Insight Vacations Reviews

This tour cherry picked the main highlights of Sicily and visited them all in 8 days - a very efficient way to see the best that Sicily has to offer. Our guide Mark was tremendously knowledgeable about Sicily and each place we visited. He had wonderful enthusiasm and was a gifted storyteller, describing Sicily's sites, sounds, history and flavours like ...read more a poet. Our driver was also fantastic. He managed hair pin bends up mountains very carefully.

Sicily as a whole is an island full of gems; great food, churches, ancient Greek ruins and cities, and quaint villages atop mountains. I highly recommend this tour if you are looking for a hassle free and efficient way of seeing Sicily in a relatively short amount of time as this is not an island that can easily be experienced without a car.

What an awesome trip. The trip was all we hoped for and it exceeded our expectations. Booking through Global Journeys with Georgie was very smooth and friendly. While the tour was fairly long at 22 days, there was plenty of free time and we can't speak highly enough of our tour guide Matt and coach drivers Mark and Sean.

To appeal to a broad interest ...read more group, there will always be some things that don't rate highly with individuals but for us, those less interesting things were still worth seeing, so no complaints overall. The group size was good at 32 and all got on well. Highlights included Orkney Islands, Ring of Kerry, Portsmouth harbour cruise and many more. Probably allowing more time in Wales and Cornwall would be our only suggestion.

Thoroughly enjoyed this tour. Great bunch of Aussies, Americans and Malaysians. Our Insight tour director was amazing with a great cultural and knowledge base. Scenery was stunning and we were blessed with great weather. Be prepared for high cost of everything in Switzerland. Wonderful tour and all our trip was wonderful, organised by Hannah from Global ...read more journeys.

Yvonne Brooks of Global Journeys was very helpful in assisting our booking with Insight Vacations for the holiday to Greece (Grecian Dreams). I would certainly come back to her when booking for my next trip (4th booking with her).

The inland tour (6 days) was amazing because we had a such great tour guide who could explain the history of Greece ...read more in a such way that made it easy for us to understand. We were lucky with the weather when cruising on Aegean seas. The entertainment provided on the Celestyal Cruises was very good but food was average. Our tour guide on the cruise was good for nothing (we got told that she was replacing the other tour guide because she/he was sick).

Overall our holiday was a pleasant one and hope that we can visit Greece again in the future.

We recently returned from our Britain and Ireland Discovery tour. It is the ideal trip if you are looking to get an introduction to touring Britain and Ireland with a view to return at a later date for more in-depth investigation. Booking the holiday with Global Journeys was stress free and we would definitely use their services again.

Our tour ...read more director and main bus driver were good and we would certainly consider booking another trip with Insight tours. The highlight of our trip was visiting the Orkney Islands and we were very lucky with the weather conditions on this particular day - the sun shone most of the day? In relation to the pace of the trip it can be broken into 2 parts - the first half of the trip is very busy but once you reach Ireland the pace does calm down but overall the pace of the trip is manageable given the amount of places you get to visit. One further comment is that we would prefer that any gratuities are included in the overall cost of the trip.

This journey covers long distances. There are places we could miss and places that we could stay longer e.g. we got into Yosemite late afternoon and left early next morning. There was hardly time to explore. This tour caters to big age range and fitness level range so there is some limitations to activities. On the whole, the tour covers all the places ...read more I want to go to.

Travelled on the Eastern Discovery tour with Insight and can recommend it, as a introduction to eastern Europe. Coach and hotels lived up to expectations, except an older hotel in Corfu, however the location of this hotel more than addressed its short comings. Highlights would be the Walled city of Dubrovnik, and the Greek Islands. Would recommend including ...read more the optional post tour cruise.

The tour was very well organised. We enjoyed it very much. The tour director was the best we have ever experienced, we have done many. All the people got on very well, not always the case. There were no problems. Thanks Yvonne you did a great job.

This was a very good tour of Switzerland. The pace was good, not too rushed and the tour guide Helen was excellent. The hotels were all very good and well positioned. All the places we stayed were interesting and the scenery was spectacular. One point to note though, Switzerland is quite expensive. Be prepared to pay about 50% more for food and drink ...read more than you would pay in Australia.

My only criticism of this tour would be the coach. There were a few seats which did not have the Insight Vacations signature Business Class legroom. I would suggest these few seats were barely Premium Economy so at 6 foot 2 inches I had a couple of slightly cramped days on the coach. I suspect they use a smaller coach on this tour due to the narrow and winding roads taken on the tour.

Otherwise Switzerland is a beautiful, safe and clean country, albeit a bit expensive.

A wonderful tour that covered a lot of area in a brief time frame. Our tour guide Vince was amazing, and went out of his way to make our holiday such an enjoyable experience. The bus driver was also highly skilled, and we always felt very safe whilst travelling on the bus. All accommodation was of a high standard, and located in the main cities, not ...read more on the outskirts. I would highly recommend booking through Global Journeys . Their service from the first phone call I made to request a quote was extremely professional, friendly and punctual. Thank you Global Journeys for an amazing holiday.

We absolutely loved this tour of the two major cities (St Petersburg & Moscow) with Insight. It was a fantastic experience that we would thoroughly recommend. The tour guides were superb and brought to life the culture and history of these fascinating cities. The hotels were exceptional and the breakfasts were the best we have ever had. Thank you to ...read more Global Journeys for making the bookings so easy.

Hannah as usual made our booking process very easy. She promptly answered our questions and queries. We loved the trip. It had a great variety of food and wine experiences combined with a variety of beautiful scenery and historical villages. Elizabeth our tour director took care of all our needs in a professional but caring manner.

Accommodation was not as good as expected for a 5 star operator. Extra legroom on coach was appreciated. Included restaurants were a treat. Rest stops were better then expected. Travel director Maria was well organised, approachable and very likeable.

We had a super time on our trip. Insight Vacations were great, a massive thank you to Howard our tour director and Alf our driver. Thank you to Georgie at Global Journeys for organising our holiday once again. The accommodation was excellent and so was the food. We enjoyed the special treats that we received from Howard along the way.

I loved the ...read more quaint little towns which made our lunch stops really special and plenty of time to check out the shops. Another highlight was the amazing scenery and the castles too. Travelling in May was good except I would suggest to pack extra warm clothes. We even had snow in Scotland. We look forward to our next trip.

Insight Vacations took care of every detail! We stayed in amazing 5 star hotels, had great food and saw unbelievable sights, all arranged through our tour! Highly recommended! :)

We walked the walls of Dubrovnik, had dinner with survivors of the war in Sarajevo, went into Dracula's castle, saw the Shoes on the Danube in Budapest... sooooo many highlights! ...read more And everything was arranged through our tour director. She was incredibly knowledgeable and organised! A wonderful way to see the Balkans :D

Not really expecting much, we were pleasantly surprised by the beauty, history and scenic places. It was rather daunting to travel 9 countries in 18 days but the border crossing did not pose a problem at all. Our tour director was superb in her planning and management of the tour. We were also a special group in the sense that almost everyone was travel ...read more savvy. No one was late and no one was a nuisance at all. It was truly memorable.

Although the weather wasn't as perfect as I expected it to be, this Insight Vacations tour was excellent in all other ways. Great tour director and driver, very friendly fellow travellers too. Being the youngest in the group, we felt like we were well looked after.

Croatia is beautiful in general, it’s a good time of the year to visit Croatia as ...read more it’s not overly crowded, but expect some not-so-great weather (cold and rainy). Booking the tour through Global Journeys has been hassle free and easy. Thanks for the great experience.

The trip included everything on my Irish bucket list (Ring of Kerry, Cliffs of Moher, Giant's Causeway) and took me to more sights in Scotland to add to a previous visit. Accommodation was all 4 star hotels. I still occasionally had the problem of a room which was too warm for the bedding (duvet only) and no way to adjust the temperature.

Of the ...read more 36 on the coach 5 were Australians, 2 Singaporean, while all the rest were from the US or Canada. As a consequence the Australians tended to find the coach temperature too low. Everybody seemed to be experienced travellers and we had very few problems with people being late at any time.

The landscapes traversed are marvellous. Included in the tour were several optional experiences, which did cost extra, but generally should not be missed. And gratuities are not included and will cost more also. The weather was a little brisk at times (April 2019) but by no means impossible. Our indispensable Tour Director's advice was very sound - dress like an onion with detachable layers.

I have seen tour groups bond together before, but must admit to being a little surprised at how well this one did so. No name tags were used, but by the second week we all knew one another's names.

I should also mention the musical experiences - the Irish and Scottish evening performances (and dinners) were a highlight. The most difficult part was the stretch where we only stayed one night in each hotel, but the porterage was excellent. I enjoyed the trip very much.

What a wonderful tour! April-May is the time to go, as the weather is improving (we had many days in the mid-20s Celsius after a cool beginning), and the Keukenhof Gardens are open and, in our case, were included in the tour. Our wonderful tour director, Philip Orna, went out of his way to ensure we had the best tour possible, and our driver, Ludwig, ...read more was also excellent.

There were a few downsides. The accommodation in Bruges is a brand new Radisson, which is still teething, is understaffed and is not well located (next to the rail yards). Apparently chosen by Insight because they received a lot of bad feedback regarding the previous hotel.

The NH hotel in Amsterdam is also new to Insight, and is very tired. It is apparently due to be renovated this year (2019), so should be in good shape by 2020, but may not be so good this year.

The Chateau D'Urspelt is lovely, but it is a true country stay. It is a long drive from Luxembourg, so those who choose not to take the optional excursion to Trier will have to remain in Luxembourg until the excursion returns. Trier is certainly worthwhile, so we would recommend taking this excursion.

We went on the majority of the optional excursions and recommend doing the same. We thoroughly enjoyed the tour and made many friends among our travelling companions.

I did a comprehensive tour of Portugal over a decade ago and thought it was time to revisit this beautiful country. I have travelled with Insight Vacations more than a dozen times, so choosing a tour operator was easy.

Although the itinerary was similar to the previous tour, this time there were new inclusions and a broader cultural focus, both ...read more of which made a difference. For example, in each region we tasted local delicacies: pastel de nata in Lisbon, doce fino in Algarve, ginjinha in Obidos, pastel de Tentugal in Coimbra, tibia in Braga, etc. etc. These are small touches, but were appreciated by all, since they and the stories behind them are all threads in the tapestry that is Portugal.

Accommodation was comfortable and very close to city centres and historic sites. Included food was excellent, particularly in the local restaurants Frade dos mares in Lisbon, Sem-Fim in Monsaraz, farm-to-table dinner in Quinta de Maroccos in Peso da Regua... Both included and optional excursions were excellent and were a real value-add to an already great choice of locations and sightseeing.

The local guides were superb - they were passionate about their cities, knowledgeable and entertaining. The tour director and the driver were great too: professional and attentive. The former was friendly, personable, well organised, able to quickly solve problems and displayed excellent attention to detail.

Overall, the tour was very well organised. If anything, I think it should be a bit longer- additional two days would have allowed for some more time to be spent in locations worthy of more exploration. My only criticism would be the stay in Almancil. While the stroll on the beach was nice, there really wasn't anything else to do in the afternoon/evening. Perhaps a different location for an overnight should be considered? Apart from that, the tour was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in gaining a deeper insight into Portugal.

On a separate note - this was the first time I've booked a tour with Global Journeys, an agency I came across accidentally while doing an online search. At first I was a little sceptical and concerned about whether I'd made the right choice of an agent. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. Global Journeys provided service of a high standard: communication was timely, responses to questions prompt, information accurate. I have already recommended them to friends and would use them again myself.