Anyone Familar with Collette Tours?
 

Considering a tour of Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah and Jekyll with Collette. Anyone have any personal experience with this company?

Collette should be a great tour company! I'm sure if you do a search on this forum you'll find something.

Forgot to add - I saw a Collette group boarding a plane in Boston - they all looked happy, had Collette carry-ons and nametags.

they're pretty good...i think they cater to a smaller, friendlier group tour set...i never traveled with them, but they were a client. good luck.

we took a collette tour in nov 2001. it was their new orleans tour. very nice. we had a great time. i would use collette again. everything was well organized.

Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like Collette is okay.

frank....if you purchase the collette tour they will send you the document package about a week before departure. it will include things such as clothing suggestions, tipping suggestions, optional excursions you can purchase, travel bags and name tags....things like that. we did not purchase our airplane tickets thru collette. but we did purchase the hotel transfers to/from airport. we were met at the airport by a huge limo. i was shocked! the price was very reasonable. when we reached the hotel our collette tour manager was waiting in the lobby to greet us. most of the meals provided by collette include tips as well and that was something new to get used to. our tour director always kept us well-informed of the days activities and what the next day's schedule would be. there were no unpleasant surprises and no "bumps" in the road. give us a trip report when you return. i have wondered about the tour you are interested in. tell us all about it when you get home.

Frank - don't have experience with Collette, but I did take a Tauck tour before (supposed to be similar) and was very impressed.

Thanks Carla for the detailed info, won't be taking this tour until the Spring but will post a report at that time.

CarrieK: Glad to hear you enjoyed Tauck. Collette is a notch down but hopefully will provide an enjoyable experience also.

my neighbors aross the street have used tauck several times and they praise tauck. when they retired and their income was less they took a collette tour that was more affordable for them. they enjoyed the heck out of the collette tour and have taken a few more since. but their foundest memories of tours is when they took tauck tours. someday i would like to try a tauck tour. i have always been interested in globus also. when i compare brochures it seems globus may be between collette and tauck. oh frank, when we took our collette tour in new orleans there were quite a few people in the tour that were collette "regulars". too bad you are not taking the tour this week so we can read your trip report sooner! oh well, we will just have to wait.

An important factor in any tour is where the hotels are actually located. I took a Globus tour in Europe and discovered to my regret that the hotels were located way out in the suburbs of the cities, or in the case of Venice, actually in a nearby town -- not Venice.
I have since switched to Tauck, and although the tours are expensive, the hotels have been centrally located. Also, the meals have been very good.
Find out what hotels Collette is using and then check their locations and ratings with Fodors, AAA, TripAdvisor, etc.

We have taken two Grand Circle tours (one to Norther Mexico & Copper Canyone and one to the Canadian Maritimes and Nova Scotia) and have been very happy with them. We talked to others on our tours who had gone with Grand Circle many times and they had the highest praise for them. Our hotels were always very nice and close to the downtown areas. I think these tour groups go out of their way to make the tours very comfortable. Plenty of stops and shops :) We are looking forward to taking many more.

mscarls: Sorry about your Venice/Mestre experience, thanks for the heads-up, the hotels seems fine and centrally located as follows:

Doubletree - Buckhead (Atlanta)
Renaissance - Charleston (Historic Dist)
Radisson - Savannah (Historic Dist)
Jekyll Island Club (Same as Tauck)

mamajo: I checked Grand Circle, but they don't offer this itinerary, I'll keep them in mind for the Canadian Rockies. Thanks.