Go Ahead Tours

Pros: EVERYTHING
Cons: NOTHING

I have traveled with many tour operators and with the price and service you receive from Go Ahead they are by far the best in the business. I travel internationally all the time, and with the hassle this can cause I am amazed at how Go Ahead handles all the obstacles that can arise, they have someone available 24 hours a day if anything does come up, which rarely happens, and their sales and customer service department in Cambridge is a delight to deal with. Great job Go Ahead and keep it up and I'll be back again soon!

Tours I have taken with Go Ahead;

Highlights of Japan
Australia and New Zealand
Alaska’s Glacier Cruise
Kenya Wild life Safari
Ancient Peru and Machu Picchu
Egypt and the Nile
Magic of Italy

And soon many many more!

Pros: On tour, your guide is yours and Go Ahead will take care of everything.
Cons: With all travel, there is a level of uncertainty:no worries with GoAhead.

I'm getting ready to take my fifth tour with Go Ahead and can't wait. I refer all my friends to this company. I've taken the European and other tours (Wine,Waltzes & the Rhine, Scandinavian Adventures, Australia, and Peru). Each was different and fabulous. There are no worries with Go Ahead. They take care of you before, during and after your tour. I'm a veteran traveler having stayed in 5 star as well as 2 star hotels. The quality of service, the accommodations, the guides and transportation can't be beat! My next trip is Venice, Florence & Rome with several friends. The options that Go Ahead offers for it's travelers are wonderful.This tour company allows you to decide how you want to spend your time but gives you the grounding that makes travel comfortable.

Pros: Pompeii, excellent tour directors, affordable
Cons: None

I just came back from the Naples, Sorrento, Pompeii and Rome trip with Go Ahead Vacations and I had to let everyone know how great it was. It was my third trip with Go Ahead Vacations and it was the best yet! Our group of 29 people got along so very well that we are planning a reunion in the New England area! Our tour director, David Fenn from Rome was the best! He joked around with us and was very casual and friendly, like people from New England. Kudos for Go Ahead for having David working there!

I have done the Magic of Italy and Walking through Tuscany...my next trip will be the Italian Riveria, Lake Como and Venice. Either next year or the year after. I would highly recommend Go Ahead Vacations to anyone - especially their trips to Italy!

Pros: Wonderful, marvelous, too much for words.
Cons: Can't think of a bad thing to say about this marvelous tour.

This was our first time touring with GO AHEAD and I can categorically state that we were not disappointed in any way with our 24 days in Australia and New Zealand and the 3-night add-on in Fiji. The total trip organization was first-class with great hotels, meals, side trips and, most of all a fantastic Tour Director in MATT BRACHER who left no stone unturned to ensure that we saw everything we were supposed to see, did everything we were supposed to do and tended to our every need and request. We would thoroughly recommend this GO AHEAD trip to anyone looking for a "Down Under" adventure.

Pros: Offer lots of options (which you pay extra for)
Cons: Poor travel arrangements in spite of travel between major international airports

Booked an 11 day trip to London, Paris and Rome. Two (of three)hotels were inconveniently out of the way requiring cabs or public transportation. The tour director was good but group transportation was consistently late. The trip ended badly when they routed us to Newark where we had to take a shuttle to Kennedy (2 hours) and THEN take a flight to Boston. Total travel time coming back from Rome was 19 hours!! They are(and you feel) focused less on the customer and more on THEIR profit line. I would not use them again.

Pros: Great trip leaders.
Cons: terrible flight arrangements and no customer service.

Left stranded in Boston on way to Ireland. Go Ahead routing using two different airlines. After hours customer service said "let us know what you do"..Arrived a day late with additional out of pocket costs of $371.22 and no help from company. Paid extra for a specific routing and did not receive. Staff seems more concerned with saving a dollar than customer. Suggest the actually fly some of the routes they book.

Pros: We were lucky to have Stuart Harvey, our excellent & knowledgeable Guide.
Cons: A cancelled flight from Newark to London was replaced by a flight from JFK.

This was my first trip abroad and it was wonderful! Everything seemed very organized and smoothly run. Our tour guide, Stuart Harvey, was extraordinary--VERY knowledgeable about all 3 cities, personable, funny, flexible and accommodating. Our group had 42 so we were a lot to keep happy! There was a good balance of Tour time and free time to explore, and great side trip excursions...Windsor Castle & Versailles were high points. Looking forward to my next trip!

Pros: reasonable prices, knowledgable guides, most hotels nice and well situated
Cons: sometimes office staff does not offer extra information which leads to some hidden costs.

I have been on 4 GoAhead tours and I find each one has pluses and minuses. Trips are made up of 3 components- the place, the guide and the other travelers (especially since I travel by myself). The best all around was Journey around Spain with Roberto who has to be the best guide in the world. The Magic of Italy is a fantastic trip as well. My last trip was Greece and the Istanbul extension. The trip had many different means of transportation (forget that Louis Cruise line) and our guide, Rachel, was unbelievably organized. However,personally I found her to be rather cold- I was not the only one who felt that. When we got to Istanbul the group seemed different and more alive as we all loved our guide Cybell. Some of the typical tourist dinners were very good and others were just all right. They always made accommodations if you didn't like what they were serving.

Pros: The single supplement was very reasonable.
Cons: I didn't find any.

I thought the tour was fantastic. This being my first tour, I wasn't sure what to expect. The experience far exceeded my expectations. The tour guide was very knowledgeable, personable, and patient. I liked that the group was a nice mixture of people of different ages and backgrounds. The size of the group I felt was just perfect, not to large and not to small. I felt I came home from my vacation with a good understanding of Italian culture.

Pros: Tour director was top-notch. Great value for the money. All major sites were covered.
Cons: Large group - ours had about 45 people.

I booked with go ahead a little skeptical because I've heard negative things about all the main tour groups. I have to say this was the most amazing tour I've ever had. We did London, Paris, and Rome. The tour director, Suzy, was fantastic, organized, informative, and helpful.
Breakfast was included every day of the trip in the hotels and wasn't too bad. Each city had an included dinner that was good. The excursions were a good value. Suzy even did "off the itinerary" mini excursions (where you pay your own way) to teach us how to use the metros or buses, get us to the Moulin Rouge for example, etc. That was tremendously helpful.
The group was mixed-age so everyone can find suitable friends amongst the group.
The hotels were conveniently located in all three cities next to public transportation so it made getting around to all the sites very easy. The hotel in Rome was in a residential area, but it didn't matter since the metro and the bus were about 2 minutes walk from the hotel.

Pros: Caring tour guide; good local guides
Cons: sometimes poor hotel choice

We took the Venice;Florence;Rome tour in summer 2004.
Day trips included Siena, San Gimignano and Orvieto.

Overall, the tour was certainly OK. These cities are world-class tourist attractions and they do not disappoint.

One upside is that the included meals were at nice local restaurants. The entree choices were good. With some tour companies, the included meals are at the hotel (boring).

The downside was the terrible hotel (Hotel le Due Fontane) in Florence. That was a real hole.

That's the basic problem with this tour company. They are a little cheaper then their competitors due to using only 3-star hotels. Most of the time, the hotels are fine but you run the chance of hitting a bad one like we did.

Pros: The places we went were excellent. The hotels and food were good.
Cons: The bus, the care and attention, tour guides.

I went on Go Ahead Vacation Paris & Normandy 10 day tour. My 91 year old mother was not met at the airport by the tour as promised. I informed the tour director who did nothing more than try the airport's phone number and then left to teach the rest of the tour how to use the Metro. She arrived at the hotel 6 hours later thanks only to Air France and a cleaning lady. I later found out 4 others in the group were not met either. The bus was tiny with no leg room. It made economy class on a plane seem like first class. Neither the tour director or the driver were available to help the mostly senior group up and down the steep bus steps. The people who met you at the airport spoke minimal English, had no identifying signs. I found out later they as well as the bus were all contract people.

Pros: Experiencing Tuscany by walking with a small group.
Cons: Trying to see too much in the last two days.

This was our third trip with Go Ahead and it was outstanding. We enjoyed the marvelous countryside of Tuscany, the fine food and wine, the people and the history. Our tour guide, Barbara Valloni was excellent and the hotel accommodations the best ever. Our excursion to Colle Verde was a highlight for us as well as the walks through the "hill towns". We look forward to our next trip with Go Ahead Vacations.

Pros: beautiful sights, great director, nice meals, friendly people
Cons: bad flight (Paris to Rome), non-air-conditioned hotel (Paris)

I went on a tour of London, Paris, and Rome in June 2005. It was absolutely amazing! I learned so many new things from the local guides and the company's tour director for the trip, Gino Di Iulio. He was funny, kind, caring, smart, and didn't treat me as a kid, he treated me like another adult. I loved the Vatican in Rome, and tasting new wines in Paris. The days were so filled that they seemed to fly by. Thanks to Gino, I will never forget the summer of my thirteenth birthday. He got the Tenors in Rome to sing me Happy Birthday in Italian in front of a crowd!

Pros: Javier, our tour director was as good as any with whom we have ever traveled.
Cons: Rain,but it was the rainy season in the rainforest. What else can you expect!

This was our 7th tour with Go Ahead and as with all of the tours, it was an awesome experience.This is a very active tour, but you see so much- volcanoes,rainforests, animals, birds butterflies,flowers.Javier Flores,our tour director was extremely knowledgeable and so helpful and caring.He went above and beyond the call of duty to see that everyone had a wonderful time.The accommodations were very nice and in a couple of cases, unique.Most of the included meals were buffets with delicious foods. The hikes in Rincon de la Vieja National Park and over the Arenal Hanging Bridges were strenuous, but well worth the effort. I highly recommend the extension to Tortuguero National Park where we saw so much wildlife.Being awakened almost every morning by the howler monkeys is an experience you will never forget.