Classic Travel and Tours - www.classictraveltours.com

My wife and I have used the services of Classic Travel for years and have always had wonderful experiences. We even traveled to Africa with Bill and Nancy and considered them to be our friends. Our most recent experience with their company has caused us to re-evaluate our opinions.

We relied on Classic Travel to handle the travel arrangements for our daughters' destination wedding in Scotland, along with her honeymoon to Bali and a side trip to tour Scotland and Ireland for my wife and me. We told Bill up front that we had a very tight budget this time and gave him a not-to-exceed amount for the entire trip. We notified him over a year in advance of our plans. We waited and waited for our itineraries and when contacted were told that they were working hard on them and would get them to us shortly. Bill sent us a "draft" copy a few months before we were to leave for the Ireland leg of the trip. This was a cut and paste itinerary prepared by the Ireland touring company with little work done by Bill. We pressed for the Scotland itinerary and were told, once again, that they were working hard on it. We did not receive the final itinerary until three days before we were to leave which gave us no time to review it and make any personal plans along the routes they chose.

We made it to Scotland and this leg of the trip was without any major complications. It was when we went to check out of our first hotel in Ireland that the situation turned very negative. We were asked for our credit card to pay the bill. When I told them that we had a package arrangement with the tour company, they informed us that the hotel bill was not paid for. I immediately contacted the Classic Travels office and was informed that Bill and Nancy were out of the country and could not be reached. I explained the gravity of the situation and was basically told that I was wrong and to deal with it.

When we returned, I again contacted their office and after several weeks of trying, Bill finally responded to me. He stated that the hotel was never included in the budget and that I was na ve to assume it was. I was a bit shocked at his attitude and went back to his invoice that he sent and found that it was stated "Creation of Entire Itinerary for Ireland, All Planning, All Reservations at Respective Hotels, and Prepayment of all Services to Drivers,/ Guides Throughout all of Ireland". When this wording was pointed out to Bill, he said that it said all "reservations" not "accommodations". Since we had paid a substantial amount for this tour and according to my driver, his fees did not come close to what we paid. I requested an accounting of where our funds went. It has now been over two months and Bill is still not willing to provide this to me.

We are extremely disappointed with the way Classic Travel handled this entire trip. They ignored our budget constraints; were slow producing the itineraries, mislead us and their unwillingness to provide an accounting of expenditures speaks volumes to us. We feel that their success in their business has also been their failure. They are no longer able or willing to provide the attention to detail and service that they have built their reputation on. We would recommend that anyone considering using them for their travel arrangements, reconsider. I know that my wife and I will never use them again.

In addition, our Daughters' honeymoon trip turned out to be a typical high-end Quantas vacation that could have been booked by anyone with a computer hook-up.