Cox & Kings Avis 

Second trip with Cox & Kings. The first time was worth 3 stars, this time I would give zero if I could. Booked the Peru & Galapagos trip and didn't get the detailed itinerary until after all money had been paid. We emailed a query about some costs 2 weeks before the trip and we never got a reply. The Machu Picchu tickets were for an inferior route (there are about 10 types of tickets & we got ones that were best for mobility issues. No one had mobility issues!)
Supposed to get breakfast each morning but there were so many very early starts normal breakfast service wasn't available several times.
Two of the hotels were poor choices. One was remote with nowhere available to walk to for dinner so ate in hotel for 2 nights which we wouldn't normally choose to do.
At another hotel, in Quito, the local guide said "Do not go out after dark. This is not a good area." Why would you put guests in a hotel the locals think is in a dangerous area when there is a tourist area not far away?
The Galapagos visit was a 'luxury cruise' with Golden Galapagos. Very expensive and most definitely not worth the money. We were looking forward to seeing a giant tortoise as this was included in the itinerary (and is used in Cox & Kings marketing brochures). On asking the local guide about the visit, he said "You won't see any because we don't go to them on the days you are booked here". This wasn't a late change - it was never planned. We feel cheated as it was the main animal we were hoping to see.

Not much wonder about the wonders of ancient crete tour. More like a school trip than a holiday.
Hotels and transfers okay.
Not enough time to appreciate the ancient sites, very long winded explanations by our guide left little time to look around and enjoy the experiance, especially at Spinalonga.
At times seemed organised to suit guide rather than us. Starting at 16:00 on the last day after a free morning gave us less than 2 hours in the main museum in Heraklion. No time to see much at all.
Overall very disappointing, not value for money.
I have only posted this publicly because Cox and Kings ignored the same feedback given immediately after the trip and there is no sign of it on their website.
I won’t be booking with them again.

For us the problem with Cox and Kings Romania was the long days on the coach. I had been aware of the long distances involved and was told when I booked that there would be lots of stops. It turned out the stops were largely toilet stops in garages, after passing through interesting towns without stopping. Two low points were Bran castle. We waited outside for almost an hour on a very hot day to enter an overcrowded tourist trap which has little to do with Dracula. The dinner with a family was disappointing- poor quality food and wine which tasted so unlike wine that we thought it might be a health hazard. I would not recommend this tour. Booked Cox and Kings after a fantastic tour of Egypt with the company but after this tour probably won’t use Cox and Kings again

We had a fabulous trip to Peru with Cox and Kings.
The organisation of the trip from start to finish was excellent.
The information provided, the hotels, destinations, tour manager and local guides was all spot on. We cannot fault our trip. We had enough time and oppurtunities to do our own things away from the group when we wanted. This gave a good balance of hassle free sightseeing and activities and our own private time.
This was our 3rd C&K trip and we would certainly use them again.
Peru was amazing for scenery, culture and the people. We would certainly recommend both the Country to visit and C&K as the tour Company.

I travelled with Cox and Kings a couple of years ago. The trip itself was nothing special, but not bad either. But my complaint is that they have been bombarding me with marketing material through the post ever since (without my permission). I have complained on numerous occasions but the spam keeps arriving... So don't book with Cox and Kings if you don't like junk mail.

Tour of South America May 2026

The beginning of the trip went well with an excellent guide and great things to see in Peru.
Unfortunately after the wonderful Perurail trip to Puno things started to go wrong and this is where we were very surprised by the behaviour of the very reputable company Cox & Kings.
On May 6th, the UK Government issued a ‘don’t go’ instruction regarding Bolivia and very specific roads as well as La Paz itself. This was owing to political unrest with violence erupting frequently. On May 7th Cox & Kings ignored that advice and the group entered Bolivia as planned. We were told that there was a problem on the road so we would be travelling to the hotel by boat across Lake Titicaca instead of by road. No mention of the unrest nor the UK Government warning. This action of course meant that the group were travelling uninsured.
The hotel on the lake was atrocious. I would not even give it a 1 star rating. No staff, no drinks and no other guests. I wonder why??
At this point the local rep came clean and told us about the unrest. Imagine our surprise though when she said they hoped for a safe window to evacuate at 2 a.m. No sleep for us then. At 2 a.m. it was clear that the transport taking us could not get through the blockades so we were going nowhere, all very stressful and upsetting especially in the worst hotel I have ever stayed in. The following morning we retraced our steps by boat and returned to the lovely hotel in Puno. Knowing what we now know about the unrest, we should never have left here.
Getting revised flights for 19 people is never easy. Cox & Kings managed to get us all on 2 flights from near to Puno back to Lima and then onwards to Buenos Aires to resume the schedule. Just over half the group left at 5 a.m. arriving in Buenos Aires very early evening, with the later group which we were in not arriving at the Buenos Aires hotel until just before 5 a.m. Another sleepless night, 2 of the last 3, and all caused by Cox & Kings decision to ignore Government advice and still go to Bolivia.
This was extremely disappointing for me as I used to travel to Buenos Aires every year on business and was really looking forward to revisiting some old haunts and to show my wife around. Sadly we missed a whole evening and the only free time we had there.
After a very nice visit to the Iguazu Falls the trip was further impacted by the poor hotel in Rio made all the worse by the constant drilling on the 16th floor which was being refurbished. Again we would have expected better from a company of Cox & Kings repute.
To their credit, Cox and Kings were proactive in offering compensation to the group which at least meant they acknowledge their errors. However we are aware that the whole group received the same offer which cannot be fair when some of the group missed out on about half the time in Buenos Aires, which surely should merit an additional amount of compensation. Instead, Cox & Kings emailed the offer saying take it or leave it as we are not discussing this any further and if you are unhappy take it up with ABTA. This felt like a threat to remove the offer if you went to ABTA which wouldn’t be the desired outcome.
You only find out how good a company is when things go wrong. From this experience Cox & Kings are not a good company and I would urge people to look elsewhere.

Such a great group trip 'Across the Southern Caucasus'. Starting in Azerbaijan, then Georgia and finally Armenia. Although there were 17 on the trip it felt like less and each country provided different highlights. The tour was well organised and we covered a lot of sights. Each guide was great as were the drivers (a guide and driver per country). The food and drink was also very good whether part of the tour or a recommendation by the guide. Highly recommend.

We organised our Puglia Tour through Neil who was excellent. He let us know how the tour would go and that it was an intense visit. He also arranged fir us to have an extension to our stay in a Trulli. The whole experience was absolutely fantastic. We will definitely use again

Fully agree with the review from Dawn Emmerson for this trip. I was on same trip.
Too much packed in too short a time with hotels too far from the places we visited resulting in long coach journeys along the same stretch of motorway 4 days running. No time to relax.
Still recovering!

The Puglia and Basilicata tour felt like a box ticking exercise of how many towns can we race through. As for the rest of the trip.....
The 'small group' size of 18 was too large, especially for somewhere as busy as Italy. It should be capped at 12.

We were very surprised that listening devices were not used on the tour. They were needed.

Both hotels were much too far from the places we visited. We spent almost as long on the coach most days as we did seeing the sights. The trip to Trani and Castel del Monte was a 10.5 hour day, of which 5.5 hours was spent sitting on the coach. An accident on the return journey added around 20 minutes, but even without this it still would have been 50% of the day spent travelling.

The hotels were also too far from any other facilities, the first hotel was a €40 return trip by taxi, and whilst the second hotel had a shuttle bus offered we got back too late to use it on the first night and had a 30 min turnaround to catch it on the second night by the time we got back.

The 'traditional' buffet at Hotel Tenuta Centoporte was extremely disappointing in content and also shockingly bad value for money at €50pp. The buffet was a small amount of quite uninspiring antipasti followed by a portion of pasta with meatballs and 1 dessert choice.

Whilst it was nice to be offered a glass of wine with meals, at some of the meals only red wine was included (which we don't drink) and no other type was available - we were told any alternative was expected to be paid for, which seemed quite unreasonable. It was much better when we were each offered our own choice and poured a glass, then more could be purchased if required.

Matera and the Crypt of Original Sin needs a day to itself. It was much too rushed. This was one of our main reasons for choosing the Cox and Kings tour, but we were very disappointed to only have a few hours in Matera.

The Masseria Caselli was a poor choice of hotel for this tour. The location was remote - 30 minutes to Ostuni by bus, and the service was very poor. They seemed extremely understaffed and with the exception of one very nice waiter (sadly we didn't get his name, but he served us our welcome drink) the few other staff who were available weren't overly friendly - not surprisingly as they were run off their feet!
We had to have an early breakfast every day so we could leave at 8am (because of the excessive travelling distances), no hot food was available unless requested, and even then only scrambled eggs were offered and took a while to arrive so we had to rush to eat.
We had to have dinner in the hotel one evening as we could not get back from our tour that day in time to use the shuttle bus. There were 2 menu choices and we had to select the evening before. We were then served a small piece of sea bass with some green beans. It didn't feel like the superior hotel we were assured of in the email notifying us of the change from the original hotel, which was also much closer to Bari so would have been more suitable for travelling each day.
The room tidying / cleaning that was carried out appeared to be the minimum possible. We had one day where none of our group's beds were made. On the coach back to the airport (2 days later) Flo said the manager apologised and that there had been a mix up with some late checkout rooms, so ours had all been left. This seemed unlikely as someone had been in to rehang the towels in the bathroom, but left the beds unmade.

Just back from 16 days around South America, takingbin Peru/Buenos Aires/Iguaza Falls/Rio.
Had a great group of 12 who all got on well and had a lot of laughs.
Good itinerary, was full on but we did have free time in each area as well as the guided tours.
Most of the hotels were not notch. The guides we spent the most time with, Oscar, Sandra and Letitia were fabulous and took care of us from meeting at the Airports to check in at hotels.
Would recommend this tour to others and would certainly travel with Cox & Kings again

Train to Machu Picchu experience in May 2026. Found Cox and Kings to be highly organised, very professional, with excellent guides, attentive to my needs and providing the most amazing Tour Director ever who went well over and above to make sure we had a fantastic tour.

Have just returned from a tour of South America with Cox and Kings. First 6 days were great and we reached Puno in Peru on Lake Titicaca. This is where the tour itinary needed to reviewed.
Unbeknown to us on May 6th Bolivia was suffering political protests with roads being blocked and confrontations with Riot Police in La Paz the Capital which was on our tour plan.
We were taken into Bolivia on May 7th blissfully unaware of any problems.
On arrival in Bolivia we were told we could not go to the hotel by bus as planned due to roadworks. ????
So the local tour company Crillion which is owned by Cox and Kings took us 2 hours by boat down Lake Titicaca to the hotel further into Bolivia. This hotel is also owned indirectly by Cox and Kings and it was not great. We were the only people there which felt strange. The bar was shut and they hardly any beer or wine to sell us.
At 6.00pm the tour guide informed us of the political problems and that our next day departure to La Paz was under review. The new plan now was to leave the hotel at 2.00am for La Paz. By now we had seen on the Internet the pictures of riot police firing tear gas at protestors in La Paz. Travel was also against our government travel advise. The tour guide said it would be fine at 2.00am and not to look at social media.
Why were we here in this position?
Why had we been brought here.?
2.00am arrived and we are told go to bed we are not going to La Paz.
Instead we are heading back to where we started 7 days earlier, Lima in Peru. Then continue to Buenos Aires.
Boats, buses, planes and hours of waiting until we finally arrive in Buenos Aires hotel at 5.00am 2.5 days later. This cost us one of the 2 days we we due in Buenos Aires.
The tour then continues to plan but when we arrived in our final hotel in Rio it was being renovated with building noise between 10am and 6.00pm. Not Great.
We honestly thought Cox and Kings were a high end tour company and yes they have offered a minimal compensation but this proportionately does not reflect the stress, extra travel and days lost we had to endure.
There were great days and yes we understand Bolivia has its problems but we should not of gone there.
Interesting in your reply you say this is resolved. As of 27th May it is not. You still have not made the compensation payment you said you would. Ongoing is a better word.
It is now 7/6/26 and Cox and Kings have still not HONOURED their offer of compensation. It is so easy to transfer money within hours if you really want to. Maybe they are doing this for the same reason they took us into Bolivia. Financial precedence over customer care.

Bianca was so patient and helpful. She organised our recent trip to south of Spain. Everything was perfect. She listened to where I wanted to go and all hotels and guided tours were exactly what we wanted. Our hotels were comfortable and within walking distance of the historic centres and guides were on the whole passionate about where we were visiting. The guides in Malaga, Seville and Cordoba were particularly good. They were animated, knowledgeable and enthusiastic
Thank you Bianca!

'Splendours of Central America' (March '26).
Firstly, this was my first time using Cox and Kings and their reputation suggested good things.
While the tour itself was generally well organised the mode of transport was of a seriously low standard.
I hope my following comments might be helpful to others regarding what clients are likely to expect on certain C&K tours.
Essentially C&K prefer to use a small minibus for their Central America tour. This is fine for very small group numbers, however this group was 14 people.
Myself and my travelling companion (my brother) had to sit at opposite ends of the minibus just to be able to have a seat. My brother was sat behind the driver while I had to sit very uncomfortably in the rear axle seat area, sideways across the aisle due to the elevated wheel arch ( I did end up with a sore back). At the same time, all the group luggage was packed in around me.
When the minibus travelled downhill I was requested to be mindful to hold the luggage back - to prevent being hit on the head by suitcases.
The overladen minibus was consequently very under-powered on any sort of hill climb. It did make the road journeys concerning for general road safety, particularly as there were no seatbelts.
I have informed C&K of this issue but their reply is that this transport method is acceptable to them.
My idea of comfort and safety is seriously different to that of C&K.
I will in future use my previous tried and tested tour companies, where client comfort and safety is first and foremost.
I hope my comments can be of some use to future travellers, or if C&K are your next travel tour you do not have to endure the same experience as myself and my brother.

This was our first trip to India and we are so glad we chose such a highly recommended travel company. The itinerary was excellent and our tour manager, Prem Sharma, was outstanding . His professionalism, knowledge, good humour and patience were exemplary.
Prem also gave us the opportunity to fully participate in Holi celebrations in Jaipur city, and this was a truly memorable experience. He really was amazing!
All transfers went smoothly, hotels and catering were excellent, and the tours were fascinating.
Our add on to Kerala was also very well organised and each Cox & Kings representative and driver was extremely helpful.
We are looking forward to another trip to this wonderful country.

We had a truly immersive experience during our trip to the golden triangle and Shimla. Our excellent tour manager, Prem, guided us throughout so we felt we understood more about India. It was a busy schedule but each stage was well
managed to enable us to make the most of the experience. Being in a small group meant the holiday felt more personal and we appreciated Prem going above and beyond by enabling us to participate in the Holi festival.

Recently returned from a 17night trip of Vietnam and Cambodia, which was intense but most exhilarating.
The organisation from initial booking to final return could not be faulted. Our tour manager/guide Minh was excellent throughout offering as little or as much information as you required. He kept us informed by WA as was so well organised. The hotels, transport, tour content, food and group size were all very good.
From the tour we came away with an excellent overview, together with a lot of memories from the countries and fellow guests. We were extremely fortunate to have a group (17) who all got along and we had some laughs.
This was our second trip with C&K and for this type of trip they will remain our company of choice.
Thanks to Sam King in the UK and Minh on the tour.

India - Golden Triangle & Shimla tour. Our first Cox&Kings experience was a brilliant introduction to India. The logistics were perfect and the tour manager/guide Prem was excellent. The tour started and finished at The Imperial hotel in Delhi and the group was a good size at 15 people. Prem changed the scheduled programme in Jaipur to give us an exceptional experience of the Holi festival right in the middle of the city. Many wonderful memories created with a group of like minded travellers. Maybe a day less in Shimla and a day more in Delhi might have been an idea?

We were due to fly from Cochi via Dubai back to London on the 2nd March at the end of a two week tour of southern India. On the 28th February Gulf Airspace was closed as the Iranian war started, this started a chain of events that saw many tourists stranded for days on end. However Cox and King reacted incredibly quickly and rebooked my wife and I onto an air india direct flight on 4th February whilst there were still seats available. Add in an excellent organisation of hotels, transfers and even support at the airports and we feel we were incredibly lucky to have booked with Cox and king with their rapid proactive support to get us home.