Feedback on Classic Journeys
 

We are looking into a tour with Classic Journeys, specifically their Pyrenees, Basque Coountry and Bilboa trip. What can you tell us about the quality of their hotels, guides, dinners, etc. as well their willingness to be flexible to the needs/interests of the group. We will have an intact group of 12-16 friends & neighbors. Thanks . . .
---teambuilder

I took a Classic Journeys trip in the USA in September--my first time with this company. The trip went to Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon and Zion. It's hard to give you an idea about the quality of hotels and restaurants, since a trip to national parks in the US is very different from a trip to Europe. In Bryce and Grand Canyon, we stayed in the parks, and I'm glad we did, and for Zion we stayed in a beautiful hotel in a little town adjacent to the park.

The trip was described as a "walking" tour, not a "hiking" tour, and it lived up to its description. The guide knew the the areas well, and we usually had several options for walks and hikes of various degrees of difficulty. I didn't want to do any "dangerous" hiking with really tricky footing, and I didn't want to push my luck with a knee problem, but I never lacked for beautiful options on this trip. We were not hiking for many hours straight every day, as I did on some other small group walking tours with some other companies. (This is neither good nor bad, just depends on what you want at this time.) The guide couldn't have been better or wiser or nicer. He was a sculptor and retired college professor of sculpture, but had tremendous interest in geology and kept up with scholarship in the field. His range and depth of knowledge about geology and wild plants and local history were so extensive that I would've thought he was a retired geology professor. He was definitely flexible, responsive to the needs and interests of the 11 tour members. Unfortunately he died very unexpectedly three weeks after our tour ended.

The people on the tour happened to be some of the brightest, most intellectually curious, and nicest people I've met on tours, and some of us are staying in touch so far. (The year before I was on an excellent tour in Turkey with a different company, but I just couldn't wait to get away from some of my fellow tour memebers when the trip was over.) I assume that if you are signing up with your own already formed group, there will not be any additional tour members.

I had such a good time on this trip that I'm thinking of taking one of this company's trips in Europe at some point in the future, but my next couple of trips will be independent travel, so by the time I'm ready, I'm not sure what their offerings will be. I don't know whether this tour was typical of their other tours.

My wife and I and a group of 10 friends did, in fact, take the Classic Journeys tour of the Basque Country. I can report that it was wonderful! Our guide, Sylvie, a resident of the area, was warm, charming and knowledgeable. We stayed in two very interesting places---a parador in Hondarribia and a small, family-run hotel in Baigorry---that added to the enjoyment of the trip. We did some different things along the way, e.g, visiting a sheep farm to see how sheep (yes, sheep!) cheese is made, touring a chocolate factory, and stoping for a picnic of local wine, cheese and bread. However, the highlight for most was probably the visit to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Amazing!!
I would recommend Classic Journeys and travel with them again.

We took a tour to Morocco with Classic Journeys. I can't say enough about the quality of our guide and some of the special experiences we had. On the other hand, we thought the tour was overpriced considering the hotels (Ibis in Rabat and Fez) and some of the food.

Since then, we have been traveling with Odysseys Unlimited and find they are more reasonable with much better hotels, food and, included international air. We have found all of their guides to be exceptional.

We would not travel again with Classic Journeys, as we feel we can get at least as good quality at more reasonable prices with other small group companies.

we went to the pyrenees in september, and found reliable info on walks very difficult to find and their signage impossible! So if this is important to you, A tour with a guide seems a very good idea, at least in that area!
Good luck!