Trafalgar Travel USA

Difficult review to write. The company delivers on its promises. Problem is that it doesn’t promise much. If you are looking for simple prearranged travel plans, use Trafalgar. If you are looking for a pampered experience with everything included, stay away. The guides are competent and knowledgeable, but almost every tour is additional to the starting price. Also, if you are elderly or have difficulty walking, Trafalgar is not for you. As stated, this is a difficult and therefore ambivalent review.

This was once in a lifetime trip for me! Southern Italy & Sicily September 9th - 19th 2025. It was my very first time using my U.S. passport. I was so excited about it. My friend did all the research, from the towns we would see, excursions that were offered, to the hotels we would stay at. There were 2 different groups going on what was supposed to be the same trip. We quickly learned that would not be the case. Several of our hotels, the amount of nights we would stay at them, and even cities were changed. This was not only frustrating, it made for a lot of extra time driving, waisting much time backtracking in the coach. At one point we were put up in a business Raddison (for 2 nights) with zero vacation amenities, in the middle of nowhere, nothing around it and in a sketchy part of town. Our own guide call it “an emergency landing”! I had looked forward to the hotels where we were staying more than one night. I thought on those days I might skip the excursion, and relax by the pool. That didn’t happen. The only hotel we were supposed to stay 3 nights we only ended up staying one. This made it impossible for any time to rest and relax, we were on the go so much that i couldn’t catch a breath. Honestly it felt like bootcamp. Some of the people in this group were older and some with physical limitations, I don’t see how they made it with no downtime to recover. One hotel we stayed at was right out of the 70’s it smelled of intense disinfectant, and the wallpaper was coming off of the walls. The last place we stayed, we literally had to walk a 1/2 mile to get to our room. The tour guide did her best to keep things up beat and positive, until she didn’t. At one point she was very rude to one of my friends, maybe her frustration with all of the changes couldn’t be curbed any longer, she did apologize, but there was a lot of money spent to go in this trip to be treated that way. Every single person i talked within our group was upset about how it went, the food was mediocre, ( with the exception of a few dinners) the hotels were definitely not 4 star. I understand that sometimes adjustments have to be made, but this did not even resemble the trip that we signed up for and looked forward to for months. From what I gather the other tour group got that trip. My excitement about this trip quickly turned into disappointed, and exhaustion. Maybe your company is a great place to plan a once in a lifetime vacation and this was just an anomaly, I could not say, what I can say is my one and only “once in a lifetime” vacation experience provided to me by Trafalgar, was very disappointing, and I definitely would not recommend!

Trafalgar/GET asked for my flight info but NO ONE was there to pick us up as we flew in the day before. Again, for an all-inclusive tour I expected to be picked up, It cost me 130 euros ($150) just to get to my hotel. Why ask for my flight info if no-one is going to pick us up? I reached out via email to Michael Morales but he said that is the way it is. Good to know. On the return trip they changed the bus time to 6 am to accommodate all of the people traveling on 9 am flights. I did appreciate that! PAY TO PLAY TOUR >I paid for a tour of Europe but only got 1/2 a tour. A list of excursions was presented (and upsold for over an hour) on Day 1 of the trip whereby the cost would be $855 euros (close to $1,000). If you did not pay this then you were separated from the group for a LOT of the time. I feel that these optional experiences were really the HIGHLIGHTED experiences and thus I was not able to partake in any of it. I also felt isolated and excluded from the group as I was not part of the "optional" tours, so my "included portion" was often completed quickly and early in the day leaving me without anything else to do (and also sometimes on my own to get back to a hotel). One day we were told that we could "wait for the bus until 3:00" if we wanted a ride back to the hotel. This was on a day when it was 86 degrees outside and would have meant waiting for FIVE hours. Again, my travel partner is almost 80 years old and we had to walk in the heat all the way back to a bus stop (after already walking into the city centre) and then ride on a bus where we had NO idea how to pay or where to really even get off. I think bus transportation should have been provided. Everyone else was off on a boat ride down the Danube with lunch, while we were trying to find our way back to the hotel. This is unacceptable. On the last day of the tour we had breakfast at 6:30 am and then the “tour group” all left for a trip to Eagle’s Nest. The bus returned at 11:45 and then we drove to pick up the group. This meant that we literally spent ½ the day doing absolutely NOTHING. The hotels were often out of the city centre so we had no access to anything. I paid almost $3,000 for a tour where it seems most of the events were not included. Previous tour participants said that it seemed strange to see so many events NOT included, as they had been before. I also happened to see an itinerary from Gate 1 Travel posted at the hotel and they had the same exact trip to Eagle’s Nest listed; the only difference was it was INCLUDED as part of their tour. This was my first guided bus tour and I can say that the chances of me being a repeat customer are pretty slim. I had always heard the name of “Trafalgar” in travel circles and it seemed to have a pretty good reputation. But at this point I believe the business model of providing small and limited “included” experiences while upcharging for all of the highlighted “optional” experiences is not for me. I feel as though I paid for a full tour but only received ½ of it.

My family and I went on a Trafalgar trip back when they were going to Mexico and we had the absolute best time! We traveled through the Yucatan and got to see some amazing gems. Our tour guide, Alvaro, was a delight, the trip was planned out perfectly, and the guests we were with were a joy to be around. Overall, 10/10 and we are looking forward to traveling with them again!

Had one of their freakin' busses pull up REALLY almost too close to my car today in a Gillette WY Walmart parking lot (about < 6" from my front bumper with the back of the bus.) The "driver" couldn't park the monster a couple of rows away from everybody else i guess. Then drives away smirking while i try to explain he almost took my cars front bumper. It seems like if you want on a site seeing tour of the MidWest where the itinerary includes all the WalMarts and a bus driver that parks anywhere he feels like and doesn't give a rip about where he drives and almost hit, Then Nana and PaPa this is the company for you!

We just booked travel with Trafalgar. My wife has been on hold for 2 hours and 45 minutes. This is the longest customer service wait for us with any company ever. This company needs to review your system and provide a call back to customers if call waits are longer than 15 minutes or if you are not available,  say that. This is a horrible reflection for a new customer. We have had better service with every other travel company we have used. We are considering canceling due to your lack of responsiveness. Update: We held fast, and the trip went well. The 3 stars were purely for the bad start stress. The rest of the trip was more in the 4-5 range. The guides were good overall. Breakfasts were great. Tight sometimes with the drinks at included dinners. Our trip had way too much coach time.

UPDATE to this review I posted earlier RE: TTUSAS B917829 VIP Transfer Buyer BEWARE! I am editing this review and today is January 24, 2024. After several emails, this has been corrected, Trafalgar and Costco have reached out via email and phone. I appreciate the time everyone took to make this right. We are once again looking forward to our trip of a lifetime!!! I have also upgraded this review to 4 stars and hoping to update it again after our travels to a 5! First and previous review I posted earlier: Please note - I posted 3 stars because we have not yet taken the trip and this has been the only unpleasant experience we have had to date planning this trip. RE: TTUSAS B917829 VIP Transfer Buyer BEWARE! First time booking a Trafalgar trip and we booked through Costco Travel, advertised as a ‘trip of a lifetime’. We booked in October, 2023, in good faith and that trip included what Trafalgar called ‘VIP Transfer, Door-to-Door service’, listed on the ‘final invoice’. We were impressed that this company would get us to and from our home to the airport and back again, only requirement was we live within 50 miles of our departure airport, we met that criterion. Evidently Trafalgar has discontinued it’s ‘VIP Transfer’ program for 2024, we received an email January 5, 2024. We understand that this program has changed. What is disappointing is Trafalgar not honoring bookings already made in 2023 for 2024. Trafalgar touts their top rating on their website for taking care of its customers, yet this company doesn’t honor plans made in advance or makes changes without offering alternatives. We are disappointed and haven’t boarded the plane yet or started our trip. Makes us wonder what else will change. Be careful what happened to us doesn’t happen to you as you trust Trafalgar with your trip of a lifetime.

European Traveler with Tour Director Gigi Bromage.