Authentic Vacations Reviews 

I will never book any trip with Authentic Vacations again. Their customer service is lousy, and their idea of a competent tour guide is misleading. We waisted a lot of money for a bad experience. The agent from AV we originally booked our trip to Ireland left the company, and the new agent assigned was useless. Our tour guide in Ireland was awful. He never stopped talking, disregarded guest's request, continued to make mistakes about the sites we were visiting, and kept spewing offensive remarks about politics, gender, and other cultures. We couldn't wait to come home since our trip was such a negative experience. To make things worse the Authentic Vacations never contacted me to inquire about our trip once we returned. Book with caution.

We used Authentic vacations last year for Iceland and Norway. Great trip, (except the Norway tour guide wasn't from Norway and swore Norway didn't have moose! She started looking up things on Google). Last year AV made all the arrangements for us (we paid extra) for the hotel rooms before, between and at the end, transportation from and to the airports too. This year we are planning Spain and Portugal in September and I'm so disappointed! I keep hearing "it's not our trip" apparently we are paying a thousand dollars more per tour for them to book us on another company's tours (Blue Roads)! They wouldn't help with hotel arrangements before and after, told us to get a taxi or uber at the airport/hotel. For what we are paying, the customer service this year is less than desirable. We are on our second travel agent since February. This may be the last time we use them. I'll update this post if need be before, during and after our trip.

Joleen designed an Ireland itinerary for the five of us. The trip was excellent she took care of all the details. We enjoyed our hotels, the museums, and the stops to view landscapes. We saw most of Ireland during our ten-day trip. K. Evans

Booked a 5 day self drive with Authentic Vacations (A.V.) last year. Agent pushed the insurance saying it would cover us if anything arose forcing us to cancel. Fast forward to this year and Covid-19, First agent laid off and we were assigned another agent that we had no relationship with. The EU is closing their boarders to travelers from the US. We called to cancel our trip and found out that A.V. will hold back 20% of the land cost and we also lose out on the $509 travel insurance. What is the purpose of paying for insurance if they don't provide any service. Recommend you find a local travel agent who will better serve their customers.

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.

I worked with Tim on a 10 day trip chauffeur driver for my 84 yr. old clients. They said it was the best trip they have ever taken. Tim was great to work with and so knowledgeable. It was a pleasure to work with him.

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.

For our honeymoon/first international trip, working with Authentic Vacations was a huge help! We had two travel agents because our first agent ended up leaving the company a few months before our trip. Diana made all of our arrangements, and answered a lot of questions to ease my worries. My only complaint is that by the time we got our passports and were ready to book our flights, she told us she wouldn’t be back in the office for the next week. When she came back, the airfare went up.
Our second travel agent was Lainie. She sent us all of our documents on time and answered more questions for me.
We had a great time on our self-guided tour through Ireland. We stayed at two bed and breakfasts, and three hotels. We enjoyed the B&B’s more. Our last hotel, Celbridge Manor, was very stuffy inside and we had to sleep with the window open to air out the room. I would not go back there again.
Our driving experience was good. Make sure you take a lot of pictures of your rental car before you leave the parking lot. We had a few damages on our car that were either not listed, or only listed as minor scratches. Also, our GPS didn’t work very well so we ended up only using maps on my cellphone with Verizon.
Overall I recommend working with a travel agent for an international trip to ensure you get the most of your vacation.

I had a great experience with Authentic Ireland. They made all of our arrangements for car and lodging. They also provided an itinerary with suggested sites. We really appreciated having everything pre-paid before we left. It made check-in and check-out quick and easy wherever we went.

Jocoya helped us to plan a perfect week in Dublin with two wonderful day trips: Wicklow and Glendalough and another to the Giant's Causeway. She asked about our interests and made fantastic recommendations that made the trip even better!

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.

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.

Recently worked with Tam Katzin for a trip to Ireland. Tam was wonderful to work with. She listened to what we were looking for in the trip and went over and above to make sure our trip met our wishes. Tam was very patient throughout the whole process with my numerous questions. Not once did she make me feel that I was bothering her. Even with the Pa time difference she answered emails promptly even though she wasn't in the office yet. Tam was great with little tips and information about things that I would not have thought about to take care of before our trip. I would definitely look for her guidance again if we plan another trip sometime.

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.

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.

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!

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.

It was well planned out vacation. We did the bus tour and everything ran as planned. It was a great vacation for my family of adult children.

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!