Went into there Milton Keynes branch on the 10th of April, asked a rather large lady about a all inclusive holiday for this coming April, she was do rude and lazy as she said we don't do that sort of thing and I should try Tui or Virgin holidays, so in other words they are not a expert travel agent at all, I'm not sure who the are but there staff are usless to be honest.

We spent 4 weeks last year refining our itinerary with the Winchester office. The person we were dealing with left the company and the person who took over changed half of the flights to a different airline. We were assured that the new airline was a One World alliance so we proceeded with our booking. We subsequently discovered that Singapore Airlines are not part of the One World alliance and we later found out that instead of booking a multi-stop ticket TF had booked three separate tickets so we had three separate baggage allowances, one of which was just 20Kg. We've been collected BA loyalty points for over 20 years and missed out on 80,000 Avios points and 500 tier points by flying with Singapore Airlines instead of BA. Furthermore, the restricted baggage allowance prevented us purchasing any souvenirs or momentums during our 9-week holiday. TF have refused to compensate us, except to offer a £150 voucher. We're not impressed and we will never ever use Trailfinders again.

This review refers to the Trailfinders travel agency, not the Safari itself or the company who run it. Awful experience. We spent almost 6 days out of a 14 day vacation stuck in airports and crappy airport hotels. A waste of time and money (because they did not cover our extra expenses, of course) that could have been avoided had they booked the flights we asked in first place (we even offered to pay for them ourselves on top of the vacation package) A travel agency who won't even book a flight? What is the point? And, by the way, the seven day safari in Kenya is actually only five days. Day one is spent stuck in one of the worse hotels we've ever been to, without even an outdoor area! and Day 7 is spent driving back to the airport. I've never dealt with such an incompetent, dismissive, disrespectful and deceiving company. Do not recommend.

Previously booked many Worldwide trips with TF. Not for a few years though due to the pandemic. Having just done so again I am regretting it. This once great travel specialist is now a very average High Street travel agent at best but without the service. Over 1 hour to get through to someone (usually in a completely different part of the country to where they are stated to be.....why?) or have to use the "portal". They respond by phone (eventually but I have had experience of over 1 week) and leave a message so that you have to spend another 1 hour plus on hold to call them back. Their lateness and lack of information has now cost me £300. They don't care. After over 30 years I will be taking my details off their database. There is much better out there. An expensive mistake.

Since Brexit, the EU no longer accepts UK passport expiry dates. They take 10 years from issue date. So despite having 10 months left on my passport, I'm unable to travel with my wife and young children on a £6k trip of a lifetime. This is buried deep in the documents from Trailfinders but it's badly worded and at no point did the consultants think to bring this up, even on the pre-departure courtesy call. Specifically, the guidance says "you must have a minimum of 6 months validity on your passport which cannot be older than ten years". My passport (at the date of this trip) is not ten years old and it has >6 months validity until the printed expiry date. I feel pretty stupid, but this is a fairly subtle thing which I would expect a traditional travel agent like Trailfinders to draw attention to. I will book future holidays online - there's no point in having the human element. My cousin got the same package through TUI for half the amount as well. So save your money - go elsewhere. I was also asked to withdraw my similar review comment on trust pilot, as it will help them resolve this situation for me. Somewhat sinister and far from true customer service.

I did the PCR Fit to Fly test at 9.30am based on the fact that the results will come out by 10pm the following day. The next day I waited and waited it was almost 10pm and I didn't receive my result. I started getting worried as I had a flight to catch so I tried calling them and was surprised that they had no customer service number. The only option was to submit a form so I submitted one and they never EVER got back to me. My results came out at 1am and my flight had already gone. Will never do a PCR there again and would NEVER recommend this service to anyone as these guys are unpredictable and cannot be trusted with timings!!! I literally wasted £80, just thrown like that in the garbage!

This is the second time we have contacted Trailfinders. The first time they were not competative with a quote we were given. The second time, a couple of weeks ago we contacted them again, hoping the first contact was just a blip. Again, no-one has come back to us with a quote ? Why is that ? Surely even a courtesy call ? Nothing. I thought they were there to sell holidays. As this is the 2nd time no-one has bothered to contact us you could not recommend a company that simply doesn't get back to potential customers. Very disapponting.

I have been a loyal Trailfinders customer for over 25 years, and have spent in the region of GBP 30,000.00 with them on business and personal travel for myself and my family over this period. Trailfinders like to position themselves as a trusted brand. Their website bangs on about this at length, however recently we have had a series of experiences with them which collectively have been so bad that we have not just stopped recommending them to friends, family and colleagues, but would now never use them again. Failure No 1/Hotel Recommendations: Trailfinders arranged a trip to New York for us over New Year 2018/9. They recommended the Hudson Hotel in mid town Manhattan, a recommendation I accepted without doing too may checks on it myself because I trusted that they would have vetted the place first. The hotel was a shambles. It was very poorly managed, the food was atrocious and the infrastructure of the building was creaking. Anyone who wants to know how bad it is has only to read the dismal reviews on TripAdvisor, some of which go back several years, to see how inadequate this place actually is. When we returned from this trip, I asked Trailfinders how they could possibly recommend a hotel with such poor reviews. They assured me that they do their own checks. I sent a long list of problems to them at their request and never had any response. A surprising and disappointing experience from a company that I trusted to do a lot better. Failure No 2/No Email: I booked several trips with Trailfinders in 2018. All agent dialogue has to happen on the phone; there is no ability to correspond by email. As we approach the third decade of the twenty first century, I find it incredible that I cannot organise a trip using the de facto medium of communication in the first world. The consequence of this failure is that when I want to deal with an agent they are rarely available and when the agent calls me it is always at an inconvenient time. The whole experience is archaic and arcane and leads to huge frustration and wasted time. Failure No 3/Trailfinders Travel Insurance: This is by far the biggest failure and is the one that has finally convinced us never to have anything to do with Trailfinders again. When we have recounted this problem to friends and colleagues, they have all been shocked. Further, there are a series of complaints on Trust Pilot and Service Centre that describe the same failure. Last year, we took Trailfinders’ Annual Travel Insurance for the second year. We took it because we believed the policy to be safe, comprehensive and because we trusted the Trailfinders brand. We could have paid less for annual cover with another provider, but we paid a premium for this policy because we believed it would cover us in the event of a loss. As it turned out, it doesn’t. In late January, we were both victims of a theft at Madrid airport which occurred in the secure baggage area. Items of jewellery and electronic equipment were stolen from our locked suitcases. The combination locks had not been touched and the bags had not been damaged in any way, so the only way the thief could have got into the case was by using a customs security key. After reporting this theft to the Spanish National Police (who took no interest in even understanding the circumstances of the theft), we claimed on our Trailfinders Travel Insurance. The loss amounted to just under GBP 1,000.00 and included some very personal items. In the end, the loss was settled by Trailfinder’s third party claims handlers for GBP 5:00. An insult. The stated reason for this was that loss of valuable items in a locked suitcase is not covered when the baggage is entrusted to a third party, an airport baggage handler in this case. We did nothing wrong here. We locked the suitcases. We saw the suitcases tagged and dispatched to a secure handling area. We trusted the airport operator and we trusted that, in the event of a problem like this, our travel insurance would cover us for the loss. The whole point of taking travel insurance is to cover a loss such as this. Trailfinders position this insurance as ‘Safe, Extensive and Trusted’. It is none of these things. Trailfinders’ told me that most UK travel insurance policies don’t cover this type of incident. But some do, RAC Global Travel Insurance for example, so why don’t they? This failure, by far the worst, is the final nail in the Trailfinders’ coffin and is the reason why we will never use or recommend them again. On the contrary, we will use every opportunity to tell this sorry story to friends, relatives and colleagues to dissuade then them from using this once trusted brand.

We have recently returned from a road trip to western USA, covering all the main sites including Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Yosemite, San Francisco, Monterey and LA. We asked Trailfinders to organise the trip for us after being recommended by a relative who had used them. Both my wife and I work full time and we didn't have much time to research the trip as thoroughly as we would normally wish, hence the "trust" in Trailfinders. The trip was amazing as anyone being to these places will testify, but the organisation from Trailfinders was disappointing to say the least. We had contacted a specific (recommended) person initially who took in all our requirements, sent us the itinerary and then wasn't contactable again until we had paid for it all. In the meantime we had to deal with other representatives. We had specifically asked for 4 or 5 star hotels in the stop overs and wanted realistic travel times between these. Clearly all that happened was that Trailfinders looked up distances and road travel times on Google Maps and sent these to us without taking into account the actual road, eg twisting mountain passes or volume of traffic around cities in California. So a "4 hour itemised journey" actually was an 8 hour journey. They didn't check the hotels, and whilst some were nice quality (eg. Oasis in Death Valley - actually the only hotel around there!), others were dreadful. We were recommended to stop over in Pismo Beach (which I can only describe as worse than Paignton in Devon) at the Spyglass Hotel that was no more than a cheap-looking motel. Similarly, there could not be a more noisy hotel than the Hotel Zephyr in San Francisco; right on the Wharf and seemed to be built out of cardboard! The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in LA was nice but poor location as it was a little way out from (main) Venice Beach or Santa Monica. I don't believe that Trailfinders had been to the majority of hotels that they booked us into, and disappointingly did not adhere to what we requested. They gave us an itinerary which was fine, but then Google Maps and internet booking took over which I could have done better - and saved paying them their enormous commission! The bottom line: don't use Trailfinders, make enough time to do your own research, book the flight and hotels yourself and save a fortune!

Awful experience of Trailfinders. Lack of knowledge, poor service and in the end we could not do the holiday because of a visa situation, where they gave us no information and no help. Very poor complaints procedure and then when we tried to complain to ABTA (as they said we could do) we found out that they had just left the scheme. We would advise people to look elsewhere!

A poor experience overall. We booked our holiday in the Exeter branch of trailfinders - a cruise that we thought would take a short while. In fact, we spent a whopping 2 1/2 hours in the shop, as the assistant either couldn't work or was unfamiliar with the clunky IT. In addition, he had virtually no corporate knowledge of Venice(!) and was unable to book hotels in the area to extend our stay. This resulted in us having to book our own hotel for the return journey, only to be informed with less than 12 hours notice that our journey was to be cut short (whilst we were on the cruise). In sum, poor IT combined with an ambivalent service and lack of local knowledge (literally) cost us dear and seriously damaged the overall enjoyment factor. Never again!

After complaining about the disgusting hotel provided to my daughter and her friend in Orlando (I booked their accommodation) leaking roof in their room, rubble in corridors and external doors open to the public, and not getting any satisfaction from Trailfinders I left it in the hands of my solicitor who acted for the girls. They were paid compensation. I later asked for a quote and was surprised to find I was blacklisted as follows:- Good Afternoon We have reviewed your enquiry, and in consideration of the past difficulties that you have experienced with our service, we have taken the decision not to provide a quote. I regret that we are unable to assist you further. Kind Regards General Manager W trailfinders Subscribe to our newsletter

I used trailfinders to for routing/flight booking to Mexico. I was pushed to book via phone as they would not be able to hold the tickets longer. Once booked I discovered they had made a blunder with my names. Asked them to change names pointing out I had advised/spelled names on phone. They fobbed me off and made me pay some 300 EUr more for rebooking. Couldn't get a straight after when sending written complaint either. Don't use them, certainly not booking via phone.

This company has no expertise, no customer service and will cost you a lot Avoid and save cost and a lot of fustration

Poor communications, excessive and non transparent prices. Add no value Avoid

Went into the store to buy two business class tickets expecting to spend £8000 plus another £3/4000 if they could find us the right accommodation we were taken to the desk of the 'specialist' in first class flights etc He could not have been less interested if we had come to clean his desk, No hello / smile or how are you did not stand to meet my wife or offer her a seat just looked up at use and stared blankly. I even tried to start things off with a smile and a joke but no he was not interested what a git !! We left after 1 minute and nobody asked us why as we walked past the young lady on reception not a bit interested. Imagine you have gone into your local council office to pay a parking fine and you are just about half way there. Rang the companies office they are not interested told to put it in writing, imagine having a problem on a trip if this is what they are like before they get your cash !! Please do not give this company your hard earned cash !!!!! They do not deserve it

We booked out first trip to SA through Trailfinders, believing them to be experts in their field. Most of the trip we were happy with, although a few errors like not checking what time drives on our Gorah safari were so our flights would have meant we missed 2 of the 6 drives during our stay. To be fair when we notified them they changed the return flight so we could enjoy the safari on our last morning. Prior to travel we highlighted our concerns about the online reviews of the Harbour Bridge Hotel Sadly our concerns re the bathroom without a wall, the service, the pool area and the position meaning getting into town / the Waterfront came to fruition. Trailfinders only suggestion was to lose the money we had already paid and book alternative accommodation either through them or independently. Hardly a choice. The Harbour Bridge Hotel & Suites is certainly not suitable for people travelling without a vehicle. Taxis often don't know it and the area isn't very nice. The canal service finishes at dusk and on one occasion we couldn't get on a boat from the Watefront and were told there would be a 1/2 hr wait. At this point I should point out Harbour Bridge is a combination of 40 hotel rooms and probably as many privately owned suites. Many of these suites are rented out by the owners through internet sites, thus making them a cheaper option than the hotel. Hence reviews on various sites combine both types of accommodation. One imagines the people saying that they are such good value etc are staying in privately (relatively cheap) rented apartments rather than the hotel rooms. On our first evening we called to enquire the time of the last boat, were given the wrong time so that when we got down the last boat had long gone....although reception seemed unsure, surely a hotel relying on the passing boat service should at least know the times? To walk into the V&A you have to walk back into town and, in our case, pass people sleeping rough, as two ladies this was not acceptable. On another occasion the hotel could not get us a taxi. Our room was booked in the wrong name and we were given a double bed rather than two singles, despite reception confirming the room would be a twin when we checked in. Plenty of fruit at breakfast, the toaster was however inefficient and we were only told on the 4th morning you could order egg items from the kitchen.The shower was very efficient. The room suffered noise from the motorways either side of the canal, one of which was visible from the room.The only light in the bathroom shone through the (fore-mentioned) blind, causing the bedroom to be floodlit. The room lighting was poor. Housekeeping service was spasmodic. On arrival you receive 2 biscuits on the tea tray, this is for your entire stay. Rather mean considering the room rate was the same throughout. On our second night (of a 6 night booking) we received a call at 4:30am telling us our taxi was waiting and the receptionist insisted we were going to the airport. The pool area is limited. The pool measures only 8 x3m, there is no shade and only 10 sunbeds. This is for the use of 40 rooms plus all the privately owned suites. The pool was dirty and had mould on the tiles, and on the two occasions we visited the area there was litter on the floor. The steps accessing the pool were wobbly. The pool area was unusable to us due to the complete lack of shade. We were led to believe (and the stars are outside to confirm) this was a 4* establishment: the level of service, ambience and attention to detail didn't match the other 4* we'd stayed at in Cape Town. There seemed an issue with a lack of staff training, and we didn't feel the staff had the same 'happiness' we experienced everywhere else in Cape Town. We took up the matter up with Trailfinders, who we also notified of our concerns during our stay. Despite several letters of communication Trailfinders only offered us a 50% refund on our 6 night booking, of which we stayed 4 nights. Having now been to South Africa I can’t understand why Trailfinders got us to stay in a similar area to our first stay in Cape Town, on our return. Why not one of the lovely suburbs such as Stellenbosch, Camps Bay, Constantia…to name a few. They did say that their usual accommodation was all full, but they compromised our holiday by booking us the Harbour Bridge, what could have been worse. For our next trip to Cape Town we will book independently, rather than pay an agent who wouldn’t even admit they got it wrong nor seemed to be well knowledged in the area, especially the hotel.