Inspiring Vacations Reviews 

Our tour guide John Lee was truly an amazing person. The knowledge and his ability to explain all areas of our tour for 5 days was so inspirational that i would recommend this tour of south Korea to all travellers...thank you John....

South Korea is a wonderful country which exceeded our expectations. Incredible scenery, natural beauty and deep cultural experiences abounded over the 13 days we visited. Highly recommend you see it too.

Easy to navigate website. Friendly staff on the phone

Yep, easy to navigate the booking process. email correspondence very quick and helpful.

It was a wonderful and enjoyable experience and will remember it for a very long time.

Justin was informative, energetic and demonstrated a real passion for his country and care for his customers.

However, more work is required to improve safety. On one occasion on the first day, the bus swerved violently. I reported this to Justin who later announced that it was due to the condition of the road. I then told Justin to instruct the driver to drive to conditions.

I noticed when sitting at the front of the bus that we were travelling faster than the speed limit at various times and have a photo of the speedometer above 100km/hr.

The driver was always polite and helpful but needs a firm reminder to travel safely at all times.

I am writing this review prior to my trip due to an incredibly frustrating experience with Inspiring Vacations' flight booking portal and customer service. Immediately after booking, I noticed the flights loaded into my portal did not match what I selected; they included much longer layovers. I called within 10 minutes to fix this, but my experience over the next two days consisted of broken promises and missed call-backs:
Day 0, 9:35 pm: Told the flight specialist wasn’t in yet. Arranged a call-back for 10:35 am the next day due to my work commitments. The call never came.
Day 1, 10:50 am: I called them. I was assured a specialist would call within the hour, and the agent promised to follow up personally in 1.5 hours. No one called.
Day 1, 1:50 pm: I called again and waited on hold for 25 minutes. Despite warning them I had to return to work, I was left on hold and had to hang up.
Day 1, 4:00 pm: I called back and waited on hold for 46 minutes. I was finally told my tickets were already issued at 1:31 pm—well after my repeated attempts to reach them—and I would now have to pay a change fee. The specialist promised a change quote by the end of the day. It never arrived.
Day 2, 3:15 pm: Having received no email, I called again and waited on hold for another 45 minutes. The new specialist pushed the timeline out further, promising the quote in 24 to 48 hours. The problem is still unresolved. I am now stuck waiting to see how much they intend to charge me for an error that could have easily been fixed if their team had followed through on any of their promised call-backs. The lack of communication and accountability is completely unacceptable.

The tour guide (Justin) is very helpful on the travelers wellbeing & concerns. He provided detailed historical information to places we visited. He is enthusiastic on his jobs and made it more relaxing by cracking jokes. The driver is awesome as well. He drove through the mountains with ease & able to foresee and prevent road accidents. It’s really an “inspiring” tour. 😊

Overall good 3-4 stars but room for improvement. No welcome meeting. Suncheon Film Set was terrible, maps of some locations would have been helpful eg Busan. Food choices very limited on some days which showed some lack of advanced planning around holidays. Inspiring vacations was inconsistent in pre nights accom and transfers. I wanted to book but was told this tour didn’t qualify yet another person on our tour was able to get this. IV website was also frustrating to use if you were flying in under your own arrangements. I had to make a number of calls in the booking process to get IV to fill the things in on the website

Justin for South Korea was very thorough in his explanations with each attraction and helped to make the trip fun and exciting.
All the hotel locations were excellent.
Overall, very good experience.
The playing of the two movies was a nice added feature along with the travel booklet
Possibly, a few settlement attractions could be moved through a little more slowly so as to enjoy the attraction more thoroughly. Thank you!

The tour guide and bus driver were excellent.
However the company could have organised a meet and greet on the arrival night to the hotels and name tags to the whole group so that people get to know each other initially.
A few more nature tours could be included in the itinerary as well
Also other tour companies use a numbering system on the seats in the bus so that people move around more
I feel also that an air port pick up two days before especially if you are staying in the same hotel should be included as well .. other companies do this
Inspirational tours are difficult to contact once they have your money . A person of reference should be easily contactable
I will not recommend this company to any of my friends
Also a itinerary should be sent to all parties who are travelling and paid or easy access to it
Kind regards
Anne Swanson

Justin made our trip to S. Korea memorable. He has amazing knowledge about his country and shared it in an easy and fun way. We received a beautiful history book, cartoon style from Justin, transporting us through our journey. Our hotels were great, and we saw some amazing things. We had a wonderful travel group and our driver Mr. Kim did a fantastic job navigating the roads for us.
Justin and Mr.Kim were 5 star, I gave a four star with regard to Inspiring vacations but will approach them privately. All in all a good trip.

We were able to do a fast pace highlight tour of South Korea.
Well organised and Justin gave us great history lessons, movies and the Choipedia comic history book was an excellent summary and made it easy to understand so much of the history of this nation.
It needs to be noted that there is a lots of time spent on the bus and the time in each location is very limited.
If you want a more immersive experience look at options to do this.
We had a great group of fellow travellers who make the journey interesting too.

Well planned experience . Went smoothly no hassel from booking to the last day of trip. Our tour guide Justine well spoken English and knowledgeable on all aspects of the tour . Learned so much Korean history. Well organized on the itinerary first thing in the morning and what’s expected of next day . Very accommodating to all passengers . Shows concern and care to all group..

Awesome tour guide & driver (5/22 to 5/30/2026). Provided detailed history of visited places with enthusiasm. Excellent driver from start to finish.

Great experience, Europe in a nutshell!
Mike Rice our tour leader has been an outstanding leader (20 day great European tour);he understood the dynamic of the group, fantastic at managing the pace to accommodate &suit everyone, polite with extensive local expertise.
Mike managed to take care of all logistics details, he's organised and punctual giving reassuring when needed thanks for guiding us through.

Tori has been fantastic to work with. Gets back to me very quickly and is very knowledgeable and helpful answering all my questions. Nothing is too much trouble

What a great holiday
1. Coach drivers fantastic so excellent in driving and always so helpful
2 coach always clean and tidy
3local guides were very informative
4 accommodation was very good except for Ibis very small
5 Mike were do I start perfect gentleman
Very helpful in every way
Keeping 31 people in line is a job on its own but nothing was a problem for Mike
His knowledge is excellent in every way
His manner towards everyone was perfect
Would recommend Mike to anyone
Thank you for all your help
Ron and Diane Grenfell

Michael Rice (Mike) was tour leader on our Great European Tour in May. Mike is efficient and reliable. His leadership contributed greatly to our enjoyment of the trip. His experience and knowledge enhanced our experience. He was always cheerful and helpful and we recommend him as a tour leader.

Easy early booking process then very slow to update payments from Mint even though a Mint reference is the payment gateway confirmation.

Plus, you call me Lisa, still and my name is Kim and always has been since the day I was born.

This tour was energetic and full on as we visited so many countries in 18 days. Mike Rice, our tour guide, was professional, efficient , knowledgeable and very friendly which made the tour very enjoyable. He acknowledged and attended to each and every query and always appeared calm and in control, dealing with multiple personalities , abilities and disabilities. Thankyou to Mike for ensuring a smooth enjoyable tour.Cheers, Pat Sanders.