Has anyone taken tours with Insight on both the SuperSaver and the regular booking? I was wondering what the differences were besides price and if it is worthwhile to try a supersaver. I have been on BOI recently and it was great and certainly met and in some cases exceeded my expectations. I suppose the hotels are of a lower rating with the supersaver booking?

Hi canadiantraveller,

there are certainly more differences between SuperSaver (SS) and Premium First Class (PFC) tours than just price. The differences include coaches, hotels, meals, tour activity inclusions and baggage allowances.

All of this is described in more detail in a topic called: First Class v's Super Saver. You can find links to this and many other useful topics on the Bulletin Board in the topic: Travel Advice, Tips & Checklist Collection which sits permantly at the top of the Travel Advice Forum.

phil

This message has been edited. Last edited by: phil,

last year i went on a ss tour and have spokent to several people since to compare experiences with first class tours. Hotels on ss are usually located further from the city center, there are also more optionals on the ss i.e. not as many included attractions. coaches are also different as a ss coach has more seats and therefore less legroom. i had a great time on my ss tour, but i think next time it would be worthwhile to save a little longer and go for the first class!

Just a quick note - Tour Directors on SuperSaver are actually the same ones as on the Premium programme. They alternate depending on their availability/timings.
Best regards.
John B

If you were to compare the price of SS + all optionals as against the PFC one with same no of days and countries... which do you think is more resonable in terms of price???

Thanks,
epic

I just returned on July 16th from Britain and Ireland. I would recommend spending the extra money on the 1st Class tour. We spent an additional $1000 on extra stuff, and did not have the benefit of centrally located hotels, improved food, or extra leg room. Many of the locations included in the brochure only indicate that you will be taken to the location, but that does not mean that your admission fee is included. It NEVER is included. Bring a lot of extra money for this if you don't want to be standing in another souvenier shop for an hour while others pay the admission to the site. In addition, not all of the excursions are worth the added expense. Don't bother with the jaunting cart ride, the lake cruise, or the country side drive from Dublin. In addition, the food at the cabaret night in Dublin was terrible! I just expected more, I suppose. We spent over $700 doing all the excursions, for two people.

The tour was nice, but our tour director (Peter Staff) was very politically opinionated and did not miss any opportunity to disparage the British Prime Minister or American President. This did not sit well with several passangers. In addition, he was very rude to the bus driver and this became the topic of conversation of the group as we rotated through to the front seat of the bus and witnessed it. Other than that, the tour was as described. You cover 2,700 miles in 2 weeks, so it's a busy schedule with many hours on the cramped bus (no extra leg room on a super saver). Most hotels were nice, but not prepared for the heat. A lack of air conditioning can make a nice hotel miserable. The hotel in London and Glasgow were terrible. The nicer hotels were not usually centrally located, as one would expect from a Super Saver tour. In many cases, we drove through the city, stayed on the outskirts, and never had a chance to explore the city on our own. All dinners were served in the hotel, and the menu changed very little from city to city (chicken or salmon?), so that got really old after a couple of days and I actually opted to leave the group and eat off site. But most hotels are so far from civilization that this was not possible without a cab ride. We really enjoyed the trip, despite some of the quirks. I just think it's good to share with others what we wish would have been different.

The Tour Director makes or breaks the trip. I have been on tours where most of the bus disliked the way the TD was acting and it showed up in his tips. They make their living on tips and selling excursions.

Yes I could not agree more re tour directors... they certainly make or break your tour.

Premium as opposed to SS. We did the premium tour Country Roads of Scotland and also Country roads of Ireland and I must admit the coach was extremely comfortable with the extra leg room, baggage was not a problem, the hotels were very central and on the whole fine. the tour optionals were of very good quality, although we did not do all. Yes and there were a few places included where as you say entry was also accounted for. Amazing how quickly tour directors can get you through ahead of the long line of thoses waiting to get tickets. We did all the evening meal options including the Caberet Night in Ireland and whilst the meal was I would say a good basic standard, the entertainment certainly made up for it and also the company wast Grand! You quickly relise that one would not be able to afford to over indulge in alcohol at these venues unless it was included in your price (which quite a few nights it was) - something that we found to be rather expensive. I would not consider Super Saver having done premium and hope in the not too distant future to be back holidaying with Insight again. Laurene.

We have enjoyed all of our previous Insight tours including the tour directors. We have also toured with G****s and had several issues with one of their tour directors. The tour company quickly rectified this and asked us to give them one more chance. We did. And the second tour was exceptional with an outstanding tour director.

Cheers

General Max

Do supersaver tours also limit the number of passengers to 40 per coach?

Cheers

General Max