Abercrombie & Kent USA, LLC

This company completely derailed what was supposed to be a meaningful, once-in-a-lifetime trip for three generations of women in my family. After selecting their Northern Italy tour, I rearranged my entire schedule and rebooked flights and hotels to match their itinerary — only to be told within four hours that I was suddenly waitlisted. There was no warning that availability was uncertain. The lack of transparency and respect for customers’ time and money is shocking. Planning international travel requires coordination, and this company showed zero concern for the fallout their actions caused. To make matters worse, I later researched some of the hotels used on this tour and found reviews that were far from “luxury.” If you’re charging $50,000, expectations are understandably high — and based on what I saw, they were not being met. This experience was frustrating and deeply disappointing. My travel consultant, Geralyn, unprofessionally handled this entire situation. I strongly advise others to look elsewhere. I refuse to ever contact this shady company again.

We have traveled several times with A&K, but will not use them again. Previously, our small group trips have been spectacular with native guides using their expertise to provide personalized service. Trips always included something special. This last trip was a cattle drive. The guide was not from the countries we visited, and everything we experienced, I could have booked on my own. This was overpriced and not the service we expected. I had heard from others that A&K has changed. It certainly has. We will not travel with them again.

My wife and I have travelled with A&K many times over the years, with destinations spanning the globe. Throughout our travels, we've had but a handful of negative experiences. Recently however we had to cancel an extensive trip to Africa due to dire health issues. We requested the cancellation exactly 2 months ago. We are still waiting on the return of our $25k+ deposit. In booking the trip, the deposit was charged to our card within 30 minutes. In cancelling, it is taking over two months for the credit to appear. What a scam. What a way to treat heretofore loyal customers.

This is a terrible company. They are extremely over-priced. Any one of their vacation offerings can be easily booked for less than half of what A&K charges. Also, they will not stop sending me catalogs. I have complained to the company 3 times to stop sending advertising to my residence and the catalogs just keep coming. When I spoke to the representative on the phone the last time, he promised that they would no longer send catalogs to my house. He lied, and I just threw another 3 catalogs in the recycle bin. What does it take to get this company to stop sending me that junk ??

This is a despicable company do not use them. We are retirees and saved our money for a once in a lifetime trip to Uganda in October of 2022. About a week prior to our departure we found out about the Ebola outbreak and then a few days latter, the US's decision to redirect all the incoming passengers from Uganda to 5 specially equipped airports which can screen the passengers and track them for 21 days. A&K never contacted us about the Ebola or the airport situation and had no information to share with us. When we called them, they said everything was OK even though all the news and CDC reports indicated otherwise. Due to my husband's health and the total lack of communication and care from A&K, his doctor advised us not to go. We asked A&K if they could put us on another trip to anywhere or move us to another Uganda date. They flat out said no and they took every last penny of our money and did nothing to help us. We know that other tour companies refunded or rebooked the Uganda trips. I don't know how they can sleep at night knowing they took all our money when they could have easily refunded part of it or move it to another tour. Do not book with A&K. Update12/30/22 After reading A&K's response I must state that they are not being forthright. 1.They state that they have to pay their vendors---as of this date, my travel agent has NOT been paid her commission. 2. They state they refunded the deposit for another trip what they didn't say is that we had to hire a lawyer to get our future deposit back as they did not return calls to either me or my travel agent. As stated, despicable. Do not use.

A&K REVIEW OF JAPAN TRIP Guides were simply accompaniers, gave the basic of information ( that you can read on the museum signs), were not the most fluent in English and usually shabbily dressed. The Kyoto guide was not bad, the transport guide to airport return was exceptional in helping (Misaki)). They were all very nice, respectful and helpful, just not very informative for the amount of time they spent with us. Most of the time they simply talked to the driver. I would expect guides working for A&K would be more learned in the history and more fluent. Comments like “this is a bank, this is a school” really don’t cut it. The activities were very standard tourist attractions (except for the manga, samurai (best activity) and noodle making activities) . The sushi making was stupid, just showed us how to press fish onto a rice ball. Nothing about the prep of rice (as advertised in the A&K itinerary), the way to cut fish, other things about sushi i.e. wasabi, etiquette, etc. Nevertheless the guy was very sweet and very funny. My son was very excited to go to the main Pokémon store in Tokyo (as in the itinerary), but we were taken to a small Pokémon store in a mall. Hotels were very good. The Ritz in Kyoto and Gora Kadan were excellent. St Regis was not on par with the others. Meals reservations I believe were made by the hotel concierge. (The cancellation policies are ridiculous) The restaurants were good, but not exceptional. The best restaurant was at the Kyoto Ritz Hotel. Would not recommend Hamayashi in Osaka, the chef is the antithesis of personable. It would have been helpful to know that this is the time of year when thousands of school children go on their school trip and every site and museum was unbelievably crowded. Ground transportation for the most part was very good. Overall we had a good and interesting time, but what it really comes down to is that for 60K (without airfare and dinners) I would have thought it would be more tailored and most importantly that the guides would be more educational, communicative and interesting. We met several other A&K travelers at the hotels and they pretty much were on the same itinerary as us. I believe I would have done a much better job myself with as, or more, luxurious accommodations with some leg work for less than 30K. As a goof, I entered “Arrange an ultra-luxury 9 day trip to Japan and price it out” on an AI platform. See below what AI came up with in less than 15 seconds! A very similar trip for $21000 (which included a $2000 shopping spree) ! I would suggest that for the kind of money that A&K charges, there would be more tailored itineraries with better guides. Maybe one on one communications with someone in Japan would be helpful prior to the itinerary. Bottom line: definitely not worth going with A&K, I consider it a rip off. Doing a chatgpt search for super luxury 10 day trip to Japan came up with better ideas for 21K! which included a $2000 spending spree for an afternoon! BY THE WAY: I GAVE VIRTUOSO AND A&K EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO ADDRESS MY CONCERNS AND IT IS NOW 5 MONTHS FROM NUMEROUS EMAILS WITHOUT A RESPONSE, SO THERE YOU GO....EVEN THOUGH I HATE BADMOUTHING PEOPLE, MY THOUGHTS MADE PUBLIC Date of experience: May 26, 2024

We have just finished 12 days 7:28-8/8 Kenya and Tanzania Africa holiday. A&K has pride itself to be a luxury tour operator which is definitely not our experiences. It’s more like flying economy plus. Issues are 1. A&K cars are old and have lots of wear. 2. We were stuck at a air strip in Kenya border for over 2 hours. The local representative of A&K did not give us updates and told us it’s operation issues in different cities (Arusha and Nairobi). I kept on calling the A&K customer service lines and was promised he would call back and he never did. 3. 1st Guides in Anbrosi English is difficult to understand. 4. Many members in our group all have stomach issues during our trip. 5. Our departure from our last spot was moved up about 2.5 hours and from our perspective, it’s for A&K convenience and cut short of our enjoyment 6. Our main guide instead of apologizing to guests to mid-handling and poor A&K operations, he keeps on saying “Let me tell you…”….this is my 3rd trip to Africa and have travelled over 110+ countries around the world and this supposed “luxury” experience has to be the worst. Our fellow travel members ran into various issues and very unfortunate.

Just finished a 12 dayKenya/Tanzania trip with A&K. Due to the premium season booked, the parks selected were good, allowing us seeing all the animals and Mara rive crossing. Hotels arranged were good, except without US power plug and USB in some hotels. However we had unpleasant experience due to poor operations by A&K: a 14 people group were stuck in an airstrip at noon for couple hours and no one from AK communicated to us proactively. We managed to reach out to local AK office as well as headquarter, found out broken operations. Half of the group tourists had stomach issue due to food (advise not to eat uncooked food, fruits, swimming either ). Toyota land cruise car used was somewhat rusty and very bumpy on the road ( not suggest to take if you have back problem). Overall, this is a sub luxury tour or economy plus tour. Keeping branding with luxury term will damage A&K’s reputation and end to lose customers.

I was on the Egypt + Nile cruise and loved my trip! Everything was up to snuff and honestly very good. I have read a few reviews that other people didn't have the best time and I am sad to read that. I went in 2024 and the trip blew my mind. The Egyptologist was so kind and helpful. A&K had tremendous service and I felt safe the entire time. We also got first access/priority at monuments because A&K has such a good reputation in the area. I highly recommend! Also, for any photographers out there, this is a dream trip! I loved it so much and was able to capture so many stunning images :-)

Abercrombie & Kent is a disgraceful company. They put me in a substandard hotel, and took NO responsibility for this. They DO NOT stand by their word and I would absolutely NEVER use this company again.

A&K planned a trip for us to France and included cities such as Dijon, Lyon, Provence and Avignon. The guides were good but it was not a very well planned itinerary. In particular, the hotel they booked for us in Avignon was the most horrible we have ever experienced in all our travels. It was so bad that we had to move out and pay for another hotel out of our own pocket the very next day. Our guide and driver were astonished we had been booked there. The company blamed the experience we had on us and refused to take any responsibility for their agent putting us in such a cheap hotel. We would never use them again.

May 2025 booked a $100k + Tailor made 2 week trip for 2. Did not include meals or airfare. I was very disappointed after having been pleased with them on a pre-covid trip. I found their US representatives unknowledgeable about destinations and slow to reply since they work from home at their convenience - not yours. Constantly had to double check their plans due to errors. They booked a tour of the Duomo in Milan that did not include going inside. Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace were "drive-byes" that didn't include getting out of the car. The list of restaurant suggestions they provided include restaurants that are out of business. I used A&K so I would be stress free during the planning and the trip. They did not make that happen, they need to do better at the prices they charge.

Just returned from small group journey, Botswana safari in Style. Was worth every penny, From start to finish, the details for comfort were excellent. Food, lodging and guides were amazing! Would recommend this trip and tell people it is worth the money! Looking forward to another small group journey with A & K again.

I used them for a trip to Japan . I wish I had read reviews before I booked - besides the nice hotels , nothing else was a high end experience that justifies its price - the guides where unimaginative - basically "on the bus, off the bus" to see endless touristic sites - we will never use them again

Biggest disappointment in my travel history. I picked A&K for my bucket list African Safari, as I thought they were the best of the best. The animals were great, but I would have seen those with any budget tour operator for half the price. Our "luxury tents" weren't! We stayed in 3 star places basically, along with budget tour operators (cafeteria lines for meals, etc.) Our local tour director was 15-30 minutes late for EVERY meeting, and gave us no lectures, tips, etc. I was added to his personal What's Ap "go fund me" site where I was begged to donate money for his mother's medical expenses (up to 30 messages a day!) I don't no what has happened to A&K (I'm shocked to see so many complaints.) PLEASE take Tauck or another tour operator. A&K is NOT the same company it used to be

A&K REVIEW OF JAPAN TRIP Guides were simply accompaniers, gave the basic of information ( that you can read on the museum signs), were not the most fluent in English and usually shabbily dressed. The Kyoto guide was not bad, the transport guide to airport return was exceptional in helping (Misaki)). They were all very nice, respectful and helpful, just not very informative for the amount of time they spent with us. Most of the time they simply talked to the driver. I would expect guides working for A&K would be more learned in the history and more fluent. Comments like "this is a bank, this is a school" really don't cut it. The activities were very standard tourist attractions (except for the manga, samurai (best activity) and noodle making activities) . The sushi making was stupid, just showed us how to press fish onto a rice ball. Nothing about the prep of rice (as advertised in the A&K itinerary), the way to cut fish, other things about sushi i.e. wasabi, etiquette, etc. Nevertheless the guy was very sweet and very funny. My son was very excited to go to the main Pokémon store in Tokyo (as in the itinerary), but we were taken to a small Pokémon store in a mall. Hotels were very good. The Ritz in Kyoto and Gora Kadan were excellent. St Regis was not on par with the others. Meals reservations I believe were made by the hotel concierge. (The cancellation policies are ridiculous) The restaurants were good, but not exceptional. The best restaurant was at the Kyoto Ritz Hotel. Would not recommend Hamayashi in Osaka, the chef is the antithesis of personable. It would have been helpful to know that this is the time of year when thousands of school children go on their school trip and every site and museum was unbelievably crowded. Ground transportation for the most part was very good. Overall we had a good and interesting time, but what it really comes down to is that for 60K (without airfare and dinners) I would have thought it would be more tailored and most importantly that the guides would be more educational, communicative and interesting. We met several other A&K travelers at the hotels and they pretty much were on the same itinerary as us. I believe I would have done a much better job myself with as, or more, luxurious accommodations with some leg work for less than 30K. As a goof, I entered "Arrange an ultra-luxury 9 day trip to Japan and price it out" on an AI platform. See below what AI came up with in less than 15 seconds! A very similar trip for $21000 (which included a $2000 shopping spree) ! I would suggest that for the kind of money that A&K charges, there would be more tailored itineraries with better guides. Maybe one on one communications with someone in Japan would be helpful prior to the itinerary. Bottom line: definitely not worth going with A&K, I consider it a rip off. BELOW IS WHAT AI CAME UP WITH: - Stay at the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Tokyo for 3 nights: $3,000 - Private guided tour of Tokyo's top attractions: $1,500 - Fine dining experience at Michelin-starred restaurant: $1,000 Day 4-5: Kyoto - First-class Shinkansen (bullet train) tickets to Kyoto: $500 - Stay at the historic Hoshinoya Kyoto for 2 nights: $2,500 - Private guided tour of Kyoto's temples and gardens: $1,500 - Traditional tea ceremony experience: $500 Day 6-7: Hakone - Private transfer to Hakone: $1,000 - Stay at the luxurious Gora Kadan for 2 nights: $3,000 - Private onsen (hot spring) experience: $1,000 - Private guided tour of Hakone's scenic spots: $1,500 Day 8-9: Osaka - First-class Shinkansen tickets to Osaka: $500 - Stay at the Ritz-Carlton Osaka for 2 nights: $2,500 - Private guided tour of Osaka's food and nightlife scene: $1,500 - Shopping spree at luxury boutiques in Osaka: $2,000 Total Cost: $21,500

Just returned from A&K Korea/Japan trip with my husband and good friend. Embarrassingly horrible! The tour director treated us all like we were on a school trip rather than a well heeled vacation. No enthusiasm, was petty and constantly complained about one of the guests to all of us, never offered any insights or suggestions. We are world travelers and have used many competitors with fabulous results. Accommodations were good but we could have done this trip ourselves easily and with much more immersion into the culture. A total let down. If you're thinking about using A&K i say: DON'T. A total waste of time and money.

19th-day buenos aires, Antarctica, Falkland Islands, and South Georgia was the best adventure we have ever had. Hands down. And we have had many great adventures to compare it to. 93 passengers, 143 ship crew, and 17 expedition team on Ponant Le Lyrial. A dream.

This was one of the worst three weeks of our lives. I understand that issues arise during travel but not blatant disorganization. It completely destroyed a trip of a lifetime for us. (Egypt, Jordan,Saudi), I am only going to share a few of the things that happened. * Trip Cost: $57,000 for a 2+ week trip * Experience: One of the worst three weeks of our lives due to blatant disorganization. Key Issues: 1. Hotel Checkout: Kicked out of a Four Seasons due to an early checkout time. You could have booked an extra night to avoid this. 2. Room Mix-Up: After a nine-hour travel day to a nearby destination, arrived at Banyan Tree with two different rooms booked for a three-night stay. Resolved after 30 minutes of waiting in the lobby. 3. Flights in Egypt: Three economy flights in one day with over ten hours of travel and no edible food provided. We had many travel days that were dreadful and absolutely not vip. 4. Guide: Our guide, Issam, was rude, disrespectful, and berated a guest with Alzheimer's. 5. Helicopter Ride: Quoted $22,000+ for a two-hour ride. We found the company and arranged it ourselves for $7,500. 6. Transportation: Waited 45 minutes for a car to the airport that never showed up, had to call Uber. 7. Overall: Promised "ultra luxury" services were a disaster with economy flights, disrespectful guide, missing chauffeurs, lack of food, terrible organization, and non-VIP services. Conclusion: If you're not a luxury company, just say so. This was a disgusting rip-off beyond imaginable belief. We were stuck in the Middle East having paid all this money to these people and just rolled around in a blender. DO NOT BOOK WITH ABERCROMBIE AND KENT

Pirates of Alaska = A & K. Booked Alaska, Wilderness & Wildlife luxury tour and was very disappointed. They did not book us the best or even second best hotels. More like Motel 6 accommodations for the first 4 days, no housekeeping service, terrible beds, in cramped rooms and powdered eggs on the buffet for breakfast. Inedible food, often served cold. The advertised sundowner was held in a drab conference room with no view. One drink ticket included. Had lunch at Talkeetna brew pup and beer not included. A & K charged a huge premium for the trip and failed to deliver. Never again

I unfortunately became quite sick entering Egypt for our A&K tour. Also unfortunately I did not purchase insurance. Subsequently, I asked A&k for a small credit for a future trip, as we were unable to experience anything in Egypt. They refused to even credit us two cents for a future trip. Also, it took them more than 7 weeks to respond with a "no" answer. Awful!

Extremely dissapointing start to our LUXURY? vacation. We leave within 24 hours and still do not have our itinerary information for a 13 day private tour of Australia. We have spent a small fortune and apparently will board the plane tomorrow without an iota of information (Not even sure how to start the trip once we get to Sydney). Fingers crossed! Will NEVER use a company that thinks this is luxury travel, COSTCO travel would have done a better job in my opinion.

My father and I booked a private 10-day Thailand trip through A&K and travelled in November. The trip itself was incredible and all of the local guides and hotels were top notch. The itinerary touched on everything we wanted. Overall we were extremely happy with the trip itself but found there could have been small things along the way to improve our experience. I found the communication between A&K and us to be light throughout the booking process. We only had calls when I reached out requesting them and while it could be time consuming to hop on a call for every question or idea, it would have been nice to have set times throughout our journey with A&K to review the itinerary, discuss any things we need to do prior to departure, hear from A&K along the way or even a check-in to provide feedback following the trip. As of today, we haven't heard from A&K to hear how the trip went which I find surprising when taking a trip of this magnitude. Additionally, while the hotels go above and beyond to ensure your stay is what you expect, it would have been nice to receive a gift at somepoint from A&K as a thank you for the trip. I previously booked a Safari for my honeymoon and received a nice photo upon arrival of me and my wife at a few of the hotels on that itinerary. It's a small gesture that goes a long way. I would definitely book again through A&K I just found these things would help improve the user experience.

Fortunately, I never got to travel with this company. My problems were with the initial booking process and customer service. They are very slow to get Back to you, if at all. I had questions after I booked, and found my agent was on vacation and his email was being monitored. I guess it wasn't, because no one would get back to me. I then tried to book airfare through them and was told 7 to 10 days, heard nothing back yet so gave it a couple of of more weeks. I contacted them, and was told they could not do it for several more weeks. because they were overwhelmed (bull baloney). Fortunatley something came up where I could not travel at the time anyway So I cancelled. got 500.00 deposit back but lost travel protection and other. Had a gut instinct not to book in the first place, should have paid attention to it. Judging by previous reviews, I am not alone.

BEWARE! run, don't walk! this company doesn't care about their services or the safety of their clients. After paying for an expensive trip, I fell and had 2 compression fractures to my back. we contacted them several weeks before the trip with doctor documentation to not travel. we asked to reschedule. not only wouldn't they reschedule or refund any of the money. we continued to try to work something out, but they refused. the airlines were very helpful and gave a full refund. I will never use or recommend this company.

Incredibly bad service. Considering the high prices of this company, you might hope for commensurate service. A&K failed to meet us at the airport,wouldn't reimburse for taxi fare, and was deceptive about Covid protection on their cruise. We will never travel with this amoral company again.

We are extremely disappointed to have to cancel our spring trip to Egypt. As everyone knows, except for Abercrombie & Kent, this is a very unsafe area of the world. Despite this fact A&K will own refund 50% of our cost. It seems they put a very low value on customer safety and satisfaction. This was to be our first trip with them and now we will never go any where with them. I caution you to find another company. A&K value their profits above customer safety.

Let me start by saying that this is not a luxury travel operator! We booked a small group tour (15 people) with them to Scotland this summer. Right from the start we had problems with this company. The first hotel we stayed at in Glasgow was old, dated and musty. The bathrooms were not upgraded and there were no elevators in the building. Our shower was backed up and almost overflowed every time we showered. The second hotel was in the middle of nowhere (Kinloch Rannoch) and although the hotel was updated and pretty, the service was horrendous and the food even worse. There was nothing to do at this destination except go for walks and see farms and cows and goats. I guess they thought this was a great way to see the highlands. The 3rd hotel was at the Old Course in St. Andrews and we were booked in rooms that overlooked the parking lot and garbage area. We ended up paying more money to get a better room with a view of the famous golf course. This is certainly not what we expected when we booked a luxury tour. They were also not honest with us about dinner at the hotel. Our tour guide told us we could order whatever we wanted off the menu and when we got the bill the waiter informed us that A&K only covered $70 pp so we had to make up the difference out of our own pocket. At least tell us that is what our budget is, so we can order accordingly. The last hotel we stayed in was in Edinburgh and we had a room that faced walls in an inner courtyard. When we complained to our tour guide about this she said "what do you want me to do"? Speaking of the tour guide... we were all disappointed with her as well. Although she was knowledgeable about Scotland, its heritage and history, she was very unorganized and impatient with the group. We were a diverse group ranging from early 30's to early 80's and our guide could not deal with all of the logistics that come with guiding a group of people. She would become overwhelmed and testy when things didn't go smoothly and lets face it, with a group of people that diverse there are things that don't always go according to plan. After we got home we told our travel agent about all the things we were unhappy with and she suggested we write a letter to A&K and tell them how we felt. To this date (which is 7 weeks later) we have still not heard a word from them. Its as if they don't care. Their customer service is terrible and basically non-existant. This was so disappointing and upsetting to us. We thought A&K was supposed to be a top notch travel company but we will never again travel with them.

We recently went on an A and K trip to Sicily and southern Italy. The itinerary was great. But there were a number of reasons that we will probably not travel with them again. The process of booking the trip was quite impersonal more like sales rather than a real travel consultant.. I wrote a detailed feedback letter after the trip to the sales consultant and to A and K Europe and never received a response which is not acceptable. I clearly get the sense that they don't really care about travelers feedback. Seems like they just want to push you to book another trip. My main criticism of the trip was that there was a group of 10 people on our trip who were quite difficult and demanding-- seems like they should have had their own private trip.. There were some small things that should not have happened on a luxury trip: 1. long bus rides on a bus where the driver would not clean the bathroom so it couldn't be used; 2. in places where we were having dinner on our own, we did not get a list of suggestions (in Naples) or were reccommended places without indicating how near they were to the hotel. All in all, I have been very disappointed with A and K's complete unresponsiveness to my feedback... For a "luxury" tour operation, this is unacceptable and we will not be traveling with them again.

DON'T USE ABERCROMBIE & KENT AS YOUR TRAVEL AGENT unless you don't mind bait-and-switch itineraries and lots of bus time. Their definition of "luxury travel" on our (very expensive) Egypt & the Nile tour included getting up at 04:00 to spend 7 hours on a bus (round trip) for a 2.5 hour visit of a temple site. The itinerary we purchased had this portion as one 40-minute flight, not a bus trip. A&K claimed the flight was cancelled, but our subsequent research shows it was not. We did get a boxed breakfast, though! They also compressed what was to be two days of touring Luxor sites into one very long and tiring day. The "Design Your Day" portion of the trip turned into "Vote and Hope the Group Votes for the Excursion You Want" day, with no option offered except driving you back to the hotel. Less than a month before our trip, they decided that all travelers would need to be vaccinated (not just tested); if we hadn't been vaccinated we would not have been able to go, but they didn't consider that change "significant" enough to allow travelers to cancel or even shift the dates of the trip. A&K sold us an itinerary that didn't exist but didn't tell us the true itinerary until after we'd made full payment and could no longer cancel or make changes. Really disappointing and way too expensive for what we got. We ended up ditching half the tour and doing our own thing and having a much better time than with the tour!

My wife and I just completed at 10-day trip with friends that we booked with A&K. The whole process of dealing with A&K reps was frustrating. They were slow to return calls and emails and provide us with information. We had to escalate our problems to a manager before we got some answers. and when we did receive it we were disappointed that even though their description of the trip lead us to believe we'd have a guide for about 8 hours on each tour day (the norm on other trips we've taken) some days were much less, even just 3 hours one day. We figured they never sent the schedule either because their interaction with Metropolitan was so minimal they never got the schedule or they were trying to hide the fact that the trip was less then represented. Despite numerous requests they never sent us the schedule for each day of the trip prior to our departure. They deceitfully only put the activity for the day but did not give us a start time and end time. We assumed we'd have a guide for about 8 hours a day (customary on other planned trips we had taken). When we finally got the itinerary in Columbia, we learned that our first guide only planned to be with us for 3 hours per day. We figured that A&K never sent a detailed daily schedule because they were trying to hide the fact that the trip was less then represented. We had great difficulty in getting a response from A&K in Colombia. Only after great complaining did we learn they had contracted the trip to a Colombian firm (Metropolitan Touring). Besides collecting our payment and paying Metropolitan (after deducting I suspect a significant cut for themselves), A&K's role was both minimal and badly executed. Metropolitan was great and very responsive to any problems in Colombia. If we had it to do over again, we'd book directly with them at https://www.metropolitan-touring.com We communicated these complaints to A&K and received no response. We'd never travel with them again.

We took a "private journey" to Southeast Asia. The hotels were fabulous. Unfortunately I can book fabulous hotels myself. The sightseeing and tours were exactly what I'd expect from any middle priced tour company, nothing special, which made it a bad value for all the money we paid. In addition, the customer service and communication from A&K was poor.

We booked a trip with A & K in 2023 for Egypt & the Nile. In the meantime, I became ill and required brain surgery. i canceled the trip well in advance, and requested a refund. I am still (April, 2024) struggling to get a refund. The company continues to Stonewall. I highly recommend don't use this company. They are totally unreliable.

WE booked some travel with them for Marrakesh with trips to the Atlas Mountain for next month. After the earthquake tragically caused damage and trauma to this region, we attempt to cancel our trip as we did not wish to visit an area in pain and injury - and we are older travelers who might have need of health resources. A & K refused to fully refund our travel, even though we would have gladly accepted a delay and rebooking to visit Morocco at another time. We recommend that other travelers be aware of this inflexibility in the face of a natural disaster. We appreciate that guides should be paid -- and wish that this international company would have supported them and also cared about its customers.

My husband and I booked an Antarctica cruise through A&K. While the cruise itself was wonderful thanks to cruise operator Ponant, A&K's travel agents are the worst we have dealt with on any continent. They gave us a month long runaround about what medical paperwork we needed to travel causing us to almost miss the trip and only telling us it was wrong 4 days before our international flights were set to leave. This caused us a ton of stress and phone calls to try and get updated paperwork at the last minute. In the end, my doctor ended up providing 3 different letters due to A&K's incompetence and poor communication. They were supposed to pick up my husband at the airport in Buenos Aires but never arrived and told him to take a cab instead. They overcharged for internal flights by almost 2x the cost of what it would have charged us to book ourselves - leading us to question how much we were being overcharged on other items as well which were not so easily broken out. Luckily we looked into and skipped out on their 2k trip insurance and bought better travel insurance ourselves for $50 per person. Overall, seasoned travelers should avoid this company completely. It is cheaper, easier, and less of a headache to make the bookings yourself or to work with an actual luxury travel agent that can find deals, provide upgrades, and offer personalized service. This is in NO way a luxury tour company, its just a group tour company akin to gadventures with much worse service and much higher prices.

One a one star because I couldn't rate it a zero. Arguably one of the worst travel booking experiences of my life. I assumed they would be a luxury experience for the price of their trips. Yet you can't reach them. They don't respond for days. They don't do what they say they are going to do. You should really avoid them at all costs.

You can do much better. Took a trip called The Great Migration Safari in Style -- Africa. If you like a Chevy then this is your ideal. Did see lots of animals and the on-the-groud personnel were really good. However, pre-planning and sales assistance were poor. Press to overpay with "private" options. Fellow group travelers were old and staid (e.g. BAD). Too much seat time, little culture, and no exercise unless you made it happen. Hotels ranged from first-rate to not-so. There are much better ways to see Africa. This is a big trip that is quite expensive. Find a superior solution.

I went on the Egypt and Nile trip in October 2022, with the Jordan pre-trip excursion. I had a wonderful experience on both parts! The guides were very knowledgeable and helpful. In Jordan, the guide discovered I am an engineer early on, and personalized the experience by focusing some of his discussions on those aspects since he knew they would interest me. In Egypt, the guide was also extremely knowledgeable and did a great job with his presentations. He would cater the tour based on the conditions at the time -- if there was no crowd at a usually popular spot we would start there. Additionally, there was an A&K representative there who made sure our experience was top notch. For lunch a Giza, he called ahead and discovered that the restaurant would be very crowded at the time we had scheduled to be there, so we swapped lunch with one of the events and had the very scenic place to ourselves! I would definitely book with A&K again.

We and our friends booked a private tour of Scotland through Abercrombie and Kent. We used this company because we thought they were top notched and used only the most luxurious of hotels. The journey was improperly planned by A & K because we spent several very long days on the road seeing beautiful sights but hardly stopping because we had to get to the next place. Some of the sights we were to see had to be deleted because there was just no way we would arrive before it closed for the day. Our biggest issue, however, was that we were promised (and paid for) top level rooms in each hotel. We were really looking forward to stay in sea view suites in St. Andrews. When we arrived, we were told that A & K had bought "Lawn view" suites - which were actually parking lot views. So while we paid for the best rooms in the hotel, we got the worst in the hotel. We initially thought that all this was the hotel's fault. We called our travel agent and the trouble shooter from A & K. Of course nothing was done. We did finally get a refund of the supposed difference in cost between the rooms. That did not make up for the upset, waste of time and fact that we were horribly disappointed. A & K promised that they would make sure the next and last hotel rooms would be appropriate. (Again, high level, large rooms with sweeping views). That didn't happen either. We were placed in tiny rooms with one tiny window. When I complained to the hotel, we were told that the tiny rooms qualified at the same level as the large rooms. A &K did nothing about this. Ironically, our travel companions returned to this hotel later in July (on another trip). They booked the same level rooms as were promised by A & K and, lo and behold, they were given beautiful large rooms with sweeping views. (as pictured on the hotel's website). I am not entirely sure, but think it's evident that A & K deliberately cuts corners at the travelers' expense. Not fair and bad business practice. I won't use them again and cannot recommend them to others.

Rip Off do not Use A and K for tours 1. On the morning of the pickup, Jonathan, the Guide, and Hannon, the Driver, arrived in a Ford van rather than the "luxury vehicle" we expected. When queried, they offered that the regular vehicle had broken down and was not available. The substitute was completely unacceptable as one of us had to sit in the front seat next to the driver, while her husband was in the third row of seats, while the second husband and wife sat in the middle with Jonathan. In all instances, the leg room in the back 2 levels, very cramped and uncomfortable for the long tour of approximately 6-7 hours. Moreover, it was extremely difficult for the person in the back seat to get in and out of the very cramped back seat each time we stopped. In addition, the comments made by Jonathan during the tour could barely be heard and in most instances were not heard at all by either the person in the front or the back set of the van, despite repeatedly requesting him to speak louder. 2.The climate control for the vehicle was not acceptable and when the driver was queried said that the air conditioning was not working in the vehicle. It was an especially hot day and the fan continued to blow hot air. The driver volunteered that he knew some gaskets were broken. It is unclear why this vehicle was selected as a replacement. 3. We believe that Jonathan is a nice man but he was not a good tour guide. Many of his comments during the tour were not really on point, and often irrelevant. When queried for further information, as he requested, his answers were far from satisfactory in addressing the issues we raised. 4. Further concerns regarding the guidance provided by Jonathan are that during the stop at Conwy Castle and Portmeirion he did not accompany us through either site as we observed other guides doing for their groups-several were in evidence during our visit and thus he did not really guide us through these sites. He just told us where to go and as a matter of fact we ended up paying approximately 11 Br. Pounds for each adult to enter the Castle. This is a charge which I would expect to be subsumed in the money we already paid to Abercrombie-$1671 for 4 people. At best, we can sum up the service your personnel delivered was essentially limited to transportation, but not meeting the criteria of luxury, and included only mediocre guiding services. This is surely not the level of service for which Abercrombie and Kent would be proud to claim or advertise to others.

I have travelled in over 180 countries and A&K is the WORST company I Ihave ever used. First of all they advertise Luxury Small group tours and then they put you in coach seats for 4 hours for their internal flights. They adveritise you can fly Business class but do not tell you when you make your booking it is not available. Second, they book you on 5 am flights and do not tell you until two weeks before the trip. That means you have to be up all night in order to catch your flight. This is bad for some people's health. They do not seem to be concerned about the effect their planning may have on your health. Why don't they tell you about scheduling at the the beginning? Third. they do not answer their phones...You can only leave messages to be called back by the person who booked you. And after you leave a message they do ot call you back. Occasionally you do get a person who will take a message and say someone will call you back, but they never do. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!

I booked the long Egypt and Nile trip 8 days before the departure date, and cancelled it 3 days before, due to the new ovoid variant becoming a new threat and facing the possibility of a 2 week quarantine before re entering the US if I got infected. They said any booking cancelled within 30 days if departure, client would forfeit the whole amount of the trip. Most airlines and hotels at the time were returning deposits, and charging no cancellation fees due to the panoramic. A&K said my paid invoice was a contract. Period. No credit toward a future trip, to a cancellation fee so I could re book. Period. Curt and unsympathetic and rude .Really rude. I was seeking diversion from my grief over my husband's passing away after 46 years if a close marriage in a location where we had not traveled. I wad paying a single supplement for everything. I did expect some sympathy being a single traveler at 85 years old. I booked knowing the State Dept, had 2 advisories on their official webpage. 1, Do Not Travel, (covid)and 2, Do Not Travel because the Embassy did not have personnel to extricate US travelers if they got kidnapped or lesser known threats in Egypt. I was trusting. Letters to them went unanswered. Agent unresponsive, and speaking to the 'boss' got an angry response, very rude. My attitude is forget about it. For self defense, I thought about sueing, butwas advised a contract is a contract. I had no chance to get anything from my $ 11000, not including air. I don't want to spend one more minute hating on them or beating myself up over it. I do want to spend the rest of my life going about my business shafting good times with friends and continue my steep learning curve on how to deal with finances that my husband dealt with deftly. This is why I have taken so long to review/reveal my poor treatment as a client of A&K. My trip was to have been the first week of December of 2021. Dreadful .

The service from A&K was frankly non-existent. don't get me wrong the Villa we had booked was gorgeous - but the A&K rep was just.... absent. He didn't turn up to welcome us, didn't arrive the next day as planned to provide instructions (we had some issues that needed resolving), had a phone number that didn't accept incoming calls!, finally arrived after 5 days of a 7 day trip - we then agreed he would return on our final day to do a deposit check and collect the keys.... never turned up! Absolutely useless - this was my wife's 50th birthday trip and for the expense, I should have had to be chasing around for their rep. No offer of compensation for our hassles and poor service = I will be spending my money elsewhere in future and will not be using them again. If I was you, I would avoid them and using other agencies - as they do not provide value for money.

Recently traveled throughout Japan coordinated by A & K. Two couples, paid $4k per day for excursions alone (hotel not included). Experience FAR below what one would expect for this fee. Lunch at a food court in a mall. Nothing unique or helpful to elevate the experience. Booking the activities ourself would have cost less than half the total fee we paid. Guides were pleasant but certainly not insightful or highly knowledgable. Called A & K and spoke with Julie Skrei, director of sales, to explain our experience. She was highly defensive and rude. I would caution you strongly about using this company for any travel. Looked online and they actually rank 1.8 out of 5 stars on Yelp with similar experiences described there. Wish I had read those before agreeing to using their service.

We have just finished 12 days 7:28-8/8 Kenya and Tanzania Africa holiday. A&K has pride itself to be a luxury tour operator which is definitely not our experiences. It's more like flying economy plus. Issues are 1. A&K cars are old and have lots of wear. 2. We were stuck at a air strip in Kenya border for over 2 hours. The local representative of A&K did not give us updates and told us it's operation issues in different cities (Arusha and Nairobi). I kept on calling the A&K customer service lines and was promised he would call back and he never did. 3. 1st Guides in Anbrosi English is difficult to understand. 4. Many members in our group all have stomach issues during our trip. 5. Our departure from our last spot was moved up about 2.5 hours and from our perspective, it's for A&K convenience and cut short of our enjoyment 6. Our main guide instead of apologizing to guests to mid-handling and poor A&K operations, he keeps on saying "Let me tell you..."....this is my 3rd trip to Africa and have travelled over 110+ countries around the world and this supposed "luxury" experience has to be the worst. Our fellow travel members ran into various issues and very unfortunate.

We took the Singapore & Malaysia Tapestry of cultures. It was a Marco Polo tour which is supposed to be their best and a small group. There were 13 of us and we all agreed this would be our last trip with them. This was billed as a foodie experience and the places they took us were awful. Experiences like a special mahjong class touted as an A&K exclusive experience vanished. The A&K representative apologized at the end of our trip saying he knew this was not the trip we expected. Since we didn't receive events as stated in the description we requested that they give use partial refund. Everyone on the tour complained to A&K in detail about everything that went wrong. We were offered $1000 toward another trip. This is not a way to treat repeat customers.

i gave them my deposit and have been trying to get an invoice to pay the remainder for a trip 90 days out. It's due tomorrow and I have sent emails for a week with nothing but a canned "I'm out of the office. I'll contact you when I return". Is this company a scam?????

Again, I have to agree with everyone the customer service has to be the worst it's sad as the trips are great once you get to where you're going. and the guilds in other countries are great it just seems the USA CUSTOMER SERVICE IS LACKING I just went to New ZEALAND with NATIONAL GEO, and they are positively on the ball.

I strongly don't agree with you requiring vaccination for 7 year olds to be on the family small group trips. National Geographic doesn't have this requirement. Please reconsider. You don't need to be Disney... and it's definitely not a cruise we are signing up for. The vaccine isn't stopping the spread at this point in kids. We are already getting swabbed and re-swabbed, especially when considering a trip to Africa. Just a thought. Would have loved to sign up for the Kenya /Tanzania trip despite everyone's (run the other way from this company messages).

Thank you Yelp for what you do. I had signed up with a group of friends for a November luxury cruise on the Nile in Egypt. Gave my initial thousand dollar deposit and then had some questions. Sent an email 3 days ago, no response. So the leader of our group called and the agent said they take 48 hours to respond also "with so much to worry about in the world, why was I concerned with this". Hmm luxury service, not for me. So I did what I should have done first - check with Yelp. Average rating 2 Stars. Oops, not for me. Thanks again Yelp.

Update: No one from Abercrombie & Kent ever reached out. Guess they believe in bad service after all.

Terrible customer service. like the absolute worse, i spoke to two different agents for a trip with minimal attention or interest. This is by far the worst travel company. I ended up booking a luxury trip with their competitor and Beyond and was so so happy

Do NOT book with this company if you are worried about whether Covid will continue to cause countries to close borders, or cause Abercrombie itself to cancel a trip because of Covid related issues. THEY WILL NOT REFUND YOUR MONEY. PERIOD. I was considering booking next May's 'wings over Southern Africa' small group air tour, which starts at nearly $40,K per person. No one knows what the Covid situation is going to be like next year especially in Southern Africa. Yet Abercrombie informed me that once they have that money, there's no returning it. Yes, you can use it to apply to future travel. But in the meantime, they will have tens of thousands of your dollars to invest and make money from while you figure out if and when you can ever travel with them again.

Wings over Mediterranean Sept 2022. Other than the intercity flights which were first class private jet, the rest was......average. Tour buses with windows too small to see any passing points of interest. A 250 sq ft "luxury" hotel room---thought I was in a Motel 8. Museum tours led by local experts who over-talked so long that they cut into anything that was planned for the remainder of that day. Restaurants....3 in particular very small, crowded, and not even remotely above average. Written itinerary says "and then return to your host city and enjoy the rest of the afternoon at your leisure." No way...we usually got back to the hotel around 5:30 after already passing up at least one planned exhibit. We had no special tour group privileges...we were just part of the pack and were overrun by tourists at every stop. $40,000 per person....a big huge "ouch"

This company canceled our trip to Africa due to Covid and then refused to refund our full payment. We had to use our travel insurance for partial reimbursement and our credit card company also refunded a portion; we are still out $3000 for a trip we'll never take....at least never with A&K. We booked with A&K thinking they were a quality company, we are beyond disappointed. DO NOT BOOK WITH A&K.

Is it possible to give negative stars? After receiving my full payment, A&K went "missing in action." They would not return my calls or emails. I was diagnosed with a serious illness, and thought it was possible I might have to cancel. When I did, in fact, have to cancel, they refused to refund my money or even give me a credit. Do NOT book travel with them!! Once they receive your money, service ends.

Never got through to the assigned luxury travel consultant (for a $30K trip) despite suggesting times to converse multiple times via email. I also called to reach this person, escalate and get someone else. I was put on an endless hold for a call bank.