Citrus Holidays www.citrusholidays.co.uk

If I could give this organization -10 stars, I would. We booked travel (3 travellers) and paid over $10K CAD in Sept 2019. The pandemic hit, we were patient and tried to rebook but cancelled many times due to travel restrictions. We worked through email and the call centre (through many different agents, they can't seem to keep people employed - probably because people don't want to be associated with a company who are not truthful to clients). Feb 3, 2021 after many many months of requesting refund, they agreed to a full refund. Then they stalled in many ways, advising they were "chasing accounts" (who the hell is accounts??!!) for our money. They said that they had requested a refund from Air Canada on May 24, 2021, but we have confirmation Air Canada refunded Citrus Holidays on April 6, 2020. They then asked for SWIFT banking information to deposit payment (refusing to refund our original payment type which was Visa - another red flag! What kind of company is not able to refund original payment types or to Visa??!!). Fast forward to Feb 28, 2022 (after we got a lawyer involved) the lawyer with Citrus Holidays Legal, advised refund would be issued. Here we are Oct 28, 2022, 3 years from booking the travel and 20 months after being promised a refund, with nothing. There are no phone numbers, no one calls you back, and they don't reply to emails. They have essentially stolen our funds (confirmation that Air Canada refunded them for our tickets, which they have not refunded us). We never travelled to Ecuador, nor would we want to with this organization. We strongly advise DO NOT give this company or their parent company, Benz Travel, a single dime of money. DO NOT TRAVEL WITH THIS ORGANIZATION!!

Having had our money for 14 months, Citrus holidays, with a week to go, have failed to book either hotel or flights. They also have supplied no documents. With 3 wks til departure date, ringing them resulted in answer machine messages saying they would ring back.They never did.

With 9 days to go, we rang the airline direct who confirmed we were not booked on any flights. Emailing Citrus rep got a reply saying the hotel wasn't opening for another month and offered 2 significantly inferior options. We rejected these and requested a refund via credit card.

Strangely, Hilton were still taking bookings for our original hotel throughout our holiday dates. It seems Citrus were deliberately misleading us.

I strongly suspect that Citrus has mislaid our information and, if we had not contacted the airline, we would have arrived at the airport with nothing in place.

Avoid like the plague.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!

14+ months they have given excuse after excuse why they haven’t given me my refund, even though they received my refunds from airlines in August of 2020!

“We are working tirelessly to process refunds”.

“We have been chasing accounts to process your refund”.

“You should have your refund within a few days”-September 2020

AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS!

They are a division of @BENZ TRAVEL

Supposedly bookings are protected u see @ATOL, yet they refuse to give it back, I have hundreds and hundreds of emailed excuses.

If I could give them 0 stars I absolutely would!!!

You are not protected by anything re credit cards or insurance companies.

Your money will be lost, please do not book.

Booked a holiday from the 15TH MARCH - 26TH March, total cost £3200.00. Received back £1800.00 and did not get the holiday.

BE CAREFUL BOOK SOMEWHERE ELSE

Beware as the protection afforded by ATOL will not stop you having to fight for every last penny you are entitled to should your holiday be cancelled due to covid. Citrus tried to charge cancellation fees on a holiday they could not provide and when eventually agreeing to a full refund as required by law and even their own booking conditions state they failed to make any refund payments or follow through on anything they said. Eventually we were forced to persue a claim via the credit card companies, as thankfully we used credit cards, and Citrus tried to dispute the claims and keep the whole payment once again! Thankfully and with the help of the credit card companies our claims were successful and 6 months after we should have travelled we have our money back. I have always recommended Citrus but would never ever recommend or travel with them ever again. Companies like this give the travel industry a very bad name. Beware.

Booked a holiday in January to travel to India in November this year. Paid £2200 deposit. Despite the fact that it was absolutely clear months ago that this trip could not happen Citrus insisted the £1800 balance be paid by the end of September or we would lose the £2200. Less than 3 weeks later and they called to cancel the holiday.....surprise surprise. I was asked to rebook the holiday for next year. I refused and asked for a full refund. I was then told that if I did not rebook the holiday they would not start to process the refund until March 31st 2021. UK law states travel companies must issue refunds for cancelled holidays within 14 days - Citrus point blank denied that this was the case, even though ABTA has confirmed it. DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY - They are dishonourable to say the least.

A fantastic holiday from start to finish. Exceptionally well organised; our whole 3 weeks ran like clockwork and was exactly as described and promised. Our guides and drivers were outstanding and couldn't do enough to ensure we enjoyed every moment. All of this was combined with incredible value for money. We would definitely recommend this holiday company, and will definitely booking with them again

I am just back from a marvellous tour of southern India arranged by Citrus Holidays.

I was attracted to their tours by their very reasonable prices and by their moderate single supplement compared with other tour operators. The prices caused me to be rather suspicious at first but my fears were allayed by my initial phone contact where all the details of the itinerary and hotels were provided before I committed to booking.

My flights to India from Manchester were arranged for me at a very good price and the whole holiday has been excellent value for money. The fact that all the accommodation was half board is another factor in making the trip very economical. There were hardly any additional expenses apart from tips and the odd snack at lunchtime.

I was keen to see a little bit more of southern India than offered by the Kerala only holidays and this holiday really delivered, adding stops in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (Bengalore, Mysore and Ooty). All the hotels were of a very good if not excellent standard. For me Wayanad Wild stood out, although the heritage cottages at Poovar with their open air bathrooms and private verandahs were also a delightful experience. The Alleppey houseboat was another highlight, providing a wonderfully peaceful environment in which to relax. The food provided in the package was always copious, varied and tasty.

Much of the tour hinged on the services of our driver. From the moment he met me at the airport I felt confident that I was in good hands. There was only one other person on the tour with me and we shared his car and his company from Bangalore to Poovar. He is a delightful person, very reliable and with a good sense of humour, and his presence added a lot to our enjoyment of the holiday. He was always ready to answer our questions and explain things to us as well as being ready to stop at any moment for photos, loo breaks and drinks and snacks. For much of our time he also acted as our guide, although specialist guides were provided for the major cultural and historical attractions as well as for the wildlife activities. But first and foremost he is an excellent driver and I always felt completely safe, despite the antics of other road users.

The one thing I didn't like on the tour were the shopping visits where there was intense pressure to buy. I know these are a feasture of all tours of India and fortunately this time there were only two, in Mysore and Kochi,when we were with the professional guides. However we would have much preferred some time on our own just to mooch around the shops in Kochi and make our own decisions about what, if anything, to purchase

Right at the end of the holiday we were affected by the coronavirus crisis as the local authorities placed restrictions on the movement of all foreigners. Fortunately by this stage we were at Poovar, and although we were unable to take the boat over to the beach or a tuk tuk into town it is hard to imagine a better place to be “held captive”.

Of course this situation was completely beyond Citrus’ control. I would have no hesitation in recommending them to other travellers and am looking forward to trying some of their other tours soon.

My partner and I booked the Southeast Asia vacation package with Citrus Holidays slated departure March 10, 2020 with finalized payment February 29, 2020. We were notified on March 4 that the original flight we booked (and paid and upgrade for) was canceled. We were offered another option at no cost, however, this new schedule had more layovers and significantly longer ground times. We replied immediately that the new schedule did not suite our needs and we did not want to complicate our travels by traveling through the US. (Our original flight was Canada to Korea to Singapore). We also noted that we initially paid an upgrade and that this should be taken into consideration. Citrus presented us with 4 other options at additional fees of $350 upwards to $1050 (all still had double to triple the amount of ground time vs. our original itinerary) which was completely unacceptable.

We asked that either Citrus absorb the fee or we would have to cancel and request for a refund (1st request).

We did our due diligence and followed up with Citrus all Thursday and Friday since they did not update us. We are literally left with 2 business days to organize the vacation. We stressed over and over again the urgency of the matter. Friday evening Citrus replied back offering the same American flight. We refuse the option and make our 2nd request for refund. Magically, they offer another option almost immediately. Of course, they want us to pay extra.

We explain that we had already stretched our budget with our initial booking and upgrade. The lack of communication from Citrus for 2 days made it impossible to get all our personal effects organized with one business day left until departure (3rd & 4th request for refund).

Saturday morning – they offered to split the difference with us – which is appreciated but should have happened on Wednesday morning. Citrus is still trying to sell us on going through with the vacation at this point. They had no intentions of looping in their customer care team to start the refund process. We refuse to accept the final offer due to poor communication and timing (we are supposed to fly out Tuesday morning). This is our 5th & 6th request to cancel. Now they tell me they do not have sufficient time to arrange cancellations with their vendors (even though they did not provide proof of hotel and travel confirmations). We gave them ample time to make cancelation arrangements had they took our requests into consideration on Wednesday morning.

Now, we have heard nothing but generic “please be patient, we are looking into the matter” responses. Please be cautious reading all these great and wonderful reviews. Especially when the reviewers have only posted once or twice. I’m sure this company isn’t all bad – as long as there are no hiccups along the way to your final destination. Do your due diligence.

We really enjoyed this holiday, (the second extended trip with Citrus), which lived up to all our expectations and in some cases exceeded those. We had commissioned an extension of the 10 Day Splendours of South India holiday as offered by Citrus Travel, building on to it an additional 8 days to include some other sights we wanted to explore. This all worked very well with an excellent choice of hotels, offering a good quality of character, Heritage and interesting locations, with most of them offering very high standards of quality and service.

We were delighted to experience so many different aspects of South India, mountains, rivers, lakes, animal reserves, busy cities, rural villages, temples, markets, palaces etc etc.

What we also appreciated very much was being away from huge tourist locations and hotels and large tour groups. It made us feel more connected to local people and their lives and we received friendly welcomes wherever we went.

The travel arrangements were superbly carried out due in the main to the professionalism, commitment and exemplary service of our Driver, who carried out a much greater role than just driving (which he did excellently), he was attentive to all our needs, comfort and safety at all times, going out of his way to ensure that all our travel and hotel reservations were organised in a timely manner, building in flexibility to accommodate any additional requests or additional local activities of interest. To that end we would also congratulate the back-office team at Citrus Travel for planning, sourcing and organising these facilities and arrangements.