Insight Vacations - Motorcoach - Review Please
 

I am trying to help my Aunt plan a trip to Europe with Insight Vacations. I was told that it is one of the best Motorcoach guide tours. You pay more but I understand the quality of the tour is worth it. Can anyone comment? Thanking you in advance for your comment.

What does she want to see? I don't think Insight is known as one of the best, but it's not low budget either. You should look for a tour that has centrally located hotels, at least three nights in a location and not long hours on the bus.

She would like to see Germany, Switzerland and Austria. I know what you mean. I notice that these tours stay one night maybe 2 in each location.

Has anyone used Tauck Travels?

Tauck is supposed to be higher end than insight.
Abercrombie also.

You can check this site to compare some of the different tour operators and compare their own individual sites.
I agree stick with 2-3 days in each city if you possibly can...perhaps a leisure tour?

affordable tours.com

On second thought....I don't see that combo of countries anywhere on a group tour...perhaps I missed it. I would speak to a travel agent experienced in Europe to help you they may have some good ideas.

Thank you everyone. I agree. It is tough when you look at these bus tours. I know some people like that but unpacking a suitcase every night is not my idea of relaxation.

Rick Steves has a Germany-Austria-Switzerland tour, but your aunt would have to be pretty active and fit for one of his tours. Check his web site for details. I believe the 14-day tour spends two nights in each location.

Rick Steves does move around alot too. Thanks for that suggestion. I am still searching but I think you guys are all correct. You need to be pretty active on these bus tours.

I agree with Amsdon, check affordabletours.com and pick vacations you like. The tour companies are budget, 1st class, luxury. The main difference is the hotel - class and location. Compare itineraries.

Well they do have thee slower paced "leisure tours" but there is none with those 3 cities. So you could do an independent city tour and combine them....

Here's an idea, why don't you share some of the exisiting tours with her....she may like them..

How long will you plan to travel? Maybe you can combine two of them?

Tauck is top of the line. Hotels will be better quality and more centrally located and meals are likely to be more authentic (and more edible) - although she should still plan on organizing some of her own.

But the key to the tour is how many nights in each place. If you are changing hotels every night or two you spending a lot of time packing/unpacking, getting bags outside the door at 7 am and falling asleep in the bus rather then seeing the scenery. I would want a tleast 3 nights in each major city.

You also need to learn the tour language. "View" of a sight means you drive by it, "stop" means you get out of the bus for a 5 minute photo op - only "visit" means you actually go inside and see something.

Just a suggestion, why not look at a river cruise. This will eliminate having to check in and out of hotels every day or two and spending long hours on a bus. This way she can sightsee at a more leisurely pace than on a bus tour.

Byron 1, I have taken several tours with Insight and was quite satisfied. Unless the tour is described as “leisurely,” most stops will be two nights. Two years ago I took an Insight tour to France with 3 nights in Paris, train to Avignon, 3 nights in Nimes, and 4 nights in Nice. Very enjoyable but still there was a great deal of driving and “doing.” As you have discovered, there are no tours in those Alpine countries that your aunt is interested in which have 3 night stays. If expense is not an issue, I would suggest looking into Tauck or Abercrombie tours as superior.

Personally I do not go to Europe to “relax” although many folks do. Granted there are disadvantages to tours but on the plus side – no worry about driving or parking, no schlepping baggage on trains, usually easy access to museums and historical sites, informative guides, and reliable hotels. It’s worry free on the whole. I have found that many fellow travelers on Insight are from Canada, “down under,” UK, South Africa, and the states – an interesting mix. Many are repeat travelers with Insight. Good luck with your quest…

Go Ahead has some slower paced tours which include those countries. I haven't used them so you will have to search reviews.

http://www.goaheadtours.com/tours/WW...d-austria.aspx

http://www.goaheadtours.com/tours/DA...ne-europe.aspx

I am not a fan of Insight. One tour we took started by being switched on us. When I tried to speak with an Insight representative, I was refused. The people at Insight absolutely refused to discuss the switch with me.

Once on the tour we found that it was laden with extra cost options which I understand is a fairly standard Insight procedure. For example, in Tralee, Ireland, we could take our tour bus into the town because the hotel was too far out to walk it comfortably. To get back to the hotel, without hitchhiking, we had to take a cab.

At the Cliffs of Moher, one of the classic sea cliff views in all of Ireland, we stayed just long enough to walk to the cliffs, take a peek, and walk back to the bus so that the tour could get to Ennis for an extra cost, tourist trap dinner.

We had one of those extras just about every day. One either hung around trying to find something to do or spent extra money to take the optional event.

The hotel in Ennis was pretty bad. Two of our tour companions (married couple) had a room where the lavatory drain was connected to nothing except a bucket on the floor! The problem? The bucket was not there initially. Other rooms were directly over a pub that played rock music until 2 AM.

The Earl of Desmond Hotel in Tralee was not all that bad in terms of bed comfort, but staying in the hotel encouraged us to dub it Hotel Crazy Ass. First we had the game of find the light switch that worked. There was a central switch that controlled all the lights except the bathroom. Some of the lamps had been turned off at the lamp itself; others had not. Then we played turn on the TV. The first person to figure it out yelled out the directions in the hallway.

When I needed to flush the toilet, there was a game of find the handle. No button, no pedal, no chain, no sensor, no handle was visible. Finally I located the handle -- in the shower.

The next morning the hotel ran out of hot water. Luckily I had showered the night before.

In the restaurant one guest asked for a second cup of tea at dinner. She was told she could not have one. (She eventually got it but the tour guide had to find the manager.)

The second night we were there an Irish wedding party broke up about 3 AM. When the Irish say a drunken good night it is often shouted from one end of the parking lot to the other. The woman in the room next to us, who was about 6 feet, 3 inches, and a New Zeeland sheep rancher, tried to convince the people in the parking lot to shut up.

That request touched off an exchange of various comments between the guests in the hotel and the revelers in the parking lot. Some of the remarks were quite juicy sounding. I just wish I understood more of that Aussie and New Zeeland slang. I did catch one exchange, but propriety suggests that I not repeat it here. It culminated when our next door neighbor invited the challenger up to her room so she could flatten his posterior. (Her husband was one of 4 guys who got off the bus on the Dingle and moved a car over by picking it up so the bus could get past.)

At any rate the discussion took place in just about every accent on the English speaking world - Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Singapore, Canada, and the US.

Needless to say that was our last tour with Insight.

Everyone, thank you. You give us a lot to consider. More research is needed on our part. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

>>>I am not a fan of Insight. One tour we took started by being switched on us<<<

Every tour company reserves the right to switch your tour, supposedly to a comparable tour. If they offer two similar Germany tours and one has 30 people signed up and the other only 5, then those people will get switched to that tour/itinerary. Some will list a handful of tours/dates with tours that are guaranteed to run.

A lot of the details cited above are the reason many people on this board won;t take tours.

When you organize your own vacation you

1)get the number of nights you want in each city
2)get a hotel/location you're happy with
3)dont have to get up at 6:30am if you don;t want
4)get to pick restaurants based on your budget and likes/dislikes
5) don't had to spend a lot on "options" in which you have no interest
6) don;t get dragged from one place to another to shop for tschotkes that you don;t want (but the guide gets a rake off from)

But, even people who take tours should do the basic research to know what they want to see. that way they know in advance what to do with their free time (other than an unwanted and expensive "option") or can even opt out of any activity they don;t want.

My third trip to europe was a free "package" not tour - it gave you air, hotels, airport transfers and a 1/2 day city tour in London, Amsterdam and Paris. I told the guide going in we wouldn;t be doing the 1/2 half day tours (IMHO a waste of time) except in Amsterdam, when it was a boat ride we would do anyway. Still - she called our room the first morning in London - waking us -asking why we weren't on the bus. This after dumping us at the hotel the first day (no rooms were ready and we got one after about 2 hours due to torturing the desk staff - other people in our group were less assertive and still waiting 5 hours later - the guide did nothing to help.)

Plus she tried to sell us a lot of "extra tours" and was extremely angry when we refused (the days didn't match our schedule since we were going to see the Derby on the "only" day of a tour to Windsor). When I said we would do Windsor another day she said there were no tours available (a total lie, which I pointed out), and was even angrier when I said that we didn't need a tour since it was only a 30 minute train ride away.

Most of the people in the group bought all sorts of "optional" tours from her - which is fine if that's what you want. But once in a city, you're perfectly free to do what you want when.

Hi; You could also check www.cheapertravel.com for 10% off. This company, just like Affordable Tours, offers 10% off on Insight and other companies [like Globus] touring the countries you are considering. For Tauck Tours, it's 5% off. Dick