National Geographic Expeditions (post-Disney) review- READ BEFORE YOU BOOK OR

WHILE YOU CAN STILL CANCEL IF YOU ARE ALREADY BOOKED

We, like so many others, grew up with the organization National Geographic held in high esteem. Therefore, when we were looking for a trip with two other couples, we felt very comfortable signing up for the Swiss Trains and Italian Lakes trip. Many other groups offer similar trips but we chose National Geographic because we were “guaranteed” to have an expert traveling with us in addition to the tour leader and occasional local experts. Talking with friends who had taken the trip PRE-DISNEY we were told it was a wonderful experience in every way - the expert they had accompanying their trip was an outdoor enthusiast and mountain climber who added so much to their trip. They also enjoyed the “guaranteed” first class train tickets since some of the trips, especially the Glacier Express, were quite long. We were sold. Huge mistake! We were deeply disappointed by the actual trip.

Pre-trip warning #1 - one couple in our group was sent a pre-departure letter giving instructions for a completely different trip. The instructions were for a trip to Norway. Our trip was to Switzerland and Italy.

Pre-trip warning #2 - For some bizarre reason, we were not given the option of paying the balance of our trip online. Instead we were told to call a specific National Geographic number to give our payment information over the phone. Each of us spent from 2 to 3 days trying to connect with a human. This is not an exaggeration. I put my phone on speaker for hours at a time. Each of my numerous calls would be answered electronically and put into an endless queue that would eventually disconnect. On the third day, someone actually answered when I was only about two hours into the process! This is the point we should have canceled but once one of our group had paid in full we knew they would forfeit their money if we canceled so we hoped for the best.

Actual trip issue #1: Day one we were instructed to meet at the airport to take a direct train to Zermatt. But, lo and behold, that train was not running that day so we instead needed to take a series of 3 different trains that ate up the entire day. Why this was a surprise we don’t know. This was entirely blamed on the Swiss Federal Railways but we can't help but wonder if this might have been anticipated and handled better.

Actual trip issue #2: There were not enough First Class seats on the train trip to Zermatt. This was also blamed on the Swiss Federal Railways since there “should have been one more” first class car on the train. Therefore, some of our group were in First and some were in Second. Needless to say, there was confusion and unhappiness but everyone just wanted to get to the next stop. We were told that this train was not as important for First Class as the famous Glacier Express later in the trip.

Actual trip issue #3: On our first morning in Zermatt we were told that our Expert would not be able to join our group until later in the week. The entire group was angry and disappointed. The question was asked as to whether we would be compensated for these days since having an expert was a huge reason for booking with National Geographic. We were told to be patient and to not worry.

Actual trip issue #4: The long (7 hour) Glacier Express Train tickets also were now in Second Class seats despite the promise of First Class seats! Again this was blamed on overbooking by the Swiss Federal Railways.

Actual trip issue #5: Our Expert would not be able to join us due to a medical condition that kept her from high elevations! Seriously? NatGeo should have been prepared with an alternate “expert” available, for two obvious reasons. First, the waning pandemic is still with us, indeed 6 of our group sickened near the end of the trip. Second, our mostly-absent Expert has a long history of sickliness, indeed she wrote a book about it. Bully to her for carrying on with her career, but the possibility of her being unable to perform her duties for us was high.

Actual trip issue #6: When our “expert” finally arrived (on one of the final days), it turned out that she was quite sedentary and an expert in things like freelance travel writing. We had foolishly thought that we would be assigned someone who was an expert in Switzerland since that was the main focus of our trip. Having her show up for Lake Como was pretty worthless as, quite frankly, were her two lectures which I won't bother discussing. She didn’t even deliver the scheduled third lecture. When you see the word “expert” on a trip summary, be aware that it could be anything from mountaineering to flower arranging. Or so it seems.

General trip disappointments:

Mediocre hotels. We were in the same hotels as low cost groups like Gate One. Meals covered by National Geographic Expeditions were (with one exception) cheap and mediocre. However, suggestions they made for meals “on our own” (i.e. not included in our tour cost) were good but often expensive.

An announcement was made that we would all be given a credit of $250 for issues on the trip. Wow! An entire 3% credit. What we ended up with was a quality budget trip, like Gate1, at TWICE or more the price.

Sadly, for National Geographic the cost of this pathetic trip and insulting credit of $250/person will result in a manyfold loss of future customers. Nearly everyone on this trip is in the process of planning numerous future trips to exotic locations. Those who already have trips scheduled through National Geographic Expeditions will cancel them, us included. Those considering future trips with National Geographic Expeditions will now book with a different organization. Perhaps the biggest price they will pay is that all 24 people on this trip will tell these stories over and over and strongly encourage others to avoid National Geographic Expeditions.

The issues on this trip were extreme enough that we considered just leaving the group and traveling on our own. If we had not been traveling with friends I seriously think we might have done just that.

The positive of this trip is that we met some wonderful friends and bonded quickly over the daily missteps by National Geographic Expeditions.

As a footnote, our leader did the best job he could possibly do under the situation. He was put in the horrible position of delivering bad news day and after day and scrambling to make the best of a disastrous trip. We do not blame him.