TakeToursReviews of taketours.com

We had taken a trip to Niagara falls in September 2018. Our guide was Yaro, she was fine and gave us some info. about the attractions. But somethings were not that pleasant. We were taken to some parks in the morning which was looking like a time waste, we could directly have gone to the falls instead as we were made to wake up at 6.45 a.m. The hotel was average, even thou it has name Double tree, but rooms were small and we crossed a couple of Double trees before reaching that particular one, 30 minutes drive. To add to it a particular passenger of 6 members had a Nasty boy who kept shouting and crying all through the trip. Our guide tried to handle the situation and also requested the parents to Lift their child from the aisle, as it was Sitting and Crying aloud in the aisle of the Moving Bus. But those things were Truely Unapologetic towards Other passengers for the Disturbance they caused. Hoping not to see those Ghost faces again. Only one request, if their child ruins their life, they can enjoy it But please donot spoil and Ruin everyone else's trip. We all paid Money for Enjoying, Relaxing and Peacefully travelling, nothing is free. This is a Group tour, everyone should Respect everyone else's space, time and comfort. Those things had No Respect for anyone in the Bus and just kept creating Nuisance and didnot Apologize to the fellow passengers. Everyone was trying to take a Nap during the Hot noon time as the AC was not working properly, but noone could sleep. Too much noise. The bus was not much clean as I could see chewing gum near the seat and all dirt in the corner of the seat. Anyways, for the money, if you have tight buget, you can try this tour. But if you can afford a little bit more money and stay longer, then search Google for tours where you will have good time and time to eat and little bit shop too and Not rush everywhere. Btw. we couldn't grab food as the bathrooms were having a waiting line and the time limit was too short.

I went on a Take Tours holiday from Denver, through Yellowstone Park, Utah, Mt Rushmore, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Las Angeles - it was 8 nights. The first part of the trip was fine. They don't stop anywhere nice for lunches and you have to find your own evening meal. Being a woman on my own I didn't want to walk around places I didn't know at night so I relied on fast food places near to our hotels. The hotels were average - Best Western standard - with the exception of the SLS Las Vegas which was a very nice hotel but I didn't get the $200 "Welcome package" advertised in the brochure. The first part of the trip was fine - we saw some amazing things which is why I wanted to go on the trip, but be prepared to hand over the daily charge to the tour guide in cash! I had to swap coaches to go to Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and Los Angeles and the new coach was full of extremely rude, inconsiderate people. I was one of 2 English speakers on board and we had allocated seats but they didn't seat us together! Every time the English commentary started, the 2 women in front of me started talking loudly in Chinese so I couldn't hear what the Tour guide was saying. When we had to get off the coach, no one would stop to let me out of my seat, I had to wait for the coach to empty. I would be standing trying to take photos and would be pushed out of the way. I booked to go on the Las Vegas night tour - it started at 5.30 p.m. in broad daylight! The guide took off without waiting for everyone to get off the coach, we eventually caught up but he'd taken us to a dreadful mall and by the time I got there, he'd told the other English speaker what to do/where to go and wouldn't repeat himself - in fact he thought it was funny that I had missed out! I was not impressed by him and didn't want to be in his company any longer - a night tour in daylight was not what I was expecting - so I found a cab (he refused to help me find one!) and went back to the hotel. They didn't refund me. Sadly the last few days of the tour were ruined for me and I complained to Take Tours but they couldn't have cared less and told me to contact CTours who they had subcontracted. I would not recommend this tour unless you really can't afford anything better. I have read the other reviews below and agree with everything being said - particularly Gill's review.

Firstly, you will be tempted to book a tour because, let’s face it, it’s cheap right? My advice is, if you can afford it, spend a little more with another company. If you do book expect.... Chinese guides, these tours are for Chinese people so don’t expect to be able to understand everything that is being said. Around 80% of your time sat on a coach...you will get minimal time at any of your destinations. Poor quality coaches....one of ours was pouring water from the roof. We had to sit on plastic bags (the Chinese guests were given the dry seats!). Poor quality hotels (not chain hotels as advertised). The hotels are 1*/2*. If you are staying more than one night, don’t expect to keep your room...you will need to check in and check out every night. Don’t expect the hotels to be in great locations...they are miles from anywhere. Don’t expect the hotel to serve breakfast. On one day we had to wait till lunchtime to get food and drinks. On another day we had to buy breakfast from a garage! Expect to get up very early...6am starts are the norm. Expect to be taken to a cheap Chinese buffet every single day of your tour! They will try to sell you tours you don’t want....don’t fall for it! The price you see is not the price you pay. Check the small print, expect to pay double Have a great time!

We went on Niagara Falls, Toronto tour from NY. 2 adults and 3 kids. Bus was ok. Toilet was locked most of the time. I think the drivers have to clean it out or something as they were reluctant to let people use it. Well into the trip my son needed the toilet badly and the tour guide refused to let him into the toilet as he said we are stopping in 15 mins. My son then vomited all over the floor of the bus. Approximately 15 mins into the trip the tour guide (Tom) came to us asking what optional side tours we wanted to purchase. We only chose 1, the Niagara boat trip. It was like a bomb went off in his head ! He started ranting about this not being a shuttle bus, this is a tour bus. We pointed out to him it says optional, then he took out an official piece of paper and asked us to sign it , which would allow them to throw us off the bus if he saw us go on any of the side tours without going through him ! We didn't sign anything. It left us with a bad taste after that for the rest of the tour. Having said that, we all enjoyed Niagara and Toronto, mainly because we did our own thing and did not stick with the rest of the crowd. The hotels and university dorm was ok as well. Tom did make if difficult for us about where to catch the bus after they had finished their side tours and we were in fear of missing the bus sometimes. As there were 5 of us we had to give the tour guide and the driver a $150 tip ($75 each) for the 3 day tour ! Unbelievable.

They are only getting a 2 because I love the places we went to. However, the ride was horrible they refuse to stop at places that actually have food. So they force you to eat Chinese food. It’s like they starve you until you get to Chinese food locations. They make you pay for $10 Watkins glens but it’s free to enter the park they claim it’s for the parking fee but the parking fee is not that expensive. What bothered me the most is that service fee!! That’s a rip off!! Shelly Liu made it seem like she had to give money to the company but all she did was split the money between her and the bus rider. I was praying the whole ride!! The driver was a horrible driver!! Don’t take this tour! It matches the cheap price! Find another way to get to these beautiful places on your own. Also the tour was rushed! Also they refuse to let you use the bus bathroom!!

We booked the 3 day San Francisco, Napa, Redwoods, Crater Lake tour with TakeTours, when the bus arrived it was Lassen Tours so we'd been "handed off" without our knowledge. We had one MAJOR ISSUE-the website says there are bathrooms on the bus (we've taken many tours and they've all had them) but there wasn't one and we have young children. One time they didn't stop for 3 hours right after breakfast-even the adults were in trouble by that time! Although the tour guide was cordial he did not give any information about the areas we traveled through, and only gave directions such as when to report back at the bus which made the drive between locations seemed to take forever. Lassen seems to cater to Chinese tourists so everything was repeated in Chinese and English, that was a little annoying.

I choose this tour as it visited main cities/ areas that we wanted to visit. Upon arrival at LAX there was no one to pick us up so I used my intiative and called the Hotel stated on my printed Itinerary it was a best western LAX , the hotel shuttle came for us but when we got there it wasn’t the correct hotel ( turns out there are 4) after 2 more journeys Taketours asked us to return to LAX so they can get us ( remember this is after a long haul flight from UK) a Chinese guy shows up with my name on his phone he was driving his own car as he said the transfer bus was finished by then ( charged us $5 each no apology for our inconvenience. The next week was very long as we spent most of the time sitting on a bus ( that had no toilet) the hotels were mixed only 1 very good Marriott but we only had use of the room from 6pm till 6am no breakfast included , the others were 2-3 star faculties. We stayed in Las Vegas for 3 nights at the stratosphere hotel, on day 2 we noticed that housekeeping wasn’t doing our room, when we spoke to the cleaners they told us that our tour booking did not include cleaning as taketours hadn’t paid for it?. How cheap is this company! They block book large numbers of rooms years ahead for a pitience. The additional tours they try and hard sell to passengers is done whilst we’re all captive on the bus, ( as a seasoned traveller I knew that I could book what I needed once I arrived) however the majority of pax were Asian and seemed to be sucked in by the rep. Because we chose not to take any of the Grand Canyon tours whilst in Las Vegas the rep charged us $30 each to opt out!!!! The reason we didn’t take the tour was because you had to get up at 5am travel 5 hrs( stay 1 hr) then travel 5 hrs back ; this just wasn’t worth it in our opinion. The other thing that happened on the return journey from Las Vegas to LA was they stopped 3 times within the first 3 hrs of the journey ( only 1 was stated in our itininary) the other 2 where shopping malls that I believe they have business deals with so they are paid to bring tourists there. This made a 4 1/2 hr journey last almost 8 hrs. When I queried the tour guide about this I got no where, basically we were taking so long because it suited there plans for switched bus pax in LA union st . I can see now why this trip was cheap and I certainly won’t be using them again or recommending them.

Very poor services really! I booked a 7 days/6 nights tour of Israel 3 weeks before the departure and, despite my emails, the booking was always with the status "in process". I sent several messages to Take Tours and the only answer I got was "please be patient". The cancellation arrived just on the supposed day of the departure of the tour with the odd justification that the local travel agency did not answer to their contacts. I lost that night reshaping in a hurry all my stay in the country. I rate them with 2 stars and not 1 because they did not charge my card.