"Guys be aware of these Chinese…"

Guys be aware of these Chinese traveler's,

Wanted to give this my genuine review to at least help few others to decide and plan their trip.

I had very bad experience when I traveled from New York to Naiagara. For July fourth long weekend.

Bus: Seating in the bus is very uncomfortable. They are 60 seats.. you cont push back the seats. All busses are old and dirty and don’t know how they are running these bussed on road and fully conditional. A/C air conditioning itself not there except for first 4 rows .. that’s why you need to pay extra amount to choose seats in front.

No cleanliness, no Covid rules , no masks ..

Stoppings are as per guide conveniences… and they give 45 to 1 hours to grab food.. think how all 60 ppl in the bus can get their food if there is any one restaurant.


Extra or hidden charges—- I don’t understand why are they charging for night tour of Niagara fall because it doesn’t have any entry tickets .. it’s open to all .. and they charge you 35$ per head.. another one walk-ins glen state park .. it’s a free entrance state park but these Chinese guys are charging.. and last but not the least per day tour guide charge 12$ which you must pay whether you want or not..it’s on optional and not as per your satisfaction.


Hotel will be provided 30 miles away from Niagara.. if you want to walk around falls or spend time in Casino.. you can’t do that …. They take you to the hotel at night 11:30 pm and by morning 7:30 am you have to get in to bus. Approximately by 10am returned to NYC.


If you wanted to have your trip memorable.. avoid these cheaters and go by booking rental cars.. you can stop wherever you want and eat what you like…. Take photos with fresh look.


Guys another important point is all the reviews are on take tours site is posted by themselves I guess.. because I tried to post but couldn’t do it.. you can not reach them over phone ..

"Our East Coast tour"

Our East Coast tour, which includes a large portion of NYC where over 2,000 have died as of April 3, is still scheduled for July 11. I realize that's a ways out and they have no way of knowing, but even in my own state where there's only been 18 deaths many summer activities are already shut down. I contacted them to see if they would be revising their cancellation policy and they said no and that they still plan the tour! Greed at its finest. I would cancel right now if I wasn't going to lose 10 percent. Cancellation fee goes up if it's less than 30 days. Maybe the government can force them to do the right thing.

"This is regarding my travel booking…"

This is regarding my travel booking tour with Take Tours with booking reference id - DT29-620-8307.

Out of the 7 passengers who were suppose to be part of this tour, 2 people were tested positive for Influenza Flu so we were advised not to travel as its viral. So, on medical grounds we requested taketours to reschedule our trip to a later date.

Take tours showed no sympathy to reschedule to tour even on medical grounds and they said that we will have to pay additional penalty of 150$ each for the sick passengers.

This was very disappointing to hear when the tour company is not even ready to reschedule to tour on serious medical grounds.

They were even fine with us travelling with flu which is highly contagious.

We have all the reports and supporting doctors documents.

Thanks.

"Avoid Take Tours at all cost"

Overall an unpleasant experience tours, mainly due to deceptive itineraries from Take Tours and the local tour company (Mayi Tours) which manage our tour. Tour started well with tour guide/driver (Steven Chang Li Bo) - same person due to small tour group (4 people - my family of 3 and a young Chinese female).
He was friendly and willing to show us around and suggested swapping optional “The Buckhorn Saloon and Texas Ranger Museum” (if no one interested) with walk-around 2 other local spots - Tower of America (ground floor) and Historical Square Market. We really pleased with his kindness.
When we opt out Day 1 last item “San Antonio Night Tour Including River Walk” (optional $35/pp) thinking it was a guided tour plus river cruise, rather we just walk around ourselves then everything changes. We’re told if we not joining the river cruise, it will cost USD$20/pp just “to drop us to the river walk”. If not pay $20, he will send everyone straight back to the hotel and make their own plan for dinner.
I will leave everyone to comments below description of what you think:
“Admission (Optional): Adult $35; Child (3-11 yrs) $25; Senior (Over 65 yrs) $35|Duration: Approx. 30 Minutes”
We insisted this is not what we understood from the itinerary and stopping by Riverside is part of the itinerary and river tour + boat ride is the “add-on/optional”. After heated exchange, the driver “rudely” lead us to the Riverside and allow maximum 30 mins back to the minibus, will leave us if we are late. We later found out it is only maximum 2 minutes’ walk from The Alamo, which we visited before lunch at Denny’s restaurant.
This show the dirty tricks used by tour operator to rip innocent overseas tourist thinking each attraction is far apart.
Next yet come another big disagreement before Day 1 end, on discussion for Day 2 optional item (“Stockyards Championship Rodeo”). To bring us to the Rodeo location, we must buy the package of both “optional” items (USD$25 entry ticket & USD$30 pp Special Steak Dinner).
It is ridiculous and outrages to say the least as we do pay for the tour for USD $285/pp (3 days 2-night tour) to bring/show us these locations. We have every right to decide to join any show attractions as it clearly listed as “optional” and nothing mentioned these 2 items need to be purchased together.
I saved the summary of the subsequent 2-3hrs torments in Day 1 evening arguing on the phone with driver’s Supervisor (Maggie) which insisted the above package stands and can’t only opt for only Rodeo ticket, no other customers complained about it. I am sure there are dissatisfies customers, but they just submission to go with majority.
Also, not to mentioned, I am disgusted when Maggie advised the USD$30 special steak dinner is only some Chinese buffet and being threatened that they will terminates their service immediately if we continue giving hard time to the driver. We are furious because we are merely requesting to see the Rodeo (accepting the $25 ticket) but not join dinner.
The driver dare us to raise complain about him and local operator.
Day 2 nightmare continue, we’re again being informed last minutes (before Day 2 tour starts) that tour operator couldn’t secure tickets to “Hamilton Pool Preserve” which is one of our most wanted to visit item. Their excuses being there is a daily limit of 75 visitors and they couldn’t get any pass even booking months in advance. This is convenient excuse, and they even forgot to mention to us when we make booking of this tour and kept it until the last minute. This is irresponsible and deceitful. No replacement for this.
When my wife decided to contact Take Tours seek further explanations/ clarifications of those optional items for our tour package in the minibus:
1. USD$35 - San Antonio Night Tour Including River Walk (plus river ride)
2. Rodeo package (Mayi allegedly) - USD$25 entry ticket & USD$30pp Special Steak Dinner
3. Driver being rude to us and demanded an apology
The driver heard it and become disgruntled and starts to drive recklessly - regular stepping on the brakes hard, swaying left and right unnecessarily and accelerated taking corners. Did I mentioned my 3 YR OLD DAUGHTER is traveling with us and sleeping at the time in the minivan?
Final Day 3 – Due to all the above very unpleasant experience even we have paid for the tour. We decided not to join this tour anymore. We take Uber and go straight to my friend house instead.
Another issue not to be left out is whatever they said “Deluxe Hotel: Holiday Inn/ Best Western or similar” they lied. First night we are setup at Ramada – San Antonio and 2nd night at Quality Inn - Fort Worth. I would rate both hotels less than 2 stars not deluxe hotel.
These mainland Chinese operates tour companies, employed dirty tricks (intentionally leave out important info) and put tourists in a difficult/hard situation to opt-in extra on top of what should have been included in the package. If they would have been clearly explaining all their inclusions/ exclusions of this package, I am sure no one would have purchase this at all.
My final remarks to everyone:
- to avoids Take Tours at all costs
- take extreme precautions and seek full clarification on everything if unclear (all attractions; optional items) before committing to any tours to avoid any nasty hidden charges.

"STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY"

STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY. It's a full on scam.That company is a joke. The tours are 99.9% directed to Chinese people and the tour guides are borderline racist. Don't get fooled by the "good prices", you will be experiencing a living hell if you decide to travel with them. I'm still amazed this company is open with such poor reviews. I REPEAT: DO NOT TRAVEL WITH THEM and also don't use their other service: GOTOBUS (also a scam and a joke)

Thanks :)

"Horrible!"

This must have been one of the worst trips I've come across. Read reviews and stay away (wish we knew more beforehand)!

Firstly, the tour guide and bus driver refused to let us use the bus lavatories while being inside the bus. After waiting for a delayed departure from San Francisco, my 4 year old daughter really needed to use the restroom and the tour guide refused her to use it. His argument was that the toilet would be smelly if used, so he didn't want anyone to use it. Isn't the whole point of having a restroom in a vehicle to be able to use it if needed? After discussing the level of emergency with him, he allowed my daughter to go very quickly, but she had to promise she would not do "nr 2" and he then remained outside lavatory door for the entire time listening to what was happening inside. This is absolutely ridiculous and not at all acceptable.

Secondly, as you can already tell from previous point, the tour guide and bus driver were rude and unprofessional during the entire trip. Not only were they speaking Chinese first and only translate a fraction of the information to English for the few non-Chinese speaking guests, but they were also enforcing very strict rules and screaming at people if something was not done exactly as they wished. They would also get into multiple heated arguments with other guests during our trip, scaring myself and my sweet 4 year old. Not only did we get at best 30 mins breaks at crowded restaurants / fast food joints for the whole bus to use restrooms and buy and eat our meals (which we in most occasions didn't end up having enough time for, so we had to sacrifice one thing or the other), but we also had to throw out any uneaten food / coffee for which we didn't have enough time to consume and then at the same time get yelled at. We literally felt terrorized onboard and outside the vehicle.

Lastly, the hotel standard of the first accommodation was way below any expectations. We arrived very late and were really tired, so we didn't even have time to walk to the separate building with reception to complain about the room's condition, but:

1) The water in the bathtub was either freezing or extremely hot, it wouldn't settle at a normal temperature. After stopping the water, it continued dripping the whole night making a restful sleep impossible.
2) The toilet wasn't working. It wouldn't flush at all.
3) The door to our room had a 2 inch gap at the bottom so the light from the corridor came in to our room and lit it up, not to mention how unsafe we felt in there during the night.

Overall, this was a very unpleasant experience, even though the places we visited were beautiful. If you have a possibility to drive on your own, do that!! The places are definitely worth the trip, but take tours has to be avoided!

"I bought 2-day tour from NYC to DC"

I bought 2-day tour from NYC to DC. I paid on the website the whole amount. The bus was terrible, we were barred from use on-bus toilet. The stops were short and in Chinese.
When we got to DC I was approached by our tour guide Blake Wong (a Chinese woman with terrible English). She demanded $60 as service fee, which apparently they ask everyone. When she was refused that, we were left alone for a while. Then, on the way back to NYC when we stopped in the middle of nowhere, our bus driver tried to deny us from boarding. That lead to an argument and a 911 call. When police showed up, they took our side but advised that if we want to get home before midnight , we need to pay the fee. I offered my AMEX but the tour guide refused it, and only agreed to take it after police men pressed on her
Fast forward to 3 days later I'm trying to dispute it all, because it was a clear scam and a court case of racketeering.

"Take Tours"

Take Tours

6 day East Coast Tour with Take Tours beginning 17 Sept 2019

I will begin with the positives - our tour guide was a lovely, helpful individual who managed to keep a varied group together. The transportation was fine although it would be helpful if there was Wi-Fi onboard or at least at rest points.

Itinerary was tiring once one considers the 7-8 hours coach trip each way to and from niagara falls. Perhaps management could consider a shorter trip covering just NY, Washington and Boston?

My biggest criticism however would be of the accommodation - 2 of the hotels, both Ramada hotels in Newark and near DC were poor - stained carpets, broken doors, bad lighting. Here the tour operator needs to find better alternatives.

It is important to know the tour organiser and tour operator are different with each one referring one to check details with the other. As far as I am concerned it should be the responsibility of taketours whom I booked the package from to ensure accommodation is to a good standard. All they did was kept referring me to the operator (Mayi Tours in our case) to check details of hotels. Take Tours took no responsibility for what were considerably poor quality hotels and I found this infuriating since I had booked the package with them.

Finally hotel information was never sent to me making filling in an ESTA form more hectic than it should be.

Would I recommend the tour to anyone? Its not bad if one does not mind the long drives or sub-standard hotels for the price and itinerary are reasonable. Of course management can still take charge and improve hotel choices, tweak the itinerary and be more transparent!

Acknowledging the problems would be a start before they even get to solutions.

"worst tour ever"

worst tour ever

We did the two days tour to the Niagara Falls from New York City. Our tourguide was totally unpolite.

The tour is very cheap but then when you're in the bus they want you to book all other optinal packages, so it will be much more money then it's written on the website.
There you can just see that they have some optinal activities to book and also the prices of them but if you don't book for example the tour for 75$ (cave of the wind, fort,...) than you can't use this time for exploring the falls by yourself.
They told us if we don't book it we have to stay in a restarea 40min away from the falls for 3 hours.
So if you wnat to see the falls you have to book the packages.

Also it's a very stressful trip. The breaks with with the bus were always very short so you have to run to the toilet if you don't want to miss the bus. We were not allowed to use the toilet in the bus.
Also the lunchbreak was very short so we had to eat our food in the bus.

The only time we had to explore the falls by our own was 1,5 hour after the Maid of the Mist tour and in this time was the dinner time included so we just bought something to eat on our way.

All in all I would never recommend this tour to anybody!

But of course the Niagara Falls are amazing to see!

"Stay away from this terrible tour company!!!"

We did the 2 day Niagara tour from NYC a couple of weeks back and had the worst experience with this company. We chose the two day cave of the winds tour and this one in particular has a lot of activities cramped into 2 days due to which you are not given enough time to eat/sleep or even spend quality time at each destination. As we were heavily delayed on day 1, the tour guide had to rush through day 2 because of which we had to leave the hotel at 6:30am by which time the hotel did not start serving breakfast and there were no places open near the attractions where we could get something to eat. So we had to literally STARVE FOR 4 HOURS before any of the cafes opened. I was traveling with my parents and this was extremely inconvenient for them as well as other elderly people. They offer the cave of the winds tour by combining it with other activities that are basically free and charge you $75 for it. The cave of the winds tour essentially costs only $20 per person so their packages are JUST A BIG RIP OFF. The worst part is they don't let you do the activities on your own so you either pay the exorbitant amount or not do it at all. Not to mention the seats in their bus is terrible with absolutely no leg room even for someone who's 5' 5"!!! Oh and our driver had no courtesy whatsoever - he wouldn't help us even open the luggage door (forget helping us with loading the luggage) instead he would always just stand in a corner smoking his cigarettes!!! Ugh

Overall I would say if you have even the slightest chance to rent a car and drive you would be far better off doing that rather than going with this company!!! ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE!