Kuoni

We have just returned from an amazing two week guided small group tour of Costa Rica. Everything went like clockwork. Great accommodation and trips. A big thanks to our guide Paulo. Also to the Bluewater store for all her help organizing the trip.

The Kuoni Travel Expert in Reading John Lewis has gone way beyond the levels of service we expected. The agent spent countless hours assisting with different enquiries and concerns we had about different honeymoon destinations. This has been very tricky for us with countries' approaches to lockdowns. The agent worked with us constantly as we changed our minds a number of times, and help us with a vast number of questions we had about our different destinations. The agent had good knowledge of local customs and destinations. Where the agent did not know, they did not pretend - they went away to research and discuss with contacts in those countries to find the answers.

I cannot recommend Kuoni enough. If you are looking for a luxury holiday - do not hesitate. A world apart from other travel agents we dealt with.

Very poor customer service. We had to cancel our wedding and subsequent honeymoon last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. When we contacted Kuoni they advised that we would lose our deposit (over £600), after a number of emails asking for a refund they reluctantly gave a voucher for use up until end of 2021. We now have no plans to have a honeymoon so asked for the deposit to be refunded, this request was refused again and we were told we should have asked for this last year. When I explained we did ask for this last year they said there was nothing they could do. I would seriously avoid using Kuoni especially with all the uncertainty due to the pandemic, be aware that any money you pay wont be refunded.

We have had Essential Japan Tour with Kuoni in October 2019. We are very disappointed about the holidays and that we have wasted our money. Those were quite expensive holidays and we have expected much more from Kuoni in regards of tour itinerary, our guide and level of services in general:

As we lost some lunches and activities due to weather disrupts, after long and humiliating haggling, we were given welcome replacement lunch on last day of our tour (at the expense of sightseeing at castle Nijo in Kyoto, time for which was drastically shortened).

As for Kamakura and Pirate Ship Cruise on Lake Ashi, no alternative activities were provided and no reimbursement offered (the funds must have been allocated for this Kuoni, which were not spent by them and which we have paid for within our holiday package price).

We were supposed to have “Welcome Lunch”. Kuoni’s idea of welcome lunch was to hand each one of us in the group ¥ 2000.00 in cash while we were in Tokyo city center and to tell us to go and find ourselves some place to eat on our own. That was done in the time when we were supposed to see Harajuku district, effectively taking away all the time allocated for this.

Whole travelling by trains and busses was arranged in a way that it happened during the best sightseeing hours, which resulted in coming to all objects and places 1-2 hours before they were closed and then rushing through them.

The guide was unable or unwilling to provide any cultural or historic information about the places we were visiting. We had to persuade her to provide even basic information.

Lunch was too early in general, i.e. 11am or 11:30am, which is unusual, this was mostly because the guide was always rushing through the daily agenda to leave us with “free afternoon” with nothing to do or see.

Opur quide was quite inept in regards of taking care of people she was responsible for. There were no procedures in place for embarking and disembarking while using public transport. We never knew when to disembark and where to gather afterwards and where we were going next and what our final station was.

This reckless approach reached culmination in Kyoto, where one member of our group fallen asleep in the train and was not informed by our guide that we were supposed to disembark on next station.

On our last day, we were supposed to see Nijo Castle in Kyoto. According to information displayed at the castle, recommended sightseeing tour should take 2 hours. Our guide decided that 45 minutes was more than enough and this was further shortened as we had replacement lunch.

Summing up:

What was supposed to be dream holidays with Kuoni, turned out to be a nightmare 10 days with inept Kuoni and their unprofessional guide.

We have paid close to £10.000 (£5000 per person) for those holidays and being happy with Kuoni before (we did China tour and Seychelles holidays with you), we expected the same level of service and attention to sightseeing and cultural experience. Japan in amazing and beautiful country and does not deserve to be presented to tourists in a way that was done by Kuoni.

Our three centre holiday, including a three day excursion to Elephant Hills culminating in a week at Krabi was absolutely fabulous. Only two small hiccups along the way, which weren't sufficient to spoil an amazing holiday. The Thai people were wonderful, honest and helpful adding to our fabulous experience, as was the food, weather and scenery. 75% of our accommodation was first class and the transfers for the most part were well organised and ran smoothly. Alternative hotel locations and more local information would have been a great asset to us, but overall Thank you very much Kuoni, you'll be seeing us again soon.

Very efficient and helpful service from time of booking through assistance on resort. Very easy to go through the booking process and very good updates and information at all times. Excellent rep on site very willing to help. Telephone service very quick and efficient.

Lovely telephone interaction with a representative from the local Kuoni centre. Helpful, professional and friendly - was a delight to book. A top notch agency and highly recommended !

We booked our holiday to the Centara Grand Ko Samui with Kuoni and the member of staff who helped us definitely went the extra mile to ensure we had the flights we wanted, the hotel, and she found the best prices possible.

The holiday was lovely, the hotel and its position are just idyllic. It was quite expensive to eat in the hotel, but there are many many restaurants of all types within walking distance.

The breakfast and the service in the hotel were second to none.

It is one of my favourite places in the world. Thank you Kuoni.

We have recently enjoyed an excellent tour of Sri Lanka which we booked through Kuoni. We were impressed with the efficient service we received when we booked our holiday and the high standard of the accommodation, guide and driver on our tour. We liked the fact we were able to arrange an appointment to visit the travel agent, having already e-mailed our requirements, which meant we were seen immediately and avoided having to wait around. The holiday was tailored to our individual preferences and we were able to change our flights and extend it by an extra five days.

We would have liked a breakdown of the cost of the holiday on our invoice rather than one final total amount.

We like to have a personal adviser with whom we can plan our trips. The help and advice has always been useful and informative.