My name is kathleen kobelka that is who i am and do not understand your question

We took an OAT trip to China in October for 21 days which was outstanding. The only complaint I had was that for 2 of the 3 days in beijing, first city, and one of the 2 days in xian, the 2nd city ,the tour schedule established by OAT--not the group leader who was exceptional--was driven by first thing in the morning china governement factory visits-jade,cloisoinee,jewelry, rugs, etc. which meant driving cross town in heavy traffic for an hour,spending an hour or more at the compelled factory trip, then spending another hour or more going in the opposite direction to visit major attractions, with the result that lunch typically was at 130- 2pm and dinner was at 545pm--too little time to catch your breath with sales visits events which are profit makers ofor OAT and other tour operators and in myview detract from the trip. Also, realize that hotels, whicle decent 3-4 stars, oftn are not as central as one might prefer but oftentimes provide the flavor of a local residential area as was the case in hong kong with Traders Hotel. As for contactingOAT, one concern by a tripadvisor comment, use the website.

Kobelka, please note that OAT specializes in US Citizen/passport holders as travelers and that is why the 800 number listed does not work in Canada. They will, however, accept non US passport holders who must accept responsibility for meeting any VISA or travel requirements above what is listed for US passport holders.

OAT is very good, of course, as you note. In order to make contact with them, you can go to their website, http://oattravel.com, and find the trip for which you have interest, and then click on their "Call Me To Book" button on the right hand side and fill out the information field which will include your phone number. Someone should contact you within 24 hours.

kobelka ~ OAT will not mail anything outside the US. Check what post #1 says. Therefore I could not receive the papers that they require to be signed as well as the papers that outlined the itinerary etc. I needed a US address for them to mail me anything.

In pursuit of the correct answer to this line of query about OAT, I contacted Overseas Adventure Travel. My call was answered almost immediately as my phone number came up in their database as an OAT traveler with several pending/future itineraries.

I was told my the staff member that OAT does accept and will book Canadian based travelers. They will respond to website driven requests to "Call Me To Book" found on specific trip web pages and will FedEx or UPS documents and materials to those who do book with them.

However, they will not book travel from any Canadian city and the Canadian traveler must get to one of the USA gateway cities for the booked trip, on their own, in order to travel with OAT. Additionally, they will not assume responsibility for any of the VISA or passport issues associated with a Canadian traveler/passport that may be different from a US traveler/passport.

Therefore, based on my direct conversation with the OAT staffer, the answer is "yes OAT does book Canadians BUT ... "

In response to "Why?" I was advised that OAT/Grand Circle Travel is not set up to handle non USA travelers.

This is a very interesting development. My own phone enquiries were before the 2008 economic recession. Obviously, with the answer they gave me, I stopped taking an interest in their programs. I was ready to sign up!! Perhaps they have softened their limitations because they need the clients, I don't know. Interestingly, the Fedex or UPS was never an option offered to me. I know Road Scholar has softened some of their requirements as well since 2008, now going ahead on some programs with only 25% of their former registration requirements. They said they wanted to keep good relations with their sub-contractors so were going with under-enrolled programs.

With Road Scholar (Elderhostel,) I cannot fly out of Canada either and I must inform myself of any visa requirements. This makes sense, as OAT cannot speak for my country's requirements. I must make my own way to the start of the tour. I don't have a problem with any group travel company doing that. But I was not able to receive in the mail, the tour information, itinerary, consent form, medical information form at all.

photoguy ~ I'm a little confused with your last statement which seems to contradict that OAT does book Cdns. Do you mean the GCT division of OAT does not? <<I was advised that OAT/Grand Circle Travel is not set up to handle non USA travelers.>>

If they are now accepting Cdn registrations, I might once again look into travelling with them. Some Americans I know do a lot of travelling with them and think very highly of them.

MuftiMixandmatch, sorry for the confusing close. Both GCT=Grand Circle Travel and OAT=Overseas Advengture Travel will book Canadian travelers, according to what I was told earlier today. However, their expertise is primarily with American travelers.

I prefer the OAT itineraries as they are usually a lot more "up close and personal" and much more adventurous where as GCT is into softer travel.

I have completed three trips with OAT (Argentina/So Chile and Ushuaia; Machu Picchu & Galapagos and Mayan Odyssey) and found each to be exactly as billed and usually populated with fun, adventurous people and always led by excellent guides. And, of course, not to suggest that those who take the soft tours are not fun people!

I have Canadian in-laws and am aware of the issues that they have faced with booking tours with US based firms. One set lives in White Rock (first exit off 99 after the Border Crossing). They have learned to deal with the American travel companies for some of their travel.

I have taken three trips with OAT - all three in 2008. The first was to Israel and it was a great trip - excellent guide, very nice hotels, well thought out itinerary, delicious meals, and exposure to many interesting Israeli Jews and Arabs. I honestly think this trip was an anomaly because the next two OAT trips were awful. If someone offered me an OAT trip for free, I would not go. Having had a great Israel trip, I signed up for two additional trips - Eastern Europe and the X-Yugoslavia (mostly Croatia) trips. The guide on the EE trip was the worst and the hotels were not the ones listed in the brochure but lousy substitutes. The X-Yugoslavia trip was held in November. Never go to Croatia in November - the Adriatic ambiance is way gone for the season and the weather can be incredibly horrible - which it was. OAT should never offer November trips to this part of Europe. The included food was often limited to a very tiny buffet. My main memory of this trip was a female participant who was never hungry when it was an on-your-own meal but always wanted a wee taste of everyone else's meal. To me, she was the typical OAT tourist -

Just plain cheap. Beware OAT's pricing. You may think it looks good but you will end up paying for "optional" side trips and being urged to tip everyone in sight.

Thanks Lucille,

I have always expected that OAT accomodations were not up to my standards or the included meals. I did not expect that the guides were not up to good standards also. I have always been tempted to try them because of the good prices for such long trips, but I have been afraid that I would be disappointed as you have been.

SophiaNY

Hi - have you traveled with Oat for Japan? How were the accomadations? I read the air travel could be difficult. Thanks. Susan