Insight Vacations Reviews

I was very lucky to have a very knowledgable Tour Director who also passionate about touring, history and geography.

Great tour guide, driver and tour group. We all got along famously. The driver and guide were excellent and thoroughly professional. The bus was great and we had heaps of leg room and cold drinks. We both enjoyed the tour. I thought several attractions and cities could have been cut. I thought the 2 hrs we spent at the Kamal Attaturk Memorial in Ankara ...read more was too long. I also thought we didn't need to see 2 Sufi centres (the one in Konya was better). I think the underground city in Cappadocia was a waste of time. The leather factory where we spent more than 2 hrs was a waste of time - unlike the ceramic factory and carpet factory which were craft centres. I think Troy was a waste of time. I would have liked to have spent another day sightseeing in Istanbul and had shorter days and more down time to relax and enjoy some of the facilities at the hotels. The accommodation provided on the tour varied from 2 star to 5 star. Loved the Charisma Hotel and the Swissotel in Izmer. The Dedeman in Kappodocia was terrible. The Crown Plaza in Antalya was too far out of town. The other hotels were ok. The food was better in some hotels than others. I would like to have had more fixed menu meals. I don't want to see another buffet meal for some time. The final celebration dinner was disappointing. The restaurant was noisy and the food was mediocre. We missed the first night's welcome drinks and nibbles get together as we were stuck out at Istanbul airport. It would have been nice if some of the food and a drink could have been left in our room at the hotel when we did arrive. My only other gripe is that we had to pay AU$120 at the airport for 2 Turkish visas. I would have liked to have known about this beforehand. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

I enjoyed the tour, although the Hydro hotel near Lake Windermere was disappointing. I have heard this hotel will no longer be used for this tour, as it is not up to standard. I did not receive a welcome pack when I arrived at the London Insight hotel, and I had to followup twice with the Insight rep at the hotel. I ended up getting a one page letter ...read more under the door - it was never explained why I did not receive a welcome pack. The staff at the Thistle Marble Arch were generally unfriendly, especially the head concierge Paul, who was not especially interested in helping me when I had an query. On arrival at the hotel, I was given a room with flooded carpet, a bucket, and dripping water over the doorway. I complained and received a free upgrade to a higher room grade, but I should never have been given the flooded room in the first place. Overall, I enjoyed the itinerary, which is the main reason I booked the tour. The hotels were slightly disappointing for an Insight tour, and the included and optional dinners were hit and miss.

We had a fabulous time on our Insight Vacations tour in Italy. We loved how everything was so very well-organised. Our tour director, coach driver, itinerary, day to day admin were excellent! Making the booking with Global Journeys was easy and I valued the personal attention given to requests and questions, and I'd definitely do it again. Thanks for ...read more all your help Yvonne!

We really loved the tour and Turkey. Our guide was excellent - he knew his stuff he was very caring, informative and helpful and capable. He was a local and his English was excellent but his accent was at times hard to understand. I guess that is the trade off for having a local who knows all you want to ask. The coach was brand new and very comfortable, ...read more vision was excellent. The tour was extremely interesting. Turkey its history, food , economy, sights-all blew me away. Some of our tour party were a bit disappointed we did not spend more time at Lone Pine or Anzac Cove. We found it quite moving - our local high school just happened to do a commemoration as we turned up. The accommodation was great. Overall we would thoroughly recommend it.

Insight Country Roads of Italy was a great tour, taking us to some smaller villages which were interesting. Belinda Richardson, the tour manager, was amazing, she had to deal with a some injuries and illness, but did it in a manner that did not affect the tour. The optional excursions seemed expensive, but they were to interesting destinations and we ...read more did enjoy most of them.

I loved this tour, Peter the tour leader was great as were the drivers. Not having too many people helped and everyone got on with everyone else. Only disappointment was the lack of time in Bronte country. I was wild with delight when the itinerary went to Haworth, but we were there only an hour and a half! We went through the museum but felt hurried, ...read more although it was no one's fault, just how the day panned out. I and others would have liked to wander through the village, go to the pub, whatever. We loved seeing the English countryside from the coach, something you would not see as well from a car. I was a single and was very fortunate to pal up with the other single lady, we got on like a house on fire. All in all, a wonderful trip, and I could do it all again.

Overall the Tour was very good. We had a mixed group for five different countries. Whilst the weather wasn't perfect, we managed to see all of what was promised. Our Tour Director was exceptional, great sense of humour, excellent knowledge of history and the development of Scotland. Would we do another Insight Tour? Of course we would.

A great tour visiting interesting countries. It was very enjoyable and relaxing as it was completely hassle free due to Insights organisation. My husband and have done many international tours and are still looking forward to do lots of them as the tours are good value for money.

I was very impressed with the attention to detail and the amount of places we were able to visit. Also in regard to the detail that Heinz our guide provided us with as we drove between cities. He was a wonderful guide, helpful and very professional at all times. I really couldn't fault the tour but would have like an extra day of activity in Vienna ...read more at the end (with the tour finishing on the Saturday morning instead of Friday. We could have perhaps gone to Belvidere and to one of the wineries just out of town for our final dinner. I also found my way to Schindler's Factory in Krackov and that was fascinating. That would make a good addition to the tour.

We were completely happy with all aspects of the tour. We have travelled with other companies but found Insight to be better organised, better hotels, great guide and driver, great local guides better all round. They also had some little touches which were appreciated. The included meals were fabulous and in wonderful venues. We highly recommend Insight ...read more and Global Journeys. Our dealings with Yvonne were all we could expect with prompt answers to my calls and enquiries and also in her absence.

Our first ever land tour. We have been on many cruises, but unfortunately could not see Switzerland on a ship. This tour gave us a fantastic snapshot of Switzerland and we could not have seen so many cities and places of interest in any other way with the time we had. It was extremely well organised, perhaps a little fast paced for us, not as much time ...read more to relax, but in saying that, without committing more time and more $$ we expected it to be like it was. Our guide was very disciplined and extremely knowledgeable, and we met many nice people on the tour, a number of whom we are still in contact.

Well organised. Brilliant tour director Brad Allemand, able to modify the programme in tricky situations to meet people's needs. Coach was roomy and comfortable and drivers excellent. The hotels were top quality with excellent breakfasts. We saw so many countries in such a short time that it gave us ideas for our next trip and we already know which ...read more countries we'd like to revisit. Our group of people bonded so well- lots of Kiwis and Aussies that this made the trip enjoyable. Yes there were very early mornings to travel or do a guided tour, but Brad knew how to miss the crowds and other tour buses wanting to visit the same place. The organisers planned the programme strategically. Having lots of 1 night stops on first half of trip when you are fresh and then 2 night stops for the second half when people were starting to fell tired. Overall for our first ever overseas trip we would highly recommend this tour. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

A very good tour. Covered everything i wanted to see and more. The bus was very comfortable with plenty of leg room. Not too many people, so everything moved smoothly. Tony our tour guide had a great knowledge of every area, and our local guides were excellent. The only thing that could have been improved is the hotel in Madrid and the hotel in Valencia. ...read more Hardly any air conditioning in Husa Reina and it was very hot but it's position was excellent. I did 8 optional excursions that were all very worthwhile.

We had a wonderful time on our holiday. The tour was excellent and the tour director, Toni, was very very good at his job and made our Spain and Portugal experience that much better! Peter and I have travelled with Insight before and were not disappointed. We only had 20 on the tour which made it even better. It turns out one of our travelling companions ...read more Ashne booked her tour through you too. We fully intend to book our next holiday with Global Journeys and would recommend you to our other friends. Thank you again for making it all go so smoothly.

The trip was really good and made especially so by he fact that our group was decidedly younger than usual. Some of the hotels were better than others which was to be expected. It was 45 degrees along the southern Mediterranean section of the trip and several hotels offered poor levels of air conditioning in these conditions which was difficult. Also, ...read more the Insight 'trip advice' information sheet suggests that we don't drink tap water in Turkey. All the hotels offered water only at meal times, and in such heat, at meal times only was not sufficient. Otherwise, I thought the trip was marvellous. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

Fantastic tour. Very professionally organized. The driver and tour director were excellent.

Paul Fisher was our tour guide and was absolutely excellent. If I did another Insight tour I would definitely want him as the Tour Guide. The only negative part of tour was our stay at the Thistle Marble Arch. It was the most expensive hotel we stayed in during our nine week trip through Europe and probably the one we enjoyed the least. We moved up ...read more from the Lancaster Gate hotel to the Thistle on your recommendation and on hindsight we should have stayed at the Lancaster and caught a taxi up on the morning. You need to give serious thought to recommending the Thistle. I would be grateful if you could pass this on to Insight. (Ed. Thanks for your feedback, we will talk to Insight and take onboard your comments regarding the Thistle)

Excellent service up front from Consultant Yvonne at Global Journeys. Tour was extremely well paced with ample time for us to do our own thing on several occasions. Modern coach with excellent driver (Jim) and Tour Director Cherryl was the best we have ever had, giving excellent overall commentary without getting bogged down in the detail. Two downsides ...read more were: Newtonmore in Scotland is not an ideal location for a two day stopover when there are more ideal stopovers close by. Unable to do the whisky tour as it was a Sunday and the sales office was the only partly open. Insight should make a refund to cover this oversight of their tour.

The Insight American Parks Trail was a wonderful experience. The Tour Guide and driver were a great team who cared for every need. Accommocation was excellent and the sights taken in gave a wonderful overview of the Parks. The whole experience, from booking with Frances to the end of the tour was handled with extreme professionalism and was quite painless ...read more for us.