Orbis Travels Ltd

"Orbis travel were great. Unfortunately the air carrier was Ryanair. I wouldn't have booked the trip had I known this. To make it worse my case had been tampered with and I had a carrier watch stolen"

"A group of 6 friends (3 couples) signed up to a 3 city break: Prague, Vienna & Budapest. Initially it took a few calls & emails to get everything sorted for the 6 of us & we also had some changes with a flight cancellation, adding in Vienna to the original 2 city break & so on - but we got there in the end. There was also a delay getting our refund on a cancelled flight but Orbis helped chase the airline. Throughout the process I spoke with Philip, Jay, James & Sam Brown as well as a helpful lady in accounts. We did end up paying quite a bit more than the lead in price with bags, upgraded train tickets, amended flights & so on - but even then we felt it had been reasonable value for money. I did query the accounts at one point as things were done rather differently to my experience with other travel operators and everything was correct. I do have to recommend RegioJet trains between the cities - very comfortable, good service & excellent onboard food & drink prices. We've recently returned from our really interesting & enjoyable 'adventure'. We'd hoped for/expected snow but it was mild &, in Budapest very wet! Having said that we realised how much more tiring our full-on week would have been if it had snowed Our 3 hotels were all fine, although in Prague my husband and I had limited space; however, the choice at breakfast was amazing & really tasty - probably the best of the 3. We enjoyed using trams, metros & hop on hop off buses as well as Bolt taxis in Budapest. The 2 river cruises included were great - especially the evening one in Budapest where the magnificent buildings were beautifully lit. We saw lots of sites & enjoyed our final morning in the Gellert Spa. Unfortunately our pre-booked transfer to Budapest airport was about 15mind late & then did a possible detour to drop off one of the two drivers which meant we travelled at speed when the Friday teatime traffic allowed in order to get there just 2 hrs before we were due to take off. A pity as the journey would have been more relaxed & comfortable without the rush. All in all though a really great week away exploring 3 beautiful cities. Thank you."

"Amazingly cheap trip to Ischia in January. Bad weather meant the ferry off the island was cancelled - I phoned the local Orbis rep at 07:50am, phone was answered on the third ring, the situation was dealt with immediately. Everything was seamless, the hotel, the travel arrangements, the taxi picked us up from a different port because of the ferry cancellation, no fuss, no stress, no panic, everything was dealt with in a way that I'm not used to! I'd recommend Orbis to anybody."

"My wife and I booked a 10 day holiday to Iceland, Niagara Falls & New York through Orbis. The price we ended up paying was far in excess to what was originally advertised. Transfers (which we paid extra for) either didn’t turn up or…. we had to catch taxis at our own cost (thrice) to meet up with our northern lights tour vehicle in Iceland. On our arrival at our hotel in Niagara late in the evening, to our horror we were informed that for unknown reasons our reservation had been cancelled by the Tour Operator. As a result we had to provide payment for our accommodation until Orbis eventually sorted the mess out approximately an hour before we were due to check out three days later (after several phone calls costing £47 which Orbis refuse to reimburse us for). Our train journey from Niagara to New York was arranged from the wrong train station by Orbis, resulting in a $70 taxi charge (which Orbis also refuses to reimburse us for). They also left it too late to book our train journey from Niagara to New York and consequently we had to travel late into the night as opposed to the early morning journey requested by us to take in the sights. Finally, we were required to arrange our own transfer (taxi) from our New York hotel to the airport (at a cost of $110) for our return to the UK because Orbis had failed to book our transfer. Throughout our holiday we were constantly required to sort out problems of Orbis’s making…. we felt isolated and forgotten about. Potential customers are advised to heed this warning!!!"

"Unfortunately I have to recommend that you avoid this company. Expect upselling from the start, the price advertised will not be what you end up paying. You will be contacted several times to be told your flights have changed or that there will be extra charges for changes that are out of your control. The customer service team are a little bit rude if you don’t really want to splash out on all these unexpected extras. To cut a long story short we decided to try to get a refund after our contract was frustrated. Unfortunately, this company do not abide by their own terms and conditions and failed to offer a full refund despite the cancellation being from their end. Avoid if at all possible. Wish I’d read the reviews on trustpilot before booking with them. You will see similar stories there. The mark of a good company is how they treat you after they’ve got your money and things don’t go to plan. Unfortunately, Orbis Travels failed pretty dramatically in this respect."