Citiesandbeaches Reviews 16

I would not recommend booking with this company.
If you have any issues you will not get a response and they will not help you out.
The positives are holidays that went well. You find out the measure of a company when things go wrong.
In my case they took the money but did not book the holiday.
Travelzoo are aware of the issues and they are not even responding to Travelzoo!
I can only implore you not to book with them.
(Travelzoo have been excellent btw)

It all started with our travel/tour manager, Rahul Bhatia, who was extremely helpful and professional. It was truly a wonderful experience right from the time we landed at Delhi airport to the time we were dropped back at the airport 4 weeks later. The resorts were certainly top notch with excellent service, tasty food, and the amenities were not short of excellence! The transportation provided with the drivers were very friendly and helpful and took care of all our needs. I would very highly recommend anyone to travel with City and Beaches.

Booking 1732.
I recently had a short break in Florence and Venice and booked with cities and beaches. I feel the after sales service was poor as I made a complaint concerning the quality and location of one of the hotels as the bathroom suffered from black mould rusted and damaged bin and overall the decor in the bedroom needed redone as walls had many marks and chips, the corridor walls needed repainted and carpet replaced as there were bleech marks, overall it looked shabby and unkempt. The accommodation was 40 minutes from Venice, the only place in the area to eat and drink was the hotel with a poor selection. I contacted cities and beaches on my return and after many emails they advised that they had contacted the hotel with no response so there was nothing more they could do. Pretty poor response I'm sure you'll agree. I personally will not book through them again.

This is my second holiday with citiesandbeaches former citrus holidays.
I booked my holiday with Rose who really listened to my wishes and put together a fabulous itinerary.
From the start to the end my trip was perfect .
My driver Mr Shreekanth was very safe , charming and wonderfully helpful. Travelling in southern India was a pure please , It is such a stunning part of our world and the people could not be more friendly . I always believe that travelling with an open mind and a willingness to experience a culture different from one’s own is a beautiful way to travel .

A truly wonderful holiday in southern India.. from getting picked up at the airport by our wonderful driver Sree..who took great care of us throughout our trip. He was a very careful driver and we always felt safe.
Our trip was from fort kochin… where we enjoyed a wonderful cooking class with Maria ..took in the local sight with a guide.. then munnar where we stayed in the middle of a tea plantation.. next pepper county where we had a wonderful stay in thekaddy… we went to traditional Indian theatre and Martial arts. Next two nights on a house boat which was incredible.. next to kovalam
Beach in a wonderful hotel. Then for the final part we stayed in poovar in a beautiful hotel. The food has been plentiful and exceptional. The people wonderful.. I would recommend anyone to do these Taylor maid trips.. we did so much it would be impossible to write it all in here. Rose our trip organiser spent a long time putting the Schedule together and it was perfect…

Our first trip to India ,but hopefully not our last , around the state of Kerala. Organised expertly by Rose and executed out extremely professionally by our driver Sreekanth. We spent the first 2 days at fort Kochi ,just a short drive from the airport, where we went sightseeing, dolphin spotting and attending keralan cooking classes with Maria, our city guide was Jude who was excellent.
After Fort Kochi our driver "Sree" took us through the jungle upto Munnar tea plantation, so much to see on the journey all pointed out by Sree. We stopped for 2 nights at Tea harvester heritage hotel in Munnar an exceptional setting in the middle of the plantation brilliant staff and amazing food.
Then back down from the mountains too Thekaddy pepper county homestead,another amazing experience with owner Mr Cyriac at the heart of his own farmstead, again excellent food and service Cyriac looking after us all personally, whist in Thekaddy we visited lake Periyar where we were very fortunate to see wild elephants.
After leaving pepper county Sree drove us to Alleppy backwaters where we boarded our houseboat for a leisurely cruise around the canals and lakes for 2 days with our own crew and personal chef.
Again exceptional service and food.
After the houseboats and so much sightseeing and activities Rose wound down the pace for us and booked is in Kovalam beach , Travancore heritage for 3 nights of chilling beach/pool relaxation all staff here are excellent as to the food and spa treatments. As if all this wasn't enough Rose booked us a further 3 nights at poovar Isolo Di cocco for even more spa treatments and relaxing in a perfectly set spa hotel,again food and staff exceptional as is clearly standard in Kerala.
So much to see and do everyday couldn't fit it in this review, Rose did an amazing job and Sree our driver, who stays with you throughout, knows every pothole and speed ramp in Kerala , nothing is too much for Sree who answers your every whim. Sree deserves a Rolls Royce for his service to professional driving.

Our first trip to India and the state of Kerala has been all we hoped for and more. From start to finish we have wanted for nothing as all our needs were met.. ..a truly life enriching and varied adventure. We have met wonderful people and seen breathtaking scenery..
Our driver Sreekanth really helped to make our trip so successful. He communicated well, was very knowledgeable, had a good sense of humour and he made us feel at ease and safe.
The trip of a lifetime indeed....
Tracy

This was a truly wonderful trip through Southern India, starting at Bangalore & then Mysore where we saw wonderful palaces and temples and our guide Mr Raj was excellent! We loved the flower market in Mysore. Then it was up the mountains to Ooty and a train trip, wonderful gardens etc. Wayanard was fabulous, the jungle experience and numerous treks were memorable. Kochin was a great experience with John our guide telling us the history and then tropical Poovar seeing amazing birds in the Mangroves! The night on the rice boat was sublime! Lots more experiences, too many to list here but all were fantastic!
The hotels were good and most were outstanding so we enjoyed great food and all the beds were really comfortable.
The icing on the cake, however was our wonderful driver, Sri, what can we say? He looked after us so very well, did detours to find cough sweets & made great food suggestions. Nothing was too much trouble! We were very lucky to have had such a great driver!
We highly recommend this Southern India tour; the contrast between the different locations is fantastic. There’s a fair bit of travelling but it’s definitely well worth it!

We booked with Rose from Cities and Beaches, their 10 nights Kenya triip. We have used Cities and Beaches several times, including a trip to Vietnam and several trips to Italy, and have always found Rose extremely helpful and knowledgeable. The Itinery, safari, the accommodation, staff, were all of the highest standard and exceeded all our expectations. Throughout our stay in Kenya Trails of Africa looked after us, all our transfers to and from the airports, and between the various hotels were all seamless and the individual staff were fabulous. We started at the Tamarind Tree Hotel - excellent hotel and worth it's star rating. A special mention for John our guide and driver from Trails of Africa for the safari trip to Mara Simba Lodge and Lake Nakuru Lodge. John was so knowledgeable about the animals and wildlife, and we saw every animal there is to be seen at the nature reserves we visited. We saw the "big five" but so much more. Fantastic. The accommodation, food, everything was first rate. The final relaxing time in Mombasa at the Voyager Beach Resort with great food, staff, and a special mention for Alice who looked after us so well.
We have already recommended this tour to our friends and family and would highly recommend this holiday of our lifetime.

Booked the trip of a lifetime Bangkok, Cambodia, Vietnam along with extra at the start and end in 2020 which got cancelled twice due to COVID and we were probably the customers from hell kept swapping and changing our minds over the two years before we were allowed to trave😂 but credit where it’s due..What can I say, from start to finish everything was brilliant, all the hotels apart from one (one night only so wasn’t fussed; nothing wrong with it, just not up to the standard of the others) the hotels were lovely, all airport meets went smoothly, all the tours were one to one, met on time and well organised, had a couple of glitches along the way which were sorted straight away. The tour guides were informative and went the extra mile and the Halung Bay tour was fabulous, we were upgraded to a 5 star cruise. The whole trip exceeded our expectations after the long wait. Will definitely be using Cities and Beaches again next year for my trip to India and would recommend them to anyone.

Booked through TravelZoo. City and Beeches to go to Naples and Pompeii for my sister's birthday. Totally unprofessional company, numerous mistakes. Airport transport never arrived this was in September and now November and still waiting for the refund which they say is in the system. Do not use

I am only leaving one star because I don't think I can review this company if I give a no stars! I recently tried to book a holiday and found the whole experience really stressful and it left me feeling very uncomfortable too. I spoke to Steve, who quoted me for a holiday to Ischia. I said I would think about the price and he asked me to ring him back on his direct line. I then rang him back and agreed a holiday verbally, he told me he was sending me a link for me to make payment and that I must make it immediately. This was without any email quote, so I did not agree to do this. Why would he expect someone to pay for a holiday in full without seeing any paperwork? He then kept ringing me with an aggressive tone to his voice. So obviously I did not book the holiday. Completely unprofessional and no information was given to me about the hotel or area. All I was offered was just hard sell.

We booked a week at the Hotel Mare Blu in Ischia with Cities and beaches. Sam handled our booking and was as always very professional. This is our third holiday to Italy with the company and we have always stayed in lovely properties and found them excellent value for money.

Used cities and beachhead to book my recent holiday to Alimuri Hotel for a long weekend in May and wasn’t disappointed.

Staff were accommodating, swift and contactable throughout. Highly recommended

Unfortunately I can’t review a holiday from Cities and Beaches because it never happened. But I can write about my experience with the company after it didn’t happen.

We were due to go to Paphos in January on a holiday booked through them. A few days before we were due to fly they contacted us to say that EasyJet had cancelled our flight. I can’t blame C&B for that. It’s what EasyJet seem to do nowadays. We were offered flights on other days and from other airports, but our schedule was too inflexible. So we decided to cancel and it never happened.

C&B offered us vouchers to use against other holidays which they had on offer, but we preferred to exercise our right of a full refund.

Almost six months have now passed and no refund has been forthcoming. I have been patient as I have no wish to harm the company’s ‘cash flow’, but I now feel that we are being taken for a ride. We will need to exercise any protection which ATOL, ABTA or whoever can provide, but the process is not very transparent.

C&B do not respond to my emails.

I will certainly not be using their services again.

We booked via Travelzoo, a short holiday in Italy. The company offering the deal was Cities & Beaches, who in turn booked their flights with EasyJet.
The hotel was advertised as fully operational, but this was not exactly true. The pool was empty and only just being cleaned and filled, the children’s pool was empty and the outdoor jacuzzis were covered and full of dead leaves. Neither was the Spa open. However, we accepted we were very much on a ‘budget’ holiday and weren’t that concerned over the closed facilities, the hotel more than made up for it with comfort, service and all inclusive food and drinks.
The main failing by Cities & Beaches Company was when our return flight was cancelled at 5pm - 1 hour before we were due to leave for the airport. After many texts, emails, they assured us they had booked us on another flight departing the next day and that they had also booked us a hotel in Naples close to the airport. When we arrived to check in for our original departure time, as we were advised to do, EasyJet knew nothing of these bookings.
We were in a group of other customers all trying to secure seats on flights leaving the following day as we were too late to get on any others that evening. We then had to negotiate with the EasyJet staff to get us booked into hotels. Cities & Beaches had openly
lied to us about the flight and hotel bookings, they left us to the mercy of the bewildered and overworked EasyJet staff who were dealing with the whole last minute flight cancellations fiasco.
Most of us got home a day late landing at either Gatwick or Luton and not our original departure airport of Bristol, so we then had to make our own way back to collect our cars and onwards home.