Venture AshoreReviews of ventureashore.com

I had initially booked a private tour from the ship to Rome. However, our plans changed and I called them (well over a week in advance) to ask if they could arrange for us to go to Florence instead. If not, I would be cancelling. The woman on the phone said she'd get back to me and never did. Three days before the tour, having never heard back from them, I confirmed cancellation via email and they responded that they weren't going to refund my money because it wasn't a week in advance. I decided to deal with it when I returned home. Then when we docked, there was a driver waiting because they never told him that we had cancelled. He was understandably angry which we had to deal with. Not a professional, buttoned up company and I'm still trying to get my money back.

Cancelled Catamaran Snorkel trip. AVOID COMPANY AS AWFUL. Spoilt my only day in Mexico. Booked and received voucher for trip last November. On cruise and reached Cozumel, Mexico the day of trip. So far so good. Had to catch taxi to beach club which I was aware of, cost 25 US Dollars. On arrival name was not on list and they said Catamaran was out of action and they could not give us any other snorkelling experience. I tried to phone Venture emergency number to find out what was going on but no one answered just heard music so gave up! Return taxi cost 20 US Dollars. Managed to find bar with Wii and emailed Venture my disgust, and did receive a reply saying they were very sorry they were aware the Catamaran was out of action and very sorry trip was cancelled and would refund my money in full. I have received refund of trip money and yesterday I emailed asking for taxi money of 45 US Dollars, which I don’t think is unreasonable considering the official email cancellation of the booking was received 4 days after the event!, Guess what no communication as yet. Don’t think this will get refunded, so I would say to anyone looking to book with this Company AVOID AVOID AVOID at all cost so you don’t get disappointed. Venture please issue me with credit for taxis rides as I am out of pocket through no fault on mine, it was your lack of communication that led to this extra cost.

The tour brochure was enticing but the admin was terrible. We were forced to pay £130 for a tour that we couldn’t take because the ship didn’t dock in the port that had been paid for; and this despite ringing to cancel on their “no dock, no pay” policy. Avoid, if you can

Generally I only write reviews on things I want to recommend. But occasionally, very rarely, I feel people need to be warned. This is what happened with Venture Ashore. We had always been very pleased with them, but that was when things were going well. The first time things went wrong it was like having a parachute full of holes. The tour guide had failed to turn up at the place we were told to meet. We phoned the emergency number (at some expense) and were told they would sort it. After 20 minutes, and fearing our few hours in Tangier would be spent in the cruise terminal, we made other arrangements (less good and more expensive). We tried to claim a refund (over £100) but they just blocked and prevaricated, and after all this time we have given up hope of an honourable outcome. Although we were in the right place and the tour guide wasn’t, Venture Ashore claimed we had canceled the trip and were not entitled to a refund. Despite our previous good experiences we will not use Venture Ashore again until they have returned our money, which was forfeit through no fault of ours.

This company takes no responsibility for its actions. My planned trip to Bangkok was ruined by this companies negligence. Although they sent me confirmation the trip was booked, they failed to pass this onto the local rep. We were abandoned, more than 2 miles from Bangkok. Venture Ashores emergency telephone number went unanswered, so more than just disappointment and frustration. They have not provided an adequate response, they state they have compensated me by not charging for the service they failed to deliver. This is not a reliable company with poor customer service.

Booked a tour in Napier NZ as a shore excursion from a cruise. We had to cancel going on the cruise due to my father’s ill health. I emailed Venture Ashore in Napier on 8th at 11.23pm Sydney time to cancel for 15th - 7 days out which happened to be their cancellation time. Was told they wouldn’t refund me as I needed to cancel 7 days before tour date based on “Napier” time. Napier is 2 hours ahead of Sydney so it would have been 1.23am on 9th for them when I emailed to advise of our cancellation so I was 1hour 23 mins too late to get a refund. Pointed out our unfortunate circumstance as to reason of cancelling but they still wouldn’t refund me. Geez, I’m still appalled and shaking my head still thinking about this. No act of goodwill from them at all. 1 hour 23 mins too late!! Seriously?? Cold email replies back from them. They didn’t care at all. We’ll be going on another cruise when the time is right but will NOT be booking any tours with this mean company.

Booked two tours with them, tour for Mumbai was great, albeit shorter than we'd paid for. Booked an 8 hour tour but the guide told us it was actually 5 hours which would have been cheaper had we booked that, the tour was informative and interesting though. Next tour was SriLanka, the ship was late getting in so we missed it, there was no internet or phone service and when there was we had an email to say the time had been changed to 10am, the next day, got the email at 5pm though. Emailed a couple of times but when they did eventually respond they did not want to give a refund or voucher. We cruise often but not sure I'd ever use them again due to the awful customer service, I can see why others have made the same complaints in their reviews.

Booked four personal tours when we were in Vietnam, Hanoi, the first three were pretty much hassle free, though describing the guides a "speaking English" for two of them was stretching it a bit! It all went pear shaped on the final trip in Vietnam, supposed to meet up at 08:30, waited till 09:00, unable to make any contact due to no phone signal, and they aren't on whats App ffs!!!!!!! Went or a wander around for a few hours, headed back to the Cruise transfer boat and the guide was there at 11:00, saying he'd been there all morning!!!! Still waiting for not just a refund but any reply from this pathetic company.