Vacations By Rail - Chicago, Illinois

gary M.

My wife and I just finished the 13 day America’s National Park Tour. Edgar our tour Guide and Ken was our bus driver were excellent. I highly recommend this tour and hopefully you will have Edgar and Ken. We had 38 of us on this tour and we all got along.

John N.

We took the "Alaska the Greatland" tour, it was mazining. We got view of Denali from 3 different sides. The views where out of this world. The tour then head south to Seward where we had two wonderful boat ride around the Kenai Peninsula and Kenai Fjords. The fjords are a whale, porpoise and puffin habitat. The second day was 26 glacier.

Deborah C.

We enjoyed a wonderful 11 day Vacations by rail trip around Switzerland. Rail is a great way to see Switzerland.

Kay H.

I am about to book a Canadian Snow Train by VBR. I looked thru the reviews. Those reviews are mostly about how wonderful their reps are, not about the trip. Not helpful for would be customer. I am interested in the reviews about the trip itself. I never saw reviews like these shown at this site.

Lisa

Traveled with this company from US to Canada. Failed to get many details correct. Put us with a group from UK (wonderful group of people) but failed to understand we lived in the US. Sent an email asking if we would meet the group in London!?!?! Gave the tour guide wrong info on how to contact us, told us to find/pay our own way to get from Calgary to Banff but put the UK group on a tour bus that arrived to hotel at the same time we did. We missed a tour because it had to be paid immediately upon arriving at hotel and I didn’t want to pay for something I had no information about. Didn’t have our boarding passes for the cruise portion of the trip after assuring us the tour leader would have everything.Too many other issues with communication to list. Was too expensive a trip for the stress we were under due to failures on their part.

W R. W.

Vacations by Rail (VBR) ordered tours from other companies, made hotel reservations, and arranged for us to pick up train tickets round trip Edinburgh to Inverness. All of the services from the other providers were outstanding - especially Haggis Adventures and Rabbies.
However, VBR’s communication, clarity, and responsiveness were abhorrent.
They agreed to early provision of final itinerary as we were to be in Iceland hiking and on a National Geographic cruise for more than two weeks ahead of VBR in Scotland. They did not, which caused us to miss a significant error in the schedule provided.
VBR booked is for four nights with full Scots breakfasts but also booked two tour days that we had to leave the hotel before they began serving breakfast.
And VBR scheduled a tour with a check in time listed AFTER the tour departure time. They made no response to an emergency request for clarification the night preceding. And have made no response since. Luckily, the actual tour provider (Haggis Adventures) responded to the same email within an hour.
Bottom line - we’re were going to book the (Canadian) Rocky Mountaineer with them for 2025. But, given the above, will handle arrangements another way.

Carol D.

Not impressed. We booked the Glacier Express, Rhine and Moselle Cruise, September 2024.

The company was not forthright in how much we would be expected to haul our luggage. The first day from St. Pancras station to Switzerland is brutal. Starting at 5 a.m., we walked more than two miles on an off trains and through several city blocks in Paris, to catch a chartered shuttle bus to another station -- a chartered bus for which we waited for for 45 minutes outside. Thank goodness it was not raining. Furthermore, as originally stated in their brochure, we did not stay in Chur to catch the Glacier Express. Instead we stayed in Davos -- where again the shuttle to the hotel was not ready and we ended up taking a public bus. That added I am guessing more than two hour's travel time to an already exhausting day -- only to have to travel BACK to Chur to catch the Glacier express the following day. Also that night not one liquid was served gratis at the included dinner which was sometime around 8:30 at night.

If you do book this trip, be aware that you need to be able to lift your luggage at least three feet off the ground to get it through the security conveyor at St. Pancras. Also, be ready to walk your luggage up the stairs on trains to the upper level where sometimes your seats are reserved, and realize that some stations might only have escalators for going up, but that you will be expected to get your luggage down MULTIPLE flights of stairs in the the train stations. Our guide was fantastic, but the logistics of the travel were ridiculous. The River Cruise portion was more relaxing -- but the included excursions were absolutely lame. Basically just walking tours. They never once got us to see some of the lovely gardens, estates, castles, or fortresses which are everywhere. Fortunately, members of our group caught on quickly and just struck out on our own when the boat docked. The cruise also really catered to the British passengers, which I get -- but c'mon no cream for our coffee? Meanwhile, at every meal there is a pitcher of milk for the Brits to have with their tea?!?! And ya'll can just forget about getting coffee WITH dessert. Best to just skip back to your room and make it in your Nespresso machine and bring it into the dining room. I might add that the British passengers have the option to use a service called Baggage Man, which is not available to the US travelers.

We picked this trip because it got us to London, a chance to take the Eurostar to Paris, and then to Switzerland (esp. the Matterhorn and Glacier Express) as well as several stops in Germany. It was why we took a chance, on an unknown company. But lesson learned for everyone in our group. Never again -- if we personally don't know someone who has used a tour group and my travel advisor doesn't know much about a company -- I won't use them for a trip longer than 2-3 days.

Anne N.

This is my first experience to book with Vacation by rail. It came highly recommended by my client.
It was a great pleasure to have Bridget as my booking agent. She is professional, knowledgeable, efficient and took her time to answer all my queries. Also, she was prompt in responding to my emails enquires. As promised, I received my confirmation of my booking in a hour. This looks like a great start & promising that this very company will provide me the lifetime of adventure to Switzerland. Thanks to Bridget for a great customer service. Greatly appreciated.