Insight Tours

Although we did like the tour very much, their customer service is HORRIBLE. We went on one of their tours to Egypt, and unfortunately, we stayed at the Marriott Cairo, where we were put up by them, and our passports were stolen from our hotel room. We spent the entire extra day running on the streets of Cairo, from the Police station, American Embassy, and photo shop, which cost us a lot of money, trying to get emergency passports and get back home. We did not receive an apology from the Hotel, and when we wrote to Insight, they sent us a letter saying they were going to refer us to the relevant department handling this matter. We did not hear from them for more than a year. No apologies, no sympathy. We called them recently, and we did get an not so sincere brush off, saying they will send us something by mail. This was months ago. We did not ask for anything, and we feel, that this company is not interested in what happens to their clients, after the tour is over. We love going on these tours, and do many every year. We will NOT be going with Insight again, and will not recommend them.

Very organised tour, with excellent extra optional tours but no pressure to take them.

The most comfortable bus, in fact we made up some sleep on long drives.

We took the Insight Italian Escapade Tour and chose this tour for the itinerary with stops in places that were important to us. With 12 days of travel on the road we saw the maximum amount of attractions and highlights without waiting in long lines or delays. The tour guide did throw some surprises at us and deviated from the original itinerary, but all that was written in the tour description was included. In the lakes region we were to have a "free day", but this was taken away the evening before so that we could go to Switzerland and have an early go to Venice the next day. This was annoying as we had been looking forward to the down time. Some of our hotels were changed at the last minute, athough the 2nd option was considered an upgraded hotel. Some hotels were not near the city we were visiting so you had to take a taxi ( Florence, Assisi, last day in Rome) Added excursions are a bit expensive and I would choose wisely and not get sucked in to taking all the ones that are offered. If you don't mind early wake ups, fast pace and giving up control of your vacation than this is a great value tour for you.

Insight tours were very good however they did have their drawbacks.

Insight tours were very helpful in advising us of the various monuments around the cities. They always had a few free tours that showed the tourists on the tour a few of the sights and sounds regarding the city. They not only showed us about the city indicating various sight seeing opportunities but adequately warned us of the dangers of the various cities, such as the pickpockets in Paris. Furthermore, the tour operator was always very helpful and her hospitality was exceptional. As this was a bus tour she was also kind enough to give us information about the city we were to visit such as historical events, language spoken and most importantly tips about etiquette. The tourists on the tour were always very happy and cheerful. The hotels and food were good.

Insight Tours are not cheap. They are an extremely expensive tour company that do not show the essentials for free. They charge approx. 100 dollars US for optional tours such as visiting the Sistine Chapel in Italy. Many of these trips are not worth the 100 dollars US but all are encouraged to attend these tours. The tour operators do not adequately warn tourists of the money needed and leave the tourists searching for money exchanges for much of the time. Important sites were left out due to travel time. Once we arrived in the city we were sent out without direction.

Insight tours did show us the most beautiful parts of Europe as economically as they could. The bus tour showed us the best of the European countryside and we were shown some extremely rare sights such glass blowing in Venice. A truly magical tour with its slight problems.