inexperienced tour guide, who spent 90% of the time talking to driver during the trip, and did not interact with us, also she had very limited knowledge of sceneries, barely explained the sceneries and all she said was walked by ourselves and met us within the time flame. Lunches were inedible with a huge lack of meat and vegetables with an odd odor. All of us hardly touched the meals. We did complained to the tour guide and she said those foods were from country side. “But we joined the luxury tour and expected the good food.” Suzhou excursion was completely ripped off ($380 for party of four). We spent about one and a half hours in the car ride each way, forty five minutes at The Master of the Net Garden. Eat early lunch around 11:30 in a local restaurant. We told her it was too early for us, we just had breakfast at 8:30am. She said that we had no choice. After lunch, we spent about twenty minutes at the Suzhou Canal River with little history of the canal. She did not provide any information about scenery. Suzhou often called the “Venice of the East” expecting the manual boat ride not the motor boat. Unfortunately we were in the motor boat ride. Once we reached the Entry of Suzhou Village, the boat turned around and we didn’t have a chance to walk around. The purpose we chose the package was to walk the Village and discover its highlights on a guide tour. When we requested her to walk around inside the village, she told us that it was not part of the tour package. We drove back to Shanghai and were dropped off before 3:00 pm. We felt we were so foolish to join the Suzhou tour.