Inspiring Vacations Reviews 

The tour was well organised. We experienced an extensive trip through 3 islands & were introduced to not only the language but to a variety of cultural experiences. Accommodation was great & the tour guide Keiji was exceptional! Thank you Inspiring Vacations. This was my 3rd tour with this company & I have booked a 4th for 2027.

As a 82 year old, first time solo traveller I cannot fault the 13 day Inspired Sri Lanka Solo trip I have just completed. From the start I had reassurance that I was to be accompanied at all times, including my big worry of being picked up at the airport. Our guide, Khancana had so much information to share, from history, practices, products and every day life. A special experience with some challenges, physically, for some one with short legs and a bit of a breathing problem with heights....Horton Plains really tested me and I would not have been able to achieve this without such caring help from both the guide and one fellow tourist. New friends, Great experiences, More insight into many sujects.

Entry into my last voyage.
From the advert in the west australian to my first
conversation with Kate, I knew this was going to be
the voyage to Japan I had been waiting for.
A complete tour from top to bottom, with time each day to stop and see the place, taste the food &
meet the People.
My experience with the staff was jovial & informative,
& although I am well in my eighties I was able to
manage the computer requirements without the assistance of my grandies.
This may well be my last voyage, to which I am looking
Forward to with great anticipation, roll on Nov 2026.
Laurie H

the

We just came back from our "25 Day Inspiring South America with Santiago Small Group Tour".
During the tour, we found there was a big price discrepancy for the optional tour - Tango Dinner Show. We paid AUD 264 per personx2=AUD 528 before the trip; while some other people who didn't book/paid the show in advance were offered USD 95 per person for the same show. According to the exchange rate USD 95= AUD 132.18, while we paid AUD 264 per person, about DOUBLE the actual price. The difference for 2 persons we paid is about AUD 264 more. We noticed we paid more for the other optional tours as well, however they seemed not as much difference as this one. We contacted Inspiring Vacations after the trip and the Customer Success Specialist refused to do anything about the extreme high price of the Tango Show.
Your reply sounded pathetic. You don't think you have any responsibility for that? The travellers like us put all our trust on you believing you did your due diligence on selecting the proper supplier, not the supplier that rips-off customers. You have local contacts so you should know the market. Even if you go to the website, you would find the approximate price, you would know double price didn't seem right, no matter what. Stop blaming others!

We have just finished the Wonders of Turkey with Gulet Tour and I can't speak higher of the holiday. Our tour guide Celal Ceylan (Jay) was amazing, so knowledgeable and passionate about his country! He tried hard to teach us some of his language even though we weren't very good learners and our driver Mr Harkan has to be the best driver in Turkey, he was so good at finding the best spots to drop us close to the attractions and always there to pick us top when we had finished, we felt extremely safe with him. Our only issue for the whole trip was the transfer from the airport to hotel which we had booked and paid for didn't wait for us.

We booked our Africa tour back in September 2025. We knew that we were staying on after and told Inspiring Vacation that was what we are doing. So we had 2 options get a refund for airfares and book our own or extend our flight back with a week. And they were going to come back to us with the options before they booked....Sigh , I just came back from 30 days in South America with them, which was a good trip with some hickups. Lo and behold I check our African trip and the flights are booked so now thy can only offer us a credit (which amount to $5600 for 2) and the other options you have to fill in paperwork for. Its totally frustrating, I understand a company has to grow but now we also have to deal with a call centre overseas, double frustrations. Obviously we like to book our flights sooner rather than later. Just watch out for this when you book if you have any slight variations they very set.

Great communication and value for money. This is the second time we've booked with them and it probably won't be the last.

easy to follow emails, good backup specialist internet consultants. well priced tours. pretty much complete

Great trip at a good discount but inflexible payment options. Have to pay in full 18 months before the trip

Our tour guide John was amazing. He went above & beyond for us. Nothing was a problem. He was very knowledgeable & very informative. Our accommodation was excellent & our bus was air-conditioned &very comfortable.

Our tour guide John Lee was truly an amazing person. The knowledge and his ability to explain all areas of our tour for 5 days was so inspirational that i would recommend this tour of south Korea to all travellers...thank you John....

South Korea is a wonderful country which exceeded our expectations. Incredible scenery, natural beauty and deep cultural experiences abounded over the 13 days we visited. Highly recommend you see it too.

Easy to navigate website. Friendly staff on the phone

Yep, easy to navigate the booking process. email correspondence very quick and helpful.

It was a wonderful and enjoyable experience and will remember it for a very long time.

Justin was informative, energetic and demonstrated a real passion for his country and care for his customers.

However, more work is required to improve safety. On one occasion on the first day, the bus swerved violently. I reported this to Justin who later announced that it was due to the condition of the road. I then told Justin to instruct the driver to drive to conditions.

I noticed when sitting at the front of the bus that we were travelling faster than the speed limit at various times and have a photo of the speedometer above 100km/hr.

The driver was always polite and helpful but needs a firm reminder to travel safely at all times.

I am writing this review prior to my trip due to an incredibly frustrating experience with Inspiring Vacations' flight booking portal and customer service. Immediately after booking, I noticed the flights loaded into my portal did not match what I selected; they included much longer layovers. I called within 10 minutes to fix this, but my experience over the next two days consisted of broken promises and missed call-backs:
Day 0, 9:35 pm: Told the flight specialist wasn’t in yet. Arranged a call-back for 10:35 am the next day due to my work commitments. The call never came.
Day 1, 10:50 am: I called them. I was assured a specialist would call within the hour, and the agent promised to follow up personally in 1.5 hours. No one called.
Day 1, 1:50 pm: I called again and waited on hold for 25 minutes. Despite warning them I had to return to work, I was left on hold and had to hang up.
Day 1, 4:00 pm: I called back and waited on hold for 46 minutes. I was finally told my tickets were already issued at 1:31 pm—well after my repeated attempts to reach them—and I would now have to pay a change fee. The specialist promised a change quote by the end of the day. It never arrived.
Day 2, 3:15 pm: Having received no email, I called again and waited on hold for another 45 minutes. The new specialist pushed the timeline out further, promising the quote in 24 to 48 hours. The problem is still unresolved. I am now stuck waiting to see how much they intend to charge me for an error that could have easily been fixed if their team had followed through on any of their promised call-backs. The lack of communication and accountability is completely unacceptable.

The tour guide (Justin) is very helpful on the travelers wellbeing & concerns. He provided detailed historical information to places we visited. He is enthusiastic on his jobs and made it more relaxing by cracking jokes. The driver is awesome as well. He drove through the mountains with ease & able to foresee and prevent road accidents. It’s really an “inspiring” tour. 😊

Overall good 3-4 stars but room for improvement. No welcome meeting. Suncheon Film Set was terrible, maps of some locations would have been helpful eg Busan. Food choices very limited on some days which showed some lack of advanced planning around holidays. Inspiring vacations was inconsistent in pre nights accom and transfers. I wanted to book but was told this tour didn’t qualify yet another person on our tour was able to get this. IV website was also frustrating to use if you were flying in under your own arrangements. I had to make a number of calls in the booking process to get IV to fill the things in on the website

Justin for South Korea was very thorough in his explanations with each attraction and helped to make the trip fun and exciting.
All the hotel locations were excellent.
Overall, very good experience.
The playing of the two movies was a nice added feature along with the travel booklet
Possibly, a few settlement attractions could be moved through a little more slowly so as to enjoy the attraction more thoroughly. Thank you!

The tour guide and bus driver were excellent.
However the company could have organised a meet and greet on the arrival night to the hotels and name tags to the whole group so that people get to know each other initially.
A few more nature tours could be included in the itinerary as well
Also other tour companies use a numbering system on the seats in the bus so that people move around more
I feel also that an air port pick up two days before especially if you are staying in the same hotel should be included as well .. other companies do this
Inspirational tours are difficult to contact once they have your money . A person of reference should be easily contactable
I will not recommend this company to any of my friends
Also a itinerary should be sent to all parties who are travelling and paid or easy access to it
Kind regards
Anne Swanson