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Review of Grand Circle Travel’s 18-Day Guided Discover Thailand Tour

Thai Cooking

I first came to Thailand on a Grand Circle Travel, Discover Thailand tour. My parents had taken the tour the year before and enjoyed it so much they paid for me to go with them the second time. Grand Circle Travel is a large American tour company that organizes guided tours all over the world.

The Grand Circle Travel tour to Thailand starts out in Los Angeles when you board a Thai Airways plane for Bangkok. Grand Circle Travel (GCT) also uses United Airlines and other American airlines depending on flight times and seating available. We flew from Los Angeles to Japan, then Japan to Bangkok, Thailand. We arrived at 1am and were at the hotel in downtown Bangkok and checked in to our rooms by 2am. When we took the Grand Circle Travel, Discover Thailand tour, we stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel. Since our tour, Grand Circle Travel has downgraded the hotels they use and are currently staying at the Grand China Princess Hotel or the Tawana Hotel, which are much lower level hotels.

On the first day of the tour, we had to get up early for a welcome meeting. This was definitely one of the low points of the trip as we had just flown almost 20 hours and had had less than four hours sleep. The meeting though was interesting and our tour guide was fabulous. (Since then I have heard Grand Circle Travel has scheduled the meeting at a later time as many clients were complaining it was too early). After the meeting, we boarded a coach and were taken to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew. Wat Phra Kaew is the most beautiful temple in Thailand, so it’s a wonderful welcome to an exotic country. After the tour of the temple, where we saw the Reclining Buddha, we had lunch then had the afternoon free to walk around by ourselves and shop. As the hotel was next to the sky train and across the street from several malls, this was easy and fun to do.

On the second and third days we saw several more temples, the flower market, and had a Thai cooking class. We also visited Kanchanaburi and the famous Bridge over the River Kwai. On the fourth day, we went to Ayutthaya, an old ruined city north of Bangkok,. It used to be the capital city of Thailand before it was burned by the Burmese. Ayutthaya was wonderful and, as we went there by a 3 hour boat ride on the Chao Praya River which included a wonderful buffet lunch, this was one of the highlights of the tour. We also visited Bang Pa-In the old summer palace of the royal family. Now it has been preserved as a museum and it’s lovely to walk around the gardens and relax. Since our tour, Grand Circle Travel is now charging an extra $45 or so for the Ayutthaya trip, which is expensive, so some travelers are not taking this tour, which is a pity.

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In the next few days in Bangkok we visited the Floating Market and the Rose Gardens then, on the eighth day of our trip, we flew to Chiang Rai in northern Thailand. This flight was also included in the price of the tour. We stayed at the beautiful Dusit Island Resort Hotel. Again, Grand Circle Travel has downgraded the hotels since we took the tour, so the quality on their tour now is lower than what we experienced.

While in Chiang Rai, we took a day tour to Burma and to Laos. To go to Burma we took rickshaws over the bridge into Laos and stayed for about 45 minutes. To get to Laos we were taken on a small boat across the river and saw a small Laotian town. The town was set up only for tourists so was a little strange, but still it was interesting to be able to say we had been in three countries in the same day.

Chiang Rai is a nice town with a wonderful night market and some great restaurants, and it was nice to be able to wander around and relax in the evenings after dinner. One evening we had dinner at a local family’s house, and that was interesting to see how a typical Thai family lives.

After Chiang Rai, on day 12 of the tour, we were taken by coach to Chiang Mai. We stayed at a lovely hotel called the Amity Green Hills, which had some of the nicest hotel staff I have ever met. The only drawback with this hotel was it was not near the town center and we had a long songtaew ride (pick up truck) every time we wanted to eat or go shopping. Since then, Grand Circle Travel has changed to the Park Hotel, which I have stayed in since. The Park Hotel is a very nice hotel with a good buffet breakfast and wonderful staff.

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In Chiang Mai, we visited Doi Suthep, a large temple on top of a mountain in Chiang Mai. We had a Buddhist lecture by one of the head monks at Wat Chedi Luang, and we got to visit the Elephant Camp at Mae Sae and saw an elephant show. We were able to feed the elephants and even got a ride on an elephant. The ride was wonderful as it took about an hour and went through the rice paddies and jungle and down into the river. We also went to the umbrella factory where artists will paint anything you want on any fabric personal item for a dollar. My father had a snake painted on the back of a down vest he owned and it looks fantastic.

Chiang Mai has the best night market in the country (it’s absolutely enormous), so it’s a great place for doing last minute shopping. One evening we went to a Kantoke dinner, a traditional Thai dinner where you see Thai dancers, sword fighters and muay Thai fighters (Thai kickboxing).

After five days in Chiang Mai, we flew back to Bangkok and had an overnight stay in the Sofitel Hotel. Again, Grand Circle Travel has downgraded the hotel and they now stay at the Grand China Princess, a much lower quality hotel than the Sofitel.

The trip to Thailand with Grand Circle Travel was the best tour I ever took. The tour guide was fabulous, the tours were wonderful, we saw so many things and had so many wonderful meals – all included in the price of the trip. After my trip, I actually moved to Thailand to teach English.

Since my trip with Grand Circle Travel however, they have downgraded most of their hotels, there are less included meals and trips and the quality of the meals has been reduced. I have several friends who are ex-tour guides with Grand Circle and they have told me many tourists, who had traveled with GCT before, were complaining that the cost of the tour had gone up but that the quality had gone down. Some of this is not Grand Circle’s fault as prices worldwide have gone up since jet fuel has risen, but some of it seems to be just pure greed on the part of Grand Circle Travel.

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I have also heard horror stories from ex-tour guides with Grand Circle Travel who have been fired by the company. GCT is now requiring the tour guides to maintain an ‘Excellent’ rating on all evaluations they receive from tourists on their tours. This would be fine if these reviews were on their performance, but they are not. They’re also reviewed on the quality of the hotel, the optional tours, and even on the customer service from staff in the Boston head office. So if a tourist does not like the hotel and only puts a ‘Good’ rating on his evaluation for that specific point, the tour guide in Thailand can be fired.

Grand Circle Travel uses hiring and firing practices in countries like Thailand that would be against the law in the US. In the past few years, GCT have fired more than fifty tour guides in Thailand alone, and many more worldwide. For this reason alone, unfortunately I would not travel with Grand Circle Travel again as I don’t agree with how they treat their employees. This is a pity, as their tours and the quality of service they offer is high but, if a company treats their employees poorly, I will not be a customer. I have also seen online reviews from several other past Grand Circle Travel customers who have also mentioned this being a reason they won’t travel with them again.