Venture Ashore Reviews 

The guide on the tour was excellent as she was very knowledgeable and made sure we were all well looked after. Everything was perfectly arranged

I had initially booked a private tour from the ship to Rome. However, our plans changed and I called them (well over a week in advance) to ask if they could arrange for us to go to Florence instead. If not, I would be cancelling. The woman on the phone said she'd get back to me and never did. Three days before the tour, having never heard back from them, I confirmed cancellation via email and they responded that they weren't going to refund my money because it wasn't a week in advance. I decided to deal with it when I returned home. Then when we docked, there was a driver waiting because they never told him that we had cancelled. He was understandably angry which we had to deal with. Not a professional, buttoned up company and I'm still trying to get my money back.

Fantastic excursion treated like a v.i.p luxury air conditioned mini bus,very knowledgeable guide took great care of all the members of our small group.amazing trip for less money cannot rate it higher more that five stars .I would definitely recommend venture assured to everyone.

The guide we had was fantastic, he was very knowledgeable and showed great care towards my 90 year old father ensuring we had an enjoyable informative and accident free visit to Ephesus

Excellent guide. Very knowledgeable, and interesting. Made it a wonderful trip for everybody. Cannot rate him highly enough. Great value for money.

We had a superb tour with Shore excursions in Casablanca and can recommend this tour to anyone visiting this town while on a cruise.

I've used Venture Ashore before without issue, but this time was disappointing. First, we were required to book a ferry to our meeting spot separate from the Venture Ashore reservation, which in itself was not terrible, but it was very inconvenient having to get to the ferry, book the ticket, and wait for the next ferry for over an hour. I wish it was all rolled into one booking.

The biggest problem was when we got off the ferry. There was no tour guide to meet us. A local taxi driver read our voucher, made a few phone calls, and agreed to take us on the pre-paid excursion (presumably after agreeing to get paid by the Venture Ashore travel agency). Everything turned out ok in the end, but this was not the guide we were promised that would meet us at the dock. I was very scared for a bit.

Great pleasant guide. Very knowledgeable kept us informed.

We went on two trips whilst we were on a cruise to alaska. Both trips were great, easily accessible pick up points. Very knowledgable guides. Overall they made our cruise more memorable.

We recently took two "essential collection tours" with our NCL Epic cruise. We chose the shared tours because they were more reasonably priced compared to NCL’s options, and we were pleased to find that each group had fewer than 12 people. The tours were quite enjoyable, offering a nice break from the large bus excursions. Had a good time.

We just returned from our Norway cruise and used Venture Ashore for all our group excursions. Each and every one was fantastic! Super tour guides and drivers that took on the most narrow and winding road without a blink! They were on time and detailed each time. Thanks to Joy who set them all up for us and was patient throughout the process. Thank you Venture Ashore!

The Loen Skylift Adventure in Olden Norway was excellent. Well organized, and the views were wonderful. Well work doing!

We did the 3 trip package the first two at Juneau and Skagway where brilliant the third at Ketchikan needs improvement, hence 4 stars and not 5

We were expecting a group tour but just two of us were given a private tour of Istanbul by a very knowledgable and friendly guide. We saw everything we wanted to at a pace of our choosing. Great value and included taxis to and from the main tourist area.

We had a wonderful experience on our recent excursion. Venture Ashore exceeded our expectations and will definitely be our go to for future excursions!! Their competitor (Expedia) did not do what was reflected in the description and was a HUGE disappointment on multiple excursions.

We had 8 excursions with you and 7 of them were good. The one bad experience was at Pompeii. The VS guide was fine, but the guide inside Pompeii could not speak good English and did not take us to any good sites at Pompeii. This was my 4th time there, so I know what she DID NOT show us. Otherwise the other excursions were very satisfactory. Joe Hudson

Was very enjoyable. Saw a small bear and wonderful scenery. Driver was friendly and informative. By UK standards this was a very expensive excursion and the driver Aaron asked passengers to give a generous tip as he struggled with the high prices in Alaska, which they are. We gave more than we would tip in UK but he was probably disappointed. Drivers should be paid properly and not rely on tips in my opinion.

Maybe putting in a reminder for the people doing excursions from cruise ships would be to find out if and when you arrive which time you will be there ship's time or land's time?? This trip and maybe only this trip, can't say we've had this problem before, but we were going off the port's time we sailed from.

Mendenhall Glacier Tour by Shuttle- it was good but insufficient time at the glacier to visit the Information Centre, which was very good, go down to the glacier lake, the actual glacier can only be seen a mile away(global warming) and go to the waterfall, which I was informed was excellent.
Potlatch Totem Park- only people we saw were in the Gift Shop, site appeared to be run down and neglected possibly due to it being early in the tourist season. Tour information stated "In the totem carving shed, you'll learn the significance of these cultural works of art and watch one of the carvers in action" there was no one in the shed.

Booked with Venture Ashore for 3 italian excursions in one package: Florence/Pisa, Rome, and Sorrento and Pompeii with a drive along the Almalfi Coast. Venture Ashore is about 1/3 the cost of the cruise line excursions so we were very skeptical. We even had plans in case these excursions fell through. We were amazed and very happy with all 3 of our experiences. All three of our guides met us exactly where they said they would be and provided us with unbelievable tours. Francesca in Florence took us on a walking tour of the historic sites in Florence. She was extremely informative. Suzy, our tour guide in Rome was amazing. We saw everything from the Trevi fountain, Spanish steps, to the Coliseum and the outside of the Vatican, all in one day. Lastly, Gabriel, our "celebrity tour guide" was the best tour guide I have ever had.
We walked the streets of Sorrento, took beautiful pictures of the coast line and finished the day in Pompeii. He was energetic, fun, filled with information and made the whole experience the trip of a lifetime. I read a lot of bad things about Venture Ashore and I think it may differ from port to port. But you also have to do some research ahead of time. Make sure you are in the correct spot at the correct time. In Italy, there are MANY different excursion companies. When you get off the ship, you have to look for the guides because it is VERY crowded. There are a few hundred people so don't expect your guide to come to you. You need to ask around, walk around and look for signs. By the way, at one port, everyone who booked with Shore Excursions, Viator, and My Tour Guide along with three other companies, all went on the same tour bus. Everyone uses third party vendors and I mean everyone! The guides are local and have a great deal of knowledge of the sites.
I would not hesitate to use Venture Ashore again!