In October 2022, I booked a trip with Austin Adventures scheduled for July 2023. Austin Adventures recommended that I purchase travel insurance for the trip and provided a link to their travel insurance partner. I purchased the travel insurance. I also made airplane reservations and a hotel reservation for the night before the tour. In April, I was informed that Austin Adventures was cancelling the trip and refund my payment for the trip. However, Austin Adventures refused to refund my travel insurance premium. In addition, I lost money on the airplane tickets. My total losses were over$1000. I spoke to Austin Adventures. I explained I understood that trips are cancelled from time to time. But, that should be financially neutral to me. I lost over $1000 trying to book a trip with them and following their recommendations. I asked if they were OK with that. They told me they have been in business for over 40 years and were highly rated. In conclusion, be very careful dealing with this company. They may cancel your trip and you could lose money you have invested in it. I have since seen other reviews that have reported similar problems. Beware! read more

About 4.5 years ago, my wife and I were interested in a family Yellowstone vacation as our two sons were finally old enough for the trip. We had never been to Yellowstone, and I thought I would be able to call a few weeks ahead to book hotel rooms and a rental car, I was terribly mistaken in my naïveté. Luckily, we stumbled across Austin Adventures in a travel magazine and gave them a call to see if we could book one of their family tours. They had one opening left on the first tour of the season and we jumped on it. I will wholeheartedly say that this was one of the best family vacations we have ever experienced. The tour guides were unbelievably knowledgeable about the park, environment, wildlife, etc. They provided an amazing experience throughout the park, at the attractions, on the hiking trail, in the hotels; everything was taken care of. Immediately after our vacation, we booked a tour for my wife's parents and our children. Again, they delivered an amazing customer experience. After that trip, we booked a private tour for our employees. This was the last tour of the season, which could have meant AA might have been experiencing some fatigue from a long season. But, it was anything but that, we had a wonderful tour. Our employees still speak about it to this day. We had another tour this season, everybody thoroughly enjoyed themselves. AA has only improved on their impeccable customer service. read more

Awesome small group tours. If your looking for an active adventure vacation this is the place. Best way to explore national parks. You hike, bike ride, and thrilling activities like canyoning. Guides are friendly and helpful. Everything is taken care of (hotel, travel, food, and tours) by the guides. read more

The staff of Austin Adventures are rude, loud and inconsiderate. They came in drunk to the Yodeler Motel in Red Lodge , MT at 1am. One very drunk blonde climbed over the second floor railing in front of my hotel room door. Not impressed with their crew. read more

Buyer Beware!  Austin Adventures sold me something that did not exist and then refused even a partial refund.  This is because Austin largely resells other company's trips, at a markup, without independent local knowledge.  In my case, Austin resold a Mountain Lodges of Peru trek from Cusco to Machu Picchu.  The trip itself, as run by MLP, was fantastic.  But using Austin as a reseller was a huge mistake.  Not only did I pay more, I also received less in terms of information.  Before the trip, any questions took several days to answer because Austin had to reach out to MLP behind the scenes, and I often received several different answers because Austin lacked local knowledge.  But by far the worst part of the experience was my "added day" -- the only part not prepackaged by MLP, or the only part for which Austin was directly responsible.  Austin sold me, in July 2021, a guided hike to the Sun Gate.  But the Sun Gate had been closed since 2020 due to COVID, and I was not even provided a guide for the day.  When I requested a partial refund upon my return, Austin refused.  Do NOT use this company. read more

***Rating has been updated from 1-star to 3-star. My fiance and I had planned on a Grand Canyon tour with Austin Lehman for October 2011- staying at El Tovar, full meals, guided hikes, it looked wonderful. Our trip was cancelled ~1 month prior to departure due to low booking numbers. We tried to reschedule the trip but it didn't work out. We are losing about $1000 on a trip we did not take due to nonrefundable airline tickets and trip insurance. Austin Lehman's contract stated that these items were not refundable, but we never believed the trip would be cancelled. With 1 month to departure, it was too late to get any money back from the airline. The company was very helpful when we were trying to re-book another trip, but they became distant and slow to respond once we requested our refund. It took over 1 month and several check-up emails to receive a check. While the trip experiences look great, we will not be using this company in the future. Future customers should beware cancelled trips! UPDATED: After a few weeks, the owner (Dan Austin) contacted me and offered a partial refund or credit towards a future trip. He acknowledged that his staff's communication could have been better and I appreciated his insight. We have decided to accept the trip credit and give Austin Lehman another try. I have increased my rating to A-OK in light of the owner's help. read more

Grand Canyon trip was awesome! Hit some unfortunate weather but our guides were prepared and accommodating. Couldn't have asked for a better team. Emily and Elisa ROCK!!! This trip included kayaking, biking and hiking. We had a diverse group at different levels of ability. Between the two of them tag teaming the group we all enjoyed activities that we many not have tried on our own and they made it FUN! This was our second AA trip and we will be back! read more

My family just completed the Glacier National Park trip and it was amazing!!! We had ages 3-69 and everyone loved every moment together. Justin and Kristin took amazing care of us and you could tell they worked very hard at preparing awesome meals, many surprises on the trails and lots of fun!!! It will be a trip we will remember forever!!! Thanks again Austin adventures! read more

DANGEROUSLY incompetent, INFLEXIBLE, WORST customer service in my life. We did the Inca Trail with Austin, and requested minor changes to the standard itinerary (one extra day in Lima for a food tour, one night in Sacred Valley instead of Cusco, to acclimate to altitude more gradually). They took over a month to do this, with many unpleasant and tedious back-and-forths. They IGNORED our requests initially, sending their standard itinerary, then took weeks to get back. When I contacted Carol Austin directly, SHE DIDN'T REPLY to me, instead passive-aggressively replying to our travel agent that they wanted all communication to be through the agent: clearly the customer is *second*. If you're paying thousands of dollars, the least you can expect is a brief, immediate reply: "Sorry for the delay, we'll get back to you through your agent." They then repeatedly resisted our requests, trying to browbeat us that we were ignorant idiots for suggesting any deviation from what they, the experts, had planned. They tried to convince us to either spend 3 night in Sacred Valley *or* in Cusco. This is DANGEROUS: SV is not high enough to acclimatize for the hike, and poses a high risk of altitude sickness on the Inca trail. On the trail, one night we heard the screams of a panicking trekker, suffering from altitude sickness. If we had followed Austin's advice, this could have been us. This is the worst service I've ever had; had we started planning earlier we would have canceled and used someone else. read more

I love Austin Adventures! Great bunch of people to work with and they truly care about all their guests and getting every detail right! Highly recommend this company!!! read more

I have traveled with numerous tour operators.. I joined Austin in Costa Rica last fall and it was by far the best... from first call to final good byes, I felt like family. I will definitely be back and often. read more

We did the Yellowstone Family Trip summer 2017 and it was amazing!! It was well- organized with great activities and fabulous food. Our guides Peter and Jonathan could not have been better!! read more

I am writing this update in response to Dan Austin's comment from earlier today regarding my review. Unfortunately, Dan's statement that "structured" group travel isn't for every one implies that the customer (me) was somehow to blame for my experience, and not the company. I have been on numerous structured group travel tours (biking, hiking, rafting) and have enjoyed them all well enough to go on these types of trips almost exclusively. So, Dan's implication is misguided, but not at all surprising. I would like to note that, despite Dan's citing of customer reviews, there were at least two other people on my trip who felt the same as I did. And, based on the negative reviews I've seen here on Yelp about Austin Adventures, in general, we are not in the minority. read more

My girlfriend and I did a trip with Austin-Lehman to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. I normally like to plan my vacations myself, but have changed my tune for this type of vacation. I was extremely impressed by how well organized the trip was. The guides were informative and entertaining. We did much more that week than I ever would have had I planned it myself and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I will definitely travel with them again. read more

I was looking for an active vacation for my family. I researched a couple of different options and came upon Austin Adventures. We chose the Alberta Family trip and could not have been happier! From booking, to packing guidance, to assuring me that this trip could accommodate the different activity levels of my kids (13 and 17), myself, and my husband the staff was very knowledgeable. Our guides on the trip were amazing! They made the trip fun and told us all sorts of interesting things about the places we were seeing and experiencing. They knew the area very well and showed us so much without making the trip feel like go, go, go all the time. As a vegetarian they made sure my dietary needs were met and my family thought the food was amazing as well. As the vacation planner for my family I loved that every detail was completely taken care of once I got us there. I would do another trip with Austin Adventures in a heartbeat. And best of all my kids said it was our best vacation ever! read more

While on a plane flipping through a travel magazine, I came across Austin-Lehman as offering one of the best summer family adventure vacations. After some digging, I decided to sign my son (9) and I up for Austin-Lehman's Teton/Yellowstone adventure. It was wonderful! From their correspondence in planning to the details of the trip I was impressed. Who gets cold towels after a hike in the Tetons? We did! Who gets tacos in the midst of wild Elk? We did! Who gets sweet notes and thoughtful gifts at our door when we woke up? We did......and much more. I know I'm not the best planner so having someone plan for me was wonderful. I also know even if I tried my best to plan a trip like this I would have missed out over half of what we saw. The trip was perfect for a parent and child. The right amount of activity and downtime. There was even time for a nice glass of wine or two. Friends made on this trip will be friends for life and it will go down as the best mom-son vacation we've had thus far. I'm considering taking him to Africa with these folks. Personable guides who knew so much about the area and excellent accommodations - even a rodeo.....I highly recommend these folks. read more

Awesome experience from beginning to end. Group of 18 (4 families - teenagers, young adults, and adults along with 3 guides - 5 days in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. Professional, experienced, and enthusiastic guides (Great job Amy, Corbin, and Sylvie). Food was terrific with incredible lunches on the trails and frequent snacks. Saw much wildlife and had a perfect mix of biking and hiking. We did not have to worry about anything as our guides took care of everything and optimized our time spent at each location. Would highly recommend. read more

We just returned from an amazing trip to Provence with Austin Tours. Of course, the area,food, wine, peope are all amazing. However, our team of guides led by Ron Van Dijk was nothing short of superb. They were knowledgeable, patient, flexible and worked tirelessly about 18 hours per day. They made the entire trip easy, enjoyable, and completely hassle free. We cannot say enough good things about them all. read more