Looking back...

My wife and I had a truly wonderful time. Paris and London were non threatening and very easy to navigate. The tour guide was helpful and knowledgeable, making our exploration of the two cities effortless and uncomplicated. Sadly, our guide was not familiar with restaurants within walking distance of our hotels selected for this particular tour. This made for evening meal planning a bit cumbersome. Some helpful hints: Pack light - this is not a fashion show and you will probably never see these people ever again Wear comfortable shoes - you will do an amazing amount of walking Bring a raincoat/umbrella - never count on perfect weather Purchase Euros and British Pounds at your local bank before you go (also make sure your Debit Card, if you bring one, has a chip and pin) Our most memorable events (and there were many to choose from) included a play at the London theater, the Eiffel Tower at night, and boat rides on the Thames and Seine Rivers.

Not What I Thought I Was Getting

Based on the hotels listed in the brochure and discussions with your staff I though we were getting hotels in the middle of both cities. This would have been convenient for independent travel. However, both hotels were a distance from city sites. This meant my husband and I had to take a lot of public transportation, which in both these countries, means a lot of stairs. He has knee and back problems and all the stairs exacerbated those problems. The locations of the hotels, especially the Crown Moran in London, was not great with local restaurants. By the time the day ended, my husband's limbs were pretty worn out and going back out a distance to dinner was not in the cards. Local restaurants were not plentiful and we were soon bored. The tours we took were good and the tour guides great, but having to use a lot of public transportation added expense to our tour that was not expected. I was not a fan of our tour guide. She was only available an hour a day for questions and never once gave us her room number in case we had an issue. She was very obviously anti-Irish. She repeatedly made anti-Irish comments and this offended me as I have Irish family members. She needs to learn to keep her personal preferences out of the tour. She also was not as knowledgeable about where to go for meals. We would ask for suggestions, and she would say "go out and walk around." The Paris Hotel did not feel safe to me. They have motion sensors in the halls and they are not set to go off until you are directly under them. As a woman, I don't like to go down long dark halls in strange buildings by myself. Very unsettling. There is no storage at all in the hotel room in Paris. My husband could unpack a couple of things, but I lived out of my suitcase. Great if you're a young person traveling in a backpack, but I'm older now and that's not great for me. My husband and I take package trips so we don't have to tote our own luggage since he has knee and back problems. But we had to tote our own bags out of the hotel in London, off the Eurostar in Paris and in and out of the hotel in Paris. We might as well have booked our own flights and hotels and got Grey Line tours for all the assistance we got. We travel a lot and have used other companies and for our needs your company does not fit the fill and we'll be using someone else next time. For being a package deal, it was not an "good deal" at packages go.

London and Paris were beautiful.

We especially liked this tour because there were options each day to take sight seeing tours or you could be on your own to do what you wanted to do. London and Paris both had the subways which were interesting. Also the high speed train to Paris was quite an experience and very enjoyable. The highlite of the whole trip was the Eiffel Tower being able to go up in it with a wonderful full view of Paris the seeing it at night with the strobe light show.

Bait and Switch

First, I booked this trip with this travel company because of the 3 Star Rated Hotels listed in their catalog, and because they were both inside city limits. I had called the travel company 3 times over 4 months and confirmed the Hotel names and Locations listed in the catalog, again both inside city limits. 30 days before the trip I found out the Hotel Names and Locations had been changed, in both cities and both were now many miles from the center of the cities. I was now told the travel company did not book Hotels until 30 days before trip departs, and did not guarantee where the Hotel Location would be, regardless of what was in the catalog. Also both Hotels that I ultimately stayed in were not 3 Star Rated Hotels. I am an ex- Londoner that knows London very well, and the Hotel in London was in a very bad part of London, not a good place for travelers at night and very few good restaurants, what ones I did find had rough people in them. This was confirmed by our tour director's constant remarks and observations about the local people and location. The catalog states near front page, C=Centrally located near attractions and transportation hubs, this was not true on my trip. Also see near last page = About Hotels, Hotel substituted will be comparable to those shown. This was not true on my trip. Many of our fellow travers also found out that some of the optional excursions did NOT pick up people from the Hotels, and they had to use public transportation at their own expense to get to the pick up point for the optional excursions. If you want a BAIT and SWITCH travel company use this one.

Never again

I am a repeat traveler to Goahead. Always found great value. I have taken them to Greece, the Benelux, Peru, Spain, and have always been happy. The city tours to London and Paris did NOT make me happy at all. Though I had a good time because they are great places to visit,the enjoyment that I had was DESPITE the tour not because of it. The London hotel was in a not great neighborhood of outer london requiring a bus and then a 40 minute train to get to central london and several trains to get to any of the sites. The tour guide was sweet but didn't have the answer to most of my questions. I even had to drag my own luggage around to and from the rooms. At night the area near the hotel was seedy and during the day I felt like I was in an asian country and not london with all the burkas. In Paris, again I had to transport my own luggage, although a better neighborhood than in London still 3 miles from the central city. Breakfast in Paris was inedible. Powdered eggs. yuck. Area was not the best but at least there were some good Moslem restaurants to eat in and one good french. No safe in room. No frig in either room. No shampoo in room had to use Lux soap which was supplied. I would have had a much better and CHEAPER trip had I gone on my own and hired my own tours. I will never take Goahead again. I am surprised and embarrassed for them after this.

Trip to London & Paris

I really enjoyed the trip to London & Paris. September was a good time of the year to visit these destinations. I would recommend GoAhead Tours to others.

Good value

Overall very good. Just what our group of 6 was looking for. Gino, our tour guide, was excellant. Hotel in London was very nice but a little far from the center of London. Hotel in Paris was poor. Rooms were hot and noisey and in a run down area of the city.

great introduction to Europe

Our tour guide helped us to plan our day to achieve as many highlights as we could. He guided us through the metro system which was a great help.The guides were very knowledgeable which enhanced the excursions. We had a great first experience in London and Paris.

What a deal

Our Accommodations were very nice our tour director was very informative and helpful. We were free to either have the advantage of group activities

Wonderful London and Paris experiences

Go Ahead Tours made it so easy for us to enjoy the cities. There was no need to worry about flights and accommodations. These selections met every need. Their guides were helpful and available at all times. We loved the excursions available through Go Ahead Tours. Their pre-trip information and suggestions were perfect and didn't leave any surprises. Highly recommended.