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Buyer beware: Macs Adventure

Do not recommend, especially for the cost. We booked the Tour de Mont Blanc Highlights in Comfort Tour after someone in this group recommended it, and boy, do I feel deceived. Of the roughly 20 other Macs people I met (randomly of course, because there is no in-person or virtual orientation as one would expect for the price), only 4 finished. Why? Because it wasn't a "Highlights" tour, it was a concentrated tour. Instead of 12 days to do the TMB, you had 6, so each day was twice as far as the already grueling hiking schedule. None of the 4 of us who went together understood this from the app, which was incredibly misleading. All of us believed there were 'highlight' days where we would go 3-7 miles with transport provided for the rest. Oh no. It was actually two hikes in a single day.

Transportation was nonexistent. They do not offer any included transport. It's up to you to figure it out each day and pay out of pocket, adding hundreds of dollars to the overall cost, and that's only when public or private transportation exists. If it doesn't you are left to do up to 20 miles a day by foot, with more than 5,500 feet in elevation climb and back down again in descent. When I confronted them about this, they maintained that transportation was included (even though we received none). After months of back-and-forth, they finally conceded that when they said transportation was included, they meant the gondolas or buses available to anyone doing the tour. I'm not sure how Macs considered public transportation, that we had to pay for, to be their included transportation.

When we eventually reached our breaking point due to a trail injury, we reached out to Macs for help through their offered "Alternative Transport" helpline. It took them 24 hours to respond. We had long figured out an expensive way out on our own, but what if we hadn't been able to? They would have left us stranded. Worse, when we finally received that response, it was clearly AI-generated and full of false information, no help whatsoever.

I would estimate that 10% or less of our fee went toward accommodations. What was the rest used for? Hard to know, because even in towns like Chamonix, which are chock full of charming hotel options, they put us in a dirty, poorly appointed place with black mold growing on the walls, for $65 a night next to a construction site. We also didn't get halfboard in many of the hotels we were booked at, despite them offering it, so more cost to us. When we filed a travel insurance claim, the insurer reached out to them, and for some reason, Macs Adventure valued their own trip, the one we paid more than $6,000 for, at $1,035, so I guess that gives you an idea of what they think their own trips are worth.

They have no one on the ground and are not available for support in a timely manner.  Please, save yourself and find another way to see the sights.

Posted by
10720 posts

Oh my goodness! What a disappointing experience for you. I am so sorry you had to endure this.

Posted by
209 posts

Rick has had the owner of Mac’s on his radio podcast several times and sings their praises - so I hope you can get this feedback to him and his top people. Sorry for your experience - I must say wasn’t impressed with the initial customer service when requesting general info on a trip I ended up deciding against in Scotland. I know others who have had good experiences.

Posted by
2377 posts

I would trust this post more if there were some history of previous positive posts on this website.

Posted by
2360 posts

“ I would trust this post more if there were some history of previous positive posts on this website”

Are you aware of the search function on this website? If you do a search on “Mac’s Adventure” on the website you’ll get more than 100 search results;
https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&query=Mac%27s+Adventure
One of these search results leads to a recent RS Radio Episode https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/radio/programs/program-819

Posted by
4 posts

In response to Margie: we are longtime lurkers here on the Rick Steve's forum. We have often come here for travel advice and booked travel based on recommendations we've received here, even if we weren't actively posting. We booked this trip because of information we received on this forum, and so felt it worth coming back to report on the poor experience we received.

Posted by
10720 posts

Thank you Kristin for sharing. No one needs to be worried about how many posts they have made.

Hiking around Mt. Blanc is on my son's list. I found it very helpful to hear one traveler's experience.

Posted by
8907 posts

Sorry you had a bad experience.

We used Macs Adventure for a 2019 Sarria to Santiago de Compostela Camino and we were very pleased. While most of the hotels were basic because they were really for Camino pilgrims and in small towns with limited accommodations, each was clean. There was an included mostly continental breakfast at each hotel, but sufficient before a hike. Our bags were transported between hotels without incident. Two hotels were very nice. I will say I thought it was a little pricey.

Posted by
4938 posts

Sorry to hear about the bad experience.

Posted by
1156 posts

Wow. Sorry you had a bad experience.

Is this the tour?

https://www.macsadventure.com/us/tour-600/highlights-of-the-tour-du-mont-blanc-in-comfort/

START / FINISH
Les Houches / Chamonix
DISTANCE
102 km /63 miles
ACTIVITY
Inn to Inn Walking

TOUR TYPE
Classic Routes

We never walked this-- we've done the Camino Frances (and in my younger days I did quite of bit on the Appalachian trail as well some in the rockies.) When things go this far awry. and expectations are so far off, that must have been really disappointing.

Posted by
2120 posts

Thanks you for your detailed review kristin. I had heard good things about Macs from this forum and others and had them on the list of possibilities for future trips. But I will now review their materials very carefully.

Posted by
1198 posts

I took a look at the tour, it is a physically demanding tour. Here is what Mac Adventures shows on their website as included:

8 Nights in two & three star hotels on a twin/double share basis 3
Nights in auberges/mountain refuges in private twin/double rooms
(dorms for solo walkers) Bag transfer (with the exception of Rifugio
Bonatti) 11 Breakfasts Dinners (Chamonix, Bourg Saint Maurice,
Courmayeur and Martigny not included)
Access to maps, tracks, and
daily route information with the Macs Adventure app 24/7 telephone
support from our UK office*

It looks like hotels and inns, breakfast, a few dinners and bag transfer is all they provide. Everything else is on you to arrange, purchase and figure out or figure out on your own.

Their current rack rate for this trip starts at $4,650 per person.

Posted by
587 posts

You mention your tour was the Tour de Mont Blanc Highlights in Comfort, so obviously you did not expect to be doing the actual entire TMB, but when you say that you thought you would be walking 3 - 7 miles a day, that is pretty low for such a hiking route. It means that in some cases you expected to hike for just two hours or so (3 miles on the flat takes about 45 min to one hour, depending on fitness level, so I am doubling that for a hike with elevation...similar to some of the Berner Oberland hikes in Switzerland), this wold definitely be a very shortened version of the TMB.

I am very sorry that you had such a miserable journey and am glad that you took the time to write about it here. Apart from people knowing what your experience with this company was like, I hope that others will also see that it is important to research a hiking route in depth before doing it. Here is Switzerland there are so many hikes that can be can be shortened by using public transportation, but once you get into the mountains, it is not always so easy to hike only a few hours and then find a bus or other transportation to finish your journey. Sorry that you had to pay for it yourself, but I am surprised that you were even able to get some sort of transportation to finish the various legs of your hike.

The number one cause of injury to hikers here (up to 40,00 injuries a year) is over estimating your ability and underestimating the trail, which easily leads to slips and falls...I guess in your case it seems that putting a lot of trust in a travel company and receiving an unclear description of the route and what is expected of you can be added to that.

Posted by
12117 posts

This sounds horrible and I understand not being able to follow their app, since we always get lost, even with paper maps. You really did need a guided tour. Just the thought of being up there on your own is awful.

I looked at the Highlights of the Tour of Mont Blanc in Comfort, and the price today is 2,000 euros per person. So Mac's value for insurance purposes of $1,035 or 930 euros at today's rate makes a little more sense, if this was per person. One other difference, continental Europe is hiking country. Groups of grannies I know often do 10 kilometers for a half-day hike after lunch.
Mac's website has the distance for every day of the Highlights TMB in Comfort route posted, and it's strenuous but typical for Europeans, but also a full day of hiking: 17, 18, 23, 14, 9, 10, 12 Kilometers per day or 10.8, 11.6, 14.7, 9, 10.8, 7.4 MILES! You have to be in excellent shape to maintain that pace on rocky terrain with the ascents and descents. It's marked with four huts as Moderate-Strenuous Walking 12-15 miles a day. Maybe this page didn't exist when you signed up.

So with all this in mind, I wonder if Mac properly screens customers for these more strenuous "adventures", and how can a customer judge their ability to do 12-15 miles a day of mountain hiking without a guide. Further, has social media played a part in misleading people?
And, how does one prepare for a hike like this?

Finally, I hope you had other destinations planned during this trip that could positively compensate for your experience up on the mountain.

Posted by
2377 posts

Thank you OP for your response. I wish you had started your post out with that because lately we seem to be seeing a number of complaints from first time posters that are questionable even though others on here seem to accept without question those complaints and don’t seem to realize how harmful, if not true, these can be to the business that is being singled out!

And Dutchtraveler, I’m very aware of the search engine, I was referring to the OP’s history of posts on this forum or lack of.

Posted by
12117 posts

I just looked at David’s link and saw the $3,240 price tag. I saw the same site and trip here in France in euros: 2,000euros. The website was in English. At today’s exchange rate that would be $2,230., Last summer’s rate 2,000 euros would be: $2,300. So customers paying in US dollars right now are being charged $1,010 more by Macs Tours than customers paying in euros. Yes, US customers beware. If you search the .fr site instead of the .com, you should be able to pay in euros and have the credit card company do the exchange. DCC online.

Ed is citing a longer trip.

Finally, on the American site, all the alternative local transportation is cited, but it says the hiker needs to pay their own fares for buses, taxis, gondolas, if this transportation is chosen. It’s very clear that it wasn’t included.
Edit to add:
It sounds like an absolute nightmare.

Posted by
4 posts

Wow, I was very surprised by the euro pricing quoted here! We paid more than $6,000 US for a couple, so very interesting tip on the website differences, Elizabeth.

More fools us, but when a hike is described as, "Experience a selection of the outstanding hiking days on the TMB," and "This scenic 6-day tour highlights the best hiking sections through France, Switzerland and Italy as you circumnavigate Mont Blanc (15,774 ft) along the TMB route," not one of the people I spoke with on the tour understood that to mean that it was the whole hike, minus the sections that can be done on gondola. And for those unfamiliar, the traditional TMB is completed in 12 days.

I wish my app had not been cleared by Macs, as the description of transportation was more misleading there than on the website description. After a trip is purchased, you don't usually go back to the initial purchase page - you rely on the materials given to you by the tour guide.

We had been preparing with 10-12 mile mountain hikes, and that's what we expected. But there were days when it was 20 miles. The app was again, very misleading. Each day would have an "Easy", a "Medium" or a "Strenuous" hike listed with the distance, usually something like 3-7 for easy, and up to 14 for strenuous. What was not understood, again, by anyone I spoke to, was that you had to complete ALL the hikes listed there. We all understood you could choose between them depending on your fitness level.

I understand that you need to be informed when making a purchase like this, but when something like 16/20 people are failing out, I'd argue that's not the fault of the customer for misunderstanding; it's the fault of the vendor for either misleading at worse, or with more grace, just being very unclear in their materials.

If this had been a tour with, say, a $500 fee to use their app for the adventure, I might be a lot more lenient in my expectations. But when your fee is closer to $5,000 (I'm assuming they paid something like $1,000 for our hotels), my expectations are also higher. They promised 24/7 helpline, and it took 48 hours for them to give us a taxi phone number - that's just not what a reasonable person would expect of that claim.