Travelsphere Reviews

Name: Travelsphere
Address: Travelsphere, Compass House, Rockingham Road, Market Harborough, Leicestershire
Rating: 2.53

2.5 Rating 36 Reviews

28 %

of reviewers recommend Travelsphere

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About Travelsphere:

Travelsphere offers unrivalled choice, with more than 300 escorted holidays available in more than 70 countries. Choose from favourites such as France, Italy and the US; take an unforgettable trip to China, India or Australia; or go off the beaten track to less-well-known but equally fantastic gems. Our brochures for 2012-13 include Great Sights of the World, Great Sights of Europe by Coach & Rail, Great Sights of Europe & the Middlle East and Cruise Collection, and all of the featured holidays are available on this website.

Phone:

0844 318 8132

Location:

Travelsphere, Compass House, Rockingham Road, Market Harborough
Leicestershire
LE16 7QD

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Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Rated 1 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“Update to being thrown off the Travelsphere US National Parks tour in Sept 2022 - - for the crime of testing COVID positive on a bus full of coughing people - we have only just settled our claim via the UK Ombudsman who intervened to get the lost tour time covered by our insurance. We have now received over £4000 in compensation on a tour which cost us £7000. It took us many hours of phone and email work to get this done. Many thanks to the Ombudsman, a very competent office. The Ombudsman's office were shocked by the lack of information in the Travelsphere cancellation confirmation, and by that fact we had to repeatedly ask for it for over three months. Travelsphere's lack of customer care was appalling from the moment we paid for the trip. Can't get through on the phone, they don't update file information, and heaven help you if you have a genuine emergency whilst on their bus. The tour guide we had was incompetent, gobby and quick to be aggressively rude. She also lied to the hotel, telling them we were all COVID positive before she ran off. Thus we were obliged to move two very ill people across town to another hotel. Seven months later, we finally have our claim settled, including reimbursement for the cash pre-paid for day tours, which our tour guide kept and never returned to us! Please carefully consider whether you want to book with these people - they literally left us in a cheap hotel in the outskirts of Salt Lake City (might as well have been in the desert) whilst very ill. No follow up, oh, except for the sales rep who randomly called us to say Travelsphere had no liability whatever for our losses, and good luck with our insurance! I haven't even looked at my photos from that trip since the very thought of how we were treated by the guide makes me nauseous. I can't believe Travelsphere continues to employ such people.”

Helpful Report

Posted 11 months ago

“We had to drop out of a tour on day 9 of a 17 day tour, due to one of us testing covid+. We were obliged by Travelsphere to discontinue the tour and rudely dismissed by our hopelessly incompetent tour guide. We were left at a suburban hotel with a fellow passenger aged 75 and all alone, also quite ill with covid. The tour guide wrongly told the hotel we were all covid positive (then later denied it), which meant we were asked to leave the hotel when the patients could barely walk. Fortunately one of us who stayed was healthy and was able to take the patients for testing and medical care, find a new hotel, get food for them, and make alternate travel arrangements. That healthy person gets no reimbursement whatever. Travelsphere management failed to send a cancellation letter until at least two weeks after it was requested, which they were told repeatedly was required by insurance for any coverage. Thus we were obliged to pay for all our alternate arrangements, testing, meds, and travel out of pocket (over £2000). The wording of their letter implied it was our choice to leave the tour which means we may not receive any reimbursement whatever. These people are not only incompetent, but they actively avoid anything but lip service, hiding behind their telephones. Transatlantic phone calls with Travelsphere cost us over £100 because they took ages answering and then talked non stop about how none of it was their liability. No interest in whether anyone was truly ill. Good luck with this lot if you ever have a medical emergency on their tours. By the way, Travelsphere, your hot mess of a tour guide on that National Parks tour really ruined our experience with her non stop drivel and complete lack of knowledge of the places we went. She prolonged each day by at least two hours by misdirecting the driver, and expected us to sit on a bus from 7:30am to 6pm each day, then find our own dinner. Horrible tour, even without Covid. Her racist comments (preserved in an email you are welcome to view) resulted in our blocking her further correspondance, so perhaps that's why she's never sent us the promised day tour refunds?”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“Tour to Deep South departing 2 October cancelled start of August and advised refund would take 3 months, 4 months have passed and still no refund. Extremely poor customer service and doubtful if I will book again”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Still no refund after 4 months. You are holding onto my money and giving lame excuses for not returning it!! I will never use Travelsphere again! 😬”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Nightmare getting your money back. Still waiting. Despite their recent guarantee promises., they say you have to wait 90 days for a refund?, nowhere in the small print does it mention 3 months for your money back. To quote the ceo of jet2 " this is tantamount to theft". Does leave you feeling bitter and angry.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Grand Tour Italy 2019. Would never4 use this company again. Sold us this tour telling us tat we could see the colosseum, Rome. So excited. When we arrived Aideen informed us we would be "able to see it from a distance but would not be able to make a real visit as you have to book that back in the UK" The disappointment was also a shock. DO NOT USE THIS SILLY COMPANY CALLED TRAVELSPHERE! After they have your money, you are left to fend for yourself. We could see pictures of the colosseum sat at home but we were led to believe we were actually going to have a proper life experience. SHAME ON YOU TRAVELSPHERE. DISGUSTING NASTY TRICKS!!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Travelsphere offshoot Just You treated my father in law extremely poorly. He was abandoned at the airport by the courier when his baggage went missing on arrival at Toulouse and had to find his way alone, aged 82 with mobility problems, via public transport, to the hotel. No apologies, no duty of care and no recompense. The company's approach to the issue has arguably been worse than the initial failings. As his family, our advice would be to avoid this company like the plague.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Grand tour of Italy May 2019. One hotel in Sorrento offered us THIN SHEETS instead of towels. We were advised before we reached this hotel that because it was full, there would be no point in asking for a room change. We left quickly and the staff asked why we never asked for a room change! Also trip to Rome, the tour guide waited until we could see the colosseum before informing us that "we had no chance of getting inside". Funny how Travelsphere failed to mention this when we booked though. WILL NEVER USE TRAVELSPHERE AGAIN”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Hi I also booked early for a tour. 2 months later I received a brochure that said if I booked before July I could have free transport to the airport if I lived within 70 miles of the airport. I phoned up and said I had booked my holiday before July. I was told it was only applicable when the brochure came out , but I read the small print and it didn't mention that at all. I was also told I lived more than 70 miles away. That was a joke as I live a lot less than that. They then said it was up to the company doing the driving to say which way they would go and they made it more than 70 miles. The route. I live on a straight route down the M4 to Heathrow, the way they would have gone was using back roads and weaving across the M4 and back again. What a joke. Due to set off on holiday soon. I hope the holiday is as good as I am expecting or I won't be using them again.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

“My review relates to the Travelsphere's JustYou The Classic Danube Experience holiday taken 18th -28th July 2018. The ‘Just You’ brochure completely misrepresented the entire holiday The brochure rated the ship as four stars This is I believe is a wildly inaccurate statement. The ship was shabby in appearance compared to others on the river with dirty and scratched windows and a general air of poor maintenance and care. The facilities described in the brochure as café, library and boutique were, in reality, a drinks machine shelf and cupboard. There was no access to the sun deck for 3 days due to low bridges, however, there was no warning prior to the booking of this holiday and the other outside space at the front of the ship was extremely limited and occupied by smokers. Consequently, I felt compelled to stay in my cabin or sit in the lounge area. The ship always seems to moor away from the central moorings used by the likes of Viking always leaving us with a considerable walk to reach locations. In the case of the starting point in Vienna the ship moored in a location that allowed no opportunity to quote ‘step ashore to take in some of the sites etc as promised in theJustYou travel documents. The food served aboard the ship was poor and often served tepid. Menus lacked imagination or variety. Most of the main courses were deep fried, the soup that was served with every lunch and dinner was at best packet soup standard but frequently found to be inedible. There were no attempts to reflect local dishes and as we had NO opportunity to dine ashore there was no opportunity to sample any local cuisine. The wine by the glass list was limited to the ‘house’ red, white or rose of unknown origin. In the restaurant, one could purchase full bottles of other wines, however, although any wine not consumed was returned at the next sitting you were not allowed to take this to the lounge area or your cabin. Although the dining room staff worked extremely hard and were very customer focused they lacked direction with one half of the table served promptly while the other half of the table waited for a long period for their food. Consequently, meals often took over 2 hours to complete. On one occasion due to another change in the itinerary, we were provided with a ‘packed lunch’. This consisted of, two bread rolls filled with a small amount of lettuce, a sliver of tomato and one slice of ham from the breakfast buffet, a bar of confectionary, a small piece of brownie, a small tetra juice, water and an apple. This not the standard of food I expect to consume on my ‘4-star’ holiday. I consigned mine to the bin. JustYou promised us diverse, colourful and educational entertainment. Excepting the Crew Cruise show one evening the entertainment consisted of a keyboard player who had a limited repertoire and who made NO attempt to engage or interact with the audience. At times this and the general ambience of the lounge area made me feel as though I had been transported to a poor care home. As the lounge was the only available communal area, to ‘escape’ the only option was an early return to the cabin. There were no visits to the Captain's bridge and the promised musical quiz did not take place (the explanation being too many languages on board). Additionally, there was only one-afternoon tea( promised every day), and this was on our arrival. The advertised Captains cocktail event offered no cocktails but just one glass of what I believe was Prosecco. The Cruise Director (in name only} had no interaction with the passengers and was completely disinterested in our problems. His principal activity was to count people on and off buses and on one occasion having satisfied himself that someone was missing, insisted that we drive off without them. The Management of the ship were aware of the operational problems faced in advance of the start of the holiday ( low water levels on the Danube) but had made no contingency plans to remedy or mediate the impact of these issues. To those on board, it seemed that the primary purpose of the revised itinerary, which changed on a regular basis, was to arrive at Mainz on time to the detriment of our holiday experience. Excursions were rushed with little time to see or appreciate the places visited. On one occasion the returning buses were unable to locate the ship which had moved. When the ship was ‘found’ and we had left the buses it was discovered that the gangway gate was locked and that no one on board had a key. The buses by now had departed so we sweltered in the 34-degree sun for some 25 minutes until a key was located. This was without a doubt the worst holiday experience I have ever had. What though has made the whole thing much worse is Travelspheres total failure to accept that it bore any responsibility for what was delivered or to compensate me adequately ( £200 has been offered). Their customer service is dreadful falling back on terms and conditions to defend their position and displaying arrogance and total lack of empathy for what we experienced. This was for me an expensive holiday( £1800+) and following some serious health problems in the preceding year one that I was really looking forward too. I conclude by advising strongly that this company and its holidays are avoided.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

“Wife ill in China, tour guide not interested a jot. Garbage.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

“Travelsphere is the worst company I have used Tour Name: Chile, Argentina & Brazil Rio Carnival Winners' Parade with Rio Add-on Departure Date: 05 February 2018 It took us two days, four airports to get to the start of our tour and then additional four days to get our luggage. We spent most of days shopping for essentials rather than enjoying our holiday. I had paid £8,000 for this holiday. 1) Travelshere tried to take money out my account twice. I had to contact my bank to get the transaction number to prove to them that I had paid. 2) Three weeks before departure they completely changed our flights ( presumably they got a cheaper deal) 3) Sent to us to wrong terminal for our flight, had to rush over to the right terminal 4) Madrid was snowed under, so the flights were delayed and there was no way we were going to make the connection, so they split the group. The main group was sent direct to destination from London and two couple with Indian names were sent to Madrid, knowing well that they were not going to make the connection. 5) The guide went with the main group and we were left to organise our way to the destination. 6) After four airports, endless queuing and two days we got to our destination ( so we lost two days holidays and the excursion), minus the luggage. No glutton free meals, so my wife traveled long distance without any food. 7) It took five days to get our luggage, so we spent most our spare time shopping for essentials in foreign land with limited local language skills. No help from any one. 8) When I complained, I got this terse letter while I am on holidays. Unfortunately, I can’t copy and paste this letter, which would have conveyed their attitude to whole mess. There were so many issues that I can’t list all of them. Needless to say I shared my experience of this company with my family, friends, work colleagues and fellow travelers.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“I went to Colombia on a tour. Two of the hotels were sub standard. One of them was on a cattle farm and the roof in the bedroom leaked. The other was described in the brochure as four star. It was not. It was in a thatched hut halfway up a mountain in the middle of the jungle. The toilet was outside, down some wooden steps with no lighting so we were given a torch. Imagine as a single person dashing down some slippery wooden steps in the middle of the night with a torch in one hand and an umbrella in the other. As the trip was so expensive it worked out to £250 per day, I complained because the brochure was wrong and the accommodation in these two hotels was awful. I complained to the company, but they did not take it seriously. Despite the fact that I have been with Travelsphere before, I will certainly never go with them again. To be so expensive the accommodation needs a minimum standard and should be as described in the brochure.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“My holiday started with travelsperes rep Jane telling me off in front of a full coach load of guests being picked up from the airport, because I hadn't done what she'd ORDERED me to do. I had pre-booked a quiet room (for health reasons) so when I found myself in a room with constant heavy traffic passing I asked the hotel management to move me to a quieter room, which they where willing to do. That is untill they informed travelsperes rep Jane what they where doing. Jane then informed me that I could not be moved as there was nothing wrong with the room. This is only the start of the holiday, I wonder what disappointment the rest of this travelspere holiday will bring.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

Travelsphere is rated 2.5 based on 36 reviews