Some of my readers ask "why talk so much about yourself in your reviews?" to which I say "so what?" a review is at best a photo from the mind of some unknown, likely flawed, or perhaps even in these days of AI not, human. Who's to say it's real or not? so instead of my usual iron-clad standard procedure of "cutting to the chase" or "getting down to the dozen" as sayings go, i'll just this once add some personal details, important as you'll see if you read that far. think of it as my way of assuring you MY reviews aren't from some artificial digital ersatz mentality. Nope, mine are from a decidedly flawed perhaps diseased but very human writer. pay attention, this is the good stuff! for dry, objective details skip the next paragraph. First, i'm entranced by a boundary. peering out over the west side railing of the gg bridge I wonder "what in the world is really out there?" maybe that's why, among less flippant reasons, i'm not much afraid of what comes next when you run out of days. i figure beyond that final boundary lies the biggest surprise in all existence. second, i'm both averse and adverse to groups meaning i'm ill-suited to tour travel, but you can't get to certain destinations alone. antarctica is such a one. third, i inherited my dna from germans and norwegians, so i like ice, snow and wind-chill. finally and quite frankly, I firmly believe ufos hide out in oceans, probably near the poles: i wanta see one. So it is that I felt compelled to travel to "el fin del mundo". now you know enough about your reviewer to properly gauge the content of what follows: I recently completed an antarctic "expedition" (carriers prefer this term to suggest high adventure rather than merely mundane luxury travel). if you plan such a trip, somewhere truly unusual, choose a high-end company like a&k, worthy of higher price. ships are small, fewer passengers. low-end tours on floating hotels only take you nearby, passengers can't disembark. Much of the trip, you sail on not-calm blue water; unless you're into self-abuse don't take an ice-breaker. the more recent the ship's vintage the more likely it will benefit from current technology that increases stability. my trip on a&k was excellent, aboard the good ship le lyrial: flagged by the french tour company Ponant, 500', 140 passengers, 139 crew. to be sure this came at no bargain, in fact I paid a similar sum to buy a car for my daughter a month before. while this kind of travel was one i'll not soon repeat, a good many of my fellow groupers had been on A/K tours to exotic destinations and planned more. this trip met my expectations, but most places i might go next, i'll just go: rent car, buy roadmap, turn off the "never-lost" gps... and i'm good. judging from the fine and dandy folks i met aboard le lyrial, this mode of travel would seem unnecessarily frugal, crude, perhaps even gauche, but for sure lacking, and in fact does, a certain vital level of service and accoutrements necessary to the requirements of those seeking more informed and gracious style of travel. i made a few friends on the trip, like of mind and spirit... but few they were indeed. luxury cruises will seem better or worse depending very much on the talents of the tour's crew and equipment. in this case the ship and its crew were supplied by Ponant, while the organizers of the activities were done by A&K. in many ways the quality of this AK experience was as much due to Ponant as it was to A&K. both groups were excellent in their service and worked together seamlessly. ponant provided for those "sailing" the ship, operating the machinery and all that. equally well done was the kitchen staff, always cooking up something fresh despite the fact that we were 3 weeks out. tasty, with a french touch here and there (bangers 'n mash for Brit breakfast), but while plentiful and ever available, I hate to report that the wines failed to match the menu. the excursions onto islands and mainland antarctica were lead by a/k experts, with a steady hand on the tiller of those terribly unstable zodiac rubber raftboats. plenty of gear was required to stay dry and warm enough, and when you were done frollicking on ice and snow hours of fun at the bar remained. lots of dandy folks were along for the ride, mostly well-heeled types from coastal cities in the country they lived. most common topic initially was: "why are you doing this?" and most common reason given was holding up 7 fingers, meaning this was the seventh continent to visit, as part of a bucket list, a bit lame but ok. it came as no shock to me then, that when asked why i was aboard i got such uncomfortable stares. So I simply decided not to extend an invitation to join me on my veranda at night. For there, surely enough you'd often find me, clocking the dark depths, perusing boundaries, hoping to spot a ufo emerging from the frigid antarctic waters... as I firmly believe they do. Spend $35 grand filling your bucket... i'll do mine. read more

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My wife loved the trip to India. This was my second trip to India going with Odyssey Unlimited for the first trip. Odyssey is almost half the price and while a few of the hotels were not as good and there was more bus transportation, overall the trip was far superior. The problem with the Abercrombie and Kent trip started at the beginning when I wanted to an extra night at the first hotel as we were arriving at 5:00 AM. Abercrombie wanted exactly double the price for that night as what was listed on the hotel website. Overall a few of the stops were ridiculous like the " Bollywood experience " where you go to a dance studio and you see some schmuck dancing. The pace was grindingly slow, sometimes barely getting 3000 steps a day. The guide was adequate but not great. Hotels very, very nice but overall Abercrombie was not worth the money. The other travelers on the trip were great and we loved the group. India is a fabulous trip but A&K is just not a good value if you are active. read more

Abercrombie & Kent is a disgraceful company. They put me in a substandard hotel, and took NO responsibility for this. They DO NOT stand by their word and I would absolutely NEVER use this company again. read more

Absolutely horrible communication pre-trip. Very disappointed. We booked a Tailormade trip at great cost.

I was on the Egypt + Nile cruise and loved my trip! Everything was up to snuff and honestly very good. I have read a few reviews that other people didn't have the best time and I am sad to read that. I went in 2024 and the trip blew my mind. The Egyptologist was so kind and helpful. A&K had tremendous service and I felt safe the entire time. We also got first access/priority at monuments because A&K has such a good reputation in the area. I highly recommend! Also, for any photographers out there, this is a dream trip! I loved it so much and was able to capture so many stunning images :-) read more

A&K planned a trip for us to France and included cities such as Dijon, Lyon, Provence and Avignon. The guides were good but it was not a very well planned itinerary. In particular, the hotel they booked for us in Avignon was the most horrible we have ever experienced in all our travels. It was so bad that we had to move out and pay for another hotel out of our own pocket the very next day. Our guide and driver were astonished we had been booked there. The company blamed the experience we had on us and refused to take any responsibility for their agent putting us in such a cheap hotel. We would never use them again. read more

May 2025 booked a $100k + Tailor made 2 week trip for 2. Did not include meals or airfare. I was very disappointed after having been pleased with them on a pre-covid trip. I found their US representatives unknowledgeable about destinations and slow to reply since they work from home at their convenience - not yours. Constantly had to double check their plans due to errors. They booked a tour of the Duomo in Milan that did not include going inside. Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace were "drive-byes" that didn't include getting out of the car. The list of restaurant suggestions they provided include restaurants that are out of business. I used A&K so I would be stress free during the planning and the trip. They did not make that happen, they need to do better at the prices they charge. read more

Just returned from small group journey, Botswana safari in Style. Was worth every penny, From start to finish, the details for comfort were excellent. Food, lodging and guides were amazing! Would recommend this trip and tell people it is worth the money! Looking forward to another small group journey with A & K again. read more

A&K REVIEW OF JAPAN TRIP Guides were simply accompaniers, gave the basic of information ( that you can read on the museum signs), were not the most fluent in English and usually shabbily dressed. The Kyoto guide was not bad, the transport guide to airport return was exceptional in helping (Misaki)). They were all very nice, respectful and helpful, just not very informative for the amount of time they spent with us. Most of the time they simply talked to the driver. I would expect guides working for A&K would be more learned in the history and more fluent. Comments like "this is a bank, this is a school" really don't cut it. The activities were very standard tourist attractions (except for the manga, samurai (best activity) and noodle making activities) . The sushi making was stupid, just showed us how to press fish onto a rice ball. Nothing about the prep of rice (as advertised in the A&K itinerary), the way to cut fish, other things about sushi i.e. wasabi, etiquette, etc. Nevertheless the guy was very sweet and very funny. My son was very excited to go to the main Pokémon store in Tokyo (as in the itinerary), but we were taken to a small Pokémon store in a mall. Hotels were very good. The Ritz in Kyoto and Gora Kadan were excellent. St Regis was not on par with the others. Meals reservations I believe were made by the hotel concierge. (The cancellation policies are ridiculous) The restaurants were good, but not exceptional. The best restaurant was at the Kyoto Ritz Hotel. Would not recommend Hamayashi in Osaka, the chef is the antithesis of personable. It would have been helpful to know that this is the time of year when thousands of school children go on their school trip and every site and museum was unbelievably crowded. Ground transportation for the most part was very good. Overall we had a good and interesting time, but what it really comes down to is that for 60K (without airfare and dinners) I would have thought it would be more tailored and most importantly that the guides would be more educational, communicative and interesting. We met several other A&K travelers at the hotels and they pretty much were on the same itinerary as us. I believe I would have done a much better job myself with as, or more, luxurious accommodations with some leg work for less than 30K. As a goof, I entered "Arrange an ultra-luxury 9 day trip to Japan and price it out" on an AI platform. See below what AI came up with in less than 15 seconds! A very similar trip for $21000 (which included a $2000 shopping spree) ! I would suggest that for the kind of money that A&K charges, there would be more tailored itineraries with better guides. Maybe one on one communications with someone in Japan would be helpful prior to the itinerary. Bottom line: definitely not worth going with A&K, I consider it a rip off. BELOW IS WHAT AI CAME UP WITH: - Stay at the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Tokyo for 3 nights: $3,000 - Private guided tour of Tokyo's top attractions: $1,500 - Fine dining experience at Michelin-starred restaurant: $1,000 Day 4-5: Kyoto - First-class Shinkansen (bullet train) tickets to Kyoto: $500 - Stay at the historic Hoshinoya Kyoto for 2 nights: $2,500 - Private guided tour of Kyoto's temples and gardens: $1,500 - Traditional tea ceremony experience: $500 Day 6-7: Hakone - Private transfer to Hakone: $1,000 - Stay at the luxurious Gora Kadan for 2 nights: $3,000 - Private onsen (hot spring) experience: $1,000 - Private guided tour of Hakone's scenic spots: $1,500 Day 8-9: Osaka - First-class Shinkansen tickets to Osaka: $500 - Stay at the Ritz-Carlton Osaka for 2 nights: $2,500 - Private guided tour of Osaka's food and nightlife scene: $1,500 - Shopping spree at luxury boutiques in Osaka: $2,000 Total Cost: $21,500 read more

I used them for a trip to Japan . I wish I had read reviews before I booked - besides the nice hotels , nothing else was a high end experience that justifies its price - the guides where unimaginative - basically "on the bus, off the bus" to see endless touristic sites - we will never use them again read more

Just returned from A&K Korea/Japan trip with my husband and good friend. Embarrassingly horrible! The tour director treated us all like we were on a school trip rather than a well heeled vacation. No enthusiasm, was petty and constantly complained about one of the guests to all of us, never offered any insights or suggestions. We are world travelers and have used many competitors with fabulous results. Accommodations were good but we could have done this trip ourselves easily and with much more immersion into the culture. A total let down. If you're thinking about using A&K i say: DON'T. A total waste of time and money. read more

Biggest disappointment in my travel history. I picked A&K for my bucket list African Safari, as I thought they were the best of the best. The animals were great, but I would have seen those with any budget tour operator for half the price. Our "luxury tents" weren't! We stayed in 3 star places basically, along with budget tour operators (cafeteria lines for meals, etc.) Our local tour director was 15-30 minutes late for EVERY meeting, and gave us no lectures, tips, etc. I was added to his personal What's Ap "go fund me" site where I was begged to donate money for his mother's medical expenses (up to 30 messages a day!) I don't no what has happened to A&K (I'm shocked to see so many complaints.) PLEASE take Tauck or another tour operator. A&K is NOT the same company it used to be read more

19th-day buenos aires, Antarctica, Falkland Islands, and South Georgia was the best adventure we have ever had. Hands down. And we have had many great adventures to compare it to. 93 passengers, 143 ship crew, and 17 expedition team on Ponant Le Lyrial. A dream. read more

This was one of the worst three weeks of our lives. I understand that issues arise during travel but not blatant disorganization. It completely destroyed a trip of a lifetime for us. (Egypt, Jordan,Saudi), I am only going to share a few of the things that happened. * Trip Cost: $57,000 for a 2+ week trip * Experience: One of the worst three weeks of our lives due to blatant disorganization. Key Issues: 1. Hotel Checkout: Kicked out of a Four Seasons due to an early checkout time. You could have booked an extra night to avoid this. 2. Room Mix-Up: After a nine-hour travel day to a nearby destination, arrived at Banyan Tree with two different rooms booked for a three-night stay. Resolved after 30 minutes of waiting in the lobby. 3. Flights in Egypt: Three economy flights in one day with over ten hours of travel and no edible food provided. We had many travel days that were dreadful and absolutely not vip. 4. Guide: Our guide, Issam, was rude, disrespectful, and berated a guest with Alzheimer's. 5. Helicopter Ride: Quoted $22,000+ for a two-hour ride. We found the company and arranged it ourselves for $7,500. 6. Transportation: Waited 45 minutes for a car to the airport that never showed up, had to call Uber. 7. Overall: Promised "ultra luxury" services were a disaster with economy flights, disrespectful guide, missing chauffeurs, lack of food, terrible organization, and non-VIP services. Conclusion: If you're not a luxury company, just say so. This was a disgusting rip-off beyond imaginable belief. We were stuck in the Middle East having paid all this money to these people and just rolled around in a blender. DO NOT BOOK WITH ABERCROMBIE AND KENT read more

Pirates of Alaska = A & K. Booked Alaska, Wilderness & Wildlife luxury tour and was very disappointed. They did not book us the best or even second best hotels. More like Motel 6 accommodations for the first 4 days, no housekeeping service, terrible beds, in cramped rooms and powdered eggs on the buffet for breakfast. Inedible food, often served cold. The advertised sundowner was held in a drab conference room with no view. One drink ticket included. Had lunch at Talkeetna brew pup and beer not included. A & K charged a huge premium for the trip and failed to deliver. Never again read more

Abercrombie & Kent - ADVERTISED SUNDOWNER COCKTAIL HOUR HELD IN DRAB CONFERENCE ROOM - Travel Services Near Me - Downers Grove, Illinois

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I unfortunately became quite sick entering Egypt for our A&K tour. Also unfortunately I did not purchase insurance. Subsequently, I asked A&k for a small credit for a future trip, as we were unable to experience anything in Egypt. They refused to even credit us two cents for a future trip. Also, it took them more than 7 weeks to respond with a "no" answer. Awful! read more

My father and I booked a private 10-day Thailand trip through A&K and travelled in November. The trip itself was incredible and all of the local guides and hotels were top notch. The itinerary touched on everything we wanted. Overall we were extremely happy with the trip itself but found there could have been small things along the way to improve our experience. I found the communication between A&K and us to be light throughout the booking process. We only had calls when I reached out requesting them and while it could be time consuming to hop on a call for every question or idea, it would have been nice to have set times throughout our journey with A&K to review the itinerary, discuss any things we need to do prior to departure, hear from A&K along the way or even a check-in to provide feedback following the trip. As of today, we haven't heard from A&K to hear how the trip went which I find surprising when taking a trip of this magnitude. Additionally, while the hotels go above and beyond to ensure your stay is what you expect, it would have been nice to receive a gift at somepoint from A&K as a thank you for the trip. I previously booked a Safari for my honeymoon and received a nice photo upon arrival of me and my wife at a few of the hotels on that itinerary. It's a small gesture that goes a long way. I would definitely book again through A&K I just found these things would help improve the user experience. read more

Extremely dissapointing start to our LUXURY? vacation. We leave within 24 hours and still do not have our itinerary information for a 13 day private tour of Australia. We have spent a small fortune and apparently will board the plane tomorrow without an iota of information (Not even sure how to start the trip once we get to Sydney). Fingers crossed! Will NEVER use a company that thinks this is luxury travel, COSTCO travel would have done a better job in my opinion. read more

Fortunately, I never got to travel with this company. My problems were with the initial booking process and customer service. They are very slow to get Back to you, if at all. I had questions after I booked, and found my agent was on vacation and his email was being monitored. I guess it wasn't, because no one would get back to me. I then tried to book airfare through them and was told 7 to 10 days, heard nothing back yet so gave it a couple of of more weeks. I contacted them, and was told they could not do it for several more weeks. because they were overwhelmed (bull baloney). Fortunatley something came up where I could not travel at the time anyway So I cancelled. got 500.00 deposit back but lost travel protection and other. Had a gut instinct not to book in the first place, should have paid attention to it. Judging by previous reviews, I am not alone. read more

BEWARE! run, don't walk! this company doesn't care about their services or the safety of their clients. After paying for an expensive trip, I fell and had 2 compression fractures to my back. we contacted them several weeks before the trip with doctor documentation to not travel. we asked to reschedule. not only wouldn't they reschedule or refund any of the money. we continued to try to work something out, but they refused. the airlines were very helpful and gave a full refund. I will never use or recommend this company. read more

Incredibly bad service. Considering the high prices of this company, you might hope for commensurate service. A&K failed to meet us at the airport,wouldn't reimburse for taxi fare, and was deceptive about Covid protection on their cruise. We will never travel with this amoral company again. read more

We are extremely disappointed to have to cancel our spring trip to Egypt. As everyone knows, except for Abercrombie & Kent, this is a very unsafe area of the world. Despite this fact A&K will own refund 50% of our cost. It seems they put a very low value on customer safety and satisfaction. This was to be our first trip with them and now we will never go any where with them. I caution you to find another company. A&K value their profits above customer safety. read more

Let me start by saying that this is not a luxury travel operator! We booked a small group tour (15 people) with them to Scotland this summer. Right from the start we had problems with this company. The first hotel we stayed at in Glasgow was old, dated and musty. The bathrooms were not upgraded and there were no elevators in the building. Our shower was backed up and almost overflowed every time we showered. The second hotel was in the middle of nowhere (Kinloch Rannoch) and although the hotel was updated and pretty, the service was horrendous and the food even worse. There was nothing to do at this destination except go for walks and see farms and cows and goats. I guess they thought this was a great way to see the highlands. The 3rd hotel was at the Old Course in St. Andrews and we were booked in rooms that overlooked the parking lot and garbage area. We ended up paying more money to get a better room with a view of the famous golf course. This is certainly not what we expected when we booked a luxury tour. They were also not honest with us about dinner at the hotel. Our tour guide told us we could order whatever we wanted off the menu and when we got the bill the waiter informed us that A&K only covered $70 pp so we had to make up the difference out of our own pocket. At least tell us that is what our budget is, so we can order accordingly. The last hotel we stayed in was in Edinburgh and we had a room that faced walls in an inner courtyard. When we complained to our tour guide about this she said "what do you want me to do"? Speaking of the tour guide... we were all disappointed with her as well. Although she was knowledgeable about Scotland, its heritage and history, she was very unorganized and impatient with the group. We were a diverse group ranging from early 30's to early 80's and our guide could not deal with all of the logistics that come with guiding a group of people. She would become overwhelmed and testy when things didn't go smoothly and lets face it, with a group of people that diverse there are things that don't always go according to plan. After we got home we told our travel agent about all the things we were unhappy with and she suggested we write a letter to A&K and tell them how we felt. To this date (which is 7 weeks later) we have still not heard a word from them. Its as if they don't care. Their customer service is terrible and basically non-existant. This was so disappointing and upsetting to us. We thought A&K was supposed to be a top notch travel company but we will never again travel with them. read more

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DON'T USE ABERCROMBIE & KENT AS YOUR TRAVEL AGENT unless you don't mind bait-and-switch itineraries and lots of bus time. Their definition of "luxury travel" on our (very expensive) Egypt & the Nile tour included getting up at 04:00 to spend 7 hours on a bus (round trip) for a 2.5 hour visit of a temple site. The itinerary we purchased had this portion as one 40-minute flight, not a bus trip. A&K claimed the flight was cancelled, but our subsequent research shows it was not. We did get a boxed breakfast, though! They also compressed what was to be two days of touring Luxor sites into one very long and tiring day. The "Design Your Day" portion of the trip turned into "Vote and Hope the Group Votes for the Excursion You Want" day, with no option offered except driving you back to the hotel. Less than a month before our trip, they decided that all travelers would need to be vaccinated (not just tested); if we hadn't been vaccinated we would not have been able to go, but they didn't consider that change "significant" enough to allow travelers to cancel or even shift the dates of the trip. A&K sold us an itinerary that didn't exist but didn't tell us the true itinerary until after we'd made full payment and could no longer cancel or make changes. Really disappointing and way too expensive for what we got. We ended up ditching half the tour and doing our own thing and having a much better time than with the tour! read more

We recently went on an A and K trip to Sicily and southern Italy. The itinerary was great. But there were a number of reasons that we will probably not travel with them again. The process of booking the trip was quite impersonal more like sales rather than a real travel consultant.. I wrote a detailed feedback letter after the trip to the sales consultant and to A and K Europe and never received a response which is not acceptable. I clearly get the sense that they don't really care about travelers feedback. Seems like they just want to push you to book another trip. My main criticism of the trip was that there was a group of 10 people on our trip who were quite difficult and demanding-- seems like they should have had their own private trip.. There were some small things that should not have happened on a luxury trip: 1. long bus rides on a bus where the driver would not clean the bathroom so it couldn't be used; 2. in places where we were having dinner on our own, we did not get a list of suggestions (in Naples) or were reccommended places without indicating how near they were to the hotel. All in all, I have been very disappointed with A and K's complete unresponsiveness to my feedback... For a "luxury" tour operation, this is unacceptable and we will not be traveling with them again. read more

My wife and I just completed at 10-day trip with friends that we booked with A&K. The whole process of dealing with A&K reps was frustrating. They were slow to return calls and emails and provide us with information. We had to escalate our problems to a manager before we got some answers. and when we did receive it we were disappointed that even though their description of the trip lead us to believe we'd have a guide for about 8 hours on each tour day (the norm on other trips we've taken) some days were much less, even just 3 hours one day. We figured they never sent the schedule either because their interaction with Metropolitan was so minimal they never got the schedule or they were trying to hide the fact that the trip was less then represented. Despite numerous requests they never sent us the schedule for each day of the trip prior to our departure. They deceitfully only put the activity for the day but did not give us a start time and end time. We assumed we'd have a guide for about 8 hours a day (customary on other planned trips we had taken). When we finally got the itinerary in Columbia, we learned that our first guide only planned to be with us for 3 hours per day. We figured that A&K never sent a detailed daily schedule because they were trying to hide the fact that the trip was less then represented. We had great difficulty in getting a response from A&K in Colombia. Only after great complaining did we learn they had contracted the trip to a Colombian firm (Metropolitan Touring). Besides collecting our payment and paying Metropolitan (after deducting I suspect a significant cut for themselves), A&K's role was both minimal and badly executed. Metropolitan was great and very responsive to any problems in Colombia. If we had it to do over again, we'd book directly with them at https://www.metropolitan-touring.com We communicated these complaints to A&K and received no response. We'd never travel with them again. read more

My husband and I booked an Antarctica cruise through A&K. While the cruise itself was wonderful thanks to cruise operator Ponant, A&K's travel agents are the worst we have dealt with on any continent. They gave us a month long runaround about what medical paperwork we needed to travel causing us to almost miss the trip and only telling us it was wrong 4 days before our international flights were set to leave. This caused us a ton of stress and phone calls to try and get updated paperwork at the last minute. In the end, my doctor ended up providing 3 different letters due to A&K's incompetence and poor communication. They were supposed to pick up my husband at the airport in Buenos Aires but never arrived and told him to take a cab instead. They overcharged for internal flights by almost 2x the cost of what it would have charged us to book ourselves - leading us to question how much we were being overcharged on other items as well which were not so easily broken out. Luckily we looked into and skipped out on their 2k trip insurance and bought better travel insurance ourselves for $50 per person. Overall, seasoned travelers should avoid this company completely. It is cheaper, easier, and less of a headache to make the bookings yourself or to work with an actual luxury travel agent that can find deals, provide upgrades, and offer personalized service. This is in NO way a luxury tour company, its just a group tour company akin to gadventures with much worse service and much higher prices. read more

WE booked some travel with them for Marrakesh with trips to the Atlas Mountain for next month. After the earthquake tragically caused damage and trauma to this region, we attempt to cancel our trip as we did not wish to visit an area in pain and injury - and we are older travelers who might have need of health resources. A & K refused to fully refund our travel, even though we would have gladly accepted a delay and rebooking to visit Morocco at another time. We recommend that other travelers be aware of this inflexibility in the face of a natural disaster. We appreciate that guides should be paid -- and wish that this international company would have supported them and also cared about its customers. read more

One a one star because I couldn't rate it a zero. Arguably one of the worst travel booking experiences of my life. I assumed they would be a luxury experience for the price of their trips. Yet you can't reach them. They don't respond for days. They don't do what they say they are going to do. You should really avoid them at all costs. read more

We took a "private journey" to Southeast Asia. The hotels were fabulous. Unfortunately I can book fabulous hotels myself. The sightseeing and tours were exactly what I'd expect from any middle priced tour company, nothing special, which made it a bad value for all the money we paid. In addition, the customer service and communication from A&K was poor. read more

We booked a trip with A & K in 2023 for Egypt & the Nile. In the meantime, I became ill and required brain surgery. i canceled the trip well in advance, and requested a refund. I am still (April, 2024) struggling to get a refund. The company continues to Stonewall. I highly recommend don't use this company. They are totally unreliable. read more

You can do much better. Took a trip called The Great Migration Safari in Style -- Africa. If you like a Chevy then this is your ideal. Did see lots of animals and the on-the-groud personnel were really good. However, pre-planning and sales assistance were poor. Press to overpay with "private" options. Fellow group travelers were old and staid (e.g. BAD). Too much seat time, little culture, and no exercise unless you made it happen. Hotels ranged from first-rate to not-so. There are much better ways to see Africa. This is a big trip that is quite expensive. Find a superior solution. read more

I went on the Egypt and Nile trip in October 2022, with the Jordan pre-trip excursion. I had a wonderful experience on both parts! The guides were very knowledgeable and helpful. In Jordan, the guide discovered I am an engineer early on, and personalized the experience by focusing some of his discussions on those aspects since he knew they would interest me. In Egypt, the guide was also extremely knowledgeable and did a great job with his presentations. He would cater the tour based on the conditions at the time -- if there was no crowd at a usually popular spot we would start there. Additionally, there was an A&K representative there who made sure our experience was top notch. For lunch a Giza, he called ahead and discovered that the restaurant would be very crowded at the time we had scheduled to be there, so we swapped lunch with one of the events and had the very scenic place to ourselves! I would definitely book with A&K again. read more

Rip Off do not Use A and K for tours 1. On the morning of the pickup, Jonathan, the Guide, and Hannon, the Driver, arrived in a Ford van rather than the "luxury vehicle" we expected. When queried, they offered that the regular vehicle had broken down and was not available. The substitute was completely unacceptable as one of us had to sit in the front seat next to the driver, while her husband was in the third row of seats, while the second husband and wife sat in the middle with Jonathan. In all instances, the leg room in the back 2 levels, very cramped and uncomfortable for the long tour of approximately 6-7 hours. Moreover, it was extremely difficult for the person in the back seat to get in and out of the very cramped back seat each time we stopped. In addition, the comments made by Jonathan during the tour could barely be heard and in most instances were not heard at all by either the person in the front or the back set of the van, despite repeatedly requesting him to speak louder. 2.The climate control for the vehicle was not acceptable and when the driver was queried said that the air conditioning was not working in the vehicle. It was an especially hot day and the fan continued to blow hot air. The driver volunteered that he knew some gaskets were broken. It is unclear why this vehicle was selected as a replacement. 3. We believe that Jonathan is a nice man but he was not a good tour guide. Many of his comments during the tour were not really on point, and often irrelevant. When queried for further information, as he requested, his answers were far from satisfactory in addressing the issues we raised. 4. Further concerns regarding the guidance provided by Jonathan are that during the stop at Conwy Castle and Portmeirion he did not accompany us through either site as we observed other guides doing for their groups-several were in evidence during our visit and thus he did not really guide us through these sites. He just told us where to go and as a matter of fact we ended up paying approximately 11 Br. Pounds for each adult to enter the Castle. This is a charge which I would expect to be subsumed in the money we already paid to Abercrombie-$1671 for 4 people. At best, we can sum up the service your personnel delivered was essentially limited to transportation, but not meeting the criteria of luxury, and included only mediocre guiding services. This is surely not the level of service for which Abercrombie and Kent would be proud to claim or advertise to others. read more

I booked the long Egypt and Nile trip 8 days before the departure date, and cancelled it 3 days before, due to the new ovoid variant becoming a new threat and facing the possibility of a 2 week quarantine before re entering the US if I got infected. They said any booking cancelled within 30 days if departure, client would forfeit the whole amount of the trip. Most airlines and hotels at the time were returning deposits, and charging no cancellation fees due to the panoramic. A&K said my paid invoice was a contract. Period. No credit toward a future trip, to a cancellation fee so I could re book. Period. Curt and unsympathetic and rude .Really rude. I was seeking diversion from my grief over my husband's passing away after 46 years if a close marriage in a location where we had not traveled. I wad paying a single supplement for everything. I did expect some sympathy being a single traveler at 85 years old. I booked knowing the State Dept, had 2 advisories on their official webpage. 1, Do Not Travel, (covid)and 2, Do Not Travel because the Embassy did not have personnel to extricate US travelers if they got kidnapped or lesser known threats in Egypt. I was trusting. Letters to them went unanswered. Agent unresponsive, and speaking to the 'boss' got an angry response, very rude. My attitude is forget about it. For self defense, I thought about sueing, butwas advised a contract is a contract. I had no chance to get anything from my $ 11000, not including air. I don't want to spend one more minute hating on them or beating myself up over it. I do want to spend the rest of my life going about my business shafting good times with friends and continue my steep learning curve on how to deal with finances that my husband dealt with deftly. This is why I have taken so long to review/reveal my poor treatment as a client of A&K. My trip was to have been the first week of December of 2021. Dreadful . read more

We and our friends booked a private tour of Scotland through Abercrombie and Kent. We used this company because we thought they were top notched and used only the most luxurious of hotels. The journey was improperly planned by A & K because we spent several very long days on the road seeing beautiful sights but hardly stopping because we had to get to the next place. Some of the sights we were to see had to be deleted because there was just no way we would arrive before it closed for the day. Our biggest issue, however, was that we were promised (and paid for) top level rooms in each hotel. We were really looking forward to stay in sea view suites in St. Andrews. When we arrived, we were told that A & K had bought "Lawn view" suites - which were actually parking lot views. So while we paid for the best rooms in the hotel, we got the worst in the hotel. We initially thought that all this was the hotel's fault. We called our travel agent and the trouble shooter from A & K. Of course nothing was done. We did finally get a refund of the supposed difference in cost between the rooms. That did not make up for the upset, waste of time and fact that we were horribly disappointed. A & K promised that they would make sure the next and last hotel rooms would be appropriate. (Again, high level, large rooms with sweeping views). That didn't happen either. We were placed in tiny rooms with one tiny window. When I complained to the hotel, we were told that the tiny rooms qualified at the same level as the large rooms. A &K did nothing about this. Ironically, our travel companions returned to this hotel later in July (on another trip). They booked the same level rooms as were promised by A & K and, lo and behold, they were given beautiful large rooms with sweeping views. (as pictured on the hotel's website). I am not entirely sure, but think it's evident that A & K deliberately cuts corners at the travelers' expense. Not fair and bad business practice. I won't use them again and cannot recommend them to others. read more

I have travelled in over 180 countries and A&K is the WORST company I Ihave ever used. First of all they advertise Luxury Small group tours and then they put you in coach seats for 4 hours for their internal flights. They adveritise you can fly Business class but do not tell you when you make your booking it is not available. Second, they book you on 5 am flights and do not tell you until two weeks before the trip. That means you have to be up all night in order to catch your flight. This is bad for some people's health. They do not seem to be concerned about the effect their planning may have on your health. Why don't they tell you about scheduling at the the beginning? Third. they do not answer their phones...You can only leave messages to be called back by the person who booked you. And after you leave a message they do ot call you back. Occasionally you do get a person who will take a message and say someone will call you back, but they never do. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!! read more

The service from A&K was frankly non-existent. don't get me wrong the Villa we had booked was gorgeous - but the A&K rep was just.... absent. He didn't turn up to welcome us, didn't arrive the next day as planned to provide instructions (we had some issues that needed resolving), had a phone number that didn't accept incoming calls!, finally arrived after 5 days of a 7 day trip - we then agreed he would return on our final day to do a deposit check and collect the keys.... never turned up! Absolutely useless - this was my wife's 50th birthday trip and for the expense, I should have had to be chasing around for their rep. No offer of compensation for our hassles and poor service = I will be spending my money elsewhere in future and will not be using them again. If I was you, I would avoid them and using other agencies - as they do not provide value for money. read more

Recently traveled throughout Japan coordinated by A & K. Two couples, paid $4k per day for excursions alone (hotel not included). Experience FAR below what one would expect for this fee. Lunch at a food court in a mall. Nothing unique or helpful to elevate the experience. Booking the activities ourself would have cost less than half the total fee we paid. Guides were pleasant but certainly not insightful or highly knowledgable. Called A & K and spoke with Julie Skrei, director of sales, to explain our experience. She was highly defensive and rude. I would caution you strongly about using this company for any travel. Looked online and they actually rank 1.8 out of 5 stars on Yelp with similar experiences described there. Wish I had read those before agreeing to using their service. read more

We have just finished 12 days 7:28-8/8 Kenya and Tanzania Africa holiday. A&K has pride itself to be a luxury tour operator which is definitely not our experiences. It's more like flying economy plus. Issues are 1. A&K cars are old and have lots of wear. 2. We were stuck at a air strip in Kenya border for over 2 hours. The local representative of A&K did not give us updates and told us it's operation issues in different cities (Arusha and Nairobi). I kept on calling the A&K customer service lines and was promised he would call back and he never did. 3. 1st Guides in Anbrosi English is difficult to understand. 4. Many members in our group all have stomach issues during our trip. 5. Our departure from our last spot was moved up about 2.5 hours and from our perspective, it's for A&K convenience and cut short of our enjoyment 6. Our main guide instead of apologizing to guests to mid-handling and poor A&K operations, he keeps on saying "Let me tell you..."....this is my 3rd trip to Africa and have travelled over 110+ countries around the world and this supposed "luxury" experience has to be the worst. Our fellow travel members ran into various issues and very unfortunate. read more