Trafalgar Travel Reviews 176

This is my second tour with Trafalgar and it has been exceptional once again. I appreciate the sense of security and safety I have with Trafalgar knowing that I am taken care of from start to end and it is not only the big things but the small things that count. The drivers' skills to maneuve through the winding and smaller roads is remarkable in the huge couch, which is so comfortable and spacious, and always lending a supportive hand to help us off the coach shows kindness and patience. Our tour guide Victor was brilliant, his commanding presence ensured our safety and that we kept to schedule. He is so knowledgeable and I appreciated him sharing all the tidbits of the history of places, people and environment. Trafalgar promotes awareness of the local people, their business and culture as we had at least four experiences included on the tour where we are given the opportunity to learn about how these family businesses started and grew and this showcase from Trafalgar not only highlights these undertakings but also encourages us to take a step back and reflect on how we can give back in our own communities. Support local is huge for me and it helps smaller businesses and families not only thrive but they include their communities in their ventures to expand, educate and shows the true meaning of "Ubuntu" in action. I also love the fact that I am on holiday and the Trafalgar team makes it that much more special as you don't have to plan and scurry about not knowing what is happening. You are kept informed, days are planned out in advance, the communication is on par and if you need anything they are always willing to assist with a smile. It means you get to just enjoy the trip and take it all in. The cherry on the cake is although we travel in a group everyone has their own personalities and the Trafalgar team knows how to manage each person making it a better and smoother experience for all. Thank you Trafalgar and your amazing team. I look forward to book my next trip with Trafalgar and this wonderful experience has uncovered my passion for travel and wanting to share this with my children as I know they will be safe in your capable hands.

Our Best of Holland Tour was great because we did one country with a enthusiastic, and knowledgeable Travel Director. Our driver was also a very nice man with a good sense of humor. The coach was spotless and comfortable. Our Travel Director was attentive, personable and gave us insights into this lovely country we would never have had if we had not taken this Trafalgar Tour. The included breakfasts were abundant and had something for everyone and the meals were nice too. We went to many cities and experienced both urban and scenic rural areas. I felt we were given a well rounded trip I will never forget. It was well worth the money.

We signed up for Grand Italian tour and put on a waitlist as told we would hear back in 7 days. Called and told it could be several weeks but they could switch us to different dates for more $$. Meanwhile they are still advertising for this trip!! Bait and switch. They just lost a potential customer as not organized. We are going back to Globus!

Matt Godman and our bus driver Raymond were amazing. Everything ran like clock work even when there are so many variables (traffic/weather). They worked together as a team so well.

Trafalgar is so good at preparing you for the experience. They dot the "i's" and cross the "t's".
They tell you what to bring for the weather. The give your options to do extras to gain the full culture of the place you are going.

We wanted to go to Ireland and Scotland in one fell swoop and check the box without having the drive or plan.

This trip was it.

The cost is right in line with the value.

We are experienced American travelers who've also lived in Switzerland for a period of time. This is not our first rodeo.

For many on the trip, it was their first rodeo, and some of them were older with limited physical capabilities. We are 55 and 60 but are in great physical condition for our ages. Matt, our host, handled all of us with great detail and care.

If you are limited in physical capabilities, they handle it well, but it is important for you to also realize what you cannot do and not penalize them. They do what they do really well, and we will never forget this experience.

I'd like a full refund.
On our first day, despite the fact that we were aware of additional extra's, we were forced by our Tour director to pay up front on that very day for additional extras as 'everybody does them' so he said.
Most hotels were out of town so there was no restaurant choices should we have not been forced to take up the 'optional experience'. The food at the restaurants was certainly not worth the money we paid . The first was Dinner and Drive to Torpichen at 70.00 pound per person. We were supposed to have a Piper, but the hostess at the Restaurant told us that The Tour Director only paid for the cheap version so the Piper did not play. He was there waiting as a few of us had a chat with him.
The hotels were pitiful and some only 3 star, one hotel we stayed in (Plymouth) had pubic hairs on the bathtub and bed bugs in the bed, the tiles were falling off the bathroom wall and there was mould on the ceiling. I sent photos to Trafalgar on Messenger but I have had nil response. Some hotels had no air-conditioning at all.
Most comfort stops we were given 15 minutes, we would pull up and there would be another 4 bus loads of people with only 4 ladies toilets. very unacceptable.
Additionally, on the bus the next day, we were forced to listed to a Podcast which lasted approximately 20 monutes, on 'gratefulness'. The tour director then advised us we would soon receive a survey which I also posted his comments in Messenger to Trafalgar, he advised us we should rate him 10, what a joke. The Tour director, then name some of the people who had completed their survey, I would have thought this was a breech of privacy??
We had previously completed two tours with another company with another company prior to joining this tour through the British Isles, we had NO complaints whatsoever.

I have traveled on 3 Trafalgar tours and have enjoyed all of them. (first was Italy in 2019, second one was Croatia in 2023) I just completed my first USA trip with them and had a fantastic group, driver, and tour director. Hotels were great given the parks we were visiting, mainly in Utah. We had easy access to food/shopping nearby. Lodging is limited in many national park areas due to their remoteness. My favorite was actually the one Best Western in Moab. Perfect location so we could walk and explore, plus the staff were so sweet and attentive. Timings to get the most out of our time in the parks worked smoothly and often we had extra time to do longer hikes/walks. Guessing that would depend on the group, but we had a younger mix. I especially loved the Navajo lunch experience during our time in Monument Valley, that steak was pure perfection and what a beautiful setting we had all to ourselves. Being able to see Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, Bryce, and Zion in a week was ideal and has given me ideas for future trips.

Too much time spent in rural Japan, and on boring activities such as paper making, gold foil shop visiting, old home and old village visiting.
Also considerable time spent in rest areas, free museums, and walking through free parks.
Not enough time spent in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka.

A tour is as good as the tour guide makes it.
Our tour guide Keiko was awful. She was opinionated, inflexible, and confusing. She forced the group to do what she wanted, without considering group's suggestions or needs. She was very strict on meeting time, and left four tourists in a busy market area (one was 85 and one was 83 years old).
Hotels: The hotels we stayed at were nice, although the rooms assigned to our group did not have nice views and had old furnishings.
Food: There was too much raw sea food and too much cooking your own food (often without cooking instructions!). Don't dress in nice clothes during lunches and dinners in Japan with Trafalgar! The optional paid "shabu-shabu" dinner was AWFUL, the meat and the rest of the food were simply non-edible. Activities: Keiko cancelled our Mt Fuji attraction, stating that Mount Fuji "was closed because of rain the day before" (Mt Fuji official tourism website mentioned nothing about being closed during a gorgeous sunny day). There were no included shows in this tour. The optional paid tea ceremony was interesting.
Transfers: The transport back to the airport was on a coach bus which our tour guide called "limousine".
Japan is a beautiful country worth visiting, but with a better tour and definitely with a better tour guide!

My husband and I went on the Best of the Canyonlands - Denver to Las Vegas. It was such a great trip. I enjoyed getting time to hike around the national parks and getting to see so many parks in just a week! And my favorite location was Monument Valley. An absolutely stunning place - the colors, landscape and rich history. It was nice being able to get to all these places and not have to plan the driving ourselves. Can't wait to try out another destination - next on my list is the Northeast!

Incredible week in Tuscany on the Rome and Tuscan highlights tour. We loved our travel director Tyson, so knowledgeable and full of stories. The hotel in Montecatini was an excellent location, steps away from the town square. We also enjoyed the relaxed pace of the trip. Would do this trip again in a heartbeat.

I have recently returned from a Best of Belgium, Luxembourg and holland with Trafalgar. This was my first trip with Trafalgar and will definitely be my last. I am a seasoned traveller having travelled with different companies throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, north and South America. Trafalgar certainly did not hold up to its reputation. Firstly most of our hotels were too far away from any city centre. Our tour director Roderick, although very knowledgeable was not a good travel director. Several times he left people behind because he did not do a head count. Totally unacceptable. He greeted us each day with a good morning in Dutch. He accentuated his Dutch accent in a loud and disgusting voice. I found this disgusting and annoying and offensive. He also referred to us as his children. Ridiculous. The city tours were pretty well non existent. He would point out the odd cathedral, church or government building but gave very little history. The tours consisted basically of parking the bus a fair distance away from anything, then walking 20 to 30 minutes, Roderick pointing out restaurants and the shops that were closed, giving us approximately 1 1/2 hours free time and then meeting him to walk another 20 or 30 minutes back to the bus and then driving 45 minutes to our hotel. I asked Roderick 3x to find me a pharmacy in Belgium. Each time he said he would get back to me with directions. He never did. The same thing happened in Amsterdam. I asked him about taking a train or bus to Volendam from Amsterdam and again he promised he would. Again he never did. Most of the stores were closed when we were in Ghent and Brugge due to public holidays so the wee bit of free time was basically useless. He sold us on the idea of going to Germany for a day as we would have several hours to shop and the stores were amazing as he put it. They probably were if they were open. Another big disappointment. He led us down the garden path again. Amsterdam was a bust. We parked the bus, walked 30 minutes to the Red light district, had to grab lunch there then walk back to the bus and again drive 30 minutes to our hotel. So disappointing. We drove to The Hague with very little documention but Roderick wanted to show us the “jewel” of holland. The “jewel” was his house. Really!!! Note this was the only time the bus parked with only a 4 minute walk. This stop was totally unnecessary as we could have spent the time sightseeing this beautiful city. Then there was keukenhof. Roderick built us up the see the beautiful tulip gardens. The tulips were finished. I realize Roderick had no control over this but please be honest with us.
On the flip side we had two nice canal rides, a tour of Luxembourg, a good tour in Brugge and a tour of the windmills. The side trip to Ypres was wonderful.
The tour itself was very disappointing but having a really bad travel director made it worse. I will definitely not reccommend Trafalgar tours to anyone.

Do not travel with this company because they have no Covid protocol. Basically their attitude is ‘don’t make your problem our problem’. I began my tour of Sicily and Italy on 25 April. On day one I was seated behind a young man who coughed constantly. I was seated behind him for five days and on day six I got sick. By day seven we had arrived in Rome and I spent 55 out of our 60 hours in Rome sleeping. I had brought covid test kits with me and I tested positive on day seven. I sent my travel guide my test results and was told to keep them quiet so as not to ‘disturb the mood of the bus’. I spent two days in Rome without any food and no help. After Rome we were off again at a dizzying pace. I was sick, tired and weak with no option to rest and recover. Not only did I miss out all the extra excursions I paid for but I missed out huge chunks of the tour because I was too weak to participate. The reason I was sick was 100% the fault of Trafalgar who allow sick people to join the tour and do nothing to warn or protect any of the other travelers. I was masked from the time I fell ill but other people also fell ill at the same time I did and they did not mask. By the end of the tour at least 60% of the travelers on the bus were sick, all of it being played down by the travel guide calling it a bit of flu, despite knowing very well that it was Covid. Subsequent to the tour I have been in communication with other people from my group all of whom now have Covid. So, if you feel like a dose of Covid, by all means, travel with Trafalgar because once they have your money they couldn’t care less about what happens to you on their tours and you will be unprotected and uncared for by them. All that money wasted on a tour I could hardly participate in because the tour company has no policy to protect their clients. I would like to say a big thank you to our driver Simone who was very kind and helpful to me while I was sick. This was not his job, nor his responsibility but he did it out of human decency, something quite lacking from anyone else at the company.

Will never travel with Trafalgar again. Just got back from the Contrasts of Australia and New Zealand trip that started Apr 11 2024. The Australia portion was great, but when we got to New Zealand they added more people to the tour, many of whom were sick and hacking, coughing, and sneezing. The Tour Director did not mandate or issue effective masks to the sick people (the few who wore a mask wore cloth) and since he insisted on a mandatory seat rotation plan, the sick people just kept moving around the bus exposing everyone. I ended up getting Covid from one or more of them!! Fortunately it happened towards the end of the trip. Thought i was coming down with a cold but tested when I got home and tested positive twice. I’ve notified Trafalgar with no response. Also for solo travelers…don’t count on getting your own seat, Trafalgar will put you with someone else so you are rubbing up against some stranger for 3-9 hours every day on the bus. Priority for single seats will go to overweight people who don’t fit on their half of the seat. When we asked the Tour Director to make sure it was fair and to rotate the singles through the single seats, he wouldn’t. Having said all that, the Australian Tour Director was wonderful and all the hotels were very good!

I booked my Highlights of Australia & NZ in June 2023. A short time before the holiday was due to start, I logged on to the Trafalgar website to check I had entered all my details and saw a pop-up message that said 'your itinerary may have changed'. Yes, it had, but no-one had notified me. If I hadn't logged on, I would have gone on holiday totally unaware that a new stop at Alice Springs had been added, and one of the days at Sydney had been deleted. Totally unacceptable. The American travelers on the tour also had a similar experience, and found that activities they had specifically booked this tour for had been deleted from the program. Apparently Trafalgar review their itineraries and may make changes on 1 April each year. Beware if you have booked your holiday at an earlier time because they won't notify you nor will they let you seek an alternative holiday.

There were good parts of the holiday:
Good hotels, or the best possible in remote locations
Amazing sights
Australia had an excellent tour guide (Tony)

Bad points;
Pretty tiring schedule, too much was packed in, especially for odd activities that not everyone welcomed but had to go on as they were on the way to the next location

I will never book with Trafalgar again. They can't be trusted to deliver the itinerary they promise

We have traveled extensively with Trafalgar. Our last trip, the wonders of Patagonia, was a bust due to getting Covid and being dropped by our tour immediately. We bought trip insurance from Trafalgar and they used Aon Affinity Trip Insurance as their travel insurance provider. We read the contract and expected to have our hotel near the hospital paid and the 2.5 hour taxi ride to airport to get home covered as the Trafalgar tour director said we could not ride the bus to the airport and Trafalgar had made no arrangements for us, We were on our own. We thought Aon would pay for the hotel and taxi, but no, they said they would pay for neither. Trafalgar has made a poor choice in misleading customers that Covid illness is covered in their company sponsored trip insurance. We fault Trafalgar for the poor level of help and dropping us at the end as well as selecting a carrier for insuance that deceivingly excludes taxis as a common carrier. When you are in a very remote area as we were, you have no options. When we were dropped by Trafalgar we has extreme issues with language as no one spoke English and no one took credit cards. Trafalgar needs to revise their Aon Trip Insurance plan to be more customer friendly and support customers in real terms as it is terrible to get sick, but worse to be abandoned so far from home and then return home thinking you will be reimbursed and find out the trip insurance is weaseling out of paying what we consider a valid covered expense. We purchase this insurance in good faith trusting Trafalgar to have a top notch trip insurance carrier. Terrible insurance, terrible support on illness.

Worst on line company I have ever dealt with.
Did not explain things, said look at your flights without explaining that I would have to be staying an extra day with NO FREE Airport shuttle. After I had paid second instalment received 4 emails requesting payment …more concerned with $ than helping. Refused to post documents, even though I ad expressly asked…do NOT book directly, use a travel agent, who will explain, print out documents and HELP:

My wife and I recently returned from Trafalgar's Splendors of Japan with Hiroshima Tour and we were very dissapointed with the quality of the Tour Director, local tour guides and optional excursions/activities. The guides and tour director were extremely inexperienced, they could not elaborate or provide details on site visits, activities, meals, alternative things to do. Please consider hiring and or sub-contracting local vendors with more experience and better communication skills.

We have not commenced our Great European Tour to depart London on 19/5/24 and already have had poor customer service and disappointment. Our travel agent in Australia received an email stating that the hotel in London had changed. Our agent last October tried to reserve a room at The Tower Hotel but it was booked, so booked a room at Lalit within walking distance and non refundable.We now find out the new hotel, Thistle Marble is over 30mins away by taxi. The travel agent and I both requested either a shuttle or taxi to collect us but were rudely declined.

Trafalgar Tours really let us down on our South American trip. Poorly spoken guides, dirty busses , a very dangerous bus ride and a very boring itinerary with very few extras on offer. The Peru portion was great but the Chille, Brazil portion was very poor and the only reason why we enjoyed Argentina was because we had been to Buenos Aires a few times. The guide in Bariloche was seagull and uninspiring. I have done many trips with Trafalgar and Insight and this one was seriously lacking. What was even more disappointing is I wrote in my review all the complaints and no one apologised or adressed the issues hence my review here.

Had a problem with the travel portion of a tour I just booked. I called immediately to cancel literally minutes after I did an online deposit and they refused to refund the deposit which was probably not even processed yet. However, I tried a different number and a nicer person who told me non-refundable, but hold I will check with my manager. The manager did authorize the refund so I did not lose the $400.00.
I thought it was nice of them but it should not have been so difficult and it took me a half hour to accomplish.

i trusted these folks, had a family emergency -took emergency custody of a 9 yr old girl from drug home- tried multiple times to cancel/reschedule trip and in the end i lost trip and ALL money, Thanks Trafalgar for turning a once in a lifetime trip into a nightmare.