Audley Travel Traveller Reviews

The lodges I choose were all excellent. Apart from the international flights and the frequently wrong or missing information provided by Audley it was a good trip.

I organise three International wildlife/safari trips for us most years. This trip should have been the easiest to organize as I knew exactly where we wanted to go. To revisit Pench to a then new camp, Jamtara Wilderness, that I had found on our 2019 trip and to Satpura to revisit Reni Pani and their new sister lodge, Bori, that was originally planned to open in 2021. We simply needed the international and domestic logistics organised. Unfortunately my preferred consultant, who I had worked with before, was on maternity leave and I was randomly assigned some guy. He was not interested in listening to my thoughts and preferences (Mumbai as a point of entry had served us well on previous trips, while Delhi was disliked from previous experience although I acknowledged that the ‘new’ airport may be a different experience: but Delhi was Delhi, we had vowed never to return to this filthy noisy city. For airlines eastern airlines were preferred – Emirates or Etihad had served us well in the past, we preferred to avoid BA while Virgin was an absolute no no. Back came the recommended itinerary, we were flying to Delhi on Virgin! No explanation, no positive arguments, our preference were ignored, we were going to Delhi on Virgin. Without reference to us and our thoughts our itinery at each destination was also settled; we would never consider using a bus or canter, private vehicles were a must, we wanted to spend as much time as possible in the Parks other diversions were not required. I cannot work with someone who cannot listen, I requested a replacement consultant. With a new consultant we removed most of the errors and omissions although it proved impossible to remove all the nonsenses: no option other than Virgin was offered, to quote Audley “we don’t use Air India”!, for some reason the option of canters could not be removed, nor could the driving conditions between Nagpur and Pench, and on to Satpura and Bhopal be updated from that pertaining in 2016 and 2019! Ultimately I was left in the nonsense position of being asked to enter into a binding contract featuring an itinerary reference number when I had four different versions of the itinerary all undated and all bearing the same itinerary reference number! A number of other issues arose. Audley didn’t bother to tell me that the Virgin flight timings had changed, I was left to find it out quite by accident myself. Nobody told me that to enter Indian airports you had to produce a boarding pass at the entry point. Not a problem initially as I was able to print the passes for the first Indigo flight before leaving home and the Audley/Travel In rep’ who turned up at the Leela provided boarding passes for the second Indigo flight. But when I checked-in online for the return Virgin flight there was no option to print (I did not have access to a printer in any event) the passes or e-mail them to my account. The only options were to download them to the Virgin app on my smart phone or pick them up at the check-in counter. As I have neither a smart phone nor the Virgin app I had to rely on picking them up at the check-in counter. But on arriving at the airport I had to produce the boarding passes at security before I could reach the check in counter! With much difficulty and rapid talking I manages to blag my way in. I found out later that a print of the e-ticket would have sufficed as an alternative to the boarding pass; but Audley don’t issue e-tickets (unlike all other travel agents). Incorrectly Audley advised that anti-malarial tablets were required. This is incorrect, if you refer to the ‘Fit to Travel’ web site (generally accepted as the bible on anti-malarial requirements) the majority of India is listed as ‘low to no risk’, only in very limited areas are prophylactics recommended. I could go on, but I’m bored and have better things to do.

We went to Chile. Audley's local connection was Trails of Chile, so this is a review of them as well. The price was not cheap, but there wasn't anything cheap about what they delivered. Excellent hotels, with great location, strong service, great facilities, great food (where included), superb guides, etc. We went to the Atacama Desert, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Patagonia (Torres de Paine) and the cities of Santiago and Valpareso). Everything promised was delivered exactly as promised. There was no effort to add anything on or push us to a store or in any way go cheap. We went in Chilean winter, the low season--all the better. No crowds, no waiting. Admittedly we were lucky in Patagonia where weather could have been an issue, but we knew the risk. The trip of necessity involved ten different air flights (six within Chile). Not fun but all on Latin American Air, which was better than most anywhere.

See above. Not cheap but delivered on everything.

We booked with Audley and they were fantastic until they had our money. However, one third of our trip was AWFUL and they literally had a tour guide for us for our four days in Hoi An who tried to (and succeeded) in ripping us off, upcharging us for services that he wasn't providing (merely translating), and essentially holding us captive and forcing us to go to a pottery village and wouldn't let us leave despite us saying we had no interest and didn't want to spend our money there. He forced us to go into at least six shops in that village alone telling us to buy something. Entirely unprofessional. We also almost missed our flight out of Hoi An because he insisted we didn't have to leave as early as everyone else said to leave (you could tell from his hungover face and Facebook pictures it was because he wanted to party the night before). Anyways, we didn't have our AIRLINE TICKETS until SIX minutes before boarding began and then he left us to fend for ourselves. We had to do our best to communicate with people in the security line to ask to go ahead of others so we wouldn't miss our flight. We raised these (among other) concerns with Audley Travel and were told that they would follow up and their local company would be reaching out. It's been three weeks, we have been back in the States for two weeks, and we have heard nothing. I suppose after getting $10k from you and us having no recourse they don't really care to follow-through or to ensure that we have a positive experience on our trip. I was in the early stages of planning a trip through Audley for my parents but notified them we will not be using them for that trip, and that we would be cautioning everyone else we know against using such an unprofessional company.

See the review above. With respect to Audley, I'm most disappointed in the lack of follow through in correcting or dealing with the unprofessional tour guide that we were stuck with for four days of our trip.

Booked a 16-day trip to Hawaii covering three islands, self-drive. Included numerous tours, I.e. helicopter tour, snorkel and sail tour, etc.

Used Audley Travel for a two-week trip to Hawaii. The agent was very knowledgeable about the destination and booked us on some very unique experiences that I would not have found on my own. While there were some issues, everything was either rectified or we were compensated for them.

We were unable to proceed with our holiday due to COVID closures and canceled our trip.

When Sweden closed to Americans, Audley offered credit. After cajoling and complaining, they refunded our money in full, hence I am editing my previously negative comments here. Consumers should be aware that travel insurance will not refund your money in the event an airline or tour operator offers credit for flights, hotels, tour plans, etc. even due to COVID. Whether or not one can use that credit is irrelevant to the travel insurance company because from their perspective, if credit is offered then the consumer has not incurred a loss. It is, therefore, imperative that one deal with a highly reputable tour operator, and in the end, Audley was that kind of tour operator. As a result, I would consider using them again in the future.

Simply Incredible! We had an amazing trip organized and executed by the Audley team through out South Africa. We started our adventure in Cape Town, then made our way through the wine country (Stellenbosch and Franschhoek), and on to Swellendam, Oudtshoorn, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, and finished off the southern itinerary on safari in East Cape. We then flew up to Mala Mala, stayed in Rattray's Camp, and had one of our best safari adventures ever! We then headed back to Cape Town for some beach time in Clifton/Camps Bay, and some amazing food, before flying home. We have been to South Africa, as well as to several other countries in Africa over the years but this trip was so well organized, and enabled us to really soak in all that the people, culture, landscape, and animals were offering us. Thank you so much!

Best in class!

I returned last month from Japan and Vietnam. The Itinerary was Huge for twelve days. It was full of useless information, but lacking in facts that I needed. Japan was hit or miss, but Vietnam was great. In Japan, I was sent to a Ryokan in Hakone for fifteen hours. This was a three train, two bus trip each way. The place was Awful. This was two days wasted of a twelve day trip. I wrote them a three page letter that was never acknowledged. This was an expensive trip for what I received.

I'm giving it average, because I enjoyed Vietnam. Japan was poorly organized. I have traveled most of the world in the last twenty years. There are much better people out there. I have also planned my own trips.

Just returned from a 6week tour of Australia and Singapore. This is our third trip with Audley. It did not disappoint. The hotels were perfectly picked to maximise our time. The trips with out exception superb and the travel arrangements spot on to ensure that this was really a fantastic experience. The advice given was excellent in terms of time of year to visit, locations and what to do. I can highly recommend audley. We will be using their services again

Excellent

My husband and I recently used Audley Travel for a trip to Australia and New Zealand. The destination is great.

Regarding Audley, the hotels and most excursions were fine. However, you choose a travel agency for help with the logistics--easy directions, smooth travel, etc. This is not the case in our experience with Audley. First, Audley did not have us fly in a day ahead so that if any of the 4 flights to our initial destination was delayed, then we had a cushion. In fact the first flight was delayed. Any company that has been in this business as long as Audley should not have made this logistical mistake. In addition, it is extremely difficult to follow the directions Audley includes in their travel packet: key information is buried in non-essential information about the area, you have to flip back and forth in their book to find where you are supposed to be when. Critical information about hotels or transportation for example was spread out over multiple documents. For their prices, there is no excuse for this. As a point of information, both my husband and I are PhDs and we are comfortable dealing with complex information. Audley's documents are really bad, and this is s systemic issue. In other words, it is not the fault of one bad travel agent at Audley. It is the fault of the Audley process as a whole. At one of the hotels Audley uses, the person at the desk who was helping me with a very confusing Audley-booked excursion mentioned that about half the Audley clients had problems. The word she used for that half was "a disaster." I would highly recommend going with someone else who can make the logistics clear and easy to use. No travel agency gets credit for a great destination (no travel agency created the beauty of New Zealand or Australia). A good agency at minimum handle logistics well. Audley does not in my experience.

We have just returned from a First Class holiday to Vietnam organised by Audley Travel. Hayley Ryan organised it for us and delivered what she said she would. She even arranged a local sim for our phone just in case we needed to contact our guides. Hotels and tours were all excellent and within walking distance of restaurants and shops. Thank You Hayley for an excellent trip, we will remember it for a long time to come.

Audley Travel. Hayley Ryan was our tour adviser. She organised a wonderful holiday for us with fantastic hotels and tours nothing was too much bother for her. She kept in touch regularly with us and was very helpful in explaining everything.