Kuoni v Trailfinders

[Letsnotupsettheapplcart]

Looking to book a big holiday to Canada next year. It’ll be a lot of money and I’m nervous about getting it right.

I’ve got quotes from both Trailfinders and Kuoni. Any thoughts on who to book through? Or is it irrelevant once I’ve booked?

We did Canada via Trailfinders. They were excellent. I imagine Kuoni would be more expensive, but it depends what you're looking for. We wanted best value for money and to see as much as possible. If you want more luxury hotels maybe Kuoni is better?

Kuoni have actually come back about £1000 less expensive. But I would pay more for a more responsive and trusted agent. Thanks for your reply

You would save thousands by just pulling it together yourself? Canada is easy to travel in and communicate with people - how much are these agencies charging per person/trip?

For the same holiday? That's surprising actually. I'd probably go with Kuoni in that case, but I only really use the agencies as a security net in case of cancellation, missed connection etc, we've never had to contact them on holiday.

@EverybodyLTB I think you'd be surprised, we found Trailfinders very reasonable when we've used them. They get special prices so I really don't think you'd save thousands doing it alone. For example we went on the Rocky Mountaineer. Booking that independently would have cost us almost half what we paid for the whole trip (14 nights, international return flights, hotel stays, transport between 4 destinations, car hire for 3 days). We've also used Trailfinders to visit Central America and found it great value for money. And as above, you have security in case of cancellation. For example, our first planned long haul trip in May 2020... Refunded by communicating with the agent. If we'd booked that independently it could have been a nightmare.

We used Trailfinders for a big trip to New Zealand a few years ago. They were great and very reasonably priced.
We got a quote from them this year for a holiday to Thailand, very expensive. We've ended up using a small independent agent this time. It pays to shop around.

I’d love to go on the Rocky Mountaineer, was it as fabulous as it looks?! I’ll have a look at Trailfinders, then. I just usually add everything up independently, book separate elements and get insurance via Post Office.

For somewhere like Canada (i.e. an English speaking Western country) I would book it myself, inspired by the itineraries from the tour companies!

We used Trailfinders for a big trip to Thailand last year. They were excellent, including answering questions on Xmas Day...

It was a great experience but I don't think it was worth the 1.5k+ pp it costs to book direct. We went Goldleaf which I'd say was worth the upgrade. The seats are so comfortable, the dining cart is good fun, and the views are unreal. I really enjoyed chatting to the other passengers too.

I too thought this originally but I have looked at booking it all separately and doing it ourselves but it’s no cheaper. There are also minimum stays of 3 nights at some hotels and the agents don’t seem to have this restriction so does seem to be better using an agent.

And Kuoni offer blue light discount which works out at between 4 and 5%. Not to be sniffed at. I am jealous of your Rocky Mountaineer experience…..I don’t think our budget will quite stretch that far

I’m also surprised Kuoni is cheaper but if so I’d choose them in a heartbeat. I’ve used both extensively and on a couple have needed their support on holiday. Kuoni wins hands down. I ended up in dispute with Trailfinders after one holiday and while it got sorted through compensation, it didn’t make up for the fact they weren’t actually that helpful on what was the trip of a lifetime.

This isn’t always the case though, in the past 5 years we’ve done multiple luxury, multi stop holidays and Trailfinders have always been significantly cheaper than self book. They can get huge discounts on nice hotels due to their purchasing power.

Agree with PP who said shop around though as once we were able to get a better price with a different agent.

OP I’d just go with the cheapest, although from memory Trailfinders have access to more flights whereas Kuoni tend to default to BA (although this may have changed).

For Canada, you can do it yourself. If you want someone to organise it for you, try Canadian affair. Lovely country and lovely people. Enjoy your holiday.

Booking yourself means you are not ABTA protected. So if a flight is cancelled or something goes wrong, you lose money and you sort it out. We go with Audley and have emergency contact numbers with them, and in Canada we had to use it!

My take would be - where are you staying and how ambitious are the travel arrangements? If it’s just renting a car and booking hotels then both are ok. Ditto any internet flights. With Audley, I’ve occasionally booked our own hotels if they don’t have something suitable but this keeps the package compliant with Abta rules. In general though, Canada is pretty easy and you won’t be staying anywhere out of the ordinary I suspect.

Thanks everyone. It’s definitely not cheaper arranging ourselves, and we seem to be bound by minimum stays at some resorts that the agents don’t have. Service from Kuoni so far has been spot on and not booked even booked yet

We used Kuoni for our honeymoon (not to Canada) and found their customer service to be very good. I'd happily use them again.

@LetsnotupsettheapplcartId go with Kuoni then. Resorts sounds ? A bit impersonal and large? Do be aware distances are huge and sometimes getting to know an area has advantages as opposed to being on the move all the time.

If you're interested you should ask for a quote from Kuoni and Trailfinders. You never know, maybe it is in budget. I was surprised we could manage it within our budget.

hotels rather then resorts I guess. It’s only on Vancouver Island that we need to do 2, 2 nights. 😊

I’ll take a look at Audley, thank you

@Letsnotupsettheapplcart They are not cheap! However can be great for ideas. A slightly mixed bag on places to stay which is why we occasionally find our own. Itineraries are useful though but always check distances.

If you have a better price and discount with one agency but would prefer to use the other l, you can absolutely ask about price matching. You might be surprised.

We always ask Trailfinders for a quote if doing 3, 4 or more flights as part of a holiday. They often manage to get discounts from the carriers that you just can't/don't get doing it yourself.

Best one we had was when we travelled from the US east coast to the west coast over a period of 4 weeks. They managed to get us a deal with United of paying for a return flight from LHR to San Francisco but allowing as many US stops on the way for $30 each - the only rule was that we had to keep travelling west. Chicago to New Orleans was quite tight :-)

Just returned from trailfinders Canada trip. Used Audley for Thailand a few years ago and Kuoni in my 20s for a Safari so bit out of date with that one. Out of the 3 trailfinders was more expensive , less personal and didn't include basics like hotel transfers at the beginning and end of the trip. They didn't meet the brief we really wanted ie to see wildlife and others in our group had better travel advice from their travelagents so went on better add on tours. On the plus side all the arrangements worked like clockwork so we didn't have to worry about anything even with an Air Canada strike and the hotels and locations were great. Holiday overall was fab as Canada is beautiful and the people were lovely to us, hope you have a great holiday.