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Audley Travel has a rating of 1.5 stars from 2 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Audley Travel ranks 608th among Travel Other sites.
My husband and I went to Puglia, Italy, July 20 - July 27,2022. We had researched towns/villages we wanted to visit and in October 2021 contacted Carly of Audley Travel to book a custom made private tour. (Tauck Travel, the company we often use, does not travel to Puglia in the summer). Carly underlined Audley's ability and commitment to book a solid program custom made to our specifications and needs, stating "That is the reason you travel with Audley…. With Audley you get personalized attention to your wishes and needs and attention is paid to the most minute details of your itinerary". Nothing could be further from the truth: Audley failed to correct mistakes in the original itinerary that were pointed out in October 2021; they did not send any information about the final itinerary until 3 days prior to our flights to Puglia which led to our being unable to revise the itinerary and undo mistakes; booking a substandard motel room in Lecce (after complaining, the decent B&B owners moved us to the suite we actually had paid for); sending us at the last minute a "detailed itinerary" that had no details about our guided tours. While the local guides were good, Audley's inexcusable and total lack of communication with them, crippled our guides' ability to take us to sights and provide what we had paid for. We did not even hear from Carly for 8 months until 6/30/22 when she sent us an email that she was quitting her job; the poor transition to the new specialist led to confusion, uncertainty, missed opportunities. At $1200. Per day (PLUS all tips to drivers and local guides, all lunches and dinners - an extra $200 Euros per day) Audley Travel was a rip off. Great companies such as Tauck Tours offer a week in Puglia ($1072 per day) that includes stays in palatial hotels and spectacular masserias, tipping for all local guides, most lunches and dinners with wine in superb restaurants. Companies such as Vantage Travel and Viking World travel also offer all-inclusive superb value for about $1200 per day and at times they have promotions that include free international travel. We did communicate with Audley representatives and they did offer 18% refund, nowhere near enough to compensate us. Esther S. P/S I have attempted to attach verification of full payment to Audley travel. However, your system rejects pictures and movies. I will be happy to send you those if you send me your email. Thank you.
I turned to Audleytravel because I wanted an individualized trip to India and wanted to avoid problems. Their customer service out of Boston was excellent. However, after landing in New Delhi Audley's Indian business partner was in charge and we encountered numerous problems: unsatisfactory hotels, some of them truly horrible; communication problems; sexist guides with poor language skills; but the worst was the bad lung infection we both contracted the instant we were exposed to the horrible air pollution on the Ganges at Varanasi, due to the hundreds of cremations. The Audley 'experts' had neglected to issue a proper warning before the trip. Only a professional fireman's respirator could have prevented our severe illness and I would have carried it gladly. The trip was spoiled when we had to be treated daily by different doctors, spend 3 days in the hospital and are still dealing with lungs that have not fully recovered to this day. The Indian face of Audley deserves the lowest rating of 1 star. The customer service had been fine before the trip. But when things got really bad during the trip their so-called emergency service was not helpful. We talked to other Audley clients who were more modest in their expectations and did not mind inadequate bathrooms and inarticulate guides and were o. K. We were not.
My husband and I went to Puglia, Italy, July 20 - July 27,2022. We had researched towns/villages we wanted to visit and in October 2021 contacted Carly of Audley Travel to book a custom made private tour. (Tauck Travel, the company we often use, does not travel to Puglia in the summer).
Carly underlined Audley's ability and commitment to book a solid program custom made to our specifications and needs, stating "That is the reason you travel with Audley…. With Audley you get personalized attention to your wishes and needs and attention is paid to the most minute details of your itinerary". Nothing could be further from the truth: Audley failed to correct mistakes in the original itinerary that were pointed out in October 2021; they did not send any information about the final itinerary until 3 days prior to our flights to Puglia which led to our being unable to revise the itinerary and undo mistakes; booking a substandard motel room in Lecce (after complaining, the decent B&B owners moved us to the suite we actually had paid for); sending us at the last minute a "detailed itinerary" that had no details about our guided tours. While the local guides were good, Audley's inexcusable and total lack of communication with them, crippled our guides' ability to take us to sights and provide what we had paid for. We did not even hear from Carly for 8 months until 6/30/22 when she sent us an email that she was quitting her job; the poor transition to the new specialist led to confusion, uncertainty, missed opportunities.
At $1200. Per day (PLUS all tips to drivers and local guides, all lunches and dinners - an extra $200 Euros per day) Audley Travel was a rip off. Great companies such as Tauck Tours offer a week in Puglia ($1072 per day) that includes stays in palatial hotels and spectacular masserias, tipping for all local guides, most lunches and dinners with wine in superb restaurants. Companies such as Vantage Travel and Viking World travel also offer all-inclusive superb value for about $1200 per day and at times they have promotions that include free international travel.
We did communicate with Audley representatives and they did offer 18% refund, nowhere near enough to compensate us.
Esther S.
P/S I have attempted to attach verification of full payment to Audley travel. However, your system rejects pictures and movies. I will be happy to send you those if you send me your email. Thank you.
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Hi Giselle, thank you for taking the time to leave us a review, I am so sorry to hear about the health problems you both incurred whilst you were away. Due to the religious cremations and pollution in India, we do advise in our itinerary if you have any concerns to contact your doctor or nurse prior to travelling, I am sorry if this was not brought to your attention. Again I am sorry you had this experience and the expectations you had did not meet the reality, one of our managers will be in touch with you today to discuss your comments further.