I am tired of being ORDERED to 'pay tips and donations' every place we go and to every person we meet. We travelers are being ordered to pay tips on all included activities. Tour guide tells us how much we 'owe' and who to pay it to. Which is EVERYBODY. This is not acceptable behavior from tour guides or the Collette company. This is the second time in a row this has happened to me. Egypt 2024 and Thailand 2025. Tour guides constantly asking for money makes the entire tour stressful and uncomfortable. Tips are not OWED. It is inappropriate and rude to ASK for tips, much less to ask for 'prepayment of tips.' Collette needs to change these tactics. read more

Very poor customer service. Took months to receive any type of feedback regarding a baggage overcharge of $200 that this travel company entered incorrectly when we were checking in for our flight. I had to pay $260 for 2 bags In order to make our flight. They did not care, response was minimal and then they brushed off the responsibility onto the airline. I have yet to see this money returned. This is the first trip I have taken with a travel service, the cost is already outrageous and aren't we paying them for the assistance if we have travel concerns? I would hate to think how they would have been if my travel need was more urgent or serious. If possible, look for another travel service if you are going to travel. I would not have confidence in their ability to get you through your trip if a situation were to occur. read more

Last year 2023, my friend and I started looking for trips to Portugal. I had never heard of Collette before but she wanted to go on their tour. We had tried to find out how many were signed up for the fall trip and how many openings they had but they never answered us. Come Thanksgiving Friday they had a sale and we tried to book our tour but we were told early on they were all sold out for that trip. Then we looked at the June trip and again they would not tell us the maximum number of folks they could take but they had openings so we paid our deposit for that trip. For the first time and I have been on thirty overseas trips I never received an itinerary. It was not until we were in Porto we found out there were going to be 39. Totally no transparency at all. We spent on day going to Catholic churches. Just diving us around from one church to another, walking in the church, and then walking out. There was nothing about Roman ruins or Jews, or the Moors. What a wasted day. Food was either mostly fish, pork, or vegetarian meals and not good. That is enough to get the idea of our trip. I can't say one good word about Collete and will never go with them again. read more

The Tour Director was great; everything else not-so-much. Three dinners included; ALL Italian! Breakfast's mediocre. One had entertainment, though. Here's my main complaint: After the two included shows, we were left to walk by ourselves to the next location. Seniors! Carrying sheets of paper indicating TOURIST's with directions. Dangerous! No Collette employee nor bus to meet us. Limousine service from NYC airport to hotel was not smooth at all. AR in NYC was very late in the day. Less than three hour's sleep then expected to tour the City alone on day one. Unacceptable on many levels. Expensive, too. No more Collette for me! read more

I went with Collette to South Africa in April 2024. The food was bad, the guide was constantly rushing us. I had to miss my flight because we had a huge snow storm in NY and the planes didn't fly so I had to fly in the next day. I called Collette and they told me that I have to go to the safari lodge myself because that's where the group will be. Before my departure i was told that my transfers were included but then I was told that I have to pay extra. It cost me $200 to get to the lodge. But the biggest issue was safety on safaris. We had 8 safaris booked and while I was booking the tour I was told they have weapons on vehicles to protect people from wild animals. THEY HAVE NOTHING! NOTHING AT ALL!. U JUST SIGN A WAIVER AND HOPE FOR THE BEST!. 3 day before our safari- at exact same lodge on exact same safari- a vehicle was attacked by an elephant and they could DO NOTHING TO PROTECT TOURISTS. The video is all over Google and UTube. After I came home I called and wrote a letter to Collette about my experience and a ton of problems during the trip and that I want a refund but they totally ignored it. After I left a bad review on Google the owner responded that someone from Collette will be in touch with me to resolve the situation. That was more than 2 months ago and no one contacted me. They Don't care about their customers! Don't use them! Total scam! read more

I booked a tour of Italy with Collette through Auto club. I paid for insurance with Trip Mate. My flight was cancelled on April 22, 2022 but could travel the next day. My claim was for one night hotel stay, one dinner, and one half day of touring. I sent a letter to Jaclyn Leibl, Customer Service, at Collette to assist me with my claim because Trip Mate has done nothing to settle. If Collette is endorsing Trip Mate for insurance they should assist dissatisfied customers. Judith McLeod read more

My complaint is about how their website is set up- it is IMPOSSIBLE to find out information about their tours - without first giving them your personal information and email address. this shouldn't be necessary to find out basic information such as travel dates and destinations. I get so much junk e-mail - that I really don't want to give out my email address- I am to the point where I go without to avoid getting endless and unsolicited junk email. I tried without sucres to find out what tours they have for this Spring - and couldn't. They should know they lost business over their stupid email policy. read more