Travel Counsellors - good or bad?

Duvaljones

Hi

My girlfriend and I are looking at booking our honeymoon for next October (2013). Having spoken to Thomson, been into the high street shop and been on their website, we're looking around at other possibilities (not that Thomson are bad - we've had two previous holidays with them with no problems) as with it being our honeymoon, we'd like to cast our net a bit wider than we would for a normal holiday.

We've heard about Travel Counsellors and that they've won awards etc but some of the reviews online have been either glowing or downright awful.

Has anyone used TC and have any advice on them? Having never heard of them until recently, we're a bit reluctant to be perfectly honest but it's always useful to ask around!

Thanks

richardw

mid October or later?

Duvaljones

mid october, 14th or 15th for two weeks

richardw

what's the max flight time and budget?

Duvaljones

looking at long haul, so probably 8-11 hours, budget's around the £4k mark

richardw

Somewhere in the middle east such as Oman?

Duvaljones

no we were thinking caribbean/mexico - can you help with my question? have you used TCs?

richardw

Not sure what they can do for you that you can't do with your own research and a thorough browse on forums on trip advisor etc.

Carribean/Mexico is hurricane season in October.

stressed_mummy

Hi
Each travel councillor runs their own business under their umbrella. my sister runs hers and I know that all of them have many years experience working for different travel firms before working for themselves.
one thing they all seem to have in common (or the ones I know) is customer service which doesn't stop at 1730 on a Friday.
I was with my sister at 2200 on a saturday night when her client called in tears that she had her bag stolen and in typical fashion she sorted out her client on who and where to go !
You dont get that service from the main stream travel agents do you?

jtr2803

Like the poster above says, each person has a franchise in the 'Travel Counsellors' group, I have today booked my third holiday through a lady who bought her franchise earlier this year (having used her when she worked for a Kuoni agent). The holidays I have booked so far have been mainstream agent holidays (my honeymoon is a Kuoni trip and the one I booked today is a Longwood Holidays trip) but she just does them at a better price.

Their website gives details of their policies and procedures and the appropriate protection, anything more than that is down to the person you actually book with!

photome

Why not DIY and potentially save yourself some cash, you might even enjoy the research