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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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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Debbie Starr
GB

Jocoya was wonderful! The trip Jocoya helped us arrange was perfect! I honestly couldn't think of anything that could've been done differently, from arranging the car rental to a night in a beautiful castle. It was a wonderful trip that was everything I'd asked for - and more! We'll definitely be calling Authentic Vacations for our next trip!

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Lynn
GB

Effortless travel planning! Effortless travel planning! Heather listened well to our desires and planned an impeccable vacation for us. From flights to rental car to a great itinerary and incomparable B&Bs we were thrilled at every detail.

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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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Brian and Mary Normile
GB

Trip of a Lifetime to Western Ireland Authentic Vacations arranged our trip of a lifetime to Western Ireland. No question was too large or too small for them to answer. Josie "got it" when we said we wanted a stress-free trip where we could take in the untainted beauty of the small towns and coastal areas of Ireland. She booked flights into the relaxed Shannon Airport where we were met by our chauffeur/tour guide Tony Woods. She arranged the perfect hotel (Temple Gate-- a quality hotel, historical, but casual and relaxed, with top-tier attention to customers, a great bar and restaurant, hearty breakfasts, exiting onto a courtyard with magnificent floral displays) located in the charming town of Ennis. Ennis was the ultimate walkable town with many shops, restaurants, pubs and historic sites no more than a 5-minute walk in this richly interesting and compact town. Using Ennis as a home base, we took 3 day-trips in Western Ireland. Our chauffeur/tour guide, Tony Woods, took us to destinations selected specifically to suit our interests. He was able to park in spaces designated for chauffeured cars, saving us a lot of time getting to and from some sites such as the Cliffs of Moher. We were able to take narrow roads buses can't navigate. We could focus on scenery instead of driving, navigating, parking, refueling. Tony changed the itinerary to ensure we had optimal weather at the sites we visited. We stayed at sites as long as we wanted. Tony knew where to find great shopping and first-rate stops for lunch or tea. We learned a lot about Ireland from him, and actually felt we knew the country at a deeper level when we left than had we driven ourselves and stayed at bed and breakfasts. The combination of each of these elements created the perfect trip. In addition, Tony provided a taxi service on our last day, dropping us off and picking us up from Bunratty Castle and its associated Folk Park. We would rely on Josie and Authentic Vacations in planning any future trips. They made it so easy. We would never consider traveling in Ireland again without using Tony Woods Chauffeur to allow us to get the maximum immersion in the country during the time we have to spend--couldn't have seen half these things had we arranged them ourselves.

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