Cosmos Tour Reviews
The 1853 Cosmos Tour reviews listed below are from past clients of Global Journeys that have travelled with Cosmos. Each review has been individually verified by our team.
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Breathtaking experience of the National Parks with an unbelievable tour director, Steve Osten, who has a wealth of experience and knowledge of the National Parks and driver Gerry Rodriguez, who was a safe, experienced driver who took meticulous care of his bus!!! Both were exceptional!! I would take a tour with these guys anywhere!!!!!
I really enjoyed seeing so much of France until I became ill and had to leave tour. The countryside was so pretty and we saw so many interesting sites. It was nice to go out independently and sample local meals at restaurants or at patissieries etc. I met so many nice people on the tour and I missed them all when I had to end tour early. Only real ...read more complaint besides one not very good included meal was it got a bit hectic at times though there was time to rest on coach or at the hotel. Also I was prone to getting lost but once I got local SIM card I had Google maps which helped. I have a lot of great memories of the tour.
Our 5th European trip and our last bucket list in the European continent after traveling to the other parts of Europe and once again Cosmos delivered, You get what you pay for and I can't complain about the quality of the hotels, etc. We went late September and it was a bit cold and raining sometimes but it did not stop us from enjoying on what Cosmos ...read more offered on their tour, You will spend more days in Norway as you will visit a lot of sites and driving in mountainous winding roads with breathtaking views of the mountains, fjords, and lakes plus short cruising. You will see most of the highlights in Copenhagen, Denmark and our favorite Scandinavian city is Stockholm, Sweden, very European with lots of museums with free entrance. 41 in our group with mostly Americans, some Canadians, Indians, and Australians. I always booked with Global Journeys because they are top notch, best price and Professional service from start to finish.
Our coach tour took us from New York to Los Angeles over 24 days. It was such a wonderful tour, filled with fabulous sights in the national parks and cities that we visited. It was a full-on 24 days, with lots of travel most days but Cap, our tour director, gave us very informative running commentaries and showed interesting/fun movies or documentaries ...read more as we travelled. We were a small group of 22 including Captain and the driver which I personally enjoyed - easier to get to know a great group of people.
Highlights for us were obviously the national parks, especially Yellowstone but also the wonderful surprises of Zion and Bryce - fantastic! We also were enjoyed the cities, the colourful, exciting, slightly frenetic New York, the surprisingly pleasant Chicago, what a great city with the beautiful Lake Michigan, great museums and lots of excellent buskers in the evenings on every street corners.
The hotels we stayed in were generally exceptionally good, in excellent locations with good facilities. Even the log cabin on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon was a very pleasant surprise, with a fresh coffee machine and chocolates on arrival, and so close to the most fantastic view. Next time I would definitely take a small portable kettle or immersion element (as a couple of people on our tour did, and easy to buy from Walmart or similar). Some hotels had no coffee machine so it's an excellent time and money saver making your own. Also, if you, like me, like a good well-brewed cup of tea, your own kettle is essential!
All in all, we loved the tour, saw so much, covered such a lot of the United States and saw such fantastic sights. And finally Tracey, our travel agent at Global Journeys, was very helpful, answered every query immediately and generally smoothed the path for us.
Highlights for us were obviously the national parks, especially Yellowstone but also the wonderful surprises of Zion and Bryce - fantastic! We also were enjoyed the cities, the colourful, exciting, slightly frenetic New York, the surprisingly pleasant Chicago, what a great city with the beautiful Lake Michigan, great museums and lots of excellent buskers in the evenings on every street corners.
The hotels we stayed in were generally exceptionally good, in excellent locations with good facilities. Even the log cabin on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon was a very pleasant surprise, with a fresh coffee machine and chocolates on arrival, and so close to the most fantastic view. Next time I would definitely take a small portable kettle or immersion element (as a couple of people on our tour did, and easy to buy from Walmart or similar). Some hotels had no coffee machine so it's an excellent time and money saver making your own. Also, if you, like me, like a good well-brewed cup of tea, your own kettle is essential!
All in all, we loved the tour, saw so much, covered such a lot of the United States and saw such fantastic sights. And finally Tracey, our travel agent at Global Journeys, was very helpful, answered every query immediately and generally smoothed the path for us.
14 Day Cosmos Tour with 7 Day Cruise Inner Passage Alaska 2 Stephen & Lisa, VIC, Australia, Sep 2022
Very excited to fly from Melbourne to Sydney to catch an Air Canada flight to Vancouver. What a disappointment Air Canada is. The plane was a Dreamliner, that could not have been more uncomfortable if they tried. Served a hot meal within an hour of take off. An alcoholic drink was offered straight after. We were required to ask a hostess for a drink ...read more after nearly 6 hours of nothing on offer, which was given begrudgingly. Finally we arrived in Vancouver, where we caught the train to Davie Street to our hotel - Sandman Suites on Davie. An old building in the centre of the Gay Centre of Vancouver. A sex shop across the road, and a gay bar a few doors up. We met our tour director, Heather in the foyer. Next day we commenced our 14 day journey stopping at places like Kelowna, Banff, Jasper, Sun Peaks, Whistler and Victoria. One stop had no public toilet/washroom, but we could pay $12 Canadian dollars to use the toilets in a museum. No amount of requests from the tour director would convince the proprietor to allow us entry, but agreed we could use them for only $6.00.
Unfortunately, we were given no breakfast meals for the 14 days. This meant having to walk often distances in excess of 2 km each way to get some food in for breakfast the next day. Other bus tours cancelled going to Jasper due to a major fire causing smoke and breathing difficulties for the people of Jasper. We continued and stayed in a hotel with such features as no power except with a generator on half power, meaning no television, no air conditioning, and no internet. Shops were at a distance, so far to walk older passengers couldn't do it, and no other means of transport to get there. We regularly had to wait to our first stop to purchase breakfast and coffee.
Be prepared to pay gratuities for everything, starting at 15% up to 25% then add the tax paid on most things, particularly alcohol, this can add quite a bit to any bill, then add any fees for converting Canadian/American dollar to Australian. A $440 dollar bill ended up paying over $600.
Finally we arrived back at Vancouver Canada place where we were to embark on our ship, Holland American Lines Koningsdam. This would have been the best example of poor organisation ever. We have cruised from both Sydney and Melbourne with no bother boarding within 30 minutes. Embarkation took 2 1/2 hours of lining up and being herded like sheep. The whole episode was farcical.
We paid over $1800 extra on the price of the cruise to be upgraded to a porthole. Imagine our surprise to find the Aussie in the room next to us who paid less than us minus the upgrade to get a porthole, or the couple who $600 extra on the price of the cabin to get a balcony. I enquired with the ship purser who advised that this was something arranged through the travel agent who could have arranged this with other packages such as a drink package, an Internet package or a free upgrade. The internet was available to all for ONLY $29.99 for a day, or $140 for the week.
Our first port was Juneau, this consisted of 3 separate shops, a jewellery shop, a souvenir shop or a clothing shop. Throw in one or two other shops, it was hardly worth leaving the ship for. Second port was Skagway, a pleasant shopping street with many variety of shops. The White Pass and Yukon Route train is well worth the trip for 3 hours. The scenery is unbelievable. The third port was Ketchikan, a pretty town with many interesting tours available. Overall the cruise was enjoyable and the views are breath taking, unfortunately the cruise was the second last for the season and as such many items such as fruit juice was unavailable , or certain wines due to no restocking.
We arrived back in Vancouver for our return flight to Sydney. After putting our suitcases thru, the man from Air Canada stated the seat allocation would occur 4 hours prior to the flight at the gate. We waited at the gate for someone from Air Canada to arrive at the given time, but unfortunately they didn't show for a further 4 hours. I approached the representative from Air Canada, and advised him that we were checked in but had no seat allocation. He informed me that it was highly unlikely we would get a seat as the plane was over booked and required people to offer to catch a later flight the next day. I advised him we also had a connecting flight in Sydney. He said he would try to get us on board but we would be sitting separately. Eventually we were allocated seats together and boarded. Due to nobody checking the carry on luggage there was insufficient room for all the bags so this caused further dramas and delays. After this was finally sorted, we left Vancouver nearly an hour late, which caused a chain reaction for the numerous passengers with connecting flights.
On arrival in Sydney alternative flights had to be arranged by Air Canada, including ours. We flew out an hour and a half later than our original flights. An adventurous 3 weeks with many ups, but just as many downs. Sights were unbelievable and make it worth the money.
Unfortunately, we were given no breakfast meals for the 14 days. This meant having to walk often distances in excess of 2 km each way to get some food in for breakfast the next day. Other bus tours cancelled going to Jasper due to a major fire causing smoke and breathing difficulties for the people of Jasper. We continued and stayed in a hotel with such features as no power except with a generator on half power, meaning no television, no air conditioning, and no internet. Shops were at a distance, so far to walk older passengers couldn't do it, and no other means of transport to get there. We regularly had to wait to our first stop to purchase breakfast and coffee.
Be prepared to pay gratuities for everything, starting at 15% up to 25% then add the tax paid on most things, particularly alcohol, this can add quite a bit to any bill, then add any fees for converting Canadian/American dollar to Australian. A $440 dollar bill ended up paying over $600.
Finally we arrived back at Vancouver Canada place where we were to embark on our ship, Holland American Lines Koningsdam. This would have been the best example of poor organisation ever. We have cruised from both Sydney and Melbourne with no bother boarding within 30 minutes. Embarkation took 2 1/2 hours of lining up and being herded like sheep. The whole episode was farcical.
We paid over $1800 extra on the price of the cruise to be upgraded to a porthole. Imagine our surprise to find the Aussie in the room next to us who paid less than us minus the upgrade to get a porthole, or the couple who $600 extra on the price of the cabin to get a balcony. I enquired with the ship purser who advised that this was something arranged through the travel agent who could have arranged this with other packages such as a drink package, an Internet package or a free upgrade. The internet was available to all for ONLY $29.99 for a day, or $140 for the week.
Our first port was Juneau, this consisted of 3 separate shops, a jewellery shop, a souvenir shop or a clothing shop. Throw in one or two other shops, it was hardly worth leaving the ship for. Second port was Skagway, a pleasant shopping street with many variety of shops. The White Pass and Yukon Route train is well worth the trip for 3 hours. The scenery is unbelievable. The third port was Ketchikan, a pretty town with many interesting tours available. Overall the cruise was enjoyable and the views are breath taking, unfortunately the cruise was the second last for the season and as such many items such as fruit juice was unavailable , or certain wines due to no restocking.
We arrived back in Vancouver for our return flight to Sydney. After putting our suitcases thru, the man from Air Canada stated the seat allocation would occur 4 hours prior to the flight at the gate. We waited at the gate for someone from Air Canada to arrive at the given time, but unfortunately they didn't show for a further 4 hours. I approached the representative from Air Canada, and advised him that we were checked in but had no seat allocation. He informed me that it was highly unlikely we would get a seat as the plane was over booked and required people to offer to catch a later flight the next day. I advised him we also had a connecting flight in Sydney. He said he would try to get us on board but we would be sitting separately. Eventually we were allocated seats together and boarded. Due to nobody checking the carry on luggage there was insufficient room for all the bags so this caused further dramas and delays. After this was finally sorted, we left Vancouver nearly an hour late, which caused a chain reaction for the numerous passengers with connecting flights.
On arrival in Sydney alternative flights had to be arranged by Air Canada, including ours. We flew out an hour and a half later than our original flights. An adventurous 3 weeks with many ups, but just as many downs. Sights were unbelievable and make it worth the money.
We enjoyed the cruise as we did not have to repack our case each day 1 Charlie & Joy, VIC, Australia, Sep 2022
It was a very friendly group and most helpful to me. The early starts were hard for Joy & I. The Ice Glacier was interesting.
Loved this Ireland tour and thanks to Georgie of Global Journeys for her wonderful service 1 Rhonda & Trevor, VIC, Australia, Aug 2022
Loved this Ireland tour and thanks to Georgie of Global Journeys for her wonderful service. The weather in late August was ideal and we loved the visit to the both the South and North of Ireland especially Giants Causeway, Cliffs of Moher and Belfast-great itinerary offered by Cosmos.
The bus trip was wonderful but on my previous two Cosmos trips breakfast was included. This time it was not and leaving so early some mornings it was difficult to get anything. The Alaskan Cruise was INCREDIBLE and the Zuiderdam a great ship. However, flying Air Canada was a nightmare and no communication via email or at the airport. I will never go ...read more Cosmos again if I have to fly Air Canada.
We have recently returned from the Cosmos British Isles in Depth Tour. This was our 4th Cosmos trip and will definitely not be our last. Our Tour Director was well organised and very informative, coach drivers were competent and careful. We felt safe even when travelling on narrow country roads and lanes. Our tour group was great and many new friendships ...read more were forged.
Accommodation was comfortable, well appointed and usually centrally located. Included and optional excursions were varied and enjoyable. With so many towns, cities, places of interest and historic sites to visit this is a "busy" tour that does require some early starts. These early starts mean that you often beat the crowds at the more popular attractions...definitely an advantage. Free time is sometimes limited due to distances to travel, but we have made a list of places that we would like to revisit in the future.
We thoroughly enjoyed the entire trip and would recommend it. The scenery is stunning, the history amazing! Booking through Global Journeys was seamless and our consultant, Georgie, was efficient and always available to answer our questions.
Accommodation was comfortable, well appointed and usually centrally located. Included and optional excursions were varied and enjoyable. With so many towns, cities, places of interest and historic sites to visit this is a "busy" tour that does require some early starts. These early starts mean that you often beat the crowds at the more popular attractions...definitely an advantage. Free time is sometimes limited due to distances to travel, but we have made a list of places that we would like to revisit in the future.
We thoroughly enjoyed the entire trip and would recommend it. The scenery is stunning, the history amazing! Booking through Global Journeys was seamless and our consultant, Georgie, was efficient and always available to answer our questions.
Tour guide Brad was amazing and gave us a lot of information about all the places we went. Brad often tells funny jokes too to make the coach tour more interesting. Places we've been are absolutely amazing! Loooved Banff, Lake Louise and the icefield walk- it is truly amazing how beautiful the nature is. Be able to travel again after COVID is just a ...read more blessing.
We had a fantastic trip. Our tour Director John and coach Driver Russell were true professionals. Nothing was too difficult for them to answer or do for us. They were also very tolerant of some of our more “demanding” fellow passengers. We were very happy with the support you, Tracy, provided to us for the booking of the trip and we will not hesitate ...read more to book a trip through you if one we are interested in comes up.
We both loved our holiday the trip was what it said so many highlights the city tour round New York by Eddie was amazing he was so knowledgeable and so emotional about his city, the tour guide around Washington was the same. Our tour guide John let us know what to do when to do and how to do again he had heaps of knowledge there is a lot of time spent ...read more in the bus but saying that we Diego fro one side to the other (39760 miles) seen more of American than some Americans. All the hotels were great even the little cabin at Yellowstone park. Would I travel cosmos again, hell yes, you get what they advertise and more.
Great tour provided by Cosmos with informative tour director and excellent driver. Great included sights as well as optional inclusions.
We had a good trip with Cosmos. The Rockys are very picturesque. The hotels were good, comfy beds. Be prepared for early morning departures and fairly long days. It was good that some of the sightseeing was included.
On behalf of my wife and I, this is a review for a 15 day Cosmos motor coach tour of USA National Parks, from Las Vegas, that we recently experienced. We were blessed with wonderful blue skies every day which made great contrast for good photos with the many beautiful coloured rock formations and canyons we visited. The many National Parks we saw were ...read more all different which added to the experience, Mother Nature at her finest, just awesome. My highlight was the Bryce Canyon, even outdoing Grand Canyon. Another highlight was Yellowstone National Park and because of the ample time allowed by our Tour Director of over 2 hours, we experienced 2 eruptions of ' Old Faithful ' Geyser.
Our Tour Director, Matt Ojile, was extremely professional in every way. Nothing was too much trouble, his commentary was very entertaining and we learnt much about the history and geology of where we visited. Matt was backed up by our very safe driver, Ricardo. We did over 3,400 miles for the whole journey. The rest stops every 2 hours or so, were well accepted. The overnight accommodation was good but a few didn't have coffee making facilities or fridge, otherwise, very comfortable. We also had no problems with Covid. Would certainly use Global Journeys and Cosmos again in the future.
Our Tour Director, Matt Ojile, was extremely professional in every way. Nothing was too much trouble, his commentary was very entertaining and we learnt much about the history and geology of where we visited. Matt was backed up by our very safe driver, Ricardo. We did over 3,400 miles for the whole journey. The rest stops every 2 hours or so, were well accepted. The overnight accommodation was good but a few didn't have coffee making facilities or fridge, otherwise, very comfortable. We also had no problems with Covid. Would certainly use Global Journeys and Cosmos again in the future.
The tour started and finished at the Novotel Hotel in Hammersmith - very good hotel, as were all of our hotels - well placed for access to the London Underground - very good breakfasts. The circumstances of our tour were unusual in that this was one of Cosmos' first tours after the pandemic, and our tour numbers were deliberately limited to 21. We still ...read more had a full-sized (brand new Cosmos bus, and we really enjoyed the extra space.
There were so many highlights of our trip. We were thrilled by the freshness of the Spring countryside in all countries visited (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and Wales. Places that really appealed included Oxford, Stratford, York, Edinburgh,, the Scottish Highands, Loch Ness (cruise), Glen Coe, Belfast, Giants Causeway, Londonderry (Derry), Cliffs of Moher, Dingle Peninsula, Killarney, Ring of Kerry, Tranmore, Kilkenny, Dublin, Liverpool (Beatles), Cardiff, and Plymouth.
We especially enjoyed the 2-night stays, and there were quite a few, with additional activities usually added on these occasions.
Our tour director, Peter, and driver, Kevin, were excellent, friendly, and knowledgeable. We really appreciated Kevin's careful driving, especially on some very narrow roads - also appreciated not doing the driving myself and therefore being able to take lots more pictures. Fine weather prevailed, and this was a special bonus! We also enjoyed our travelling companions.
We enjoyed travelling with Cosmos very much, and would certainly travel with them again!
There were so many highlights of our trip. We were thrilled by the freshness of the Spring countryside in all countries visited (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and Wales. Places that really appealed included Oxford, Stratford, York, Edinburgh,, the Scottish Highands, Loch Ness (cruise), Glen Coe, Belfast, Giants Causeway, Londonderry (Derry), Cliffs of Moher, Dingle Peninsula, Killarney, Ring of Kerry, Tranmore, Kilkenny, Dublin, Liverpool (Beatles), Cardiff, and Plymouth.
We especially enjoyed the 2-night stays, and there were quite a few, with additional activities usually added on these occasions.
Our tour director, Peter, and driver, Kevin, were excellent, friendly, and knowledgeable. We really appreciated Kevin's careful driving, especially on some very narrow roads - also appreciated not doing the driving myself and therefore being able to take lots more pictures. Fine weather prevailed, and this was a special bonus! We also enjoyed our travelling companions.
We enjoyed travelling with Cosmos very much, and would certainly travel with them again!
Everything went well. Thanks to Georgie we were still able to have our holiday in April as our original Globus tour of Spain, Portugal & Morocco was cancelled 1 month prior to us leaving. This was due to no ferries running between Spain and Morocco (not Covid related but due to political tensions between the 2 countries). Ferries are now running. Due ...read more to work commitments we still wanted to travel at a similar time. We managed to re-book to this tour and we received our Globus refund within a week which was excellent. Georgie did mention that Globus are good with refunds (something I will take into consideration for future tours).
This is a busy tour, we travelled 2,000km and saw a lot of Morocco. There were only 12 of us on the tour and we were the only Australians. Excellent Tour Director: Paulina from Spain and very safe driver Mohammed. Very windy roads through the mountains and some roads not in a great condition.
The 4 optionals were all very good though if you didn't do the extra camel ride on the sand dunes it's probably not worth doing the desert trip from Erfoud. It would be extremely difficult to visit the Fez medina without a guide. The 2 included dinners were very good.
Hotels were ok and you need to balance quality against the price of this tour. Most included meals were ok, sometimes breakfast was fairly basic. No hotels had tea/coffee making facilities, fortunately we'd packed our travel kettle and a supply of tea bags. My favourite hotel was in Erfoud, it felt like you'd stepped back in time.
Weather was excellent, blue sky and sunshine and quite hot - up to 33C. The heat is very dry away from the coast. You do a fair bit of walking on this tour and at times on uneven ground. You do get hounded by vendors but nothing that you don't experience in other parts of the world. Moroccans were friendly and helpful and wanted us to tell people to visit Morocco.
This is a busy tour, we travelled 2,000km and saw a lot of Morocco. There were only 12 of us on the tour and we were the only Australians. Excellent Tour Director: Paulina from Spain and very safe driver Mohammed. Very windy roads through the mountains and some roads not in a great condition.
The 4 optionals were all very good though if you didn't do the extra camel ride on the sand dunes it's probably not worth doing the desert trip from Erfoud. It would be extremely difficult to visit the Fez medina without a guide. The 2 included dinners were very good.
Hotels were ok and you need to balance quality against the price of this tour. Most included meals were ok, sometimes breakfast was fairly basic. No hotels had tea/coffee making facilities, fortunately we'd packed our travel kettle and a supply of tea bags. My favourite hotel was in Erfoud, it felt like you'd stepped back in time.
Weather was excellent, blue sky and sunshine and quite hot - up to 33C. The heat is very dry away from the coast. You do a fair bit of walking on this tour and at times on uneven ground. You do get hounded by vendors but nothing that you don't experience in other parts of the world. Moroccans were friendly and helpful and wanted us to tell people to visit Morocco.
As usual we found this Cosmos tour excellent value for money. Our tour leader Viet was knowledgeable and made the tour easy and stress free. We were amazed at the little cultural extras that were arranged for the group that weren't on the itinerary. Highlights for us were the Ha Long Bay cruise, the Dragon Bridge at Da Nang and the fabulous food. A ...read more chance drop in to a Vietnamese wedding was an unexpected delight and was apparently culturally acceptable and gave the bride and groom good luck. We learnt a lot about the Vietnamese people and culture from Viet. He went out of his way to make the holiday fun and enjoyable. Booking with Global Journeys was easy even though we were a late booking. Overall this tour is highly recommended.
Tour leader and bus driver were exceptional, very helpful, informative, friendly, and professional. Tour bus was also very comfortable. The only downside was the Wifi was very slow, almost unusable. It would be more enjoyable to have proper Wifi in place. The first two days in London could have been improved by organising an excursion so that everyone ...read more could get to know each other from day one. We were unaware there was no program from Cosmos in London and struggled a bit with what to do at the time. The bus which took us from Novotel London West to catch the Euro train station was in fairly bad shape and broke down just as we were about to depart the hotel. We could not be impressed.
We had a wonderful tour, Anna the tour director was wonderful and knowledgeable. Nothing was too much trouble for her or the company. Saw many new sights and adventures this trip. Would definitely travel with Globus again. Thanks for a wonderful, memorable experience.
