Tour was okay. Bus need to be more clean. There are trash in the cup holder. The seat smell like body odor and make my hairs itch. They make us rush sometimes, especially dinner time. When we get to the place where we eat, you got all the o..ther tour buses there at the same time. Due to the large crowds, the restaurants get packed fast, which leads to waiting times and food delays, thus not having enough time to eat. During the time we get dinner, they also expect us to buy breakfast for the next day. Apart from that , we loved the hotel we stay in (the Marriot) which was right in the heart of San Jose. But the thing is, they make us wake up super early (be at bus by 6:10) for the day. Luckily, we get back to the hotel around 8. One thing I need to add in, the excursions. Its ridiculous that we have to pay for the parking for them. Especially at Standford where we parked pretty far from the University itself. If you don't pay for the optional things, they make you linger on your own somewhere. Overall, the tour was not bad. Me and my family enjoyed the trip, it was fun. Thank you to our tour guide, Paul and the bus driver.Read full review
Me and my family had a great time with their San Francisco tour! We chose Itinerary A which goes to the Monterey Bay and Roaring Camp Railroads on Day 3 and it was fun! I actually experienced both Yosemite (Itinerary B) and the Monterey (It..inerary A) tour and I would say I prefer the Monterey tour. Our tour guide is KEVIN and we love how friendly he is and accommodating during the tour. The tour is very fast paced and I do wish we can stay longer at the SOLVANG location but all in all a well planned tour by this company! We were able to visit all the popular tourists spot in just 3 days and the bus that e had was comfortable. The had backseat pockets for all your snacks and drinks and a charger too for your electronics. I will be purchasing more services from this company. I'll probable try their grand canyon tour next. :)Read full review
100% 3 day San Francisco Bus Tour Product code 2-110
By: Anonymous | Mon Sep 18, 2023 at 12.00 AM
Bus was packed to the brim (58 passengers) leaving tour guide having to sit on a cushion above the steps next to the driver sacrificing safety for profits. Tour guide was more like a coach assistant and spoke less than 10 minutes in those 3.. days. Spoke more Chinese leaving some passengers shouting at him to speak in English. Half the passengers were non Chinese speaking. Passengers were eating their meals on bus and the smell were not pleasant. Seats rotation was not effective as we did not get beyond row 29. Passengers from China were coughing and sneezing openly and by the third day, the number of people coughing had increased exponentially. They also fart a lot in the bus. Tour guide spent more time on the phone than with passengers at all the stops rendering this tour bus more like a transporter of passengers as no one actually led the tour for us. If anyone wanted cheap transport this is it otherwise don't bother.Read full review
Would have been nice to know it was a tour that was going to be full of Asians people. Don't get me wrong, everyone was very polite and very nice, we had a great time ! But there was no one to share it with. Only my wife and I spoke English.., and most of the places offered to eat, were Asian ! Having known it was an Asian run tour would have been nice to know, going in ! Maybe you should let people know a little more about your tours !Read full review
This tour was an incredible experience from start to finish. The itinerary was well-planned, and we got to see so many amazing places. It was a perfect mix of adventure and relaxation. Will cherish these memories forever!
The hotel where we stayed the second night was horrible! It even had cockroaches! Bus air condition broke down and overall this trip needs to be reviewed by management.
Todo muy bien. Debería haber al menos un punto de encuentro más en algún área más céntrica. Nuestra guía en español Brenda, fue muy amable y excelente en todo momento. Estamos muy agradecidos con ella.
Todo muy bien. Debería haber al menos un punto de encuentro más en algún área más céntrica. Nuestra guía en español Brenda, fue muy amable y excelente en todo momento. Estamos muy agradecidos con ella.
100% Wonderful tour spoiled by petulant tour guide
By: Anonymous | Wed Sep 13, 2023 at 12.00 AM
If I could give the tour guide zero stars, I would have. We did, however, have a different guide/driver for Yosemite, and HE was terrific - a complete contrast to the main guide. The first guide, whose name I don't even want to remember, se..emed to hate his job and dislike the tourists on his bus more. He was rude, unpleasant and should not have been in a position of influence (where he could demand the tip and allocate seats and hotel rooms). He spoiled an otherwise fairly great trip. When joining up with the main bus after Yosemite, my family actually felt apprehensive about seeing the main guide again! [2 kids, 2 parents] The guide would use threats to get the passengers back onto the bus on time - "You will have to pay for a taxi to get to our next destination as the bus will not wait for you!" I know what time to return to the bus and will be there unless prevented by an emergency. I don't need lots of threats nor do I appreciate them. Pity he could not restrain his disdain for us passengers. He also seemed to have a deal with a particular Chinese restaurant/complex whereby he would highly recommend it and park the bus close to it, giving the impression there were no other places to eat. It wasn't until the second night at the same location that we found non-Chinese restaurants to eat in with our kids! There were lots of other options, cheaper, with salads and English menus - you just had to walk further away, but when you arrive disoriented at 2030 for dinner, you haven't the energy to search a strange location in the dark. The bus trip entailed lots of freeway travel but once you arrived at your destinations, it appeared worth all the traffic snarls. The bus driver was not the best driver, once reaching speeds of 123km/h (we could see the speedometer from our seat) - scary stuff when you realise that a traffic jam is immediately ahead and strenuous braking was necessary to stop (yes, the traffic was that bad). One of our party got sick from his constant accelerate/decelerate method of driving as it is like push/pull, push/pull on your stomach! Far better to just accelerate in a gradual, smooth drive-style (I have driven a bus). Going down one hill, he had to stop the bus half-way due to stinking smoke in the cabin and it turned out to be he had burned the bus's brake pads! No-one was impressed and some passengers were really fearful. Did not use lower gears to slow the bus, justl rode the brake. The very early starts were not worth it in every case - many passengers said they'd rather sleep an extra hour than visit Stanford University at 0700, particularly as no description of any buildings was provided by the guide. You were just expected to wander through empty university avenues and figure it out for yourself. The tour was not very expensive in comparison to other tour companies and I take that into consideration when writing this review. You pay for what you get. The hotels were pretty good for the prices; one even had a good breakfast buffet, which you sadly couldn't take much advantage of as you had to be finished at around 0610. Heating & coffee machine didn't work sometimes, but otherwise clean. Now, more about the actual tour: San Francisco was fantastic - the harbor cruise with earphone-guided commentary is worth doing twice! Yosemite in full snow at -4 degrees C was magnificent, but our friends who did the 17 mile drive also had positive things to say about that option. I would happily have stayed much, much longer or even overnight in Yosemite, though, as it was so beautiful, stunning and unusual. Solvang was interesting and wish we could have stayed longer (maybe 1 hour more) there also. The Santa Barbara stop was disappointing as all you got to see was a car park by the beach with conveniently-located rest rooms. You could briefly walk along a stretch of beach that was not very attractive, near a drainage area. No coffee stop, unfortunately. Call a toilet stop a toilet stop, not a destination stop. Be very aware that this particular tour is conducted in Mandarin with 2/3 commentary in that Chinese language and 1/3 of the commentary conducted in English. It was not the same as even with my limited vocabulary, I noticed that there were whole chunks of descriptions missing when the guide spoke English - and English always came second, except with the short-trip guide - even though many of the Chinese passengers spoke English as well. Just because the ratio of Chinese passengers to non-Chinnese passengers was 1 to 5 does not mean you should get a lesser tour as we all paid the same amount of money for this tour! Such a shame that my memories of this tour are so colored by the less-than-ideal guide! He really should get a job in a non-service industry as he seemed so bitter and twisted in his current employment. We would recommend this tour but would be extremely hesitant to do it again ourselves for fear of getting THAT guide! Without him, the tour would have been great, even with the clearly overseas-taught bus driver (i.e. Not up to US standards).Read full review
We probably visited the most interesting places the chosen region offers. All the guides on our bus were excellent and Nadine helped us with German. Great job of a prepared team! Some of the hotels could offer a bit better infrastructure fo..r their guests, but in general they were good. Special thanks to Nadine Brenda, Roberto and Hylo.Read full review