Railbookers Reviews 

We chose Railbookers to plan our honeymoon, a once in a lifetime trip for us, expecting a seamless, worry-free European adventure. Unfortunately, the experience was far from what was promised, and we were left to handle multiple issues on our own, and pay more than double for travel and tours that we already paid Railbookers to take care of for us, due to their lack of proper coordination and communication.

To begin, we booked an expensive overnight luxury train from Munich to Milan. The train was canceled a week before departure, but Railbookers failed to notify us, leaving us scrambling to find an alternative way to Milan. The experience was miserable and set the tone for the rest of our trip.

In Milan, we were excited to see “The Last Supper” painting, only to discover that the tour Railbookers booked wasn’t even offered on Fridays—the day of our reservation. We missed out on this iconic experience entirely.

Next, the train from Milan to Venice had departed days ago, but Railbookers failed to mention this to us, so by the time we arrived at the station, we had to once again figure out how to reach Venice on our own.

In Venice, our arranged water taxi guide never showed up to take us to the train station. This forced us to hire and pay for another water taxi to avoid missing our connection.

While the train to Rome went smoothly, the issues didn’t stop there. Railbookers gave us the wrong address for our hotel, sending us on an exhausting uphill trek over cobblestone streets with all our luggage in tow before we finally found the correct location. To make matters worse, the tour they booked for the Colosseum fell apart when the guide failed to show up. We had to purchase another set of tickets on the spot if we wanted to enter.

The only bright side of our honeymoon was that Railbookers didn’t handle our flights. At least we could count on arriving in Europe and returning home without incident. The fact that this small comfort was the best part of the honeymoon is sad, to say the least.

Railbookers completely failed to deliver on their promises, leaving us frustrated and stressed to the point of tears during what should have been one of the most memorable trips of our lives. It got to a point where we thought Railbookers was ruining our honeymoon deliberately. We couldn't help it but we were sobbing every time Railbookers botched another travel arrangement or tour that we would never get another opportunity to do again. We in no way have the means to be able to travel like this, as the trip was a gift from our parents, so, for our once in a lifetime honeymoon vacation, we were angry and distraught that we chose Railbookers…

We absolutely cannot recommend this company and strongly urge others to think twice before trusting them with your travel plans.

This was our first time buying a travel package from an agency instead of booking everything separately ourselves. I figured since these companies book in bulk, it might be a better deal than us booking ourselves. This was not the case. We were charged over $6100 for a trip that, booked by ourselves paying full retail with no discounts, would have cost us $4600. When it came time for our trip, there were some necessary adjustments due to a forest fire in Jasper. We did not get to go to a sight seeing trip to experience the Icefields Parkway Discovery Tour which cost $340 CAD per person on the Brewster Tour Bus. Also, we did not get to experience a Gondola Ride in Lake Louise. I thought we would certainly receive a refund for these things we had already paid for. It has been 6 weeks since we returned from our trip and our travel agent has been working diligently to get a refund to no avail. Although we had a wonderful time in Banff, Alberta as well as a delightful train trip on the Via Rail, I will not book with Railbookers again. The communication through the entire process was quite difficult. Several times agents said they would get back to either myself or my travel agent and did not follow through. I am quite disappointed in our first vacation "package" experience. Although I would love to travel on our own back to the beautiful Alberta, Canada area.

Excellent experience. If it wasn’t for the help of the customer service reps and management, I would’ve been out the whole cost of my vacation. But even though they had no obligation to, they went above and beyond to help me save my trip, and even helped me customize it to better suit what I wanted to experience. Top tier support from customer service, sales, and management, all in one call. Special thanks to Denise and Christina! You can bet I’ll be booking another trip!

Railbookers is unfortunately very inflexible and more intent on keeping your money than providing good service to their customers.
My older parents booked a cross country train trip in May of 2024 and paid $600 to insure their investment, since they are in their 80’s. My dad fell ill a couple weeks before the trip and was hospitalized and had to cancel, They had bought the trip insurance thinking they would be reimbursed in case of an emergency. The expected refund was denied 3 months later after having to go through a runaround with AAA and Railbookers. The bogus insurance gives you an EXTENDED CREDIT but no refund, which won’t be much help to my 86 y/o father. I booked my own trip independently to travel alongside my parents, directly with Amtrak, and received a full refund instantly. Save your money and book the trip on your own. Unfortunately Railbookers is not looking out for their customers and is taking advantage of people with their small print.

Follow-up:
Shortly after posting this review, Railbookers called and promptly refunded my parents their money less the $600 “insurance” fee and some cancellation fees.

As a Travel Agent and partner of Railbookers, I have enjoyed the wonderful reliability, professionalism, and affability of one of their top tour curators - Andrew Evans. Andrew has consistently created and delivered trips that even the most seasoned travelers delighted in. He makes it look easy - and is a delight to work with. Highly Recommended!

Railbookers has a good construct but fails to follow through and provide the necessary attention to detail. Our rail experiences progressed seamlessly and the hotels they recommended were all fine. However, the transfers to our hotel upon arrival did not materialize as expected. Several months after are original booking we were notified that our train schedule had changed, as can happen with public transportation. Railbookers subsequently failed to make the necessary changes to our transfer times. We discovered the error a week before our departure date and contacted Railbookers pointing out the error. We did receive written confirmation that the transfer errors had been corrected, but unfortunately upon arrival at the train stations our transfers did not appear. When we called the Railbookers help line the customer services reps were clearly confused and needed for me to walk them through the process. On one occasion a car finally arrived after a 45 minute wait. On a second occasion, we were told to find our own transportation. From my personal experience I would not recommend Railbookers unless you are willing to deal with their lack of follow through.

On October 19, 2021 we booked a 5 day Amtrak Vacation for March 26,2021 from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon. Reservation #553660. It was paid in full on January 25, 2022. We booked independent air to Los Angeles. The trip was to be a celebration of my husband’s birthday and our 50th wedding anniversary. We were informed on February 18, 2022 that due to “staffing issues” due to Covid the return train from Williams, AZ to Los Angeles would not run and that an extra days stay would be necessary. We had upgraded our vacation to stay on the canyon rim at the El Tovar Hotel but we were informed that this hotel was not available but we could stay at the Williams Railroad Hotel, at our expense! We did not feel this was acceptable and declined the offer. At that time a travel voucher was issued for a future date of our choice. We regrouped and called on Feb 22,2022 to rebook for April 3(not available). During that marathon conversation we were told that April14th would be available but with Maswick Lodge as a substitute for El Tovar (which was not available). As it was Easter weekend and airfare from the East Coast was ridiculous we declined. We did however ask the agent to check on May 8th. After some back and forth on the pricing and getting a supervisor involved we settled on May 8th. This decision was based on the supervisor telling the agent that the smaller increase in price we agreed to pay was only available if “we booked it that day”. The one unknown with that date was that El Tovar would have to be requested and it might not be available. After waiting a week with no response on the hotel, I once again called this morning only to find out that there had not been any response on the availability. Another request was sent while I was on hold and then once again we got a supervisor to call the hotel directly. The response to me was totally unacceptable as the hotel did not have availability except for one night in a suite at the El Tovar and the second night we would have to move to a hotel to be decided! This was totally unacceptable and I informed the agent that I wanted a refund for my trip. We have already lost money on airfare that had to be cancelled, I have spent countless hours on the phone and I cannot take the chance of booking this trip yet again only to have the same thing happen. Sadly I have been informed that they do not offer refunds but that I am welcome to use my voucher on any of their products. Not comfortable with that at all. I intend to also write to the State of Florida Consumer Protection Division and make them aware of the terrible customer service. Yankee Leisure Group/ Railbookers are more than happy to take your money but are not willing to be flexible with their clients. We had been looking forward to this celebratory trip but I am afraid now it has just become a hassle.