Insight Vacations Reviews
The 608 Insight Vacations reviews listed below are from past clients of Global Journeys that have travelled with Insight Vacations. Each review has been individually verified by our team.
The 608 Insight Vacations reviews listed below are from past clients of Global Journeys that have travelled with Insight Vacations. Each review has been individually verified by our team.
A day early in Berlin helps relax before the tour. Most significant tours/events are 'optional' at a price which can significantly add to the tour cost. An extra post-tour day in Warsaw helps recovery from the tour.
Another great Insight tour. Highly recommended. 5
Country Roads of Switzerland
The Wards, NSW, Australia, Jun 2015
Vinchenzo our wonderful tour guide made the trip, beautiful scenery, good travelling companions. Another great Insight tour. Highly recommended. Yvonne from Global Journeys made the whole process very easy.
This tour was fabulous. Fairly fast paced but with ages from 12-70 on our tour everyone kept up easily. It really is a good 'taster' tour (which is all you can ask of a 17 day tour which takes in 5 countries) of each country and will give you a general experience of each country. You can never have enough 'free time' but given this tour packs in so read more much to see the amount of 'free time' provided was more than sufficient for all ages. The options were well thought out, very good value for money and you were never pressured into undertaking them. Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable in both history and interesting tit bits about each place (very humourous at times) - his commentary was never boring and was structured to appeal to all ages / interests. He also was flexible when it came to the daily schedule, happy to re-assess and re-organise to suit the group but still managing to see all the sights as per the original tour itinerary.
During our tour we experienced a heat wave affecting most of the countries so our daily temp was between 34-41 most days. Which in some places was extremely out of the ordinary (ie no air conditioning in the hotel rooms). Phillip (tour guide) for example shuffled our tour activities each day to keep us out of the heat so that we could still enjoy each experience. Adding many 'flourishes' (special treats) of gelato, drinks, extra stops etc to keep us going. Some places we spent less time at, others more, depending on the heat and this was always only at the agreeance of all the group. The hotels we stayed at were all good - some maybe not up to Australian 4 star level, but had everything you would need for a 2 night stay. Our tour guide was always happy to arrange a change of room if necessary. But mostly they were excellent and definitely central in all places stayed. All sights in walking distance from the hotels. The days were seamlessly organised, nothing was ever a problem, our driver was excellent and safe and the bus always immaculate with more than ample seating and leg room. To sum it up - a well thought out and planned 17 day 'taster' tour of the main countries of Europe. Would highly recommend to all ages. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)
During our tour we experienced a heat wave affecting most of the countries so our daily temp was between 34-41 most days. Which in some places was extremely out of the ordinary (ie no air conditioning in the hotel rooms). Phillip (tour guide) for example shuffled our tour activities each day to keep us out of the heat so that we could still enjoy each experience. Adding many 'flourishes' (special treats) of gelato, drinks, extra stops etc to keep us going. Some places we spent less time at, others more, depending on the heat and this was always only at the agreeance of all the group. The hotels we stayed at were all good - some maybe not up to Australian 4 star level, but had everything you would need for a 2 night stay. Our tour guide was always happy to arrange a change of room if necessary. But mostly they were excellent and definitely central in all places stayed. All sights in walking distance from the hotels. The days were seamlessly organised, nothing was ever a problem, our driver was excellent and safe and the bus always immaculate with more than ample seating and leg room. To sum it up - a well thought out and planned 17 day 'taster' tour of the main countries of Europe. Would highly recommend to all ages. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)
Insight coach was very comfortable with great leg room 3
Best of Spain & Portugal
D Collins, QLD, Australia, Jun 2015
Wonderful trip. Insight coach was very comfortable with great leg room. Excellent courteous driver and vivacious tour guide who made sure that the tour went smoothly. The 'flourishes' that Insight provides were terrific and unexpected. Optional trips were quite good value however more time in some places would be appreciated e.g. Toledo. Thank you read more Georgie for your assistance! You were wonderful.
Very well organised and directed 1
Britain & Ireland Discovery
John Coelho, VIC, Australia, Jun 2015
Excellent tour, very well organised and directed. Very good experience with Emily from Global Journeys - completely conducted on the internet - very professional.
Thoroughly enjoyed this tour 1
Spectacular Scandinavia & its Fjords
Denise, QLD, Australia, Jun 2015
I thoroughly enjoyed this tour with the spectacular scenery, congenial company on the tour, knowledge of our guide and the high standard of most elements of the tour. Norway was the most scenic and interesting of the 3 countries we visited. I thought that some of the optional activities could have been included at no extra cost.
Well paced tour. Excellent Driver and Tour Leader who provided intelligent and relevant commentary. Very good value for money. The hotels were mostly very good although some hotels in Scandinavia seemed not to understand the concept of a twin room as opposed to a double room! All in all, highly recommended.
Would have preferred a bit more time to the trip 1
Spectacular Scandinavia & its Fjords
Leone Moffat & Richard Brightling, ACT, Australia, Jun 2015
Despite knowing that we were covering long distances in a bus, it did get a bit wearying sitting on the bus day in day out. I think i would have preferred more days in the cities of Stockholm, Bergen and Oslo and miss Falun and Lillehammer or just had a bit more time to the trip. I did enjoy Odense but given that we spent all day on the bus getting read more there and back to Copenhagen because we couldn't continue on to the ferry trip. I think i would have preferred a rescheduling that involved an extra night in Stockholm. The bus was too airless but it was roomy. I doubt we would have enjoyed the trip anywhere as much if Frederike had not been our tour guide. Her dry sense of humour was tremendous and she bent over backwards to help everyone on the bus with just about anything!
Hotels were excellent, except the Shearton 3
Country Roads of Croatia
Thomas & Lois Stalley, NSW, Australia, May 2015
The Shearton in Zagred was way below standard for such a tour. It was old, smelly and well worn. eg holes in the carpet. Insight needs better booking of their rooms, they are a volume buyer, as such they should ensure everybody has a good room. The Hotels were excellent, except the Shearton. Every night there were concerns over rooms, mainly position.
Great way to travel Croatia the first time 2
Country Roads of Croatia
Gave, NSW, Australia, May 2015
Loved that we saw so much of Croatia at an easy pace and that we spent mostly 2 nights at most places. Would have liked to see Lake Bled as well as caves in Slovenia. Tour guide was excellent and informative, much better than some local guides. Was quite a large group around 40 but quite organised. Really enjoyed the islands...be aware lots of cruise read more ships in Dubrovnik. Some lovely surprises with Insight when touring around. Of course it is a tour and you can't have everything. Great way to travel Croatia the first time.
This tour is comprehensive and fantastic. It gives you the full treatment of Italy in 17 days, is very busy and requires a reasonable level of personal fitness. Lots of walking over cobblestones and slippery walkways. Insight staff i.e. the Tour Director and Coach driver were just fantastic. Both friendly and professional. Extra leg room on the coach read more was just great. I also enjoyed the local city/town guides that we had as well as they were able to give a deeper understanding of each location and the history associated there with. Hotel accommodation was fine however four stars in Italy is not as good as four stars in Australia. Generally the rooms were small by our standards, although many of the hotels were stylish with great locations and very accessible to city centres. If the tour had a weakness it would be the food - at most of the hotels; where included in the program or optional food inclusions. When we got the time to visit local Italian restaurants, (where the locals eat), we were able to better experience the Italian food experience than we had in our hotels. Overall this is a great tour and professionally managed by Insight and their great tour staff.
It's a cultural tour, more historically than contemporary. The tour director's incredible academic knowledge of the history of places we visited is very much part of it. Very organized and didn't leave much slack to stop for random impromptu interactions. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)
Very good first experience for my dad 2
Jenny, NSW, Australia, May 2015
Tour director was very knowledgeable and helpful. Coach was comfortable. Very good first experience for my Dad.... would join Insight Vacations again definitely.
Very happy with Global Journeys in that Michelle White has handled our booking magnificently - she is very approachable and always happy to help and assist! Insight Tours has always been excellent (I did a tour with them last May 2014 with my mum) and our Tour Director this year is the best! His name is Tim Pendlebury and he just gives you his 100% read more attention all the time and always look after all his 39 Insight Tours coach guests. We really enjoyed our time with Tim and hope to be in his future tours again! Insight Tours should extend the Wifi on the coach to at least 200mb as 100mb is not sufficient at all. Thank you very much.
Enjoyed our holiday, picturesque places we visited and Fjords area was very pretty and scenic. Our tour guide was very helpful and interesting. Great coach driver which made us feel very safe along some very difficult roads and weather conditions. On the down side we felt that some of the other guests on our tour had better accommodation to us so read more probably wouldn't use Insight again and also long wait at airport for our transfer to our hotel. Our travel arrangements and paper work was excellent so we will consider using Global Journeys again in the future.
Greatly enjoyed the festivals and our tour guide 4
French Heritage
Connie & Doug Fraser, NSW, Australia, May 2015
Our French Heritage tour in May-June coincided with many festivals such as the Grand Prix in Monaco, Cannes Film Festival and the Roma Gypsies blessing in Stes-Maries-de-la-Mer along with the French Tennis Open in Paris - these added to the pleasure of the tour. We greatly enjoyed our tour guide Laurent (in the Country Road tour) as he gave us great read more insight as a native Frenchman into the culture, history, food and wines of each place we visited. As the French Heritage is a new itinerary made up of joining the southern Country Road tour with the northern Normandy tour, there was no welcome meal to give an opportunity for us to meet the new people in the latter tour. Booking details went well except that our departure date on airfare tickets did not agree with the end of the Insight tour.
Fabulous tour, probably because of excellent tour guide as much as anything. A lot of attention to detail. Global Journeys should make sure their clients are well aware of the costly (but well worthwhile) Optional Excursions and the fact that these excursions eat in to free time (which makes the tour quite fast paced). In order to beat queues and read more crowds, there were a lot of very early starts. Also, the accommodation on the ship (Celestyal Olympia) used to cruise the Greek islands was disappointing. I was told by others that it was a long way from equaling even a very basic P&O cruise that Aussies are used to. We paid for an upgrade (to superior class which meant a porthole window) before we left but found that we were given the same accommodation as those that didn't pay for an upgrade. When we tried to upgrade further (after seeing our cabin), nothing was available. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)
Recommend this trip to everyone of any walking ability 5
Country Roads of France
Helen & David, Australia, May 2015
Our tour director Michael was fantastic. Very knowledgeable and offered interesting insights into the various regions we visited. Accommodation was better than other tours we have been on especially in Chamonix where we stayed in a fantastic chalet in the snow covered mountains. Our Optional excursions were excellent and we took every one on offer. read more We went on several excursions each day and never felt we were pushed or did not have enough time. Dinning out and in house dinning was very good quality in most instances. Our coach driver Ramzi was excellent and a very experienced driver and it was a pleasure to be driven in a new coach. Overall I would recommend this trip to everyone of any age and walking ability and we will not hesitate to organise another Insight Tour again in the near future.
Enjoyed everything about this itinerary 4
Country Roads of Southern Italy & Sicily
Joy & Lou, QLD, Australia, May 2015
We thoroughly enjoyed everything about this itinerary and the services of Insight Vacations. Our tour director, Anne Kennedy, was outstanding and went beyond the call of duty particularly with the end of tour flights changes from the impact of the Rome airport fire. Roserio, our driver, was amazing and so professional and attentive to customer needs. read more This is only our second tour with Insight Vacations and will no doubt not be our last. This is our first experience with Global Journeys, and the service provided was simple, stress free, timely, and professional. Thank you Michelle.
Absolutely fantastic tour - Ernesta our tour guide was unbelievable! Everything was perfect. Cannot wait to book another tour! Insight accommodation was more than we expected! Loved it loved it loved it. So many amazing highlights. Everyday was more amazing than the previous. Thank you Emily Cran for looking after our booking - very efficient and read more professional. Definitely book with you again.
