Go Ahead Tours Reviews

Go Ahead Tours
( 23 reviews )

Go Ahead Tours is a travel company specializing in customizable tours to “the most interesting places in the world”, including locations in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas.

Though there are many different travel tour companies around, like Trafalgar, which fully arrange travel itineraries from hotels to meal plans, Go Ahead Tours claims that their service is different, due to their “deeper understanding” of your travel destination.

How Does it Work?

Their website says their tour directors have a “vast knowledge” of history and culture that is second to none, and that provides their tour goers with more of a cultural immersion experience than is offered by many other companies.

Go Ahead Tours also provides their customers with a “Best Price Guarantee,” which says that if you find a lower price on the same tour from another company, they will match it.

But it's important to remember that unlike many other companies, they include airfare in the cost of all their tours.

This company recommends making your tour reservations six to nine months in advance, and they provide a flexible payment program.

This program lets you hold your reservation by providing them with a $300 deposit, per person, for 72 hours risk free, or $450 for cruises, safaris, and special event tours.

You can pay off the rest of the tour cost as you go, with the final payment due 70 days prior to tour departure and 90 days prior to departure for cruises, safaris, and special event tours.

Their cancellation policy states that if you cancel your reservation with that first 72 hours, you can receive a full refund of your deposit.

After the first 72 hours, you will have to pay a cancellation fee depending on how far in advance you cancel your tour. The specific scale is published in their Terms & Conditions policy.

If you have any experience with Go Ahead Tours or their services, please leave your reviews below.

Go Ahead Tours Customer Reviews

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Caveat emptor
August 28, 2024
The tours seem like a good value, but you end up paying more for everything they fail to provide. They claim to provide airport transfers, but you may end up with extremely long (several hours) waits in the airport or a voucher for dubious and lengthy rides on public transportation. No one tells you what's going to happen with the transfers until the last minute, and they may not tell you how long your airport wait will be at all. They left me in CDG for hours telling me it would be "any minute," when they knew it wouldn't be. The hotels are carefully curated to be as far from the city destination as possible. They look for hotels near Americanized shopping malls or corporate expo centers and expect you to not just use the subway but suburban commuter rail to the subway. Commutes from the hotel to anything you'd want to see can be more than an hour and expensive. Not all guides are familiar with the cities they take you through. There is no customer service to speak of. If you call, they either tell you they have no specific information about your tour or they read a canned customer appeasement script and get you off the phone as fast as they can. It appears that customer service is instructed to give nothing to customers. You can get lucky and get a good tour guide or at least one who tries, but on one extension tour, our guide told us that since he lives in the city we were touring, he wouldn't be around much, and he wasn't. Also, he was a newcomer and knew very little. All he knew was easily looked up on the Internet. The extension was not worth the cost. The trip cancelation insurance isn't insurance at all but a voucher to change tours, with additional fees, but when you try to change tours, customer service tells you that their system doesn't allow the change. It looks like they had a major problem with their systems and it's been weeks with no improvement. Yet, they want to move you to their system and away from calling. The airline charged me for my one checked bag that was supposed to be included.

OKAY
June 23, 2024
I used EF go ahead tours for my trip to Barcelona, France and Italy. I picked them because they had small groups of 20 or so people we had 38 people on our tour. Ione Kerr did a fantastic job. I made my own flight reservations. My two biggest complaints are they wanted you to have there app on your phone, which I did but because they send you something to your email address and you must log on using the same device, I don't use my phone to check my email, so unfortunately I wasn't able to review the various stops. I just ended up uninstalling it on my phone, since I couldn't see the itinerary or what others were posting. My other complaint was the last hotel we stayed at in Florence, it was more of a hotel for someone not visiting the city.

Avoid including airfare with EF tours
March 21, 2024
I choose to let EF Tours book my flight to Greece. I finally received my flight for the April trip and it is terrible. They said they provide the best , but I found this not to be the case. They charged $1620 for roundtrip economy seat, and the price is an average $1200. Yes, It includes bag check and airport transfer, but they pocket the $400 extra. The worst part is they gave me a 6:20am flight to Boston from Dallas, and a flight to Athens at 5pm. I have a 5 hr layover and Kristen, i believe, say it would cost $300 to make changes. No complimentary changes even though I called the next business day! This is how they treat their customers. I arrive in Athens at 8;20 in the morning, and likely cannot check into my room for a nap until 3pm. Totally disgusted. I even spoke with Delta their airline contract, agent said ," EF would have to make changes". Kristen the supervisor refused to do that. Seems they won't sacrifice good customer service for profit. I will do this trip but never again. I used Tauck in the past and their airline prices were cheaper than what is available online.

NT40 March 21, 2024

I hope people read the reviews and research multiple sources. I am going to post this experience everywhere for people to see. They do not mind ripping people off.

Sincerely, Pamela M.

EllenGill August 28, 2024

The airline charged me for one checked bag that was supposed to be included.

Poor Communication and Questionable Business Practices
March 5, 2024

I have a trip booked for Andalusia Spain mid April 2024. I have paid for the trip in full (including air) on 10 January based upon their invoice only to receive a notification on March 4, 2024 that because of my departure city the cost increased by $500. My departure city is the very same today as it was when I booked the trip in October of 2023 and paid their invoice. Nothing has changed except their price. They have booked my return flight from Paris to Atlanta with less than an hour after my connecting flight arrives at Charles de Gaulle from Malaga Spain. This is a nearly impossible connection to make (security, immigration, terminal changes etc.) and have requested a change...via four or five emails and three phone calls. No information has been provided except an answer to my question can be expected in 10 to 15 days. Delta informs me that the flight reservation made by Go Ahead Tours has not been ticketed and no changes can be made until ticketed and paid for. We are now less than 45 days until departure. Delta further stated that the window for positive changes is closing. The near complete lack of positive communication is and continues to be very frustrating. I am hopeful of a positive outcome but based upon Go Ahead Tours' lack of customer service I will be very surprised.

NT40 March 21, 2024

I wish I saw your review before purchasing. More people need to know that they treat people badly when they are spending so much money. In the Us our Congress need to step on. I am going to solicit my Congressmen to do something .

Service and Terms
January 26, 2024
EF Go Ahead Tours... I was very excited to sign on to a tour, I paid the price up front received my message took care of all requirements 6 months ahead of tour. today Jan 26 2024, I received a refund check, I called the help number to find out what the check was for. I was informed that part of my tour was cancelled earlier in the month and the check was a refund for that part of the tour.... this was understandable; however, no communication was given prior to the refund, and I was left up to finding out on my own that E F just changed my tour and decided what was best for me, didn't even give me a choice to reschedule or possibly make changes. I cancelled the tour and was charged over $1500.00 in fees. The business practice of this tour company is despicable, yes, the terms for cancellation are agreed upon when you sign up, however when the tour company does not provide the proper professional correspondence and at will make changes to a tour.... I say find a more reputable Co.

No Customized Tour Help
January 7, 2024

I was told that our tour could be customized on our free days. We have 2 different free days, when I asked about help going to a separate city I was told that I would have to find my own way. I'm willing to pay them to make the arrangements for us . I was told No. I'm very disappointed in their customizable tours.

Denies Refund after proving wrong information
November 21, 2023

I made a reservation last Thursday (11/16/2023) for a trip to Iceland from 12/02/2023-12/07/2023 and then I was told that I can’t have my refund back.

When I called on last Thursday (11/16/2023) to place my reservation, the agent (Kathy) I talked to stressed about she "cannot" guarantee that I will be able to go on the trip. Before I provided the payment information, I specifically asked if I will be able to get the refund because the trip is coming up so soon. The agent ensured that I will be able to get a full refund back within 60 days if I decided to cancel the trip. I was also told that I am basically on a wait list and someone will contact me once I can go on the trip. No one contacted me about whether the agency was able to process my information at all, so I've been left in the dark about this trip since the beginning.

I called the help line this morning (11/20/2023) around 9:00 Eastern Standard Time to cancel my reservation. I was informed by the agent that I will not be able to get my full refund back since it's too close to the trip date. Basically I was told that Kathy gave me the wrong information, so I will have to pay the cancellation fee. The only reason I provided my payment information is because Kathy specifically stated that I will be able to cancel the trip and receive a full refund.

I've never been so frustrated with a traveling agency. I made sure to ask this agent regarding the refund policy twice before giving her my payment information, and she still couldn't provide me with the correct information. It's unbelievable that such a big traveling agency cannot uniformly train their employees with the correct set of information.

Ripoff
October 4, 2023

Stay away!! They will take your money and cancel without refund and try to rebook for more expensive trip with less value. They will hold you as a hostage.

Seeing Ireland with Go Ahead
June 19, 2023
Just got back from a 9 day tour of Ireland called, “Traditions of the Emerald Isle.” We had a great trip. We booked our flights on our own rather with them and, after talking with the other travelers, I think that was a wise decision. Our tour director was pretty good. I didn’t like that his room accommodations were better than ours but that may be standard with other companies too. I do feel like the guide for some small perks at some of the stops we made but didn’t consider that a huge deal. Most of the hotels were nice, nothing elaborate but good. We had an amazing time and will likely book another tour with them next year.

Go Ahead Tours 0 Star Rating
June 7, 2023

Do not travel with Go Ahead Tours or enroll for travel insurance with Seven Corners. If you happen to experience any sort of interruption on your trip, you will not be reimbursed a cancellation fee by Seven Corners. I just got my appeal denied because I’m pregnant. They told me I had to have complications while traveling on my due date in order to be reimbursed. I booked my trip prior to Covid-19 and they used the restrictions to make money off travelers. Go Ahead Tours and Seven Corners are both fraudulent companies. They delete comments and hide the horrible reviews they get to cover up their wrongful doings.

Almafi Coast Walking Tour-IT’s A SCAM TOUR
April 4, 2023

We got SCAMMED too-lots of money gone!

We haven’t even begun to pack & go

Flight is all messed up by EF go ahead tour

Now our hotel in Amalfi has been cancelled so we are not even going to stay at Amalfi

Seriously

Please DO NOT BOOK THRU EF GO AHEAD TOUR-BIGGEST MISTAKE -THEY WILL SCAM YOUR MONEY!!! MAKE YOU RUN AROUND & WASTE MORE MONEY!!!!!!!!!!

Definitely I will let ALL my friends families & followers know - it’s time the truth comes out.

Zero customer service
January 11, 2023

Terrible company only wanting your money. My original trip was canceled I got no refund and I had to rebook. Then they change the terms of the trip and if I wanted to change it was $500 a person. If I tried to cancel I would lose my $600 deposit...

NT40 March 21, 2024

I agree , and wish I had seen your review before booking with this crappy travel company.

Hard Pass
January 3, 2023

Took a trip to Costa Rica in September of 2022 that was advertised as an Eco trip. Overall, the trip was just okay, I was honestly disappointed and expected more. I'm a ig traveler and normally book my own trips and make my own itineraries. I was not impressed with San Juan and have no idea, why you would waste a free day there. The Arsenal region was also under whelming and the room, was just okay, it was old and a little smelly and not relaxing.

The dinners and excursion that were booked, seemed to be for the Tour Guides desires and possible kickbacks only. Ate dinner at a place and the TG was served, before the paying guest, I found this odd. Also booked a river cruise that was surrounded by homes and people who work for the sugar plantation. Lots of uncared for kids, and starving dogs.

Also stopped at a coffee, plantation that was worked by people who come from Venezuela. The last leg was the best. Could have hung out in the beach town the whole time. That was the only good part of the trip.

To me, an Eco Tour helps the community instead of taking advantage of people. Please do yourselves a favor and look into what eco tours really are.

I will NEVER use EF tours again. I will stick with my own research and bookings.

You can arrange for your own tour of the Plantations, and find your own hotels and restaraunts.
October 19, 2022

We have taken several tours with GoAhead Tours (GAT). Out of the 3 we have taken with them, we truly enjoyed and felt we got our money's worth on only one tour: Italy Wine and Food tour a few years ago. Several things influence our tours with them:

1. Their staff is inflexible and not willing to work on any exceptions that apparently do not fall within their rules. For example, on our last tour (which will also be our last tour with GAT) when I spoke with one of their staff I indicated that before they booked the airline tickets to please check with us because we were thinking of changing our return flights home. Well, they booked the flights without checking with us. Then when I called to have the flight home changed, they said I was too late to make the changes. Notwithstanding that they provided us with no notice the airline tickets were being booked nor that we had a deadline to make any changes. So when I called to make changes they said I had gone beyond the deadline to make changes and that it would cost us an additional $600 to make changes, plus whatever charges the airline would charge for the change. So we did not take the flight home that GAT booked for us. We tried to change the tickets with the airline directly and they informed us that with GAT they could not make those changes and only GAT could change them. So we booked our own tickets home and at our own expense.

2. The hotels on this trip to GA and NC we would rate at about a one or two: they were dirty and the breakfasts in SC (Hampton Inn) were awful;

3. The tour is touted as a 7-day tour, but really the actual tour is only about 3 days. The other days are travel from and to home and "free" days: Day 1, Free day; Day 2, Free morning: Day 3, Free day; Day 4, travel day, otherwise free day; Day 5, travel day to Savannah; Day 6, Free day, and Day 7, Free day. Our tour guide Joel and the local guides were exceptional. But overall, the tour was a lot of hype without much substance., and

4. The dinner at Paula Deen's was awful! Overcooked veggies, the worst mashed potatoes we've ever tried anywhere! The staff was friendly and helpful.

Great Trip!
September 21, 2022

We had a wonderful trip in 2017, great guides, accomodations in all destinations. We traveled to London, Paris, Rome and Barcellona. Good value and well organized.

Looking forward to our next trip in two weeks to Ireland and Scottland!

Do Not Advise
August 31, 2022

The only reason I am giving 2 stars instead of 1 is because they did a great job in 2020 (ef tours) with my son's school tour during the covid-19 outbreak.

However, that being said...We booked a trip to South Africa for summer 2022 well in advance. Had it all paid for and we were really excited for the adventure. The problem was: it is impossible to have any communication with them that is actually meaningful.

Long (2-3 hours is common) hold times on the phone. Emails would get response but they would 'advise' we call...Uggghhh! I believe the tour would have been amazing had we gone but we just didn't feel comfortable using a company that does not communicate.

WendyPatton September 22, 2022

a little unnerving

Good Reason Not to Book on GoAhead Tours.
August 3, 2022

The price is good, but that’s where it ends. They are incredibly difficult to reach on the phone. The side tours at various locations often take you away from the main subject of the location.

Since we spent so many hours on bus time, I called and asked to cancel a booking I made for May 2023 where there would be a lot of bus time. They don’t want you to cancel any future tours, but I was allowed to cancel for $300 per person (total $600). That policy was never mentioned. Grand Circle costs more, but it’s worth it.

p.s. A Go Ahead representative also provided inaccurate information over the phone on entry requirements for Spain which if followed would have prevented us from getting into the country.

WendyPatton September 22, 2022

Looks like their best area for improvement as so many say that.

Poor Accessibility & Follow Up
June 5, 2022
We are booked for a trip to France in 2022. Everything looks wonderful, but the only issue is no one is ever available to talk with you. If you’re older or not comfortable strictly using email, I suggest you find a different agency.

PatriciaBlakeslee June 14, 2022

I too am having difficulty contacting customer service, no response to emails, phone contact, chat...

RobertaJohnson June 21, 2022

I have tried multiple times to contact EF GoAhead tours regarding our flights. I have emailed twice and I am now on hold at their customer service phone number ( and have been for over an hour). They need to step up their customer service if they want future tour attendees.

PamPearce August 18, 2022

Exactly!!!

Great Tours with exceptional guides!
May 29, 2022

Traveling with EF has been wonderful. I have been on 2 tours and got nothing but the best guides. The hotels, food, transportation and cost were awesome.

I recommend EF because they work with you on making the experience A+. Greece and the Tuscany Wine Tour was over the top. EF even let me extend my stay and fly home later.

The excursions are great, and it also allows for touring on your own time.

No contact with company?
July 18, 2021
If not for there tours and guides I wold NOT WALK but run from this company. Absolutely no contact with company either via telephone or email! NONE!!!!

A.Harrower May 19, 2022

That has been my problem also. They don't answer calls, emails, etc. I paid $198 down and they said I could cancel anytime before June 20. Now I don't think I will ever get that money back if I cancel.