Distant Journeys Reviews 

We had an excellent holiday with Distant Journeys in Japan. Everyday was different and we had many activities and experiences that we would have missed if we had not been on an organised trip. Our Japanese guides were amazing and extremely knowledgeable but the only fault was that our English guide was unable to join, us so we weren't given as much information as groups on the same trip ahead of us, eg printed itineraries for the day, departure time from hotels, train information etc. The Japanese guides weren't given information on individual passengers, such as birthdays or celebrations that were taking place and they apologised for not knowing, which was a fault of Distant Journeys, for which they haven't apologised or compensated anyone.

We had a fantastic time on The Very Best of Peru tour, from start to finish the experience was amazing, extremely well run with very knowledgeable local experts & a brilliant tour director. I would not hesitate in recommending the tour. From champagne & canapés at Machu Picchu, the Belmont train, Lake Titicaca & the local welcoming communities, the breathtaking scenery ( that no photo will do justice) to the Andean condors, they will excite you & reveal the beauty & awesome experience that Peru has to offer. Don’t hesitate to experience the amazing scenery

We had a fantastic time in Singapore, New Zealand and Australia, along with an added option chosen in Bali. The trip was well organised, the guides were extremely knowledgeable and helpful. Hotels were all good, all with breakfast included, most had full porter service so when we arrived you could get straight on with your holiday. The team at DJ’s excelled themselves once the Middle East hub for flights were cancelled, organising us and several hundred more guests through to a hotel in Sri Lanka and a flight from there. All paperwork/visa’s were sorted by the team and got us home safely. Would not hesitate to use DJ’s again in the future.

Our tour of China was wonderfully well planned and organised and enhanced by a brilliant tour leader. China is a huge country and this tour really did hit so many high spots. Every day was a new and wonderful experience that allowed us to see the real China and begin to understand the rich and varied history and culture of this wonderful, amazing country. Thank you Distant Journeys!

An eventful but brilliant holiday experience...I had used Distant Journeys previously for my retirement holiday the previous year when I visited Australia, on the Very Best of Australia tour. I am a solo traveller, but I went on a group holiday with a group of 38 or so other Brits. The whole holiday faced a couple of challenges , mainly Mother Nature related, so completely outside of DJ's control, but the way responded to each "situation" is why they would have been award 10 stars if possible, and why I have booked my 3rd adventure next year with them.

A comprehensive tour with Road travel, in luxury coaches, frequent stops for toilet breaks and photographs, safe drivers despite the "interesting" roads and mountain passes...
3 Rail adventures, on iconic New Zealand train routes, Views and scenery which was amazing, and
Sea or Boat, Milford Sound, blue sky , the perfect weather to view this stunning location.

I added 3 helicopter trips as "optional" extras, Fox Glacier, Cape Reinga, and Franz Josef Glacier. Amazing experiences...and photo opportunities. Memories that will last a lifetime.
Freedom days in most cities, meant you could do you own thing, or explore the local area, as I did every day.. I even managed to play 2 rounds of golf in Dunedin and Rotorua, hiring clubs etc.

The hotels selected were all clean, good locations, and probably 4 stars, I had paid, a single supplement as travelling alone, but in all cases i had similar if not larger rooms than those travelling as couples...

The tour manager Mel , was a Brit by birth, but had lived in New Zealand for many years, she appreciated the tour group's sense of humour and was great fun, but more importantly knowledgeable about the places we visited.

The challenges.....The ferry from the South to North Island was cancelled for the day we had booked, and eventually for the next 3 days as it turned out. Distant Journey somehow charted a small aircraft, and over the course of an afternoon, all 39 of us were flown to the North Island....absolutely superb...Other travel groups were not so lucky..

Mr Trump, I was not directly affected , as I was on an early morning flight out of Dubai, on the day that Iranian war started......... but several of our touring party had selected to extend their holidays by a few days to Bali, Australia, or even New Zealand, I think about 10 fellow travellers were stranded in various countries , due to the closure of airspace.

DJ organised the re-patriation of all those stranded, covered all costs and provided OUTSTANDING customer support, in a situation NO ONE could have foreseen.

The Australia and New Zealand Whatspapp groups created our both adventures, meant that all my new "friends" from both adventures, remain in weekly contact, exchanging news, photos and stories about other holiday experiences.

I have booked my 3rd trip with Distant Journeys next year, back to Australia, on the East Coast Jewels tour, again on my own, but I am meeting up with a couple I first met on the Australia trip and then again on the New Zealand holiday.

I have no hesitation in recommending Distant Journey for your next far flung adventure.......

Our third trip with Distant Journies, and once again very impressed by the customer service before the trip,including finding new flights because of the Middle East situation, and keeping us fully informed. The trip itself (The Very Best of China) was wonderful , producing memories we will treasure for ever. Our tour manager, Clare, could not have been better and added immensely to the enjoyment of the holiday, not to mention a great group of fellow travellers. The trip was full on, with much travelling between sites, and down time, when built in to the itinerary, was much appreciated.
We would have no hesitation in recommending Distant Journies.

Superb service, great itinerary, lovely trips. Staff go above and beyond to ensure everything is perfect. Cannot fault in any way. We have already recommended Distant Journeys to friends and family (not something we would normally do) as we would be 100% confident that they would have a great trip and be looked after as we had.

What we received by way of service & delivery far exceeded anything we had imagined. This was our first venture into an ‘organised’ holiday and we had many concerns. Arranging plans yourself means you kind of know what is what. Well, Distant Journeys went way beyond our expectations. From getting the brochure to getting off the plane after the Journey was complete, no fault could be found. The only exception was really one of preference. We would have loved if the safari in Ranthambore had been in a private jeep rather than the vehicle with around 20 people. That of course may be due to how ‘special’ we were made to feel on the otherwise ‘private’ tour.

Great experience from start to finish! Each place we stayed was special. We got to meet some lovely people along the way. The Canadian people were friendly and helpful. The fabulous vistas we saw were amazing, especially the wildlife - bears, elk, moose, whales, otters, Bald Eagle and Osprey. All of this was possible because of our fabulous tour guide, Ninna, who was so knowledgeable and well organised and totally approachable, and ofcourse our excellent driver, Ashe, who kept us safe and made sure we got to see all the wonderful sites. I can’t thank them enough. Such a special holiday! ❤️

Compared to other reputable companies I have used, the ticketing department seem to be very blasé towards customers, and everything seems to be designed for THEIR convenience, rather than the Customer.
It took ages for them to provide a quote for business class, even though the general public could go online and book the flights, when they finally did provide the quote and we booked and paid the required amount, we found out there was no way to pre-book seating on the flight. We were told that they could only put in a ‘request’ for this, and couldn’t provide a Cathay Pacific flight reference . So we are prevented from adding our flights to the Cathay App to choose seating and manage our booking.

Because my travelling companions are both 6’ 4” We next attempted to book emergency exit extra legroom seats for the internal flights. However, we were told that they could only put in a ‘request’ to their booking agents, as the tickets were booked en bloc for the whole group travelling. Not good enough I’m afraid! ‘Requests’ can get ignored and overlooked.
Seems the ticketing department are too lazy to cater to customers requests, and get the relevant quotes for any extra payments for extra legroom seats.

How very different to my recent experience with Trailfinders, as they were able to look at the seating plan whilst I was on the Telephone, and actually allowed me to choose my seats there and then, and within half an hour I had a KLM reference to allow me to add my flights to the KLM app, and to manage my booking!
Mmm…? I hope the actual trip is better than the booking process.

Our first tour with Distant Journeys and it certainly won’t be our last!
Great customer service from booking, pre departure, and throughout the tour.
We did the Golden Triangle and Ranthambore group tour and cannot fault the organisation, standard of hotels, included excursions and our fantastic tour guide .
It’s so refreshing to travel with a company that you can trust from start to finish!

Distant journeys Vietnam & Cambodia trip was fabulous but the journey home was delayed due to the war in Iran. DJ sorted us out with accommodation and arranged a charter flight home all at their expense. I was well looked after during a difficult time and will definitely use this company again.

We booked the Very Best of Japan Tour which was clearly advertised as having an experienced Tour Manager. There was not one. Perhaps Distant Journeys hoped that if they did not mention this we would not notice? The Tour in our opinion and that of other travellers was that the trip did not run as smoothly as it should have done with the lack of the Manager. There were lots of issues but for us the main problem was the ridiculous long queues for breakfast. Queuing over an hour for breakfast stood up with nowhere to sit down is not my idea of a smooth running trip. The group ended up having to go to breakfast at most locations as soon as breakfast opened which was usually 3 hours before the coach left. So days were very long. It took Distant Journeys over a month to reply to my initial complaint. Their reply when it arrived was excuse after excuse and an insulting token payment. They probably saved more by not providing the Tour Manager. When I said was not happy with their reply they took yet another month to respond( in line with their complaints procedure) We will not be booking with them again.

You did not supply what we paid for. You changed a major part of the trip,without okaying it with us. You should not advertise that your tours include things which they do not.

A great and varied range of destinations for both couples and solos world wide. Easy to deal with and helpful and experienced staff both in the office and during the tours. Deal with enquiries and questions quickly and in a clear and professional manner. Competitively priced for all destinations and definite value for money.

We loved our first trip around Australia with Distant Journeys so much. that we have now booked a second trip, again around Australia, the same route but this time instead of a night on the Ghan, we will fly to Darwin. The hotels on these holidays are first class. People i know say they are too expensive, but when you figure out the amount that you do, and the amount the rep does, its worth it. The traveling around Australia, all sorted out for you, is more relaxing than having to do it yourself. The staff here in the UK are really nice and helpful, and the rep we had on our first trip was a stunner, always joking, but also knowing about every place we visited. That was James, we hope we get him again. I would recommend Distant Journeys to anybody who wants to visit a country and enjoy it, to give them a ring and book a holiday. You will not be upset that you did.

On our initial phone call to Distant Journeys our many questions were patiently answered. Vicky gave us practical advice on the many aspects of the holiday we were wondering about. There was no pressure to make a booking right away.
Vicky called back later and we were happy to then make the booking.
This is our first time booking with Distant Journeys. We were very impressed both with the information available on the Distant Journeys website and the phone booking interaction.

A second superb holiday with DJ, this time to Japan. Excellent English and Japanese speaking guides who could not have worked harder for us. A great choice of sights to see and enjoy. With a relatively small group of 20, the dynamics of getting to know each other and forming friendships was very easy and fulfilling. Hats off to DJ for a seamless, stress free experience.

Just returned from DJs very best of Japan. Very good itinerary with 2 great local guides. Hotel selection was good in terms of location and quality. A couple of the itinerary details were changed by the guides to make more sense! A couple of entrance tickets were extra for no apparent reason. An exceptional holiday with the contribution from the guides and the drivers.

After looking at different tour holiday websites I found distant journeys to be the easiest one, everything you need to know is easy to find on each holiday.
Once I had decided Richard helped me with all my questions and booking which again was made simple and straightforward, Richard seemed genuinely interested and was a pleasure to chat to letting me take my time to ensure I had understood things.
I am going on the Temples and Tigers solo tour which sounds amazing, I can't wait.

With an inability to return to the UK from India via Dubai, Distant Journeys went to considerable trouble and expense to handle the situation. They gave ourselves and 418 others world class service by voluntarily going us 6 days extra accommodation and all meals plus flights via Chennai to Colombo and then a special charter back to the UK. Brilliant!