Central Holidays

Poor presentation of request. Customize. Itineraries -- no skilled experience.

Becareful who you request.

If it's a group highly recommend Valerie.

Wrote to customer service in regards to compensation on my trip booking # N138611.Would like a response! Transfer to hotel was nightmare they were supposed to take luggage by taxi to hotel and had to walk 2 miles withALL luggage!, then lost last 2 days of our tours cause central holidays said dont move till we get back to you in regards to flights home!

My sister and I were the only ones to lose our excursions and tour. Already wrote letter to consumer relations for central holidays have yet to respond!!!,

We booked a trip to Greece, then of course it was cancelled due to covid. That wasn't so bad...but when we initially booked our trip included: airfare, hotels, hopper flights, and excursions...When we rebooked they said our credit didn't cover the whole trip...they gave us Hotels and hopper flights only???

How could that be...so at that point we were forced to do the trip and pay more money.

They were rude and very unaccommodating... do yourself a favor there are many good travel agencies out there...don't use this one!

Our travel used CentralHolidays and our budget was over $1000 per night on our honeymoon. CentralHolidays consistently booked us at hotels that were about $200 per night and were rundown.

Definitely not worth the value we paid for.

Theyre also unavailable for any issues during your trip. Absolutely garbage service and would never use again.

Our trip to Italy was canceled due to COVID-19 and medical reasons to not travel at this time. We had their travel insurance and a supporting doctor for my health!

All our money was returned with help from travel agent except for $1644.00 for air flights! United Airlines refunded the money back to CENTRAL HOLIDAYS and we were told by agent that because they were bulk rate tickets as part of package they will not refund our money!

This is a bs reason and they know it bc it does not say anything in the contracts!!!!!

CENTRAL HOLIDAYS fails to provide refunds to their customers after numerous requests have been made. Our trip to Italy was scheduled for March 19th.

On February 28th, a request for a FULL refund without penalty was made after the CDC posted a Level 3 AVOID NON ESSENTIAL TRAVEL - WIDESPREAD COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION alert was made. Instead of offering a full refund, a partial refund was offered along with travel vouchers, a partial airline voucher WITH additional transfer fees imposed upon me. The airline itself cancelled our flight to Italy for March 19th and yet, I'm not being afforded a full refund?

I will not stand for this and will continue to fight for what is right, a full uncontested refund.

LASTLY, MY WIFE AND I HAVE HEARD FROM OTHER INDIVIDUALS THAT ARE BEING FACED WITH THE SAME SITUATION FROM CENTRAL HOLIDAYS.

The stories are remarkably the same, down to the lack of communication that they are experiencing. If you feel comfortable sharing your story, please post it here on their public Facebook page, YELP, or file a complaint with your local BBB.

I have booked 5 ski trips to Wengen Switzerland with Central Holidays. They encouraged me to by cancellation Insurance, which I did each time.

Because of Illness and injury I was unable to go and I was refunded for two of these trips. The Remaining three ten day trips were perfect in every way. The Package included flight to Zurich, rail to Interlaken, switch trains to Lauterbrunen/ Wengen. All went perfectly!

I will definitely use their services again!

PS: They assisted me in recovering the refund for the two trips I could not make. The Travel Insurance cost about $300.00, which is not refunded.

Edoardo Di Liberto

My husband and I booked a trip to Italy and we had the worst experience with Central Holidays.  The hotels were horrible, to say the least.  No information was given regarding the rail passes and we even got fined for our passes to Cinque De Terre.  The last hotel (The Torino) was so bad that our room was no larger than 10x10 and the mattress was so old that we felt every spring.  We would have slept on the floor if there was enough room for us!  My very calm husband got the great idea of piling a bunch of blankets on top of the bed but he stopped when he was tucking it in and got a long (bleeding) cut from a 3" nail.  He wasn't so calm after that!  The hotel manager didn't even offer him a band aid.  I dreamed of going to Italy and Central Holiday's ruined it.

I wrote a review on Yelp and had many written conversations with Gianni M. who accused me of blackmail for writing a poor review. If you have time, read all the letters. The entire Italy experience was terrible and in the end he offered us $75 which came as a voucher! What a joke.

we participated on the people to people tour to Cuba which was very nice.

the only annoying issue is not knowing the charter's schedule.

for example we arrived Miami a day before to take an afternoon flight()2pm) same is on the return the charter depared at 8:30am and we booked a flight to NY for 8pm long connection.(based on your recomandation)

also this itinerary allowed us only 3 full days in Havana since we arrived to the hotel on 04 Feb at 6pm and left the hotel on 08Feb at 6:30am.

We went to Italy from June 28 to July 7. The trip was fabulous the food was great.

Our tour guide was the nicest person and very attentive, that also goes for the other guides we had. I have only one complaint it was in Florence. The hotel was very nice but the area was very shady not a place you would want to be walking around in at dark the hotel was the Grand Western. At first the room they gave us the air condition did not work.

They moved us to another room that had a leak in the ceing in the foyer area my husband entered the room and slipped right I his back thankfully he was just sore and did not get injured. Other then Floence our trip was very nice.

Would like to give some feedback on your services.

Our first stay was in Nice 5/15/13 to 5/18/13

The hotel was comfortable. We first were upgraded, which was nice but only lasted one night. We had a flood from the rain that soaked a portion of the room. Then we were downgraded into the smallest room they had. When we went to use the water in the 2nd room, it came out a rusty color, we needed to run it for 15 minutes to clear it.The phone was not working. We had to get it fixed. They gave us keys that did not work. Had to get them fixed. The main front desk female was very rude to us. Had a attitude that was hard to miss, making the stay very uncomfortable. We asked how long it would take to get a cab for the train & her answer was 5 to 10 minutes. Asked her to call for a cab. She obviously did not call. We waited 30 minutes for a cab. It was pouring rain. Went outside to find a cab on our own. It was difficult & we were fearful we would miss the train. I am very sorry to have had that hotel & experience.

Tour guide in Nice was a joke. Nine people jammed in a car. We were not told we were going to a perfume factory. They had a tour guide in there with broken english & it was a sales pitch that was the main plot. Our tour guide sat outside & waited for it to be finished. Next was the castle in Eze Village. We were dropped off in the pouring rain & he waited in the warm car. No information from the tour guide. He did pull over to the side of the road in the pouring rain in pointed to a distant roof top to tell us Elton John owns a house there, rather lame. A car ride around Monaco, again dropped us off at the palace without being with us to give us information. He sat in his car & gave us 1/2 hour.

Train tickets from La Spezia Central to Monterosso were totally uncalled for. We had asked Donna Oleston, Travel Consultant Travel Planners International, Inc. (affiliate) if that was necessary & she said she would check & said it was. Well we were on the train for 2 plus hours only to come to Montorosso & find out we did not need to go all the way to La Spezia. The information that we got was incorrect. We were also told that we would get free entry into the museums & that was incorrect. They only offered a discount. Very disappointing.

Casa Dei Limoni 5/18/13 to 5/21/13

Those steps you see in the pictures are the ones that take you to the hotel. Over 80 steps with luggage can be trying on the body. My husband pulled his shoulder out lugging the luggage up over 80 steps. Not good. The manager was surprised that we were not told. No phones in the room. It was the size of a closet, You would bump into each other trying to walk by the bed. No room at all. If that was the deluxe room, I would hate to see the other rooms. By the way, if you ask for a second cup of coffee she will threaten to charge you for the coffee.

We missed our connection Montorosso to Genova Piazza with the 15 minute layover because our train pulled into the station as the other train left. It was really bad organization on your company's part to do that. We spent 50 minutes going from one person to the next trying to get new tickets. When we finally got the tickets we had 10 minutes to get to the train. That was another problem, at that point because every one had assigned seats but us. Not good. The trains run an hour apart & it would have been better to have schedule the train we ended up taking.

Venice 5/18/13 to 5/24/13

The Hotel Cavalletto at Piazza San Macro was ok. Paper thin walls. The staff was friendly, which was nice for a change. Alley view out the windows. Could not use my reward points card for Best Western when we got back to the states because we evidently did not pay enough for the hotel.

Lake Garda

Hotel Oliveto, 5/24/13 to 5/28/13

This Best Western Had a rock hard bed, 1 1/2 miles out of town. When we asked Donna how would we get to the Hotel. The answer was, I guess you would take a Taxi. Well when we arrived, it was pouring rain about 1:30 & there was not a cab present while we waited a half hour. We had to walk in the freezing rain. Thanks Donna. The Hotel looked like stepping back in time to Howard Johnson in the 70's. Don got very sick because the air conditioning filters did not filter the air, which brought the outside pollen into the room. We did not sleep at all. There was a smoker next door & smell went into our room with the thin walls & bad air system. That hotel was on the lake front with no view & no access to the lake with out walking a distance. Again Best Western in the states would not honor or membership because we did not paid enough for the room.

The hotel in Turin was very nice. Unfortunately, we only had one night there.

Needless to say we are not happy with the way things turned out. We were not given any choices or time to check out what was given to us . Give us your money. Then it was more like here it is. Our questions that we passed on to Donna Oleston were not answered in a timely way, if answered at all, or correctly. We feel we spent a fair amount of money with your company & did not get much in return. We seem to have been given the cheapest rooms available. Our last meeting we told Donna Oleston that we were not happy with what she gave us & she said nothing.Contact with the company was totally ignore did not even try to resolve anything.

Central Holidays of Moonacie, N.J. failed to provide ground transportation we had prepaid them for, left us stranded in a foreign country and did not respond to any of our letters of complaint.

Don't use them, they don't deliver as promised. Poor poor poor poor poor poor poor poor poor poor poor poor at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at service.