Insight Vacations Reviews 17

Beware of this insight vacation scam. spend your money somewhere else. very rude staff , they can even tell you " Go fxxk yourself "
here is the written answer from insight vacations
please read following reply
A198696
Please read comment from tour operator with added notes.
Hi Sabine,

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention and for your continued support in advocating for your clients.

We are sincerely sorry to hear about the challenges your guests faced during their European journey. The primary concern regarding the air conditioning is deeply regrettable. While air conditioning is not a guaranteed feature, the hotel in question was equipped with it; unfortunately, it was not functioning in the guests’ room. ( it is like you rent a car, engine is the basic you need, wheels are optional and that is why they are worned out. You can still drive at 10 km per hour even though tires are flat). We were especially disheartened to learn of the reported behavior from hotel staff, which is entirely unacceptable. To help alleviate the discomfort, the Travel Director promptly purchased fans and remained actively engaged throughout the situation.

Insight has endangered my life plus created a nightmare of a vacation. Extremely poor communication. We were told that we had to change buses while we were all on an excursion. We were told our personal items left with the bus would be moved. When we arrived back from the excursion they didn't take our items off the bus. All of our medications including heart medications and hearing aid charger is part of this. Now my husband can't hear and my life is at risk. Many false conflicting statements were given. Thanks Insight for ruining my trip.

They might provide a good experience to their clients but parking on the pavement in Torphichen at a point where the road narrows and making it difficult for traffic to see doesn't enamour you with the locals. Please feel free to look on the village Facebook page for evidence. There is a large car park by the community centre where buses are easily accommodated and it's less than 2 minutes to walk from there to the pub.

This was truly one of the best travel experiences my daughter and I have ever had. Although she and one other young person were the only younger travelers on the trip, the entire group was incredibly warm and welcoming. Everyone embraced them and made them feel completely comfortable and included, which meant so much to us.

Our tour guide, Selina, was fantastic—genuinely kind, attentive, and always making sure everything ran smoothly and that we were all taken care of. You could really tell she cared.

I highly recommend this tour to anyone looking for a meaningful, well-organized, and heartwarming travel experience. We came home with unforgettable memories and new connections that we’ll always treasure.

Insight Vacations cancelled their April Best of Britain tour (second year in a row) and initially refused to refund my $700. I had not paid the full amount by the due date because we were waiting on a medical diagnosis for my wife which would have prevented us from travelling. It eventually got resolved.

The whole experience from beginning to end on Best of Italy was amazing! I felt so taken care of the whole time by the incredible travel director and the local experts were so passionate and welcoming. We got to visit all the big spots as well as lesser known destinations, which were a real personal highlight. Would recommend Insight to anyone!

Insight Vacations are bloody brilliant and I'll have nobody tell me otherwise. I'm shocked to see any poor reviews!!

Everything about our Highlights of Eastern Europe tour was flawless. The hotels were fantastic, the pace of the tour was brilliant, we spent more than enough time in each city, I learnt so much but also enjoyed letting my hair down with the friends I made on tour. And don't get me started on the food, I put on about 5kgs but I don't regret a single thing.

If you're thinking of going on a guided tour, there's literally no better tour company than Insight Vacations.

I waited for several months before deciding to write a review about our recent trip with Insight Vacations. In September 6-14, 2024 during the National Parks (Yellowstone) tour we completed our 6th and final trip with Insight Vacations. Not real sure what happened since our first Insight Vacation but it really has fallen out of our favor. The travel director, Manuel, seemed very uncomfortable, stressed and rushed in every aspect of planning and guiding this trip. This creates additional anxiety to an already exhausting bus trip. The driver, Archie, did a wonderful job. One of the major problems we have noticed is cost versus quality of trip. The trip was extremely draining and tiring. We actually had to take another relaxing vacation to unwind from this drain. I sure hope Insight Vacations can figure out a way to blend cost, quality and actually spend more time at much nicer areas and less time with less desirable venues. We will look for less stressful and more comfortable ways to travel. We wish the best of luck.

I had a great tour together with my wife in italy.
It was just amazing, thanks!

We have traveled with Insight three times. The first was a tour of Switzerland which was very good. Based on this, we traveled again through France which was also good. We thought Britain and Ireland Explorer would be similar. But the hotels were a disappointment and the driver was rude.
The Gleneagle hotel in Killarney, rated as four-star, was anything but. The hotel has no A/C and the room was hot aside from being tiny. We had to use a rickety fan that made an awful amount of noise. This hotel does not rate even a two-star.
In general, aside from the likes of Hilton, British and Irish hotels were disappointing compared with the likes provided on our Swiss tour.
Strangely, in Insight's home country, transfers to and from the airport were not included. The tour director did not meet use until the following morning, which was also a deviation from other two Insight tours and with our many Globus tours.
My trust in Insight claiming they provide four- and five-star hotels has diminished vastly.

Customer service was terrible. Firstly, actually booking the trip was a nightmare because we couldn’t even get ahold of the company for months to actually make the booking. Secondly, we had a member of our family with an illness on the trip and had to return home. We did purchase the travel insurance recommended by Insight, but they refuse to pay. Insight also refuses to offer any sort of trip credit or compensation for the missed trip. We are out over $10,000 and will not see a penny of it back.

Have done 3 tours, 2 of 3 outstanding, most recent less so. Good ones let you see essentials in the location, and give you time to explore on own. The last ('bad') one, many of the essential sites (like the Mosque/Cathedral in Cordoba) were 'optional', which is okay, but eats up free time. Basically in a 15 day tour, had 2 afternoons that we chose not to do the optional experiences, mostly to rest up. And when we did have limited free time, it was like, okay, here's an hour, 90 min, get lunch and explore Segovia... Getting meals takes 80% or more of the free time alloted. Not like the previous 2 trips, where we saw the essentials, and did feel we had free time to explore (like in Cortina dAmprezzo). Makes me think twice about our next tour... May not be Insight, maybe time to try a river cruise...

My husband and I did a recent tour to Italy with Insight Vacations. Everything including the locations visited, Travel Director, accommodations and food were excellent. The bus was brand new with exceptional leg room and the driver was a genius on those narrow roads. Will be booking another tour with Insight next year.

We booked an Insight vacation tour to Scandinavia and fjords last July. i will start by saying that it is a major RIP OFF. We paid 6500 USD per person for a 15 day tour. That is around 928 USD per night per couple. Our hotels are supposed to be 4-5 stars but our rooms were so bad! No aircon, no view (most of our view was the back of the building where they dump garbage, or the carpark). The rooms probably cost 150-200 USD a night at most. Only after contacting Insight head office on the 8th day, that the room quality improved. The 2 hour "city tours" that are included in the package is basically a 2 hour ride on the bus, with a guide pointing out landmarks and various places of interest. it was so fast you can't even take a proper photo. In Copenhagen, we passed by the iconic Nyhavn for 3 seconds! Good thing we arrived Copenhagen a few days before the tour and had a proper tour around the city on our own.

You also have to pay for "optional experiences" like museum visits (which were worth it) and things like swedish meatballs dinner (that we didn't participate in and didn't regret because the ones that went, said it was underwhelming, old and dusty.)

Our tour director was inefficient, condescending, basically insulted some of her previous clients, talked to us like we were children, would not let anyone use the toilet on the bus (ONLY FOR EMERGENCY - i can still hear her voice in my head since she told us every single day). she was also constantly arguing with our bus driver and it was so awkward to listen to.

There is so much more that was wrong with the tour. I am writing this review because I don't want anyone else to waste their money on this tour. It was a horrible experience (not only for me, but most of our tour mates). After we emailed insight, they said someone will get back to us within 28 days. What a joke, and i realised later that it because after 28 days you can no longer leave them a review on Feefo.

I can and am happy to provide photos of the rooms and additional evidence like email correspondence with them.

The 40 seat luxury coach broke down at the end of day 1 of our 9 day Insight Vacations Wonders of the American West coach tour in May. It was replaced for the rest of our tour by a 56 seater coach with significantly less legroom, and seatbelts that didn’t have the side adjuster that enables you to stop the belt rubbing into your neck if you’re a certain body shape. For us, the reason for choosing Insight was their luxury coach, so every day on the 56 seater was a reminder that (to use a flying analogy) we had paid for business class and were getting economy class.
We had booked through a travel agent because we’d read the online reviews warning of Insight’s poor communication. The travel agent Freedom Destinations, who supported us, put forward our complaint to Insight. Insight sympathised but cited their terms and conditions that don’t require them to replace the luxury coach with one of the same quality. To an extent I understand that they need to cover themselves for an instance where a luxury replacement isn’t available on the day of the breakdown, but not to provide one at any stage of the remainder of our tour feels like either poor contingency planning or cost-saving.
Insight refused our request for a cash payment as compensation. Instead they offered a discount voucher for use on a future trip. We declined the voucher as we do not believe it to be fair to only offer compensation that is dependent upon customers re-using a service, and our faith in their organisation and their coach suppliers Holiday Motor Coach has been broken.
Such a shame, because the sights on the trip were wonderful, as were the people we travelled with.
1 star to highlight the risks associated with a breakdown to other potential customers for whom the luxury coach is important.

I've done Spain 3 times, including entirely on my own, and this trip with Insight Vacations exceeded my expectations. Maybe it was extra fun because of the holiday decor and general merriment of both the group and locals we encountered. Our tour director was Betty and she was phenomenal. She made it look easy, she explained everything really well, but also gave us time to rest/sleep on the coach drive days. She knew some great shopping spots for truly locally made souvenirs. She was clear with our group about meeting times and locations. She handled lots of dietary needs amongst the group and always made sure people were well fed.
Really enjoyed the flamenco school and show in Seville. It was fun getting to learn the moves and what each little part means, as I had no clue from my previous trips. Lots of laughter as we all tried our best to replicate the moves. The traditional paella cooking experience in Valencia was great. Again, didn't know before that the seafood paella isn't the traditional version. Getting to meet the chef and his niece who walked us through each step, the importance of each ingredient, and then getting to share the final product was a highlight for me.
Plus the coach is fantastic. The extra leg room was such a treat. It also rained two days and Insight had umbrellas available for all guests, if they wanted one. How nice to not have to pack one! Hotels were all well located within the cities with one exception due to a marathon happening on the day we arrived into Valencia. I'm sure the usual hotel made more money selling to the runners than for a group. The backup hotel was very nice, just had to use the coach more to get around.

Our travel agent recommended Insight for our Scandinavia vacation. We liked their itinerary and booked their small group tour six months in advance. Two months before the trip our tour was cancelled "due to operational reasons and lack of participation". We requested but were refused compensation for costs incurred related to our unrecoverable travel and insurance expenses for this cancellation. They said, "read our fine print, we do not have to compensate you." DO NOT TRUST Insight Vacations. Never again. Go with Gate 1.