Has anybody used the Costco Travel service to schedule and organized tour?
RS is great for Europe, but I also would like to visit South American and parts of Asia. So, I am looking for outfits that do a good job on organized tours in those areas. Costco has pretty good products in their stores and I have liked their rental car deals,. They seem to go out of their way to insure that their customers get treated well and get a good deal. So maybe they tours they arrange (via tour companies) are good?
Found a few threads with reviews of Costco Travel:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/italy-schedule-via-costco-travel-june-2016
http://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/costco-travel-397736-2.cfm
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/ShowTopic-g1-i12290-k5012388-Costco_Travel-Bargain_Travel.html
Besides rental cars, trip to Disney via Costco we have only did one European trip via Viking cruise last summer. Very please with the service and the price - especially the cash rebate when we return. However, that is not offer on all tours.
When comparing, make sure you do so apples to apples. When I search travel products, often taxes aren't included in the listed price so you must add to get a total cost. With COSTCO, there are no "gotchas" which I find very appealing.
Bruce has an excellent point. One thing I like about the RS tours is no extra costs for 'special' tour events, a local event tax or tipping all sorts of drivers and guides. Other lunch or dinner on our own, snacks and souvenirs for the family, I don't spend a lot of extra money. In fact, on the days that RS feeds us a lunch or dinner, I usually skip the other meal and just get a snack because I know RS is going to stuff me with good food. And despite what we may say we enjoy being stuffed with good food.