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Brand: Great Rail Journeys
An exciting and varied itinerary, managed by a first class Tour Manager. Full on and with many memorable moments. Highly recommended.
Reply from Great Rail Journeys
Hi Derek,
Thank you for your review.
I'm delighted to hear that you made so many memories while on tour with us and that you would recommend 'Iconic America' to other travellers!
We hope that we can have the opportunity to welcome you on tour with us again in the future.
Best wishes,
Richard
This is a well planned and organised holiday. It is tiring with some long days involved, but worth the experience and gives you full value for the money. Our guide was superb, he looked after us from start to finish and made each and every one of us (22) in our group equal measure and guidance throughout the whole adventure. We would highly recommend this holiday to to fit and able traveller!
Reply from Great Rail Journeys
Hi Dennis,
Thank you for your review.
I am delighted to hear that the long days and travel were rewarding on your America Coast to Coast holiday. I'm particularly pleased to hear you had such a good experience with your Tour Manager, Phil Edwards. He is a tremendous credit to Great Rail Journeys.
Best wishes,
Richard
Found the trip very enjoyable but could do with improvements.
Reply from Great Rail Journeys
Hi there,
Thank you for your review.
I am glad to hear that you did find the trip to be very enjoyable, if you have any details of how the tour can be improved, feel free to email cr@greatrail.com
Best wishes,
Richard
All round excellent
Reply from Great Rail Journeys
Hi Richard,
Thank you for your review.
It is great to read that you had an excellent holiday to the States!
Best wishes,
Richard
Great introduction to USA encouraging thoughts on where to visit for longer, next time! Travel departures & arrivals shortened each end of the tour considerably. Recommend additional day each end. Option for couples to purchase a 2nd 'roomette' on o/n U.S. trains would be good idea as very cramped & uncomfortable. More involvement of T.M. with guests would be welcome for sharing views & general interest in guests well-being. Local guides & arranged tours - all excellent.
A very well-organized tour. Everything worked as it should. All the connections worked, and Chris Read was always available and willing to help. He gave us day-to-day instructions on WatsAp that meant we did not have to remember anything. We saw some wonderful sights but as someone who once considered moving permanently to USA I am now sure I made the right decision. (Stay in UK) Quite a lot of disappointment outside of GRJ control. Train food was poor and restaurant car service was abysmal. Never enough observation car seats and train windows filthy so all the photos spoiled. The top bunk had very little headroom making it difficult to manoeuvre in and out. The Las Vegas hotel had no coffee or tea maker. Most of the hotels did not provide breakfast and when they did it was very poor compared to budget British hotels. Travel food was difficult. Perhaps if we were not in a hurry, we might have found acceptable lunches in the supermarket stops but the travel food we got was quite disgusting. Sweetener in cheese sandwiches and in the coleslaw. Thanks, GRJ for an interesting trip that was as good as it could be. I shall never forget the announcement asking passengers if any of us had any ”Zip ties” to repair the trains brakes. The trip finally destroyed any lingering idea that the USA is the most wonderful world leading nation but it does have some fantastic sights..
Great holiday, wonderful tour guide, great group of people and well organised itinerary.
Just recovered from the coast to coast. So much seen and experienced, from the hustle and bustle of New York, to the vast open prairies, to the spell bounding beauty of the Rockies. So many things to like, Silverton to Durango train, San Francisco, Grand Canyon etc. Some not so, Las Vegas(underwhelming pastiche and just give us your money and Los Angeles(stuck in traffic jams). But this could be a personal thing. A very well organised and managed tour, all credit to Beverley our tour manager. Sadly I see that the things we liked the best are not included in next year's tour.
This was a wonderful holiday of a life-time. We saw so much of the US. It was vey well organised and coordinated. The tour manager was excellent and very knowledgeable. The accommodation was really good and the excursions and local tours well planned. I could not fault it. So many memorable experiences.
A thoroughly enjoyable land journey across the USA from New York to San Francisco. Relaxing it isn't, exhilarating it is! Spent a very enjoyable trip in the company of affable fellow travellers under the guidance of Beverley, our excellent tour manager. Also, glad of some free time to regenerate batteries and explore things of personal interest. Be prepared to grab sleep and food when it's available and you will have a great time full of varied experiences. All hotels in excellent locations. Iconic Amtrak rail journeys amazing with good dining. Highlights for me were New York, Chicago, the Grand Canyon and San Francisco. It was good to visit Las Vegas (noisy and crowded) and Los Angeles (too much traffic), but would not be on my priority list next time. This is my third trip to the USA with GRJ and all have been fantastic, well organised and stress free.
Excellent tour. Superb tour manager. Very good guides and great bus driver on the 5 day part of the tour on the road in the west. Amtrack slightly overwhelmed at mealtimes at times but all good fun. Some stamina required especially for the long days travelling but even the old ones like us managed it.Obviously on a tour like this you see a lot more superficially but it gives you a good insight into an enormous country.
Just returned from the Coast to Coast USA trip. My wife and I found the holiday was fantastic, it was a great way to see and experience some Iconic places in the USA! Our tour manager, Chris Read was great, he was always available to us, very knowledgeable and generally made things easy for us, so we just spent our time enjoying the experience. The days were full of coach, river or rail travel, but filled with stunning Vista's of ever changing landscape or Iconic architectural buildings steeped in history and character! The tour guides that we had, during the journey, were very knowledgeable in the areas we visited, which added so much more onto the experience. The coach drivers were very friendly, especially Frank! The overnight train journey was an experience!! We had a roomette on the upper floor, views were great, I got some lovely shots of the sun setting and rising the next morning, food was great, but me and the top bunk bed didn't get on, but like I said, an experience! So many places we loved, too many to mention, but we think Chicago was our favourite. We did the history tour of the City, architectural river cruise and experienced the 360 view tower of the City and, most importantly, tried a Chicago deep pan pizza 🍕 and sampled a cheese cake from a famous deli there. We were accompanied by a great bunch of people on the tour, from all different walks of life, but all got on well together, which added to the experience. We would like to thank Karen & Mark, who added to our experience, so many laughs, great friends, hopefully keep in touch! The only negatives we found with the trip were some of the 3* hotels we stayed at had paper plates and plastic knives and forks, in fact, on one occasion they didn't have any plastic knives left, it sounds a bit 'rash' but I had to cut my bacon 🥓 with a fork, hardly 3*! We would like to thank GRJ for giving us the experience of a lifetime, thanks!
We had a great holiday and met of new friends And Chris was an amazing tour manager
The number, fame and variety of sites was impressive. The hotels were variable to say the least, breakfasts mostly poor. The best hotel was Flagstaff's Little America; couldn't fault the service and rooms. The worst was Durango, a place and hotel I would never wish to visit again. Our safe fell off a 6ft shelf, no response from Front Desk when called. Our single bathroom light blew in the evening and we had to do without one all night. TG it was only one night.
A fabulous adventure. Thank you. Our tour manager Chris was excellent.
Very enjoyable,a bit of an adventure
Great holiday with excellent hotels and a really efficient tour manager. That said it was really hectic and there wasn’t a great amount of relaxation time, but if you’re prepared for that then I’d recommend it. Almost everyone in our party thought that things would have been improved by leaving the horrible plastic palaces of Las Vegas out but you can’t please all the people all the time.
A great holiday from start to finish. We seen everything we wanted to see. High points for me was monument valley and the grand canyon. We were escorted by an excellent guide, Chris Read, who was organised, efficient and personable. Hotels were all good. All in all, a great experience.
We had a great holiday, love it all. Saw a lot more than we expected to see, trains were excellent, hotels good, organisation spot on. It is hectic but worth it.
We had a fabulous time, so many places and trips out!! The tour manager was so helpful, we couldn,t thank him enough, Chris made everything easier.
