TakeTours

I had a great experience. The trip was very well organized & memorable! We got too visit a lot of nice places and the tour guide was very informative & had a lot of knowledge. Thank you take tours. My family and I had a great time :)

Did this tour in the winter 2015. Our tour guide, Jerry, was very organized and he handled the tour well. We had a full bus and were still able to see all attractions that was part of the itinerary despite the weather and the fact that it gets really dark at around 4pm. The only thing is that I wished I could have seen Harvard and MIT better (they felt more like a side trip, spending just 20 minutes on each of the 2 campuses).
My favorite part was Rhode Island, not just the mansion but the whole community looked really elegant and classy. We stayed at Quality Inn and it came with free breakfast. It was really worth the money because we used the buy 2 get 3^rd for free promotion. It’s like we paid $ 72 per person for the bus and hotel (with breakfast).
I noticed a LOT of reviewers here complain about being forced to pay admission fees or take the lobster dinner. When they say it’s optional, it’s very straightforward, you can opt not to do them and save time and money. Since it started snowing the 2^nd day, we opted out of the aquarium and the cruise and just spent time at Quincy Market.
Also, we didn’t avail of the lobster dinner. We just ate at the same restaurant but ordered what we wanted. This is my 2^nd tour with TakeTours and I still love it. Can’t wait for the next one!

My husband and I went on this tour out of NYC last month, and this was the worse its been. I did not know that Chinese people can be so cruel. Never again. We were given their names by locals who said they did a great job in hosting not so expensive tours to NYC and around. We went to the New Hampshire and also we are on one right now, in Philly and Washington DC Today we were supposed to take the tour to Washington DC Because of the Million Man march, she said there was too many black folks and she was afraid, so she had to cancel the tours of Washington DC. whats her problem. She even yelled at an elderly woman cause she was not on the bus earlier. she told her that she is eating too slow, with giving us 40 minutes to eat dinner. We got back to our Days Inn Hotel at 9:30, she also threatened this older woman if she is not at the bus at 7am she is going to leave her there. What nerve. I think this woman should sue the panties out of her. That’s not very nice to do this if you want others to go on your tours.
Never again. Save your money… You be better off going with some friends you met at the subway that can take us around with a private car or taxi. Washington, and Philly are not that expensive, so I go next time without them, they are really losers. they should be shut down. I think that this tour company needs to be regulated by the FTC because they are taking your money and give you nothing… this was my last trip with them, I know will pay someone like Insight to take me anywhere I want to go… without complaining… she has nerve to reprimand me and my husband and the elderly lady… I feel so badly for some of these older folks, when they said you got to move… and then skip places even though you paid upfront. I hope someone shuts them down they are not Perillo by anymeans. they need to go

I took the 2-​day tour from NYC to Niagara Falls on ⁰⁸⁄₁₂ and ⁰⁸⁄₁₃ with my mom. I do NOT recommend this tour as it was a fairly disappointing experience. But I don’t understand why there are only good reviews about this tour on their official website. I don’t think my honest feedback will get posted there, so I’m reposting it here on Unilocal.Hopefully someone can read it before choosing to join them.
1. First of all, their itinerary is bullshit. They skipped the Corning Museum of Glass (one of their highlights on the website), Jet Boat Ride, and Niagara Falls Adventure Movie. The actual tour only included 4 activities in 2 days, but it’s not mentioned anywhere on the website. Don’t let their posted itinerary fool you!
2. If you think the trip is cheap, you need to redo the math. They charged $ 10 per person for FREE state park visit (Walkins Glenn) and $ 25 per person for a package (including a FREE Whirlpool State Park and a $ 12 Old Fort Niagara), which they call «in-​depth tour», but actually has little to do with the actual falls. There’s also a $ 16 per seat service fee for the two days.
3. Much of your time will be wasted at tourist traps: Don’t come anywhere near the glass building which they recommended for the Native American show and the food court. If you don’t believe me, search «One Niagara International Food Court» and «One Niagara Welcome Center» on Unilocal and check out all the 1-​star ratings and comments. The In-​depth tour was also a complete scheme! After tour buses left the Old Fort Niagara, the place was completely empty!
4. Our tour guide showed little respect to guests. They publicly humiliated us for getting on the bus 8 minutes late. However, when other passengers came back late for longer and for multiple times, they said nothing but to let them get by. Their «no late rule» wasn’t followed through at all and they got to pick who they wanted to embarrass.
5. The bus was a complete mess with trash all over the place. Hell yes, there’s a“no trash“rule. But of course, nobody was serious about their rules when there’s no reinforcement at all.
Overall, I’m really regretful about joining this guided tour. I didn’t get the chance to spend more of my precious time around the Falls. And I only found out later that there’s this Cave of the wind tour where you can get close to feel the water; the night view of the Falls is really worth seeing; and there are many more vista points in the park to view the magnificent Falls from different angles. Of course, the guides won’t tell you a word about the real fun part because they want you to spend you time at places where they make profits. Be smart, think twice and at least do some research before you join them!

This is the worst traveling experience I have got. I booked the transportation to Dessert Hill Outlet online. A Bus with Seagull company sign showed up. We were on the bus since 7am but didn’t arrive till 11am. The normal drive is just an hour. The Seagull company is operated by some local Chinese people who don’t have business standards at all. They have the worst review ever. If I knew, I would never booked it. They even shorted the already short tour and picked up everyone at 4pm. We tried to call
several times but no one ever picked up the call.
On our way there, the van was filled with angry tourists who complaint that the service was so bad with the company and you don’t even have a place to complain about it because no one is in the company to take calls and no one takes any responsibilities. Feel really sorry for those people who had to travel with them for 3 or 5 days.
Some Chinese people on the bus are so noisy and smelly. The air conditioning didn’t work so well either.

I hired this company for a bus tour to take both Alejandra and myself across the United States to visit various places back in August of 2014 such as Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Salt Lake City, Utah and other exciting places.
The price that they charged was Fair and it did Include the hotel stay, however, there were other things in the trip which did Not make their Fair Price worthwhile and I will explain them in the following paragraphs.
Jackson Hole, Wyoming: When we had arrived at this very important tourist destination, they gave us only (1) one hour to run around and hardly see anything. It was totally Rushed!
Salt Lake City, Utah: The same experience happened here whereby they only gave us about 30 minutes to view the Mormon Temple and surrounding areas when they know In Reality that it would take at least (2) two days to see the whole area.
Rest Stops And Bathrooms: They spent many, many wasteless hours in taking us to rest stops for almost one hour per visit and they would do this several times in a day.
Microphone And The PA System: Our Tour Guide, Will S. was talking very loud on the microphone during the whole duration of our trip from the first day onwards which was deafening to our ears and he was asked to turn down the volume more than once by various customers on the bus in which he Refused coming up with excuses that the Chinese Customers would complain if he Turned Down The Volume since they would NOT be able to hear him speak in Chinese if he did so.
Shopping Malls: During our trip, he would take us to various Shopping Malls to do our Shopping, however, on the Very last day of our trip, he purposely had us Spend at least Two Hours (2) at a shopping mall rather than Engaging In More Tours in which was another way to waste More Of Our Time!
About Our Tour Guide Will S.: He was Not really a Professional Tour Guide because he did NOT have that much information available on the places that we visited and many times when I asked him a question, he was Not even able to answer it. Furthermore, I have been on many tours before out in Argentina and Brasil and have Never Had such a horrible tour guide like this one!
Other Comments: During our seven (7) Day Tour, both Alejandra and myself had witnessed other customers on the Same Bus Fighting and/​or Arguing with one another and/​or with our Tour Guide over various current problems involving the tour.
However, on the many other tours that I have been on, I have yet to see so many angry people being angry, upset or fighting for just about anything, including over a baby crying, or with a customer changing his mind about whether to pay to see the Grand Canyon or Not which is an Additional Trip that is Not Included in the price of the seven (7) day tour, etc.
For the Price that we Paid, they Need to have a lot More Improvements in order to get Customers such as Alejandra and myself back on their bus!
Thank you.

We did a portion of the European loop in English.
and
are the same company. They aren’t the ones doing the tour, but you can expect reviews to reflect the product sold rather than the website that sold it. The European bus loops are fulfilled by
(English site
). It’s a primarily Chinese company that offers some tours in English as well. The English and Chinese buses just goes to all the same places simultaneously. There are differences in expectations for travel in some Eastern cultures. The style is more «see as many things as possible in as little time as possible.» That’s why you’ll see a bus pull up, a lot of people get off and take pictures, and then get back on and drive away. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but if your style is more spontaneous and vacation-​y, it may not be for you. Cumulatively, you may end up with about 7 hours on the bus and 3 hours at attractions, depending on the day.
You are required to stick to the schedule and not allowed to opt out of any locations, including paid ones. For example, we didn’t want a salesperson to try to sell us blood diamonds when there was the Van Gogh museum, Rejiksmuseum, and a Tesla store next door. No one was supposed to leave the group, though. Some were disappointed about being so close to a once in a lifetime place and not having the autonomy to go see it. That said there was usually «free time» in a city’s center for about 2 hours. You’ll be reprimanded if you are late for anything. Each time someone was a few minutes late, it would be brought up about five times through the following days. There was an explanation at least every day about the importance of being exactly on time.
The prices listed include the bus to and from each place and the hotel with its continental breakfast each night. Buses are big and pretty nice. There’s no wifi and there’s one power strip for charging. Hotels range in quality depending on the city, but are never near the city center. For example, the hotel in Paris left much to be desired for many people and had a diminished secondary breakfast for our group, whereas the hotel outside of Amsterdam was really very high class and had a great breakfast.
Attractions cost money along the way and are mandatory. The guide would come down the bus aisle and collect cash from everyone for the day’s activities. There are some evening things that are optional, though. This is probably a good point to mention that people paid a mandatory € 10 to go to a fishing town in Holland, but there was no fee for entry or parking that I could ever see. We were skeptical of all costs from then on.
It’s a good way to get from one place to another and see a bunch of stuff along the way. We needed to get from Amsterdam to Milan and realized what a hassle it would be to book travel and accommodation. This provided a way for us to see several attractions quickly through Brussels and Paris while getting from A to B.
Overall, the guide was very nice, the bus was good, the schedule was tight, and the locations made sense. If you want to get photos of as many countries as you can very quickly and don’t mind being on a bus for a lot of that, go for it. It’s good for getting from one place to another and seeing things along the way. Plus, you don’t have to figure out your own transportation, hotels, and attractions everywhere. If you’d rather have autonomy, it’s probably not for you.
(P.S. The points system on
is «pointless» as each dollar you spend is worth one cent toward a free trip. So, 100 points is $ 1.00. Meaning you would literally have to go a hundred times to get a free trip. Basically 1% off.)

To clarify, taketours and L&L tours are the same.
They probably use different names because of the «not-​so-​good» reviews of L&L tours.
I just went with TakeTours for their 5-​day USA East Coast Tour Package. Honestly, it was a great deal – considering the cheap price and the locations we were going. The hotels were nice too.
However, we hated the tour guide – hands down, the worst tour guide we have ever had. She didn’t speak english very well and spoke very very fast. It was really hard to communicate with her. She was very rude when we asked her questions and clarifications. We were also rushed the whole time. She gave very limited time from one attraction to another. She kept saying, «Hurry up, hurry up» to my family, and some are elders which could not walk fast. One time she locked the bathroom’s door on the bus (don’t know for what reason) and refused to stop at a rest area when one of my family members asked to go the rest room. My family member had to hold for more than 1 hour. Really really bad tour guide.

This review is for 4-​Day Niagara Falls, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Thousand Islands tour from New York or DC
You got what you paid. If you are fine with the time they gave you to visit each place, this tour is good.
Here is the time they gave me for each place.
Liberty bell 40mins
Washington monument from far away, Lincoln memorial, Korean war, Vietnam war 40 mins
Air and space mesuem 40 mins
Potomac river cruise 1 hr
US capital 15 mins
White house 15 mins
Hershey chocolate factory 40 mins
Corning glass museum 1.30 hrs with lunch
Watglin glen state park 1 hr
Niagara fall 3 hrs
Niagara outlet 2 hrs
Thousand Island 50 mins on cruise.
I don’t have enough time to enjoy each place.

My parents and brother took the Grand Canyon — LV — Yosemite tour. It is cheap before they knew that they had to pay additional entry fee/​tickets around $ 1000 for 3 ppl and sadly they didn’t get what they paid for. It will be nice if it is sincerely stated on the website.
In general, tour was almost acceptable but we would pay more to go with another company due to:
–A/​C in bus was broken the whole trip so my family was in 100 degree bus for 4 days. No spare bus? Com’on we know you just don’t care.
–They skipped the buffet. No refund for the buffet back. Err where did the money for the buffet go then?
–The guide forgot to buy Grand Canyon tickets so my family just walked around and wasted their time there.
— The guide booked the wrong show in LV. They did not want to see whatever tour forcibly bought the ticket for them. Hey, I know you get commission from this stuff. Don’t be too greedy. Sin money makes you have bad luck. Have you heard about it?
— Lastly, their bus has bed bug. We are not stupid people (but not smart enough to book other tours) so we analyse the timing, location, and possibility. One evidence is my brother had the first bite on the bus on the very first day and first route on the tour. He got bitten all the back of arm and back of neck, and so did my mom. The possibility that both bus and hotel in LV have bed bug still considered.
Oh, I was trained about bed bug before so I know what I mention here.
If my family’s trip was just a bad luck, please let me know so we can pray for your company or we can report the case to Business Bureau to prevent those unfair practices to happen, I wish, again.

I was lucky that i didn’t see all the negative reviews before booking, because i might walk away, and missed a wonderful experience in NYC.
I booked a New York 1-​Day City Tour, the tour is operated by L&L Travel, a local travel agency.
It was a worthwhile $ 10.00. I mean to be honest, there is no way you can just spend $ 10 to travel all around these place in one day in NYC. You don’t need to worry about the horrible traffic and getting lost in the subway. The tour is well planned, stick to the schedule that I see from the website. Our tour guide Ms. Lu is very professional and friendly. My parents are happy with the tour, because there is not much walking required, the bus just drop you off right to the attractions. What can I say? Definitely will come back for another tour.

I just finished my 7-​day Antelope Valley, Arch National Park, and Yellowstone tour from LA, which was booked through TakeTours. It’s super FUN!
The most impressive view is in Antelope Valley. We took a jeep/​pickup truck «jumping» across the desert. It was really bumpy during the ride, but everything was worthy when we entered the valley. That’s the natural and magic mix of the rocks, water, air, and sunlight. Another interesting part of the tour was the tour guide. She’s professional as well as has the sense of humor. She helped each and every one of us take nice pictures from different angles.
If have to say the least like of the tour, I’d say on some days, we had to get up in the early morning. Anyways, it’s worthy!

We went to New York to visit our niece and booked the 3 day trip to Niagara Falls and Boston through Take Tours. The night before the trip I received a text in Chinese (that should have been a clue). We boarded the LL Tour bus in Chinatown. No Take Tours sign in sight. Our tour guide, David spoke very broken English and most of the time spoke in Chinese (90% of the travelers were Chinese). The trip started out with lunch at a Chinese buffet. We were then taken to Niagara Falls and our hotel, which was quite nice. The next day off to Boston (which is what we really wanted to see). We purchased the tickets for the lobster dinner in Boston. Save your $ 30…they took us to a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, ugh!!! That is not what comes to mind when you think lobster in Boston! We were also taken to a Chinese bakery to purchase breakfast as we would not have time to stop the next morning. Come to find out that there was a Starbucks in the hotel lobby. Not sure, if there is some kickback or what going on there??? We really wanted to see Harvard and were given 15 minutes… MIT was even better… stopped for 5 minutes to take a picture of the front of the school. I understand if LL Tours wants to cater to their Chinese clientele, but it is not fair to the rest of us. My gripe is that nowhere does it let you know that this is a Chinese tour group. At lease allow us to make a decision as to how we want to spend our vacation dollars!

I booked the 2-​day Boston tour because my visiting parents wanted to see Plymouth Rock and it was in the itinerary. Upon return, my parents tell me they did not stop thee and the guide neglected to mention any changes in the itinerary. My parents asked on Day 2 and the guide flat out said they decided to skip it. WTF?
My parents wasted 2 days of their time while visiting from California and about $ 500 (half for the tour and the other half collected for «optional» fees and meals which were not optional). There was a group of Chinese-​American high school kids on the tour and so the guide spent the most time at the college campuses on the itinerary. Ummm… what about the other paying customers? I know this is the fault of L&L travel, the criminal tour operating group brokered by TakeTours but I still blame TakeTours for even choosing to partner with a piece of shit tour operator like L&L and not taking any responsibility for what happens on the tour. I requested a partial refund and they offered a bullshit 10% discount for my next tour with them. Why the hell would I ever want to book a tour with them when their tour operators suck and the customer service is nonexistent???
Don’t book a tour through
. Save your money and rent a car instead.

Booked a tour with TakeTours for a cousin visiting — set her up overnight at a hotel the night before so she wouldn’t have to travel the morning of her departure to find bus. She was at the restaurant waiting, but they never showed up.
Contacted taketours — they said we lied about being there and that they paged her a number of times (restaurant can confirm that she was). Refuses to give refund. Not sure what is going on, but this seems like a scam. Contacted them via Twitter and they have been «working on resolving» this conflict, but they have yet to. Said that someone from their office (Joy) will contact me, it’s been a month and noone has reached out. Contacted their office asking for Joy and the person there said no ‘Joy’ works there. (Ironic? :))
Refuses to give refund because they insist it was not their fault.
With so many other companies offering tours and packages, I would suggest you take your business elsewhere in a heartbeat!
Also, suspicious that their website has high ratings, just submitted a poor review, but I am guessing it will not be posted.

This is possibly the worst company I’ve ever delt with such a terrible company. It’s a scam beware.
I purchased my tour from Take Tours. The tour is operated by Paradise Travel.
I arrived at my pickup location an hour early. I called Paridise travel, gave them my tour information and they said the Bus would be an hour late. Arriving at 9:50am in parsippany. They had my name and destination. The tour guide even called me to confirm the time they would be arriving. The bus came and as it turned out this was the wrong bus. We asked to go on this bus instead. But they had no room. Our bus left. Paridise Travel was calling the the wrong number as they did not read my cell number correctly. I had the correct number Registered. Paradise travel said they couldn’t do anything for us. I called take tours and they couldn’t put us on another tour or refund my money.

I live in Boston and I received relatives from overseas, I wanted them to see as much as they could without spending too much; so I purchased the Go Boston Card on Taketours website, and it was a great way to save money. This card gives you access to many attractions, we visited all the Boston attractions we wanted in 2 days. The New England Aquarium, the Trolley tour, Science Park, the Boston Sunset Cruise and Museum of Fine Arts. They got to see Boston in a very short time, specially because with this card, we got to skip the lines!
I will definitely use the same card on the trip I am planning to San Francisco.
I recommend these cards to anyone who wants a practical and inexpensive way to enjoy many attractions.

I was contacted by TakeTours’ Marketing and Sales Coordinator. He clarified that «
is a travel portal similar to that of Expedia or Kayak.» I was then offered an apology and a discount on future TakeTours booking. Because of their response to this issue and effort to amend the problem, I am giving them an additional star.
However, with that being said, poor judgement on using LL Tours as one of their service providers demonstrates lack of screening on the part of TakeTours. Who’s to say that in the future if I decide to book another trip using TakeTours, that I wont get a company like LL Tours again?
You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

I used
to book a 3 day semi-​guided bus tour to Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Niagra Falls.
I booked in on a Friday evening and surely must be dopey (someone must have spiked my coke at work. Damn these office weasels!).
My wife and I showed up on time in Chinatown, NYC where a guy showed us our way to the bus. We dodged in-​coming traffic on foot to reach the bus. No problems i thought, we are going away for 3 exciting days.
The bus was to start at 8 but started at 8:45 since people showed up late. No problems again. We started and our tour guide told us that we were running late and would have to sacrifice some part of the Philly tour. Reached Philly at 11:45 and the guide gave us 30 mins to see the liberty bell and then to head to D.C. Interesting isnt it?
There was a long queue at the gate so the guide told us that we should have a look at the bell from the window and head back!!!
People did that without a protest (Me included) since there were better things to be seen. We made our way to D.C. and had a lunch break at Food Lion somewhere in Delaware. The place was a chinese buffett. We sat at a table when the waitress told us that we were people from the bus and should ask them before sitting!!!
Our guide was stuffing her mouth with gay abandon. A chinese-​american she was living it.
Reached D.C. and this is what we saw. Washington monument from a 2 mile distance. White House from a 1 mile distance. Did Lincoln memorial in 20 mins, National Airspace museum in 30 mins, Potomac cruise in 40 mins and we were done with D. C!!!
Headed out of D.C. and took 2 hours to reach our hotel. We took a break for dinner and the guide told us that she is taking us to a magical place with ample food choices, excellent serving and the meal of a lifetime. The place was called Tysons Buffett and something, a chinese buffett! Does it surprise you? Horrible horrible food, disgusting stench and no one but people of chinese origin there.
Day 2: Took 5 hours to reach the falls, did Niagra falls in 3 hours and we were off to a hotel which was 3 hours away from niagra. The guide told us to manage our own food at niagra. Thankfully we could find things other than chinese.
Day 3: We did a 30 mins trip to Corning glass museum and spent 1 hours 20 mins there, 5 hour trip to Hershey’s Chocolate Factory and spent 1 hour at the place. Another 4 hours trip to come back to NYC. Ate at McD’s for lunch.
Overall travel time 28+ hours in the bus, not more than 5 – 6 hours of time to check places out. The guide was impressive though in her knowledge about rest-​rooms throughout the trip. She knew the best restrooms and their history. This was her only talent. She kept reminding us that we should use the restrooms before boarding the bus since the toilet in the bus was only for emergencies.
High school trips are more fun. I didn’t tell you about the party of Indian guys on the bus. (I am Indian too so you cant blame me for being biased. I was ashamed of these guys though). They had 4 kids in their party and the kids treated the bus like a playground. Running up and down the aisle, playing music, speaking in their own language at the top of their lungs, putting their feet on top of the seat in front, pulling down the window shades till they stopped working. One of the kids was also being tutored in maths by his father and grandfather. The grandfather was also explaining the theory of relativity to this 8 year old kid. Pure circus!
Our guide was oblivious of all this and was sleeping in the front seat. Imagine sitting in a bus for 3 days with all this craziness.
Moral of the story, unless you are Chinese or an Indian with a big group please DO NOT take this tour.
Rent a car or save enough money before you can take a proper tour. Anycase this tour costs 400 bucks for 2 (the site doesnt mention the additional tickets you got to buys and only mentions 135 – 165 dollars per person. You HAVE to pay USD 18 as tip per person as well). False advertisement!
I wasted 3 days of my life and I wont want you to experience the same. Not unless you and I have a history.