Audley, Kuoni or Trailfinders?

[Namechangforthisone]

Have you used them? Were they good? Did you get the holiday of your dreams?

I usually book our holidays online, but next year we are considering a ‘big’ holiday in Asia. There will be lots of internal flights and specialist trips. I could book the trip myself, but because we’ve never done this type of holiday before, I’m considering booking through a specialist travel company. I’ve had my first telephone consultation with Audley and have a meeting with Kuoni and Trailfinders next week. Kuoni have come out best in a recent survey, but they don’t have any prices on their website, so I’ve no idea if they are in the running anyway.
Thoughts?

We’ve successfully used Trailfinders a few times and also A&K for a v lux trip but for Asia I’d consider DIY or at least compare the prices.

I used Audley last year for a big Asian holiday. Not cheap at all but they took a huge amount of time to listen to what I wanted, get everything right, adjust things I wasn’t happy with etc. You can also book parts of the trip yourself and get them to do the rest.

I didn’t ask anyone else to quote so I don’t have a direct comparison, but I have used trailfinders before and if you are wanting a complete handhold I would say Audley are much better, but therefore cost more.

Audley were amazing when we have to cancel our complicated trip to Oz because of Covid . Full refund, very helpfully managed

Beware.
I nearly booked a v.expensive trip with Trailfinders as the price was better than others.
Then I realised the small print offered to arrange flights in addition !

Kuoni have been fantastic but not used for a few years as expensive.
Used Travelbag for our California road trip last summer and they were great, so helpful (helped on previous bookings that fell through due to Covid)
Will be using them again for next years US road trip.
Also found Kenwood Travel to be good.
Travelbag you can submit an online enquiry form too so don't have to be sat on the phone for ages.

We have used Trailfinders and were very happy with them.

I spoke to Trailfinders about a trip to Asia - 6 weeks, travelling round- but ended up booking everything independently as it was so much cheaper.

It was very easy in the end. And because I did my research we found some lovely independent places that I doubt a big travel agency would have on their radar.

We’ve used Kuoni a few times and they’re great. The lack of prices on website is a relatively new thing that does bug me but we’ve used the same lady in store for many years and I just email her and ask for budget ideas and if one I’ve highlighted is silly money she’ll quote that one but suggest I check out another option too

Hi,
Great to see some answers and nice to see positive comments about these companies.
Ive priced up a few thing like international flights and hotels, but it’s hard to get figures for the internal flights and transfers. The tours that we fancied can be booked directly and aren’t nearly as expensive as I thought they would be. I think I could probably get it for 10-15% lower if I booked myself, but I’m still quite tempted by the ease and guarantee of booking through a company.
Does anyone know what sort of cut they get?

Anyway, I’ll talk to other agents and will go from there. Thanks

No idea on the cut but definitely with tours I think it’s worth doing, we did an African safari through Kuoni the jeeps they used they guaranteed everyone a window seat, as it was the jeep would have seated 7 or 8 so the max Kuoni would allow was 6 we had 4, this meant plenty of moving around options to get the best view. Some of the jeeps we passed were absolutely crammed full, way over capacity, which was allowed as not on a public highway.

Have used Trailfinders several times and been impressed. You can give them a rough idea, an outline or a fully fleshed out itinerary and they’ll work with it, although we have ended up not booking destinations where they can’t offer much flexibility i.e. they can offer set itineraries only) as I tend to either plan the whole thing myself and then book it through them for the protection or tweak an itinerary someone else has created.

For short trips with multiple legs, I can’t recommend them enough as they sort out any flight or hotel changes without fuss, keeping you informed and giving good options. But as a pp says, they don’t offer the full range of accommodation and I wouldn’t feel the need to use them for an extended trip where I had a bit of slack.

Did anyone else read only the title and think this was a baby name thread until they got to 'trailfinders'?

Use Skyscanner app for flights, external and internal. I've booked this sort of holiday myself before and it's fine but suppose it depends if you feel comfortable.

Throwing another one into the mix. Freedom Destinations. We used them for our once in a lifetime Oz trip in 2022. We told them our rough plan, they refined it, advised on what to do and what not to do and booked the international and internal flights. We had one hiccup in Australia, but they sorted it out quickly and to my satisfaction. I would used them again.

I've only ever had good reports about Audley from people I know.

We used trailfinders for a big holiday and we were disappointed about how much they wouldn't break down the final figure for us. So, for instance, they wouldn't tell us how much the flights were and kept saying we are not allowed to give you that detail. For that reason we would not use them again

I’ve used trailfinders repeatedly over the years. They have served me so well. So flexible and really listen to what I want. Including several changes to plans often which they accommodate. And in terms of value for money - for decent end accommodation I have calculated I wouldn’t have been able to get the whole trip on my owm
fof the overall price charged on multiple occasions. Occasionally I throw in my own accom for a few nights for whatever reason and that works well too. Can’t recommend trailfinders highly enough.

.

Trailfinders are good but they didn't really listen to my "I like public transport" comment and kept suggesting taxi transfers, it pushes the price stupidly in my opinion, and I like trains even buses. I ended up buying independently

@CircleofWillis 😂

More great feedback. Thanks.

I had another look at the plan that Audley drew up for me. Not so sure about a couple of the excursions after reading the trip advisor views. How many times did you tweak your itineraries before booking? The poor rep (whoever that will be) will be sick of me by the time we finally sign on the dotted line.

Final question. Why did you choose the company you booked with? Was it just price or did they offer something special? I must admit most of my life decisions have been made on gut feeling, so perhaps I’ll just go with that.

We used Audley last year for a three week trip across Costa Rica they are brilliant we had already booked the flights ourselves and they sorted everything else out for us. We went back and forth lots of times to nail down the details and we didn't book all our tours/days out with them they put them in as our leisure days but provided so much information on activities we could do ourselves and also all the places to go to eat have coffee etc ouside the hotels/lodges. We had a set budget and they worked really well within this when we said we wanted a larger car they would look at tweaking something else on the holiday to accommodate. When we priced it independently (we have always booked holidays independently ourselves) yes we could have done it cheaper ourselves but the difference wasn't huge and we felt really looked after. And on the excursions we were the same a few we were not keen on so they offered alternatives.

Yes!

Thanks @toasty1

Audley were great. Spoke to a named person (and always the same person every time) and got a completely personalised trip. They were also a big help with visa applications for a tricky country. I'd definitely use them again.

Our honeymoon with Kuoni wasn't great. We paid extra for private transfers that didn't materialise and the tour operators in resort weren't interested in resolving the situation.

We complained when we got back, and they refunded us the money we'd paid for the private transfers, but nothing else. I wouldn't use them again. It was a once in a lifetime trip with multiple stop offs. They didn't acknowledge and time lost whilst at the resort logging complaints.

We had a quote from Kuoni for our honeymoon; I've only ever heard good things about them.

But when it came down to it, the prices for what were the same hotels and flights as we could buy elsewhere were eye watering. I know you're paying for customer service and added extras, but as this was a fairly simple beach holiday, we just couldn't justify it.

The example pp have of safari trucks though does seem great. And if you've not done this sort of trip before and it's a biggie, the peace of mind and customer service could make it worth it.