First Class Holidays Traveller Reviews

Three weeks in Canada touring the Rockies and then on to Vancouver Island and Vancouver, most of which went very well. Stunning scenery, lots of walks and animals including brown bears on the side of the road and lots of grizzly bears (30+) via a trip we organised from Campbell River on Vancouver Island (Campbell River Whale Watching Tours). First Class didn't know about this or didn't offer it as we had to research it ourselves - They really should

One niggle was that on our drive from Jasper to Whistler we had a stop-over in Clearwater where we were booked into the Alpine Meadows Resort. This was a log-cabin based accommodation and was quite comfortable. However, one thing I would have liked to have been told was that it as approx 25km up a one-way, unpaved road. As it was pouring with rain at the time I was very glad I had a 4WD car. If we had been warned about this we may or may not have changed accommodation but at least it would have been our choice. The major problem occurred in Victoria when we discovered the voucher for the transfer to Vancouver we had been given involved two 25km+ drives either side of the water. Naively, as I knew there was a ferry terminal in the city and, as nothing had been highlighted to us, I assumed this would be where we were sailing from so didn't question it. It was a good job we mentioned it on check-in to our hotel otherwise it would have been an even more significant problem and had to do things in much more of a rush.. We did check with tourist information and discovered there was a city centre to city centre bus transfer that went on the ferry but it was not possible to use our voucher with it. We raised this with First Class via our travel agent (which we cannot fault) and their answer was "tell them to take a taxi to Swartz Bay (Victoria) and claim". At this point we thought the Vancouver end would be somewhere near the city but it wasn't (at least another 25km). We then discovered that had we used the self organised taxi solution there wouldn't have been one a the Tswwassen (Vancouver) end as there was no room for taxi ranks there Every one makes mistakes but I it was grossly wrong, given the amount of money we had paid them, to just leave us high and dry. If it wasn't for the help from the hotel concierge we would have had a much bigger problem. He advised us to dump the First Class voucher and re-buy the bus transfer. First Class are are the ones we have paid to be the experts, they should have admitted their error and immediately given us the solution - the only one they gave us would have caused even more problems About a week after we arrived home First Class' answer was to ask us was "what the pound equivalent of our bus fare", no apology! No suggestion of compensation! This is the fourth major holiday with First Class and, whilst I shouldn't have to, if we use them in the future I will be much more diligent at checking their arrangements. Come on First Class - live up to your name. First Class - do you think you have covered yourself in glory?

Canada, Icefield Pathway through the Rockies, Vancouver and Alaskan cruise. All hotels book were in a great location with all the facilities we needed, Scenery, and wildlife was amazing, we fell that we have very special and fond memories of this holiday. Cruising Alaska was amazing, we couldn't fault the ship staff or food however cruising is not for us.

Very knowledgeable, listened to what we wanted from the holiday and filled the brief very well.

visited Montreal not sogood, Quebec was excellent, Ottawa was very good and Toronto was good . The highlight was Niagara Falls just mind blowing

Everything that First Class holidays did was excellent. and all arrangements were exactly as planned.

We flew to Toronto spending a few days exploring the wonderful sights including beautiful Niagara Falls in a helicopter and the CN Tower. We then flew to Calgary staying in Banff then Lake Louise. We saw so many beautiful sights but Lake Louise and Moraine Lake have to be the most beautiful places in the world. Absolutely breath-taking. We then took the Rocky Mountaineer for a two day ride through the Rockies and on to Vancouver. Again absolutely beautiful, everything was truly amazing. and excellent service in all areas. We stayed in Vancouver and then Victoria on Vancouver Island, again another wonderful part of our holiday. I love Canada so much, would love to go back again one day.

Carrick Travel organised our itinerary along with First Class Holidays. We just advised where we wanted to go and they did the rest. Excellent service.

We had a truly amazing holiday in Canada - words really cannot describe how amazing this was

First Class Holidays organised our holiday along with Carrick Travel our travel agent. We advised where we wanted to go and everything was arranged for us to the last detail. It was absolutely fantastic.

Flew from Manchester to Vancouver. Spent around a week, during through BC to Calgary, staying at various places along the way. Flew from Calgary to Toronto & made our own arrangements from there. Flew from Toronto back to Manchester.

1st car hire was booked from the wrong place and took around 4 hours to resolve. 1st hotel had us booked for 3 rooms instead of two - has this cost us extra? Who knows! Airport hotel (midway through travelling) was booked for 11 days after our flight left (5 days after we left the country). We were not allocated seats together on any of the three flights. Who wants to do a 8/9hr flight sat in between strangers whilst on a family holiday?

We set of to Calgery Canada to start a 7 day coach trip through the Rocky Mountains which was amazing. We stayed in 4 hotels on the way which were fine but we think the tour operator, Jonview, could charge more to provide a better quality of hotel because we felt these hotels were quite rundown. Just to be clear, the hotel situation did not spoil our holiday but they should be improved. Our Rocky Mountains adventure ended in Vancouver where we stayed for 2 nights and then started our 7 day cruise to Alaskan. We sailed with Holland America and they were great.

Jonview's tour guide was brilliant but as l mentioned earlier the hotels on our Rocky Mountain trip need upgrading because they were of a poor quality and rundown. We would have paid for a better standard of hotel. The trip was a wonderful experience.

Excellent customer service form First Class Holidays for my Canada by rail trip. Very flexible to changing circumstances for myself completed without issue and extremely flexible.

excellent help at all times and when on the trip in Canada.

A fantastic tour through The Rockies

Very good

Our holiday is yet to come though I have done two previous holidays with First Class to Canada and everything went smoothly so I have no reason to think our forthcoming holiday will be any different.

My reason for down-grading from excellent is their pricing for a holiday to Canada later in the year. Our travel agent accidentally sent us the First Class invoice so we had a cost breakdown of each step. I compared the cost that I could book the hotels for online with what they charged, obviously excluding any tour agent discount, in their itemised invoice. When I excluded flight and car hire costs the First Class cost for hotels was, on average, 17% higher than I could have got booking direct. Given that First Class will get a discount that wasn't available to me this seems excessive. One hotel in particular stood out. We have booked into the Fairmont at Lake Louise for two nights. I could have booked the same room for £1250 - they charged us £1844. I recognise that they have to have a mark up but 17% on top of the tour operator's discount seems excessive. We have complained to First Class via our travel agent but to paraphrase their reaction 'tough, deal with it' Consequently, if I book with First Class again, I will make sure I get an itemised account in advance so I can judge whether such as the Fairmont Lake Louise is really worth nearly £1000 a night