Other Options...

[BluesTraveler]

I forgot to say, all of our guides were really outstanding. Energetic, nice, capable. They made the trip really fun.

 

[WeLoveABD]

I forgot to say, all of our guides were really outstanding. Energetic, nice, capable. They made the trip really fun.

Sounds great!! But....once I read 50 miles a day, I stopped!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Thanks for the great review @BluesTraveler. I have been eying Backroads hiking trips for years so it's nice to have your report. I'm definitely part of that overlap

 

[SirDuff]

Sounds great!! But....once I read 50 miles a day, I stopped!

Don't let it put you off - there are always multiple options each day (okay, almost always, when I did one in Peru it was lodge-to-lodge so you had to go that distance, though one of our participants many rode the pack horse) with a range of distances/difficulties.

Not sure which tour that BluesTraveler did, but here's a snapshot of the daily options for one of the Scotland tours:

 

[aggiedog]

A quick trip report on my recent tour to Scotland and Ireland. For context, I travel frequently because I love exploring new cultures, am happy to DIY the whole trip, am comfortable navigating most countries, and will be doing a self guided tour of Japan (itinerary and lodging arranged be a company) this December with my family. When I do use group tours, it's been Road Scholar, which does educational travel at a mid-level price. Not luxury, but I've never felt skimped on, stayed in hostels, shared bathrooms, etc. I'm scheduled for #10 with them next year, so it's working for me. I went with an older friend who had been using RS for decades, and who I travel with once a year. I'm very active. She is not.

I returned yesterday from a My Ireland tour of Scotland and Ireland, along the Wild Atlantic Way. This particular tour covered an area that RS does not. Ireland is branding the west coast that way for tourism, including building bike and hiking trails along the road. It was a two week trip that started in Edinburgh, when thru Inverness, Glasgow, Belfast, Galway, Killarney, and ultimately Dublin. It was 13 days, with a series of 1-2 night stays. 26 of us on a large bus, so plenty of room to spread out. Breakfast and dinner was included daily. Lunch was OYO all but one day.

The good: It was a lovely way to see the more rural parts of those countries. It's gorgeous out there, and the people very nice. The first night of the trip was spent at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which was awesome. The last night was a seemingly too long drive out to a pub that does Trad Irish music and dance nightly, but the show was amazing, and worth the drive. One night we stayed at an old castle that was exclusive enough to have a heli-pad in the front. The whole place was amazing. Most of the other hotels were located in areas we could walk into town easily. The bus was clean and comfy and there was wifi and USB ports at every seat.

I loved the areas we went to. Edinburgh is one of my favorite European cities, and I really enjoyed learning about Ireland and its history. The EPIC museum in Dublin covers this really well.

The bad: The was just a guide/driver. He was knowledgeable and organized, and gave us a lot of info about Irish culture and history during the drives. Sadly, it was in a bit of a monotone and my ADHD brain needed more to really concentrate on that. Consequently, I missed the lion's share of it. (My bad, totally, but I couldn't help compare with RS, who does non-mandatory lectures (30-45 min) 1-2x/week. They would have done a basic lecture at the beginning, and then I would have had some sort of framework to add the rest of the info that came along during the week.) Our last full day we went to the EPIC museum in Dublin, which does an excellent job at explaining the Irish diaspora over the centuries. I would have retained so much more of the other random info given us had I seen all this first.

With no separate guide, when we got places, he stayed with the bus. We were either on our own (about half the time,) had a guide meet us (twice a separate guide and 3 times a guide from the castle/museum,) or had a a "facilitator" whose job it was to make sure we got from the bus to the location where we were handed off to a guided or self-guided location. These temporary guides/facilitators ranged from good to barely adequate. One lady talked so softly I had no idea she was even talking.

There was no group cohesion, and not even an initial "stand up and introduce yourself." There were a large handful of of our group I never even learned their name. Since the driver didn't go with you off the bus, there wasn't any one individual to build a bridge to the other participants when we were out and about. For some, that is maybe a plus? There was a group of 10, a few 3-4 person groups, some doubles and a single.

The ugly: The itinerary was sparse "leave at 9:00, castle tour at 11:00, dinner at 7:00." This was partially because there was a LOT of bus time on this trip. Looking back, that makes sense for the distances we covered, and because we took back roads just about everywhere, so it was scenic, and slow. Our days were generally leave after breakfast, drive around all day, get back around 5:30pm. After several days, I started looking for ways to get at least some exercise in since sitting for up to 6 hours a day was boring and made me cranky. I ended up doing a lot of long city walks, or hikes, or "take the really hard way up the cliff walk at the next stop" with one other lady on the trip who felt the same. There were plenty of our group who were just fine with very limited activity levels.

The sparse itinerary was also partially because the rest of the day's events just popped up out of nowhere. After the second day of getting to a small town, getting a short bus tour around it then our guide suddenly pulling up and saying, "ok, you have 3 hours, I'll be right here when you return" out of the blue, I started to ask him for granular details every morning, which then at least half the group also wanted to know. If I'm going to spend 3 hours somewhere, give me a heads up so I can do at least some research on what's there and what I might want to see. These stops were frequently, but not AT ALL stressed as, our meal stops. If you didn't know that there was not another stop any time soon and you didn't grab lunch, then you didn't eat. Because they happened anywhere from 10:00am to 1:00pm, it was not always obvious this was your chance to eat. As some stops were 10 minutes comfort stops, there was no way to know which of that sort of stop it was until right before he opened the door, unless I asked ahead of time. I don't know if this lack of communication was deliberate by the company, or our driver's personality. It was maddening to me.

My biggest issue is I like to travel to get to know a different country and culture. While we had culture stops, there were also several times that we went somewhere specifically so folks could shop. I get that is a thing people like to do. I do not. I'm not a "stuff" person and no one in my family expects to be given something every time I return from a trip. I do look for Christmas or birthday gifts as I go, but I'm not going to buy pottery/wool blankets/ etc just because those are Irish things. There were no demonstrations followed by high pressure sales people, thankfully. It was more that a large minority of our stops were commercial areas where there were lots of shops, something most of the group liked. Perhaps there just aren't enough other things to see in those areas? (I kind of doubt that.)

So, take away - I have no complaints about the company or the tour for being what it was. It was not advertised as anything more than this, and what they did provide was very nice. For me, though, it cemented that this is not how I like to travel.

 

[pjacobi]

Why are there stops just for shopping? It's because the stores pay a percentage of everything bought by the tour group to the guides. It's an industry-wide practice. It's all about the money.


-Paul

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Thanks for the review, @aggiedog sounds probably like a hard pass for me, although I can see the appeal if you want transportation taken care of for a trip with lots of distance covered.

 

[AquaDame]

Why are there stops just for shopping? It's because the stores pay a percentage of everything bought by the tour group to the guides. It's an industry-wide practice. It's all about the money.


-Paul

I'm sure that is why they stop where they do, but in general when you're on a tour group you're going to have guests who want to shop. Even if there was no such kick back, there would be shopping time included for them. Even on ABDs there has been shopping time.

 

[aggiedog]

I've been on trips with kickback type places. This was more often like "we're in a small town now, get food and spend time doing what you want." Far too many places to be getting kick backs. And yes, I know lots of people who like to shop as part of their vacation. I used to be that way. It's just the older I get, the less stuff I realize I need. I came to the conclusion I can appreciate something but I don't need to own it.

If I'm taking time off from work to travel, I want to do something besides shop. We did see many "check the box" type of places. And I suspect part of the issue is that we were really in the back woods part of the country sometimes. This was specifically NOT a tour of the major cities of the region.

I did really like Stirling Castle in Scotland, for it's interior renovations that make it look like it's in the 1600's, and Kylemore Abbey, just because it was in the back-end of nowhere, which is my favorite kind of place to be. I could totally just live in a cottage on the grounds.

Anyhow, it was good, in its way. I think I'd like to go back, but with a different focus.

 

[sayhello]

A quick trip report on my recent tour to Scotland and Ireland. For context, I travel frequently because I love exploring new cultures, am happy to DIY the whole trip, am comfortable navigating most countries, and will be doing a self guided tour of Japan (itinerary and lodging arranged be a company) this December with my family. When I do use group tours, it's been Road Scholar, which does educational travel at a mid-level price. Not luxury, but I've never felt skimped on, stayed in hostels, shared bathrooms, etc. I'm scheduled for #10 with them next year, so it's working for me. I went with an older friend who had been using RS for decades, and who I travel with once a year. I'm very active. She is not.

I returned yesterday from a My Ireland tour of Scotland and Ireland, along the Wild Atlantic Way. This particular tour covered an area that RS does not. Ireland is branding the west coast that way for tourism, including building bike and hiking trails along the road. It was a two week trip that started in Edinburgh, when thru Inverness, Glasgow, Belfast, Galway, Killarney, and ultimately Dublin. It was 13 days, with a series of 1-2 night stays. 26 of us on a large bus, so plenty of room to spread out. Breakfast and dinner was included daily. Lunch was OYO all but one day.

The good: It was a lovely way to see the more rural parts of those countries. It's gorgeous out there, and the people very nice. The first night of the trip was spent at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which was awesome. The last night was a seemingly too long drive out to a pub that does Trad Irish music and dance nightly, but the show was amazing, and worth the drive. One night we stayed at an old castle that was exclusive enough to have a heli-pad in the front. The whole place was amazing. Most of the other hotels were located in areas we could walk into town easily. The bus was clean and comfy and there was wifi and USB ports at every seat.

I loved the areas we went to. Edinburgh is one of my favorite European cities, and I really enjoyed learning about Ireland and its history. The EPIC museum in Dublin covers this really well.

The bad: The was just a guide/driver. He was knowledgeable and organized, and gave us a lot of info about Irish culture and history during the drives. Sadly, it was in a bit of a monotone and my ADHD brain needed more to really concentrate on that. Consequently, I missed the lion's share of it. (My bad, totally, but I couldn't help compare with RS, who does non-mandatory lectures (30-45 min) 1-2x/week. They would have done a basic lecture at the beginning, and then I would have had some sort of framework to add the rest of the info that came along during the week.) Our last full day we went to the EPIC museum in Dublin, which does an excellent job at explaining the Irish diaspora over the centuries. I would have retained so much more of the other random info given us had I seen all this first.

With no separate guide, when we got places, he stayed with the bus. We were either on our own (about half the time,) had a guide meet us (twice a separate guide and 3 times a guide from the castle/museum,) or had a a "facilitator" whose job it was to make sure we got from the bus to the location where we were handed off to a guided or self-guided location. These temporary guides/facilitators ranged from good to barely adequate. One lady talked so softly I had no idea she was even talking.

There was no group cohesion, and not even an initial "stand up and introduce yourself." There were a large handful of of our group I never even learned their name. Since the driver didn't go with you off the bus, there wasn't any one individual to build a bridge to the other participants when we were out and about. For some, that is maybe a plus? There was a group of 10, a few 3-4 person groups, some doubles and a single.

The ugly: The itinerary was sparse "leave at 9:00, castle tour at 11:00, dinner at 7:00." This was partially because there was a LOT of bus time on this trip. Looking back, that makes sense for the distances we covered, and because we took back roads just about everywhere, so it was scenic, and slow. Our days were generally leave after breakfast, drive around all day, get back around 5:30pm. After several days, I started looking for ways to get at least some exercise in since sitting for up to 6 hours a day was boring and made me cranky. I ended up doing a lot of long city walks, or hikes, or "take the really hard way up the cliff walk at the next stop" with one other lady on the trip who felt the same. There were plenty of our group who were just fine with very limited activity levels.

The sparse itinerary was also partially because the rest of the day's events just popped up out of nowhere. After the second day of getting to a small town, getting a short bus tour around it then our guide suddenly pulling up and saying, "ok, you have 3 hours, I'll be right here when you return" out of the blue, I started to ask him for granular details every morning, which then at least half the group also wanted to know. If I'm going to spend 3 hours somewhere, give me a heads up so I can do at least some research on what's there and what I might want to see. These stops were frequently, but not AT ALL stressed as, our meal stops. If you didn't know that there was not another stop any time soon and you didn't grab lunch, then you didn't eat. Because they happened anywhere from 10:00am to 1:00pm, it was not always obvious this was your chance to eat. As some stops were 10 minutes comfort stops, there was no way to know which of that sort of stop it was until right before he opened the door, unless I asked ahead of time. I don't know if this lack of communication was deliberate by the company, or our driver's personality. It was maddening to me.

My biggest issue is I like to travel to get to know a different country and culture. While we had culture stops, there were also several times that we went somewhere specifically so folks could shop. I get that is a thing people like to do. I do not. I'm not a "stuff" person and no one in my family expects to be given something every time I return from a trip. I do look for Christmas or birthday gifts as I go, but I'm not going to buy pottery/wool blankets/ etc just because those are Irish things. There were no demonstrations followed by high pressure sales people, thankfully. It was more that a large minority of our stops were commercial areas where there were lots of shops, something most of the group liked. Perhaps there just aren't enough other things to see in those areas? (I kind of doubt that.)

So, take away - I have no complaints about the company or the tour for being what it was. It was not advertised as anything more than this, and what they did provide was very nice. For me, though, it cemented that this is not how I like to travel.

Um, no thank you! Not my style AT ALL!

Sayhello

 

[jimmymc]

I was looking at the South Africa ABD, and I like the itinerary, but the single price is huge for this trip. Does anyone have recommendations for a similar tour that includes things like nature sanctuaries and photo safaris?

The South Africa location isn't as important as seeing nature and animals, if there are trips to other countries which offer those types of experiences. I'm also comfortable booking some parts of the trip on my own, like adding on a safari after doing another tour. The biggest factor is how expensive the solo pricing would be.

 

[AquaDame]

I was looking at the South Africa ABD, and I like the itinerary, but the single price is huge for this trip. Does anyone have recommendations for a similar tour that includes things like nature sanctuaries and photo safaris?

The South Africa location isn't as important as seeing nature and animals, if there are trips to other countries which offer those types of experiences. I'm also comfortable booking some parts of the trip on my own, like adding on a safari after doing another tour. The biggest factor is how expensive the solo pricing would be.

I booked our big three week trip through go2africa.com. They were very helpful and knowledgeable about recommending sites and did not balk when I overruled some sites with others. We went through Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe (with a day trip to Botswana) and South Africa. They handle other countries as well, and we were all over the place with private drives, group drives, conservancies, and just regular ol' hotel stays. We put our own trip together but they can also do more traditional group touring as well if that is what you are into.

I would use them again in a heartbeat.

 

[aggiedog]

Another quick trip report for our family trip to Japan in December with Inside Japan. Short answer - it was awesome. Really one of the best trips we've taken. Long answer - read on...

We did an 11 day self guided tour to Japan, arranged by Inside Japan. They do group tours at various price points, but also have a large self guided section. We talked to one of the reps extensively about our price point, what we like to do, where we want to go. He made some suggestions on places to see. DH and I lived in southern Japan many years ago and have already done the standard Tokyo/Mt Fuji/Kyoto highlights. I wanted to show the kids Tokyo but also see something new myself. Our final itinerary was as follows. All the tours mentioned had arranged guides. It was me, DH, DD1 and 2, aged 24, DD3 21, DS 18.

Tokyo 3 nights (first night a late arrival, so really 2 full days) - an all day manga/anime/pokemon tour with a guide, a family samurai/geisha photo session, a ramen food tour.
Nagano 1 night, to get to Ghibli Park (a bit of a fail due to timing)
Takayama 2 nights - stayed in a renovated 100yr old traditional house, with breakfast and dinner delivered, and 2 blocks from the historic old town. Did a local crafts and food tour.
Kanazawa 2 nights - tour of the well known local foods market, city gardens (3rd best in Japan! LOL. it was honestly amazing) castle, samurai and geisha districts
Hiroshima 2 nights - Food tour, OYO Peace Memorial and all day on Miyajima Island.

Inside Japan gave us a book with all the intinerary, lodging info (including detailed maps and train/bus info on how to find each lodging), contact info for guides, recommend train schedules, etc. We had a JR pass, local transit cards, and a pocket wifi waiting for us at the first hotel. Our first day the guide's first order of business was going to the JR office to get all of our train reservations and tickets. Super helpful!

We had an amazing time. The kids all had experiences they really enjoyed. The first day in Tokyo was all for them, as DH and I had no idea about any of the anime, etc, we were looking at. DD2 filled most of her suitcase with shopping from that day and the next. DS, who is into history, really enjoyed our all day tour in Kanazawa. My favorite was the family portrait and the Takayama house. The portraits were a blast, as we were fully handled by 3 middle aged bossy, friendly, and highly efficient tiny Japanese women who spoke not a word of English. They were a hoot, and enjoyed us as much as we enjoyed them. It was a several hour process to get 3 of us dressed in full geisha mode, pictures taken, and then deconstructed again. The Takayama house was straight up old Japan - tatami mats, sliding walls, outdoor soaking tub. Being so close to the old town, which was easily walkable was a nice change from all the big cities we'd been in. I loved it.

We took the train or bus everywhere, and got really good at navigating train stations and shopping for/eating eki-bento (train bento boxes.) DH was fascinated by the speeds of the Shinkansen we took.

We are big Ghibli fans and the Ghibli Park was a must do for us. It is NOT Disney, and is predominantly about standing in line to see dioramas in one big building (so maybe kind of like Disney. LOL). It is timed entry and we had dinner reservations in Takayama that night after a long train ride, so our time was very limited there. We were one of the first groups Inside Japan has gotten tickets for the Park, though, as it's only been opened less than a year and getting tickets for non-Japanese nationals is very new. They got lots of feedback on that day from me. We're still glad we went.

We all love to eat and try new foods. Dd3 has anaphylactic nut allergies, and we had many food adventures while also making sure dd felt safe. It worked well. Inside Japan gave us a printed out sheet in Japanese with an explanation of her allergies and we had no problems showing it to everyone, from fancy restaurants to food stalls.

All the lodging was arranged by Inside Japan. They did really well. Our Tokyo hotel was next to Shinjuku station, so very easy to get around, nice big rooms, good breakfast buffet. Loved the Takayama house. Kanazawa was a hipster hotel next to the famous local market. Hiroshima was Hilton, with a great view of town.

We took advantage of the luggage forwarding services that Japan widely uses. It worked great and kept us from having to drag all our luggage on the trains with us. We travel carry on only, but even with that, a back back is easier yet.

We were there Dec 21-31. New Years is a HUGE holiday in Japan, and I would not recommend being there Dec 27 and beyond. The trains were packed, the tourist areas crowded. That was the days we could go with DS's school holidays, but if you can avoid the days around NY's, I would.

This was the first trip in several years that all the kids could go on, which I think is one reason why I enjoyed it so much, but also Japan was truly awesome, and the trip details were great. I'd not hesitate to use Inside Japan again.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Loved your trip report and so glad you had a great time. Sounds awesome. Takayama was one of my favorite stops with ABD (I still dream of the ramen I had on a side street there) and the house (and women) sound fabulous. What an experience! We went in 2019 and I'd love to go back. Such a fabulous country with my kind of efficiency

 

[AquaDame]

We are big Ghibli fans and the Ghibli Park was a must do for us. It is NOT Disney, and is predominantly about standing in line to see dioramas in one big building (so maybe kind of like Disney. LOL). It is timed entry and we had dinner reservations in Takayama that night after a long train ride, so our time was very limited there. We were one of the first groups Inside Japan has gotten tickets for the Park, though, as it's only been opened less than a year and getting tickets for non-Japanese nationals is very new. They got lots of feedback on that day from me. We're still glad we went.

You're the first person I "know" who has been... are you able to elaborate at all? We just got back from Japan also and opted to spend the night in Yunishigawa to see the kamakura festival instead of trying to go. The rest of our trip was up around Hokkaido, so that was our only chance this time. Now I'm thinking that was very wise..!!

 

[aggiedog]

Happy to. It's mostly about logistics and layout. The park is located in a former business exposition park. There are several areas.

The main building, The Grand Warehouse, is in the front. It's not very big, and has a timed entry. It takes FOREVER for them to get thru the line of the timed entry. The back of the 10:00 line won't make it in until close to 10:45, so you line up at least 30 minutes early to be near the front. Once in the warehouse, the most popular area is a large interior building with dioramas of the various movies - you can sit on the train bench with No-face, ride a wave with Ponyo, etc. It was a 45 minute wait to get to the first one, which was No-face and the most popular. You have to wait for everyone to sit, take a few pictures. Even polite quick Japanese style, this takes time. There are other, much smaller areas that had a lot less crowds but were not set up for selfies, with the exception of a stone giant from Castle in the Sky, which also had a very long line. If there were no lines, you could probably see everything, including taking pics, in under an hour. Then, there is a large, really well stocked store at the exit. LOTS of great stuff there.

The rest of the park is seriously spread out, on a very large track of land. There's four physically separate areas - a childrens area that only little kids can get into, and 3 others. There's also just random trails thru the trees. All of it is on meandering roads and trails, no straight shots to get anywhere, with mostly no line of sight to where you're heading, and not a lot of signage. We had 30 minutes before we had to stand in line and so seriously hoofed it to what looked like the closest area. A very fast walk 15 minutes in and back and all we saw was the very tip of what looked like a Japanese garden and a whole lot of trees. There is a shuttle that runs, but we never saw one the whole time we were there.

We arrived at 10:00am, 30 minute fast march in the woods and back, get in line at 10:30, had 11:00am entry tickets, and had to be back on the the 12:30 train to make our connections to Takayama. I REALLY wanted a No-face picture, so 2 kids stood in line with me to do that for 45 minutes. That left 15 minutes to see the rest of the Warehouse and shop. To see the Warehouse, and the surrounding areas, I think you'd need 4 hours minimum. The whole place is just not time efficient.

 

[gatordoc]

Just back from a March Alaska Northern Lights trip, which ABD does not offer. After reading reviews, we booked through AAA Travel, though the trip ended up being managed by Collette Travel, which is apparently a well-established company though we had never heard of it. Bottom line is that it was a great trip!
Among the activities we participated in were a private wildlife/glacier viewing cruise on Prince William Sound (which included a trip through the Whittier Tunnel, which accommodates either vehicles going one way or the train), a visit to Musk Ox Farm in Palmer, Denali viewing (with clear skies!) in Talkeetna, a trip on the Alaska Railroad from Talkeetna to Fairbanks, a visit to the World Ice Art Championship, a private dog sledding experience including dinner at the home of the kennel owner, and several museums (the classic car museum was the best). There were also other little side trips, such as to an Ulu factory and to a section of the pipeline that you can walk up to and touch. And we saw the Aurora on two different nights!
The group was 23 people, with one amazing guide who was with us constantly and a bus driver who was with us through the trip when needed. We were met at the airport in Anchorage, spent two nights there, one night in Talkeetna, and three nights in Fairbanks. They took care of all the transfers/luggage handling/etc. and ended by taking us to the airport to fly home. Breakfast was included every day, as were about half of lunches and dinners.
We are in our mid-50s, and were among the youngest on the trip, but it was a nice group. Collette assigned this trip their most active rating, but we later found out that meant being able to walk 5-6 blocks at a good pace, so certainly not as active as say a Classic Journeys trip.
We had a great time (aside from the jet lag when we got home), highly recommend this trip, and would definitely consider Collette again for the right itinerary.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Just back from a March Alaska Northern Lights trip, which ABD does not offer. After reading reviews, we booked through AAA Travel, though the trip ended up being managed by Collette Travel, which is apparently a well-established company though we had never heard of it. Bottom line is that it was a great trip!
Among the activities we participated in were a private wildlife/glacier viewing cruise on Prince William Sound (which included a trip through the Whittier Tunnel, which accommodates either vehicles going one way or the train), a visit to Musk Ox Farm in Palmer, Denali viewing (with clear skies!) in Talkeetna, a trip on the Alaska Railroad from Talkeetna to Fairbanks, a visit to the World Ice Art Championship, a private dog sledding experience including dinner at the home of the kennel owner, and several museums (the classic car museum was the best). There were also other little side trips, such as to an Ulu factory and to a section of the pipeline that you can walk up to and touch. And we saw the Aurora on two different nights!
The group was 23 people, with one amazing guide who was with us constantly and a bus driver who was with us through the trip when needed. We were met at the airport in Anchorage, spent two nights there, one night in Talkeetna, and three nights in Fairbanks. They took care of all the transfers/luggage handling/etc. and ended by taking us to the airport to fly home. Breakfast was included every day, as were about half of lunches and dinners.
We are in our mid-50s, and were among the youngest on the trip, but it was a nice group. Collette assigned this trip their most active rating, but we later found out that meant being able to walk 5-6 blocks at a good pace, so certainly not as active as say a Classic Journeys trip.
We had a great time (aside from the jet lag when we got home), highly recommend this trip, and would definitely consider Collette again for the right itinerary.

Love the review and thanks for posting. I've always wondered about Collette. The only reason I've heard of them is that I watch Wheel of Fortune and Collette sponsors a lot of the trips on there. What were the accommodations like?

 

[aggiedog]

Thanks for the report. We have friends we met on our Road Scholar Galapagos trip who have done a couple Collette tours and like them.

 

[gatordoc]

Love the review and thanks for posting. I've always wondered about Collette. The only reason I've heard of them is that I watch Wheel of Fortune and Collette sponsors a lot of the trips on there. What were the accommodations like?

Accommodations were:
Anchorage: Hilton - typical Hilton. Good location with easy walks to restaurants and shops.
Talkeetna: Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge - epitome of a mountain lodge. Very comfortable, fantastic mountain views, great staff.
Fairbanks: Pike’s Waterfront Lodge - funky old-time lodge on the Chena River. Accommodations a bit dated but comfortable, lots of fun amenities included such as sledding, a sauna, a movie theater, and more. Plus $1 ice cream every evening! And an incredible collection of art pieces and assorted tchotchkes throughout the lodge.