The Travel Dept

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1975

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Has anyone travelled with 'The Travel Dept'... looking at holidays and they seem reasonable... Just wondering about the age group that go on these holidays..............

They have a graet deal for Egypt in Sep...
 
Hi 1975

My parents go on these trips quite a bit and so do my in-laws. And I think they're probably the average age. I'd imagine there aren't too many under 40s. However with all the organised excursions, etc. it could be a great way to be sure to see everything, and my folks are always pleased with the way the trips are run.
 
I have travelled with this company on at least 7 occassions. Our last two holidays with them were poor and awful and as a result we have decided not to travel with them again. The three hotels we stayed in on our last trip were poor, good and awful. We have had hit and miss tour guides on each holiday again the good and the bad. Generally the age group are from the 30's to the elderly. The problem we found was that even though we paid for each holiday as individuals we were treated as a group when it came to meals etc. We had to share tables at meal times etc, we were at the whim of the tour guide as to whether we kept to the itinerary. We also found that what was initially advertised as part of the itinerary was changed without being told. We also found that in one hotel we were not allowed to use all of the facilities but we were never told about this beforehand. When we complained we got nowhere, the last letter of complaint that I sent to them was never answered. People who lived in the Galway area and were travelling to the USA complained that they had to travel to Dublin to get the plane even though it was stopping off on Shannon en route. In the early days we had good holidays with them but my personal opinion is that they are no longer paying attention to detail and standards are slipping. Why not suck it and see....
 
Hi,

My Mam has gone on two and loved them, mainly because everything was organised and the schedule was pretty full. I think if you like independent travel or being on your own its not the type of holiday to go for but for group travel with an organised day plan its a good option, I think the average age is 50's.

M
 
My mam and her friends went to Lake Garda with them in October and had a brillant holiday she said she could not fault anything. Trips, Guides and hotel and its Service. My brother also went with them to Shangai and Beijing last October and had said the same great service. They both said there was a mixture of ages on the holiday, There was 2 couples on Honeymoon when my mam went.

Sounds like they should review where ever you stayed and at least improve their Customer Service for complaints.
 
I have travelled with this company 3 times & think that the previous comments (good & bad) fairly reflect the situation. Yes the age profile is high. Yes the prices represent "reasonable value". Yes the tours are suited to those who want to be with a group & have a programme pre arranged. Yes even though you travel as a couple you are treated as a collective group for meal times & seating arrangements & the rooms allocated in a Lake Garda hotel were of a lower standard than thoser enjoyed by a similar package tour of Germans.On 2 of our 3 trips the base hotels were changed from those mentioned in the brochure. I had checked these out on trip advisor site & they were average 3 star places. Where we ended up were not as highly rated. We would personally prefer to pay a little more & enjoy a better standard of meals & accommodation. On the positive side we found all the local tour guides to be excellent.
In summary - If you are middle aged or elderly, like travelling in a group & want a fairly priced package deal staying in modest hotels, getting up early to be on the bus to somewhere then ok - GO FOR IT.
 
Parents-in-law travelled with them about 4 trips and really liked them. Never had a problem, sometimes the hotels were a little less than they would have liked but they were told of hotels in advance. Only prob I think they had was that they could never upgrade hotels - you basically buy what you see.
 
We went to Rome and Amalfi with them last year. Wouldn't go with them again. Our hotels were miles outside Rome and we had a 5a.m. start for a Vatican City/Sistine chapel tour because our journey to Rome took 1 1/2 hrs. All our sightseeing trips called for a really early morning start and after a few days people started getting really unhappy. The food was awful in the hotels. We ended up going to get our own meals in desperation.
 
Thanks for all your replies. I was looking at deals to Egypt or China. The Travel dept. do a very good package but I need to look into it in more detail. Its great to hear feed back good and bad !!

1975
 
I travelled to Lake Garda with the Travel Dept last year, and agree that the hotel wasn't as good as it could have been (we got the "cheap" rooms in the annexe beside the bar instead of the posher hotel rooms!) and early starts and long bus journeys were a feature. The hotel seemed a tad suspicious of us too...until we found that an earlier Irish group tried to leave without settling up bills - perhaps we got lesser service as a result?

The age range was from late 20s/early 30s up to retired folk.

I went to China in 2004 with Travelsphere (a UK company) and found the itineraries, organisation and value for money second to none. The company have been touring in China for years, and are very experienced.

Looking at Egypt myself for 2007 (must be the SSIAs!) and if you want an organised tour, check out CIE Tours international who seem to offer some good packages - unless our readers know different?!
 
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Went to Tuscany & Venice last Sept. Hotels were good but not excellent. Tours were excellent - some quite long journeys - but you got to see a lot. Would never have seen so much on another holiday type. Age range was from about 30-70. Great camaraderie among participants.

Overall - good value for money. Much easier to control your budget on this type of holiday since most things are paid in advance. Hope to go to China with Travel Dept in May/June if I can fit into my schedule.
 
Went to south africa last nov with Travel Dept. The hotel we were to stay at (4 star) was overbooked so they upgraded us to a 5 star - 45mins from Capetown but it didnt matter as tours were all over the Western Cape anyway. Tour guide was excellent. Tours were excellent. Nice people on the tour, ages ranged from late 30's to 70. Great craic & camraderie !
Still cant figure out why Robben Island wasnt on the schedule though - (tour guide arranged it for us but we had to pay extra)
Really enjoyable holiday, no complaints. !!
 
thinking of booking motogp in cantalonya in spain with the travel dept in d.2 , their tryin to get the money out of me today, does any 1 know if the company is the real deal?
 
sallyob said:
thinking of booking motogp in cantalonya in spain with the travel dept in d.2 , their tryin to get the money out of me today, does any 1 know if the company is the real deal?
Click to expand...

By this do you mean a genuine licensed tour operator or what? You can check on www.aviationreg.ie for licensed / bonded tour operators. ( under which The Travel Dept are licensed [broken link removed] ). If they are "trying to get the money out of you" I assume that the due date for payment has arrived. It is normal to have to pay a certain number of weeks before travel.
 
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