Shoot Down The Cost : Golden West Tour (archersdirect.co.uk)

Member Name: lilmsnaughty79

Product:	archersdirect.co.uk
Date:	18/02/09 (434 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good Price, Great Choice, Great Service

Disadvantages: None

Shoot Down The Cost : Golden West Tour
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We decided to push the boat out and book a big American holiday. After much research we decided on booking with Archers Direct. This is the direct arm of Cosmos. I'm sure most of you will have heard of Cosmos.

The biggest decision was which tour we wanted as there were many west coast tours they provide. We decided on the Golden West tour. About a month before flying out we received our printed itinerary which included details of any optional extras.

The website is very easy to navigate, you can get details of accommodation, a map showing where you go and by what means i.e land, plane or sea and the number of nights spent there. Any additions can also be added, for example our trip had an optional week in Hawaii. It's very flexible. I contacted customer services via email a couple of times with queries I had a reply within an hour or two. I have never had a need to call them about anything.

When we checked in at Heathrow there was an Archeres representative making sure we
were ok and had checked in ok. All our flights were with United Airlines, although some flew with American Airlines. Of course this all depends where in the world you're going.

The Cosmos coach did exactly the same route and except for stays in Vegas and San Francisco stayed in the same accommodation, I'm assuming slightly better but to be honest I found the accommodation in these locations more than adequate. Almost all the Cosmos guests wished they'd booked with Archers when they found out! Not only that, we set off half an hour after then each day so got more rest. The Cosmos coach was also completely full, ours was about a third full so we had a lot of room to spread out and didn't feel like sardines.

Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and easy going. He made it a point to remember
all of our names very quickly, the small number of people on our coach helped there.
Any questions he answered or if he didn't know he found out. He was very professional
and friendly at all times. He went out of his way to please some of the more unreasonable
guests. Nothing was too much trouble.

The accommodation provided was detailed on the website before we booked and on our itinerary, it's generally standard places such as Best Western and Holiday Inn. We also stayed in the Carlton in San Francisco which was very nice. I have no complaints about the accommodation, it was always clean and this is the main thing for me, we only slept there after all.

Everything was well organised, right down to where we stopped to use the toilets and for
lunch. Incidentally, some Archers holidays include some food and it will tell you on the
website, we weren't supposed to have any included but most hotels did provide us breakfast free, which was a nice bonus.

Despite all this there were a group of moaners on our coach that refused to mix with anyone and picked nits with everything. Even moaning that we stopped at a viewing point for the Golden Gate Bridge, why bother coming? Everybody else had a great time though.

Summing up, I would definitely recommend Archers Direct for anyone looking to book a tour holiday, I was very satisfied with the level of service. They have a wide and varied selection at very competitive prices. We checked many tour and holiday companies before we booked and found them to be significantly cheaper than any others, of course it's still always best to check.

We have already booked out next tour with Archers to China, so that's something to look
forward to. You don't get much of a better recommendation than that.

Recommended.

Summary: Great Tours Competatively Priced