TakeToursReviews of taketours.com

Compre el tour de 6 dias a Yellowstone, todo estuvo perfecto, el bus y el guia. Lo recomiendo

I had gifted my parents with a 7 day west coast tour from take tours. Here are some things I would like to share about their experience: 1. Three times it so happens that they had to sleep empty stomach because they couldn't get anything to eat as the tour bus stops at Chinese restaurants only. And there was not a single other restaurant option nearby. 2. We were already charged for the entry fee for Grand Canyon when I booked their tour, but the tour guide was not ready to accept it and she made them pay $270 if they wished to see the Canyon. My parents did not have that much cash so they had to borrow it from someone. When I tried calling the customer service of take tours nobody picked up for three hours and I had to chat with a representative. It was a nightmare because that lady was not ready to co-operate and very very rude. Next day I called another representative who luckily understood what the problem after I threatened them that I will sue the company and we finally got a refund after one month. 3. The tour guides are very rude and they charge you more than the actual entry fee. Beware of it. They are looking to take money from you all the time apart from the mandatory tip you have to give them. Overall I think this is the worst tour company. My Advise: pay a little more and have a wonderful experience, instead of being sorry and helpless.

DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY! The reviews ON THEIR SITE are bogus. I should have Googled the company, instead, then I would have clearly seen not to bother with this! Yesterday, July 11 2017, I booked a 3 day 2 night tour from LA to San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Yosemite. I called the number on my itinerary to ask so preliminary questions about pickup location, the length of travel daily and if there would be outlets on the bus to charge electronics (WHICH THERE ARE NONE). In addition, after booking, I found out about a $8 per person per day gratuity they would be charging at the time of the trip. Turns out that it IS NOT Take Tours, but another outsourced company called US West Coast Tours. Not only could I not understand the operator clearly so I had to keep asking her to repeat herself, but she seemed very annoyed that I had the audacity to call in the first place. She was very rude and when I asked what her name was, she straight hung up on me! I then called TakeTours and voiced my concerns about going on a trip with a company that was already quite rude and incompetent. There was no way that I was going to continue my reservation with a company that was already quite inept and lacking the fundamentals of customer service. They did not seem surprised. I am so annoyed that they continue to do business with a company that offers nothing by way of the basics of service at the least. TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY, TakeTours charged me a 6% cancellation fee for a trip that I booked only a day prior and decided to cancel only because they are doing shady business with outside companies (UNBEKNOWNST TO ME). I felt I owed nothing! But was willing to get out of it for the $18 bucks RATHER than follow through with sub par accommodations, customer service and as I read on here, just a horrible experience all around!!! BEWARE!!

Its been a week since I tried posted my review on their website and as guessed they haven’t posted it on their website. From this I assume that they are selective on the reviews that they post it on their website. I generally don’t take the trouble of writing reviews but with utmost despair I write this detailed input, especially to guide the future participants and what to expect from trip. The current reviews bemuse me and hope that we didn’t share the same tour guides and travel itineary. This has been eye opening experience, especially as it’s my first bus voyage in USA. I have been in USA for more than a decade and I choose this trip for mainly one reason – to have a better understanding on the history with the help of tour guide. However this trip ended up as a nightmare with an accumulation of unhygienic bus, altercations, and arguments. At the end it left us with bad taste and a sense of betrayal that we literally waited for it to end. From my discussion with the guide, I understood that taketours are mere booking agents and the bus, guide are from a third party, which I vaguely remember to be ezworld or something (other reviewers might help me with this). Guide: Our tour guide, Alfred (American name) is informative and accommodative. However that quickly overturned within a day into the tour. He was able to provide the historical significance of the places on day one and as the tour advances everything changed, he left us with only the tour details. For Ex: he charged us with a lump sum of 25$/individual for an in-depth Niagara tour. On the day of the tour, he took us to an “Old fort” and unlike other tour guides; he left us inside the castle without providing any details. When questioned, he was quick to jump that he is busy looking after other aspects. Driver: To start with he is a rudest person that I have ever encountered in US. He literally bellowed a couple of times at the passengers when they were late. When questioned on his manners, he threatened of not taking them into the bus. The whole altercation happened when the schedule was changed due to bus breakdown for three hours on Day 2. Because of this, the schedule of visiting the illumination @ Niagara was moved to next day which ironically happened to be Canada day, July 1st. Inspite of many passengers request to watch the fireworks, the bus driver was adamant to start at 9:30 PM against 10:15 PM (10 PM is the scheduled fireworks). They never took into consideration that passengers waited for three hours patiently when they had a bus breakdown but couldn’t afford to stay for another 30 minutes. Infact, the pick up time was delayed by an hour and no passenger have ever complained on it. Restaurants: Unmistakably, the only place the bus makes a stop for lunch or dinners would be a Chinese buffet (bcoz of prearrangement between the travels and restaurant). If you are vegetarian or can’t take Chinese food then you are in big trouble. The guide gives you an hour to complete your lunch or dinner and it’s up to you to look for places around and get back on time. They won’t yield to requests of dropping at a different place which accommodates different cuisines and picking you up on their way. Admission fee: This is a big rip off. The guide literally forced the passengers to buy most of the tickets (supposedly optional) listing that they are part of other participating places and cannot be avoided. A couple of passengers were reimbursed on the i-max movie tickets as they came to know that not all passengers bought them and it’s not mandatory as proclaimed by the guide. Don’t succumb to the pressure of buying all the tickets. Ex: Ticket fee for Hershey’s factory ride is 15$ which includes a trump ride (supposedly free) and a gift bag (recyclable bag, a keychain, a chocolate inside it, catalogue of the year events) Bed bugs: We encountered and dealt with bed bugs throughout the trip. Some of the passengers had a horrendous 1st night stay when they had bed bug bites all over the body. In addition, the bed bugs were prevalent in the bus and a passenger developed bites when they travelled in the bus in the night travel. When complained, the guide wasn’t helpful and had no first aid kit to deal with the situation. Conclusion (my perspective): This package with the same travelling company would be a sheer selfie tour. You might be able to cover many places but you will just rush all the time. Don’t expect much with food and hotel. Only one night we stayed in decent hotel that was good and the rest were well below average.

If there was a zero, I would definitely put that. It is our first day and There is no help at all. All guides barely speak English. Nothing is clear and no one answers your questions, email or phone calls. The New York hotels are in New Jersey and no one tells you anything about it. They give you a guide number and no one even answers it. We have no clue what the program will be for the next day or which hotels we will be staying in. Complete disappointment.

There were signs which I was not comfortable with when I asked them about the itinerary of the tour. First of all, one of the numbers listed on the website is not operational and secondly, getting an operator was difficult. There were a couple of times I waited more than 15 minutes and still, no one picked up my call. When I finally spoke to someone I was told the tour guide will get hold of us the day off which to me lacked planning. On the day of the trip, Taketours did not notify us that we have to walk across Union Station to wait for the bus and not at the Union Station itself. To top it off, the AC in the bus went out from Bakersfield all the way to Vegas in over a 100 degrees weather! In addition, we were disappointed that we didn't get to see the Horseshoe Bend as indicated on the tour description due to circumstances beyond the tour guide's control, however, an explanation would have settled the confusion, but none of that was stated. The trip would've have been pleasurable had it been run efficiently & well-planned itinerary

rude tour guide who tried to con us into giving up more money. apparently "optional" activities are mandatory and if you don't want to do them you have to pay a $40 service fee, plus it was mandatory to tip our rude tour guide $10 per day. poor time management, hotels were in the outskirts of the cities....... Waste

Our family recently took a 7-day Take Tours package to visit various US national parks in mid-May 2017. The tour started in LA with some of the tour members picked up in Las Vegas. Tour ended in Salt Lake City with the option to go back to Las Vegas/LA for an extra charge. We were fortunate to have a good female tour guide, Diana, who spoke in Mandarin & English, and our driver, Ruben, was a safe driver. We joined this tour with some trepidation, esp after reading all the reviews online. But what really motivated us to go was the fact that this tour was a comprehensive one covering more national parks than any of the other tours offered. Optional tours initially cost US$100/person but a cable car up in Jackson, WY was added for US$20 each. The tour guide provided all of us sufficient information/guidance on each of our tour stops and rest stops as well as how long our day would be, where to dine, and what to prepare for the next day's tour. We would wake up at 5 am each day to leave the hotel (after breakfast) at 6 am and at times arrive at our next hotel between 7:30 to 8:30 pm. On our tour, we were able to see Glen Canyon Dam/Lake Powell, Lower Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Glenwood Springs, Rocky Mountains, Crazy Horse Memorial, Mt Rushmore, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone National Park (one afternoon and the following morning), Grand Teton National Park, Jackson Hole, WY, and Salt Lake City. At Arches, we didn't get to see the main attraction as we were told that it was a long drive going there. At Yellowstone, we also missed the main attraction, Mammoth Springs, as the road going north was under construction although we found out the next day that the other road from the west entrance was open but we ended up going to the West Thumb Geyser Basin nearby on an early chilly morning instead. Anyway, it would have been nice if we did but it wasn't a big deal esp if you've been driving for so long. Other than these, we were given sufficient time to enjoy each stop. Of the 48 tour members, a family of 4 Americans, 2 Canadians, 3 Filipinos, and mostly Chinese from the US, Vietnam, mainland China, & HK were with us. All were well behaved and followed instructions from the tour guide throughout the trip so I would say we had a great tour. There was only one incident that marred our first day when a Chinese couple were not picked up promptly at the Las Vegas airport for some time and the upset husband yelled at the tour guide twice (though no fault of hers) creating some scene. Fortunately, he cooled down and behaved the rest of the time. Tips to the driver & guide were pegged at US$8/per day per person. Most of the hotels we stayed at were 2-1/2 to 3 stars. Good enough for a night's stay in each place. Only 3 bkfasts were provided. Our hotel for Yellowstone was in West Yellowstone in Montana which was only 1-1/2*, I think. While it was newly renovated, it did not have any of the usual amenities (microwave, fridge, coffee maker) which was difficult since we had to buy groceries to prepare for bkfast the next morning. So no fridge to store our groceries, no coffeemaker and no heating capability. A total of 9 states (incl CA if one started in LA) were visited and over 3,500 miles logged on this tour. Take Tours (and Tours4Fun and others), I learned, is just an agent for CTour Holidays or Westcoast Holidays, for that matter.