Kevin Leak
GBA very delightful first visit to Ireland. We had an amazing 8 day Ireland vacation. We worked closely with our travel advisor, Heather B., to plan every detail of our trip. Heather tailored it perfectly to fit our interests and our desire to meander by car along the coasts to visit the historic, cultural and nature sights of southern Ireland. We stayed at seven lovely B&Bs on the west, south and east coasts. The B&B hosts were wonderfully gracious and welcoming. Heather made dinner reservations or recommendations for each night, which were universally fabulous. We visited many centuries old monasteries, castles, forts and settlements. We toured several wonderful museums. Heather provided us with a Google maps link for each day our travel. The beaches, cliffs, lighthouses and seaside villages along the coasts were delightfully scenic, peaceful and sublime. We drove exactly 1,000 miles on our trip at a very leisurely pace. Highly recommend Authentic Vacations and Heather B. to plan your customized Ireland Adventure.
Laura Casper
GBIrish eyes are smiling We had a great week long self guided tour around Ireland. Lainie put together a topnotch package for us. We didn't know she booked premium air for us but what a Godsend it was!
FigNewS
GBCovid19 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.
David H
GBFantastic experience Fantastic experience. Lonna helped put our 2 week self drive tour together. The B&Bs, Inns and Lodge she found for us were terrific. All the recommendations and tours suggested and/or arranged were wonderful. Will use Authentic again when we next travel to areas they serve.
Gail
GBGreat 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.