"Amazing trip to India's Golden…"

Just returned from India's Golden Triangle & Goa with DJ. We loved it.
Everything was well organised, including flight times,
We were greeted by our super informative guide Mahvil, who was on hand for everything and had information and a story for everything. All the hotels were excellent. The itinery was full on and we saw and learnt so much about the Indian culture. A relax at goa at the beach was a great ending, one day more here to unwind would have been even better.

"Trust in Distant Journeys to give you the holiday of a lifetime."

My wife and I went on The Very Best of New Zealand tour last year with Distant Journeys and were absolutely thrilled by the whole experience. Our driver and guide Peter was excellent, informative and helpful in every way. The places we visited covered all the most interesting and scenic areas of both islands. There were walks, boat trips and a visit to a Maori settlement, all included in the price. Finally every hotel we stayed at were superb, with comfortable accommodation and excellant breakfasts. Great value for money and highly recommended so much so that we hope to do it all over again soon.

"Plendours of Kerala"

We have recently returned from a 13 day trip with Distant Journeys. This is the first time of using them and I have very mixed feelings about whether I would book with them again.
Our flights were changed a couple of times before departure and we were given different options to suit us. It would appear most of the other members of our group didn't get this luxury and one passenger in particular had pretty grim flight times and missed most of the last day with us.
Our guide turned out to be very caring and knowledgeable but was hard to follow at times. The coach was comfy and the driver and bus boy were lovely.
Our guide indicated our first hotel in Cochin was a resort hotel. We arrived jet lagged but with hours to go before our rooms were allocated. We only had the hotel restaurant chairs to sit in as there was no bar or comfortable lounge area available. We used the only 4 pool sun beds wearing our travel clothes and then had to organise the staff to supply us with some cold drinks. The hotel food was excellent but the rooms were tired and in need of an update. We tried the pool but it had a plastic liner that was rucked and hurt the feet.
All the other hotel stays were very good and the standard of food was excellent. Tall Trees and Spice Village were lovely and the staff excellent. However, Spice village lacked enough bar seating and Tall Trees had no dedicated lounge/bar area. The Gateway had spectacular vistas and staff were helpful.
Perhaps Coconut lagoon was the standout hotel for providing a total package of good food and facilities. It was the perfect way to wind down after our trip. It also helped us to forget our houseboat experience:
The houseboat was a disgrace!!!!!!!!! We were looking forward to this being the highlight of our stay but it ended up being the worst aspect by far. Our room was filthy, the headboard was disgusting and the bedding was nearly threadbare, Mirrors were mucky and a dirty tissue had been left by the window. The air conditioning couldn't be controlled and it took us some time to get the crew to fix it (just needed new remote batteries). We took a shower straight away and this was ok except there was an infestation of black flies. Luckily we did not get bitten and we did our own job of eradication with a flip flop. The open deck was cramped and seats were park benches, without cushions (the DJ brochure specifically mentions that there are cushions). These sat only 6 of the 8 passengers. These "cushion free" park benches extended into the covered lounge/dining area. The lounge area had settee seating for only 6 so we had to drag up dining chairs for our evening drink together. Our lunch meal was good but the evening meal was pretty rubbish. Our breakfast was so bad we just ate bananas, by the way, one of our fellow guests suffered diarrhoea and vomiting the next day and she had eaten quite a full breakfast. The morning shower was farcical as there was no hot water to start with. When I complained the crew appeared to fiddle in a control panel in the kitchen and, miraculously, we had hot water. The kitchen was also pretty grubby and the fridge was even worse. All in all we were glad to get off the boat.
We have travelled to India a couple of times and so know most of the pitfalls. This trip was a very mixed bag. We did enjoy some wonderful experiences and this trip could have been very special but was let down by a couple of sub-standard stays.

"I recently traveled with Distant…"

I recently traveled with Distant Journeys on the Tigers and temples excursion (distantjourneys.co.uk) and had a fantastic experience overall. The guides were incredibly knowledgeable especially Mahavir singh, the accommodations were excellent, and the itinerary allowed us to see many unforgettable sights, including the Golden temple and Taj Mahal and some incredible wildlife. The tours were well-organised, and any concerns, such as dietary preferences, were handled courteously. There were a couple of minor hiccups in terms of re-scheduling, but the staff worked to resolve them quickly. Overall, a great company to travel with, and I wouldn't hesitate to book with them again. Four stars plus!

"I recently traveled with Distant…"

I recently traveled with Distant Journeys (distantjourneys.co.uk) and had a fantastic experience overall. The guides were incredibly knowledgeable, the accommodations were excellent, and the itinerary allowed us to see many unforgettable sights, including the Taj Mahal and some incredible wildlife. The tours were well-organised, and any concerns, such as dietary preferences, were handled courteously. There were a couple of minor hiccups in terms of scheduling, but the staff worked to resolve them quickly. Overall, a great company to travel with, and I wouldn't hesitate to book with them again. Four stars!

"Just started our tour and words fail…"

Just started our tour and words fail me. We were abandoned at the airport in Singapore and not picked up. Quanta’s flight was cancelled after sitting in runway for 6 hours no email or phone call from distant journeys. Quanta’s sent us in a taxi to hotel. Nothing the next day and no luggage had to go back in taxi to get luggage which took 3.5 hours to locate. Not git a flight until two days later then connecting flight the day after missed Auckland and trips which I really wanted to go on. No communication from distant journeys and no offer of hotel before connecting flight holiday was over 30000 for my husbands 70 th. Absolutely disgusting behaviour from the tour operators got whole tour to suffer yet

"Mind blowing experience!"

Everything about Australia blew my mind! The people, amazing cities,astonishing geography. DJ chose fantastic hotels and itineraries. Trips were so memorable. Our guide, Ann Aston, was simply the best person we've ever had the pleasure of being with on such a massive, comprehensive tour as The Very Best of Australia.

"Be careful booking with this company "

Hi, my name is Lisa wightman, this is the second time we have booked with distant journeys. Unfortunately, we were booked to go to India in January, in December we had some very sad news that my sister only had a few weeks left to live. We called DJ to see if we could change our holiday to next January, we were told this could happen with a cost of £75 pp and any cost that was added to the holiday, as you can imagine this was a huge relief. Two-days later we received another call to say this was not the case, they said that we would lose our money for the original trip, and needed to pay 75% for a new trip. I do believe that DJ are at fault here as they originally said we could change the trip with a small fee. Be careful booking with this company.

"Poor Customer service"

On return from a tour, Distant Journeys have repeatedly failed to acknowledge their failure to mitigate a previously known operational issue that resulted in a group of travellers arriving at a destination early in the morning after an overnight flight without any hotel room to go to until later in the afternoon. No opportunity even to shower or offer breakfast before being asked to ‘explore’ the destination for up to 8 hours before rooms readied.

"A bit underwhelming."

After having enjoyed a trip to Australia with the same company, we had expectations that were not met on our trip to New Zealand.
Some hotels were not of a normal four star standard. Clean and pleasant in the main part but limited restaurant in Auckland hotel (vegan Asian)) no spa facilities as advertised in Queenstown( under refurb), shredded curtains and grubby spa pools in Rotarua.
It was a whistle stop tour and punishing on occasions. A one night overnight stop was not a good idea. We got the overall impression the tour had not been ‘checked’ by a DJ representative, it was delegated to T for Travel.
Our guide was knowledgeable but not professional on occasions, the drivers were excellent.
Our fellow travellers made the holiday enjoyable - they were excellent.
New Zealand scenery was lovely and we did learn a lot about its culture and customs from our guide.
We chose to end the holiday with Bali- beautiful and really enjoyable in a super hotel but we paid a price of 24 hour travel from Christchurch to Bali with an 8 hour stopover in Sydney. Annoying, when it is possible to do the journey in 8 hours with a direct flight.