TakeTours Reviews 315

Guys be aware of these Chinese traveler's,

Wanted to give this my genuine review to at least help few others to decide and plan their trip.

I had very bad experience when I traveled from New York to Naiagara. For July fourth long weekend.

Bus: Seating in the bus is very uncomfortable. They are 60 seats.. you cont push back the seats. All busses are old and dirty and don’t know how they are running these bussed on road and fully conditional. A/C air conditioning itself not there except for first 4 rows .. that’s why you need to pay extra amount to choose seats in front.

No cleanliness, no Covid rules , no masks ..

Stoppings are as per guide conveniences… and they give 45 to 1 hours to grab food.. think how all 60 ppl in the bus can get their food if there is any one restaurant.

Extra or hidden charges—- I don’t understand why are they charging for night tour of Niagara fall because it doesn’t have any entry tickets .. it’s open to all .. and they charge you 35$ per head.. another one walk-ins glen state park .. it’s a free entrance state park but these Chinese guys are charging.. and last but not the least per day tour guide charge 12$ which you must pay whether you want or not..it’s on optional and not as per your satisfaction.

Hotel will be provided 30 miles away from Niagara.. if you want to walk around falls or spend time in Casino.. you can’t do that …. They take you to the hotel at night 11:30 pm and by morning 7:30 am you have to get in to bus. Approximately by 10am returned to NYC.

If you wanted to have your trip memorable.. avoid these cheaters and go by booking rental cars.. you can stop wherever you want and eat what you like…. Take photos with fresh look.

Guys another important point is all the reviews are on take tours site is posted by themselves I guess.. because I tried to post but couldn’t do it.. you can not reach them over phone ..

Our East Coast tour, which includes a large portion of NYC where over 2,000 have died as of April 3, is still scheduled for July 11. I realize that's a ways out and they have no way of knowing, but even in my own state where there's only been 18 deaths many summer activities are already shut down. I contacted them to see if they would be revising their cancellation policy and they said no and that they still plan the tour! Greed at its finest. I would cancel right now if I wasn't going to lose 10 percent. Cancellation fee goes up if it's less than 30 days. Maybe the government can force them to do the right thing.

This is regarding my travel booking tour with Take Tours with booking reference id - DT29-620-8307.

Out of the 7 passengers who were suppose to be part of this tour, 2 people were tested positive for Influenza Flu so we were advised not to travel as its viral. So, on medical grounds we requested taketours to reschedule our trip to a later date.

Take tours showed no sympathy to reschedule to tour even on medical grounds and they said that we will have to pay additional penalty of 150$ each for the sick passengers.

This was very disappointing to hear when the tour company is not even ready to reschedule to tour on serious medical grounds.

They were even fine with us travelling with flu which is highly contagious.

We have all the reports and supporting doctors documents.

Thanks.

Overall an unpleasant experience tours, mainly due to deceptive itineraries from Take Tours and the local tour company (Mayi Tours) which manage our tour. Tour started well with tour guide/driver (Steven Chang Li Bo) - same person due to small tour group (4 people - my family of 3 and a young Chinese female).
He was friendly and willing to show us around and suggested swapping optional “The Buckhorn Saloon and Texas Ranger Museum” (if no one interested) with walk-around 2 other local spots - Tower of America (ground floor) and Historical Square Market. We really pleased with his kindness.
When we opt out Day 1 last item “San Antonio Night Tour Including River Walk” (optional $35/pp) thinking it was a guided tour plus river cruise, rather we just walk around ourselves then everything changes. We’re told if we not joining the river cruise, it will cost USD$20/pp just “to drop us to the river walk”. If not pay $20, he will send everyone straight back to the hotel and make their own plan for dinner.
I will leave everyone to comments below description of what you think:
“Admission (Optional): Adult $35; Child (3-11 yrs) $25; Senior (Over 65 yrs) $35|Duration: Approx. 30 Minutes”
We insisted this is not what we understood from the itinerary and stopping by Riverside is part of the itinerary and river tour + boat ride is the “add-on/optional”. After heated exchange, the driver “rudely” lead us to the Riverside and allow maximum 30 mins back to the minibus, will leave us if we are late. We later found out it is only maximum 2 minutes’ walk from The Alamo, which we visited before lunch at Denny’s restaurant.
This show the dirty tricks used by tour operator to rip innocent overseas tourist thinking each attraction is far apart.
Next yet come another big disagreement before Day 1 end, on discussion for Day 2 optional item (“Stockyards Championship Rodeo”). To bring us to the Rodeo location, we must buy the package of both “optional” items (USD$25 entry ticket & USD$30 pp Special Steak Dinner).
It is ridiculous and outrages to say the least as we do pay for the tour for USD $285/pp (3 days 2-night tour) to bring/show us these locations. We have every right to decide to join any show attractions as it clearly listed as “optional” and nothing mentioned these 2 items need to be purchased together.
I saved the summary of the subsequent 2-3hrs torments in Day 1 evening arguing on the phone with driver’s Supervisor (Maggie) which insisted the above package stands and can’t only opt for only Rodeo ticket, no other customers complained about it. I am sure there are dissatisfies customers, but they just submission to go with majority.
Also, not to mentioned, I am disgusted when Maggie advised the USD$30 special steak dinner is only some Chinese buffet and being threatened that they will terminates their service immediately if we continue giving hard time to the driver. We are furious because we are merely requesting to see the Rodeo (accepting the $25 ticket) but not join dinner.
The driver dare us to raise complain about him and local operator.
Day 2 nightmare continue, we’re again being informed last minutes (before Day 2 tour starts) that tour operator couldn’t secure tickets to “Hamilton Pool Preserve” which is one of our most wanted to visit item. Their excuses being there is a daily limit of 75 visitors and they couldn’t get any pass even booking months in advance. This is convenient excuse, and they even forgot to mention to us when we make booking of this tour and kept it until the last minute. This is irresponsible and deceitful. No replacement for this.
When my wife decided to contact Take Tours seek further explanations/ clarifications of those optional items for our tour package in the minibus:
1. USD$35 - San Antonio Night Tour Including River Walk (plus river ride)
2. Rodeo package (Mayi allegedly) - USD$25 entry ticket & USD$30pp Special Steak Dinner
3. Driver being rude to us and demanded an apology
The driver heard it and become disgruntled and starts to drive recklessly - regular stepping on the brakes hard, swaying left and right unnecessarily and accelerated taking corners. Did I mentioned my 3 YR OLD DAUGHTER is traveling with us and sleeping at the time in the minivan?
Final Day 3 – Due to all the above very unpleasant experience even we have paid for the tour. We decided not to join this tour anymore. We take Uber and go straight to my friend house instead.
Another issue not to be left out is whatever they said “Deluxe Hotel: Holiday Inn/ Best Western or similar” they lied. First night we are setup at Ramada – San Antonio and 2nd night at Quality Inn - Fort Worth. I would rate both hotels less than 2 stars not deluxe hotel.
These mainland Chinese operates tour companies, employed dirty tricks (intentionally leave out important info) and put tourists in a difficult/hard situation to opt-in extra on top of what should have been included in the package. If they would have been clearly explaining all their inclusions/ exclusions of this package, I am sure no one would have purchase this at all.
My final remarks to everyone:
- to avoids Take Tours at all costs
- take extreme precautions and seek full clarification on everything if unclear (all attractions; optional items) before committing to any tours to avoid any nasty hidden charges.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY. It's a full on scam.That company is a joke. The tours are 99.9% directed to Chinese people and the tour guides are borderline racist. Don't get fooled by the "good prices", you will be experiencing a living hell if you decide to travel with them. I'm still amazed this company is open with such poor reviews. I REPEAT: DO NOT TRAVEL WITH THEM and also don't use their other service: GOTOBUS (also a scam and a joke)

Thanks :)

This must have been one of the worst trips I've come across. Read reviews and stay away (wish we knew more beforehand)!

Firstly, the tour guide and bus driver refused to let us use the bus lavatories while being inside the bus. After waiting for a delayed departure from San Francisco, my 4 year old daughter really needed to use the restroom and the tour guide refused her to use it. His argument was that the toilet would be smelly if used, so he didn't want anyone to use it. Isn't the whole point of having a restroom in a vehicle to be able to use it if needed? After discussing the level of emergency with him, he allowed my daughter to go very quickly, but she had to promise she would not do "nr 2" and he then remained outside lavatory door for the entire time listening to what was happening inside. This is absolutely ridiculous and not at all acceptable.

Secondly, as you can already tell from previous point, the tour guide and bus driver were rude and unprofessional during the entire trip. Not only were they speaking Chinese first and only translate a fraction of the information to English for the few non-Chinese speaking guests, but they were also enforcing very strict rules and screaming at people if something was not done exactly as they wished. They would also get into multiple heated arguments with other guests during our trip, scaring myself and my sweet 4 year old. Not only did we get at best 30 mins breaks at crowded restaurants / fast food joints for the whole bus to use restrooms and buy and eat our meals (which we in most occasions didn't end up having enough time for, so we had to sacrifice one thing or the other), but we also had to throw out any uneaten food / coffee for which we didn't have enough time to consume and then at the same time get yelled at. We literally felt terrorized onboard and outside the vehicle.

Lastly, the hotel standard of the first accommodation was way below any expectations. We arrived very late and were really tired, so we didn't even have time to walk to the separate building with reception to complain about the room's condition, but:

1) The water in the bathtub was either freezing or extremely hot, it wouldn't settle at a normal temperature. After stopping the water, it continued dripping the whole night making a restful sleep impossible.
2) The toilet wasn't working. It wouldn't flush at all.
3) The door to our room had a 2 inch gap at the bottom so the light from the corridor came in to our room and lit it up, not to mention how unsafe we felt in there during the night.

Overall, this was a very unpleasant experience, even though the places we visited were beautiful. If you have a possibility to drive on your own, do that!! The places are definitely worth the trip, but take tours has to be avoided!

I bought 2-day tour from NYC to DC. I paid on the website the whole amount. The bus was terrible, we were barred from use on-bus toilet. The stops were short and in Chinese.
When we got to DC I was approached by our tour guide Blake Wong (a Chinese woman with terrible English). She demanded $60 as service fee, which apparently they ask everyone. When she was refused that, we were left alone for a while. Then, on the way back to NYC when we stopped in the middle of nowhere, our bus driver tried to deny us from boarding. That lead to an argument and a 911 call. When police showed up, they took our side but advised that if we want to get home before midnight , we need to pay the fee. I offered my AMEX but the tour guide refused it, and only agreed to take it after police men pressed on her
Fast forward to 3 days later I'm trying to dispute it all, because it was a clear scam and a court case of racketeering.

Take Tours

6 day East Coast Tour with Take Tours beginning 17 Sept 2019

I will begin with the positives - our tour guide was a lovely, helpful individual who managed to keep a varied group together. The transportation was fine although it would be helpful if there was Wi-Fi onboard or at least at rest points.

Itinerary was tiring once one considers the 7-8 hours coach trip each way to and from niagara falls. Perhaps management could consider a shorter trip covering just NY, Washington and Boston?

My biggest criticism however would be of the accommodation - 2 of the hotels, both Ramada hotels in Newark and near DC were poor - stained carpets, broken doors, bad lighting. Here the tour operator needs to find better alternatives.

It is important to know the tour organiser and tour operator are different with each one referring one to check details with the other. As far as I am concerned it should be the responsibility of taketours whom I booked the package from to ensure accommodation is to a good standard. All they did was kept referring me to the operator (Mayi Tours in our case) to check details of hotels. Take Tours took no responsibility for what were considerably poor quality hotels and I found this infuriating since I had booked the package with them.

Finally hotel information was never sent to me making filling in an ESTA form more hectic than it should be.

Would I recommend the tour to anyone? Its not bad if one does not mind the long drives or sub-standard hotels for the price and itinerary are reasonable. Of course management can still take charge and improve hotel choices, tweak the itinerary and be more transparent!

Acknowledging the problems would be a start before they even get to solutions.

worst tour ever

We did the two days tour to the Niagara Falls from New York City. Our tourguide was totally unpolite.

The tour is very cheap but then when you're in the bus they want you to book all other optinal packages, so it will be much more money then it's written on the website.
There you can just see that they have some optinal activities to book and also the prices of them but if you don't book for example the tour for 75$ (cave of the wind, fort,...) than you can't use this time for exploring the falls by yourself.
They told us if we don't book it we have to stay in a restarea 40min away from the falls for 3 hours.
So if you wnat to see the falls you have to book the packages.

Also it's a very stressful trip. The breaks with with the bus were always very short so you have to run to the toilet if you don't want to miss the bus. We were not allowed to use the toilet in the bus.
Also the lunchbreak was very short so we had to eat our food in the bus.

The only time we had to explore the falls by our own was 1,5 hour after the Maid of the Mist tour and in this time was the dinner time included so we just bought something to eat on our way.

All in all I would never recommend this tour to anybody!

But of course the Niagara Falls are amazing to see!

We did the 2 day Niagara tour from NYC a couple of weeks back and had the worst experience with this company. We chose the two day cave of the winds tour and this one in particular has a lot of activities cramped into 2 days due to which you are not given enough time to eat/sleep or even spend quality time at each destination. As we were heavily delayed on day 1, the tour guide had to rush through day 2 because of which we had to leave the hotel at 6:30am by which time the hotel did not start serving breakfast and there were no places open near the attractions where we could get something to eat. So we had to literally STARVE FOR 4 HOURS before any of the cafes opened. I was traveling with my parents and this was extremely inconvenient for them as well as other elderly people. They offer the cave of the winds tour by combining it with other activities that are basically free and charge you $75 for it. The cave of the winds tour essentially costs only $20 per person so their packages are JUST A BIG RIP OFF. The worst part is they don't let you do the activities on your own so you either pay the exorbitant amount or not do it at all. Not to mention the seats in their bus is terrible with absolutely no leg room even for someone who's 5' 5"!!! Oh and our driver had no courtesy whatsoever - he wouldn't help us even open the luggage door (forget helping us with loading the luggage) instead he would always just stand in a corner smoking his cigarettes!!! Ugh

Overall I would say if you have even the slightest chance to rent a car and drive you would be far better off doing that rather than going with this company!!! ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE!

Oh, if you want to get an unnecessary, annoying feeling from traveling, then go ahead choosing this company, they will give you a chance to experience the worst travel agency ever!

Take Tours is an online platform helping some brick and mortar travel agency to sell tours. Therefore, anything that happened when you are on tour with a different company, Take Tours can't do anything to help. All they say is wait and after that, sorry. Lol, I just wish I did some research in reading reviews before choosing tours from this website. Beware!

Worst Tour and Tour Guide I ever experienced.
The tour guide was horrible and she uses fake name every tour to avoid bad reviews. (During our trip her name was Rebecca and on the previous trip she used her name as Alice). My issues
Fake Rebecca tried to sell more tours to me and I refused to buy those and caught on her lies. She made my tour a horrible experience.
1. She always assigned me back seat of the bus.
2. Give me a room with the toilet don’t flush properly and room at the construction zone and banging noise all night long.
3. No customer service and bloody attitude.
Tour Code: 489-2364

My family took the 3-Day Los Angeles, Las Veges, and Grand Canyon Tour

So, for starters....like many have said, THIS IS A CHINESE TOUR!! Not only is this a Chinese tour, most of the tourists attending are Non-English speakers. The Tour Guide is also Chinese and speaks very broken English. Me personally, I didnt have a huge issue with this. My issue is that there is nowhere on their website that indicates this is a tour for Non-English speaking Chinese tourists. So if you can imagine...my family and I were a taken aback when we finally realized this. While I love to travel and mingle with tourist of all cultures and nationalities, I will admit that it is a little intimidating to be only 1 out of 3 Americans on a tour bus with 50 other Chinese people who speak little to no English. This situation was not preferable or ideal. Also the bus that picked us up from our pickup spot was only there to take us to ANOTHER pick up spot. At our initial location, we were given a piece of paper telling us which bus to get on once we arrived at the second location. Imagine our frustrations after having to wait for our bus, just for that bus to drop us off at yet another crowded location filled with more Chinese tourists running around in a bunch of confusion. As we proceeded to our second bus, the tour guide was not there. We waited for him for about 20 min before he came to the bus. Apparently, he was inside the hotel making sure everyone was accounted for. Ohh...kaay....but why not be at your designated bus accounting for ppl as they step onto the bus?,instead of forcing ppl to have to come find you, which could possibly lead to ppl being left behind. If your co-worker tells me to look for your bus at the second pick-up location and you are not out in front of the bus checking names, how am I supposed to know to come look for you inside a hotel...while you dont have a nametag on? Mind you there were 6 other buses out in this parking lot with other tour guides and tourists running around looking for their respective buses and tour groups. They need to organize this better. I should not need to take 2 different buses, with 2 different tour guides just for the tour to begin. Tourists should all meet at one meeting spot with their correct bus already waiting on them...that way when the tourists arepicked up, tourists are already on their correct bus and the tour can begin. This part was so un-organized that many ppl were confused; running around in panic because they didnt know where to go. I watched an Asian tour guide yell at an Indian tourist because the Indian didnt know where to go. He had a piece of paper in his hand but like us, he couldnt find his tour guide and panicked. As a tour guide, you cant get mad at an innocent tourist that is simply trying to ask questions. Not to mention, the tour guides were NOT. IN. FRONT. OF .THEIR. BUSES!! TOURIST SHOULD NOT HAVE TO TRACK DOWN THEIR TOUR GUIDES!! This is not "Tour Guide Scavenger Hunt"

Another aspect of the tour ppl need to be aware of is the fact that during the bus rides, they dont stop enough for rest stops, food stops, or bathroom breaks. On the 1st day, we didnt eat lunch until 2 or 3. Mind you, we had been on the bus since 8am..why not stop for a mid-morning breakfast or actually stop to have lunch at 11 or 12?? I also feel like they tricked us when it finally was time for lunch. We stopped and ate lunch at a Chinese buffet. Ok cool, but then we get into the buffet and realize the options are severely limited. This was not a full service buffet. The buffet only had like 7 items. For 15 dollars, I feel we should've had a broader spread of food. I also find it peculiar that this Chinese buffet was not located near ANY OTHER FOOD VENUE. It's as if, this was done purposely to force you to eat there. They probably get a commission or maybe they have Chinese friends who own the place. We finish eating and get on the bus...only to realize we were only 15 min from hotel. Let me put something into perspective for you all. Once we arrived at the hotel, we were free to be on our own for the remainder of the night, unless we signed up for an optional night show or night tour. So if we were able to be on our own for the rest of the night, why have us pay for a meal when we were 15 min from the Las Vegas Strip? When we got to the hotel, we could of easily found our own food for the evening...WE WERE RIGHT ON THE VEGAS STRIP. Plenty of food options. I can see if we ate at the buffet and we still had a couple of hours until we reached Vegas...but this was not the case. It was just weird how the tour guide said NOTHING about the buffet only being 15 min from hotel. He didn't mention this until AFTER we paid and ate at the skimpy buffet. So we felt cheated and forced to eat at their best friends' buffet. They made it feel as if we had no choice.

I read plenty of reviews that stated that the tour guide forced ppl to pay for ALL of the OPTIONAL excursions. This didnt happen to us but I dont doubt it because they lie about the cost of excursions. For example...the Grand Canyon entrance fee is only 35 bucks per vehicle...soooo why were we charged 105 bucks PER PERSON?! Also, I noticed that they overcharged for shows. They were charging 125 for Cirque de Soliel..when tickets were only 60 bucks. ok, granted a front row seat may have been 125 BUT you are not gonna convince me that you got front row seats for a group of 50 ppl. Doubt it. So when ppl say they were forced to pay for OPTIONAL shows...I believe it, this company has some shady ways.

On the last day, we ate "brunch" at the same buffet we stopped at on the 1st day. Again, this convinced me that these ppl receive a commission and these people are friends and family of each other. Also, it was NOT brunch....it was all Chinese LUNCH/DINNER food being served at 10am...oh! and they only gave us 40 min to eat. Again, this buffet is not near any other food places. So you either eat there, or STARVE for the next 5-6 hours. See the theme here? They dropped us off at an outlet but only gave us 2 hrs to explore an outlet with about 30 stores...and eat. They wanted us to shop and eat in only 2 hrs! As other reviewers have mentioned, this day was extremely rushed. After our short time at the Outlet mall, it is time to return back to L.A. Since they had tourist who came from different pickup points, we returned to L.A on a different bus than the bus that we had been with for the last 3 days. We get on our bus to L.A, to realize that the company miscounted the amount of ppl returning to L.A. ALL THE SEATS WERE FULL. We had to wait 15 min in the hot Nevada sun (115 Degrees) while the tour guides scrambled to figure out how they booked 55 people on a bus with only 50 seats. Eventually, the company figured it out and we were on our way to L.A.

Overall though, the trip was fine. My family had fun in Vegas and We had a blast at the Grand Canyon. Our experience was not as bad as the other reviews on this forum...hence, this review gets a 3-star rating. But it was only by the grace of God that we had a decent experience. We got lucky!

Lesson Learned: Do NOT trust website reviews if they are all 5 star reviews. Google the company and find reviews elsewhere.

I paid $105 equivalent to R1500 in my currency, South African Rands for a 1 day Grabd Canyon bus tour. I showed up on time at the location mentioned on my reservation ticket, in front of Starbucks at the Circus Circus Las Vegas and I still got left behind. I sent many messages, chatted online but still got no help. I have not been refunded my money, a lot of money to throw away, but never again. All they said is I should have phoned, this is easier than done if your in a foreign land and your roaming sim doesn’t connect to local cellphone network. I feel cheated, so sad to have lost that much money

Hello, My trip is the one going from Toronto to Montreal & Quebec City for 3 days... for some reason I cannot find it to write a review... but I think my case applies to this company’s “cancellation policy” in general... 1 week from departure time I had an accident and broke my kneecap... I contacted the company by email to refund or re-schedule but they refused both! I said I can send them my medical documents, to no avail... They only recommended that I sell it to other people and they will change the names on the booking! I have about 24 hours to do that! And I have not been successful... the trip is this Sat morning and my hard earned money US$255 is going down the drain😞

Bus tour from Philadelphia to Niagara Falls NY
Let’s start at the beginning:
I sent an email with questions prior to our tour and did not get a response so I called; the young lady who answered the phones English was so poor that I could not get my concerns addressed!
I should have taken this as a prelude of things to come….
Our tour guides English was poor as well! We don’t speak Chinese, so we had a hard time understanding his directions.
We missed about 75% of educational/informational parts of the “tour” simply because we could not understand him, this left us stressed and confused.
The bus driver was unprofessional:
He did not greet us or offer to help us with our baggage while he stood outside the bus smoking a cigarette when we arrived. He was dressed sloppily, he did not look professional.
We were not allowed to use the bathroom on the bus. We were told to let our tour guide know if we needed to use the bathroom and they would go to a rest stop. Maybe the bathroom was broken??
We stopped for meals at Chinese restaurants in rundown strip malls with very few options other than Chinese food for lunch AND dinner.

Never again!

We just came back from our 3 day bus tour trip to Martha's vineyard, Rhode island and Connecticut. The trip was guided by the best tour guide we've ever had, Remi Chen. He was amazing, very kind and helpful with everything. Made us feel comfortable and secure with zero complaints. We felt very lucky to have him and we hope to someday have him again. Wishing him luck and whom ever gets him as their tour guide will be very lucky! Xie xie :)

It has been three (3) years since I last went to Martha's Vineyard. My tour guide this time was Remi Chen and the bus driver was Mr. Roosevelt. I had a wonderful time and felt comfortable and safe. Remi was a very good tour guide with a smile on his face all the time. Mr. Roosevelt was a "smooth driver". That's what my niece called him. She did not even noticed when the bus made a turn. He presented himself professionally. Great uniform with a hat both days. It made me feel I was paying top dollar for the tour. Way to go, Mr. Remi Chen and Mr. Roosevelt. You are a good team. I will definitely recommend taketours.com to friends and am looking for another tour to take with the company. Please keep up the good work!

Just giving one bcoz cannot give zero. Worst experience ever. Went for 2 day Niagara tour. Buses are congested with no leg space even for a person with 5 ft height. They’re just good for infants and children. It is compulsory to take their package for all the activities in Niagara and you cannot do it independently according to their contract. So you have to take their commissioned over priced package. Then the tour is badly planned with no enough time (not even 5 min) for the important location to spend. Tour guide is rude and keeps on giving vague reasons. Just hope Kevin Chen never comes as your guide. Worst tour ever. I wouldn’t even recommend to my worst enemy.