Abercrombie & KentReviews of abercrombiekent.com

I unfortunately became quite sick entering Egypt for our A&K tour. Also unfortunately I did not purchase insurance. Subsequently, I asked A&k for a small credit for a future trip, as we were unable to experience anything in Egypt. They refused to even credit us two cents for a future trip. Also, it took them more than 7 weeks to respond with a "no" answer. Awful!

Had an amazing safari to Tswalu in South Africa arranged by A&K. All the arrangements were seamless and we were looked after from the moment we go off the plane. Tswalu itself was as magical as we had remembered it to be from our honeymoon 20 years ago. It was a joy to share such a special place with our teenage children. With just a week of October school holidays to squeeze the trip into we decided to spend all 7 nights at Tswalu which is not something we had done at one safari place before but it worked wonderfully because it is such a beautiful place. Knowing we didn't have to move on again after a couple of days meant that we could completely relax and the new Laopi 2-bedroomed tent was comfortable and very spacious - it even had a study which our eldest used to do some GCSE revision for his mocks between game drives. The restaurant Klein Jan was an amazing experience and a fantastic addition to the trip. There was nothing we would change.

Jemima Fennell has done a great job for us. She has been very patient with our machinations, and stayed very professional, courteous and prompt throughout the booking process.

The service provided is great. Dora who was our contact on the arrangements came back quickly with answers to every query. I needed assistance travelling by plane - all organized. There was someone to meet us in Cairo and help with the Transfer to Luxor. We were met and guided through every step of the way. The guide (Khalid) was brilliant and very knowledgeable, and the Nile Sanctuary crew were just brilliant throughout.

A&K REVIEW OF JAPAN TRIP Guides were simply accompaniers, gave the basic of information ( that you can read on the museum signs), were not the most fluent in English and usually shabbily dressed. The Kyoto guide was not bad, the transport guide to airport return was exceptional in helping (Misaki)). They were all very nice, respectful and helpful, just not very informative for the amount of time they spent with us. Most of the time they simply talked to the driver. I would expect guides working for A&K would be more learned in the history and more fluent. Comments like “this is a bank, this is a school” really don’t cut it. The activities were very standard tourist attractions (except for the manga, samurai (best activity) and noodle making activities) . The sushi making was stupid, just showed us how to press fish onto a rice ball. Nothing about the prep of rice (as advertised in the A&K itinerary), the way to cut fish, other things about sushi i.e. wasabi, etiquette, etc. Nevertheless the guy was very sweet and very funny. My son was very excited to go to the main Pokémon store in Tokyo (as in the itinerary), but we were taken to a small Pokémon store in a mall. Hotels were very good. The Ritz in Kyoto and Gora Kadan were excellent. St Regis was not on par with the others. Meals reservations I believe were made by the hotel concierge. (The cancellation policies are ridiculous) The restaurants were good, but not exceptional. The best restaurant was at the Kyoto Ritz Hotel. Would not recommend Hamayashi in Osaka, the chef is the antithesis of personable. It would have been helpful to know that this is the time of year when thousands of school children go on their school trip and every site and museum was unbelievably crowded. Ground transportation for the most part was very good. Overall we had a good and interesting time, but what it really comes down to is that for 60K (without airfare and dinners) I would have thought it would be more tailored and most importantly that the guides would be more educational, communicative and interesting. We met several other A&K travelers at the hotels and they pretty much were on the same itinerary as us. I believe I would have done a much better job myself with as, or more, luxurious accommodations with some leg work for less than 30K. As a goof, I entered “Arrange an ultra-luxury 9 day trip to Japan and price it out” on an AI platform. See below what AI came up with in less than 15 seconds! A very similar trip for $21000 (which included a $2000 shopping spree) ! I would suggest that for the kind of money that A&K charges, there would be more tailored itineraries with better guides. Maybe one on one communications with someone in Japan would be helpful prior to the itinerary. Bottom line: definitely not worth going with A&K, I consider it a rip off. BELOW IS WHAT AI CAME UP WITH: - Stay at the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Tokyo for 3 nights: $3,000 - Private guided tour of Tokyo's top attractions: $1,500 - Fine dining experience at Michelin-starred restaurant: $1,000 Day 4-5: Kyoto - First-class Shinkansen (bullet train) tickets to Kyoto: $500 - Stay at the historic Hoshinoya Kyoto for 2 nights: $2,500 - Private guided tour of Kyoto's temples and gardens: $1,500 - Traditional tea ceremony experience: $500 Day 6-7: Hakone - Private transfer to Hakone: $1,000 - Stay at the luxurious Gora Kadan for 2 nights: $3,000 - Private onsen (hot spring) experience: $1,000 - Private guided tour of Hakone's scenic spots: $1,500 Day 8-9: Osaka - First-class Shinkansen tickets to Osaka: $500 - Stay at the Ritz-Carlton Osaka for 2 nights: $2,500 - Private guided tour of Osaka's food and nightlife scene: $1,500 - Shopping spree at luxury boutiques in Osaka: $2,000 Total Cost: $21,500 BY THE WAY: I GAVE VIRTUOSO AND A&K EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO ADDRESS MY CONCERNS AND IT IS NOW 5 MONTHS FROM NUMEROUS EMAILS WITHOUT A RESPONSE, SO THERE YOU GO....EVEN THOUGH I HATE BADMOUTHING PEOPLE, MY THOUGHTS MADE PUBLIC

My husband and I have just returned from the “Tanzania Safari In Style” tour with A&K. What a top notch experience! Our RTD Herbert Mollel was one of the top three tour guides we have ever had the pleasure of touring with. He was extremely knowledgeable (both academically and culturally), environmentally aware, passionate about his country, progressive in his thinking, organized and fun. He and his team of professional, hard working and kind drivers, camp attendants and waiters were exceptional at every turn. I was impressed by the way all the safari guides (from all the different companies) worked together to give the tourists the best experience while also protecting and respecting the animals. That was the case for most situations but not at the river crossing of the migration where the other jeeps got far too close to the animals and added stress to the crossing for them. I was appreciative of Herbert keeping us back and having us not add to the wildebeests’ stress. We had also booked a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti that had to be re arranged due to flooding out of a road. Rather than have us drive 6 hours around to get to our balloon site A&K found us another company in Tarangire that was amazing and had us miss none of the other scheduled activities. That company was called The Miracle Experience. Captain Mark and his crew were exceptional as well. We were appreciative that A&K made that change for us as we would not have been able to fore see and do that ourselves. This tour did not miss a single detail, from other guests’ gluten free or vegetarian food choices to quality of local beer, wine and food, to the comfort and luxury in the movable safari camp, to the complimentary laundry services. This tour was so amazing that I am attempted to break my own rule and come back and do the same one again!

Following an enquiry about travelling to Antigua I was helped by Robert Berry who has been both helpful and patient and arranged a fabulous hotel & flights to celebrate a special birthday

Very happy with the service provided!