Authentic Vacations

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4.70
Based on 20 Reviews

5

85.00%

4

5.00%

3

5.00%

2

5.00%

1

0.00%
About Authentic Vacations

Authentic Vacations specializes in creating customizable itineraries that feature a variety of inspirational experiences paired with unique and boutique accommodations, all carefully hand-picked by their product team to ensure every client experiences a distinctive adventure. Each tour is tailor-made and can be adjusted based on the client’s needs, creating a truly personalized experience. With offices in San Francisco, Phoenix, London, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Copenhagen, we are able to provide local expertise for destinations across the globe. With its culturally-diverse staff of travel experts, Authentic Vacations offers a level of personalization and client support that is unsurpassed in the travel industry.

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Karen Wood
GB

I loved the itinerary I loved the itinerary. The only problems I encountered were 1) the vouchers were in my name but the actual reservations at the inns, B&Bs, and tourist sites were in my maiden name. This was a bit of an annoyance. 2) I am 68 and don't have the physical strength I once had so the B&Bs all had steep stairs. Had my son-in-law not been with us, I couldn't have easily got my suitcase up the stairs. I love B&Bs, but stairs are getting more difficult.

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Whitney Miller
GB

We had an incredible experience! We had an incredible experience! Lauren was super easy to work with and handled all of our questions quickly and professionally and set up the most perfect trip schedule we could have asked for. The most difficult part of the whole trip to Ireland was learning to drive on the other side of the car/road than we were used to, but everything else went seamlessly easily. All of the accommodations were wonderful, the breakfast options were great at each location, the castle hotel experience was amazing, and we never really encountered any issues while we were over there! we're honestly already talking about our next trip that we plan on taking through Authentic Vacations! Highly recommend!

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Paul Sok
GB

Great Vacation My wife and I truly enjoyed our time in Scotland. Authentic Vacations went the extra mile in setting everything up for our thirty fifth anniversary trip to Scotland. The sites, hotels, guides, and time arrangements were top notch and we plan to travel with them again. Paul and Kim Sok

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FigNewS
GB

Covid19 changed EVERYTHING, Awful refund process. CAREFUL. UPDATED 8/2020: I chose Authentic Vacations because of their great reputation, and "peace of mind" guarantee. COVID19 HAS CHANGED EVERYTHING, CAREFUL! We were booked for 9/2020 13 night trip to the UK, Uh Oh. 3/2020 we contacted our first agent to find she was furloughed 2/2020. Uh Oh. Having already paid Authentic $10K+ we tried rescheduling, NO GO. We then asked for a refund. Our 2nd agent, though cordial, had his hours CUT early 3/2020. After 2 months of many contacts with Authentic and NONE of our $10K back, we tried rebooking for 2021, but the groud tour bus company was not accepting rebookings. Authentic dragged their feet in filing an insurance claim, so after consulting our attorney, we took the claim over ourselves and filed our claim 6/2/2020. Within two weeks we received repayment from the tour bus company, and are filing our claim with American Airlines ourselves. UPDATE 8/2020: American, refunded our claim that we filed ourselves, ONLY because we had a letter from Doctor of husband's medical condition preventing travel. THEN: American sent the money to Authentic's Accounting dept, instead of to us. NO ONE notified us of this credit, and I spent weeks trying to track down our refund!!! Still no go, I am beyond miffed. I just received a thank you note from Authentic, asking for the final payment on our currently scheduled trip in two weeks???? What??? If you plan on working with Authentic or ANY 3rd party, you've added another layer of recourse between you and refunds, should you need them. In the future I will book directly with tour companies and airlines, not because Authentic didn't try or provide a good package, but because they were unable to get any money back for us in a reasonable amount of time.

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Gail
GB

Great expectations fulfilled and more! This June, I led a group of 12 on a tour to Ireland. Maggie Lunde was my group specialist who did an excellent job helping me achieve the desired plans for our visit. She was thorough and very responsive to our needs. Our chauffeur for the tour was Martin McAviney, a delightful guide and great friend to us. From the start, he let me know that he was there to fulfill all our plans and wishes and to feel free to communicate them clearly to him. He not only delivered but once he had a sense of our group, he gave us excellent additions which fit perfectly for us. His warmth and great sense of humor added greatly to the enjoyment and success of tour. Members thanked me afterward for "making our dreams come true" and another described the tour as "life-changing" I whole-heartedly share these accolades with Martin and Maggie.

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