The tour operator provides me with the opportunity to see and experience the best of what many places have to offer, without the hassle of independantly looking for things to do or the expense of booking hotels etc. The tour(though fast pace at times) is good, however the highlight of my trip was the time spent at the Niagra falls. I am unable to express through words the feelings of joy and amazement while there. I would definitely recommend the boat ride into the falls. Larry(I.e the tour guide) and Leo(the bus driver) worked well together and were very personable and attentive to our needs. Larry is very organized and strived to be as detailed with all aspects of the tour. Alternatively, there are some aspects to the tour that should be amended. There are some travel days that are extremely too long(I.e. DC). 11 pm(having being up and on the road from 7:30), is far too late getting back to the hotel. Also the 2 hour stop in downtown Detroit should be assessed as there's not much to do there therefore, lots of time are being spent sitting and waiting for the return of the bus. Another issue I had was the fact that expat did not make sufficient effort in ensuring that the food stops tended to the needs of the vegetarians on the bus. The welcome dinner at dicks and the stop at cracker barrel did not account for the vegetarians, therefore leaving fast food as the most prominent food selections. This information was requested prior to the trip, so I'm of the view that this should have been sufficiently accounted for. Also, we were very disappointed with the "thank you token(I.e. a key chain)" received at the end of the trip. I understand that the US tours are fairly new, however, the operator, as a company is not new. In fact, I have been on a european tour with the company and we received a bag full of items branded with the tour operator's name....with the most important to me, being the passport book with stickers. I was really looking forward to getting a passport with stickers
Overall we really enjoyed the excursion - we had been to NYC so many times before but had never managed to do Liberty & Ellis Island. Jeffrey was very entertaining and had many interesting stories about the sites and general NYC life. The only problem we had was at the start when our groups ended up on different ferries - both for our group and the other group. So this took about 20-30 minutes to sort out when we got to Liberty on the first ferry. Eventually the 2 guides and the bulk of the group arrived on the next ferry. Not a great start but after this everything was very good. The issue was that some of us got through expedited security checks and so ended up on earlier ferry. I suggest the guides ask people to wait on the dock until the guides get the group back together before boarding the ferry. We would do other walking tours on our next trip.
The trip covers a LOT and some days are very long/tiring but it is all worth it! Amazing optional activities and scenery everywhere we went. So much fun and great value for money.