I enjoyed the trip. Pros: Nice hotels. All of them have free internet access but Los Angeles hotel were so far from Hollywood boulevard. The buses were confortable. Everything that they promissed was ... More>>
We took 7 days tour and enjoyed it thoroughly. Very good hotels with large rooms, adequate amenities. Buses were comfortable. They took us to all the places which were mentioned. Tour guide during fir... More>>
Tour guides varied; some cared, others were incompetent. Best days were ones without them (Universal/Disneyland) if you didn't speak Mandarin (which they seem to favor speaking as tours are bilingual)... More>>
I enjoyed the trip. Pros: Nice hotels. All of them have free internet access but Los Angeles hotel were so far from Hollywood boulevard. The buses were confortable. Everything that they promissed was done.
Cons: you must have money to pay all the tours. During the trip, they stop in Chinese restaurants and you don't have chance to eat another food. Sometimes the tour guide doesn't give any information about the place that you are visiting. You must be prepared to listen to Chinese 90% of the trip. But I like it and I enjoyed it.
We took 7 days tour and enjoyed it thoroughly. Very good hotels with large rooms, adequate amenities. Buses were comfortable. They took us to all the places which were mentioned. Tour guide during first four days (Bruce Chang) was extremely professional and very hospitable. Jorge who was the guide for remaining 3 days was also very well informed but little rough and rude in his talking. But, he also provided excellent guidance. During the journey, they mainly stop at the place where you can get Chinese food. You can see other food joints 1-2 blocks away but the time given for lunch is so limited that we cannot explore other options and end up having Chinese food. If they allow to explore other options, it will be good. Most of the fellow passengers were Chinese, but we enjoyed their company! All the fellow passengers were courteous and also were bound by the time given by the guide. So, we were never late! Please be prepared to get up very early and start everyday at 6.30am. Also, you need to keep cash available for various activities and options chosen. Overall, this tour is covers a lot of places and is a real value for money.....I would definitely recommend this tour to my friends!
Tour guides varied; some cared, others were incompetent. Best days were ones without them (Universal/Disneyland) if you didn't speak Mandarin (which they seem to favor speaking as tours are bilingual)
Good itinerary - prepare to sleep heaps.
Just finished this tour yesterday and would like to post the following:
- It's value for money! No other more economical way to see the United States.
- Itinerary is tight due to long distances, be prepared to travel for long times in bus.
- It may be difficult for vegetarians from India to find food of their choice, so pack up as much as you can for 7 days e.g. dry fruits, mathri, namkeen etc. You are lucky if your tour guide helps in finding out food of your choice.
- Do look in fine prints of what is included and what is not as far as charges are concerned so that there are no last minute surprises for you. It is given on the TakeTours web site.
- Drink as much water as you can during summer to keep healthy as places in Arizona and Nevada can be very hot. Tour guide normally makes provision for supplying water at nominal cost.
- Be prepared for not much narration and announcement from tour guide as tour guide normally deployed represent the passengers of particular country. He would mostly speak that language and park the bus near food place of that country!
- Normally night stay is arranged in good hotels but with very basic amenities. In our case hotels at Day 1 (Holiday Inn at Fresno) and Day 4,5 & 6 (Holiday Inn at Los Angeles) were good but hotel on day 2 & 3 (Tropicana at Las Vegas) was not that good due to poor acoustics of rooms and lack of some basic amenities e.g. refrigerator.
- Due to acute sun in the region, carrying sunscreen cream, sunglasses and umbrella would always be helpful.
- Better carry small back pack bags and carry things of daily need into it from the main luggage which can be left behind in hotel or in the bus.
My parents took this tour. Overall they were very satisfied. Everything was well organized. The restaurants that the bus took them to were not the best. They had too look for other options (vegetarian). The tour guide's English was not the best and very little information/explanation in English. Overall good value for money to get a glimpse of major attractions for someone on a tight budget and schedule. Well suited for the elderly. I personally like to explore and spend more time at places and this tour is not for me.
The trip was very well-organised. Our tour guide was Bruce and the driver was Jo. Very entertaining guide and driver. Bruce always gives great advise on what we should do during the tours. A good mix of the Mandarin and English languages as there was a mix of tourists from China and the other parts of the world.
This is a value for money tour. I encourage all to take this one!
We had a great time on the tour. The guide was nice and stayed with us throughout the tour and showed us around in a very timely manner. The food was a problem. Be prepared to keep your own food if you're a vegetarian.
we had a great time during the trip because we got to all of the places mentioned on the schedule. (the tour has to go around to take people from different places.) Also, the tour guide for the first half of the trip was not very nice. (Although the guide for the rest in LA was very nice and kind.) Have to admit that they did very good job in arranging such an efficient tour and keep the cost this low.
Overall tour was awesome - excellent vqalue for money. The tour guides were very accommodating and friendly, and handled logistics very well.
We had two tour guides and some of the non-American tourists had difficulty understanding her.
Another minor problem was with around food - vegetarian options were not always available.
it was a fantastic tour arranged by GotoBus. Hotel accommodations were great. Guide Peter Lee and driver Alex were a great combination! They helped us a lot to see everything. Alex was trying hard to make sure nobody missed the sights. Some people would arrive late on the bus, but peter took the moments very carefully. Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas were fantastic experiences, only we had to stretch Universal Studio tour as we were tired from the previous day at Disneyland. The only drawback was the western food. We couldn't get indian food at Universal Studios and at Disney. Overall nice conducted tour.
hi! it was a very nice tour. Peter(feder i think )lee was the best guide and alex was the best driver. both made great efforts to make our tour memorable. we only had problems with the food. we were the only vegetarian people on the bus. our driver and guide took us to indian veg restaurant. hats off to them! no body could offer nice hotels and sight seeing in such a low cost.