Beyond Boundaries Travel

I went on a bike trip with Beyond Boundaries Travel to Puerto Rico. This was not your typical «go to Puerto Rico and lay on a beach trip.» We went to the islands of Culebra and Vieques. From Flamingo Beach on Culebra to the Bioluminescent Bay on Vieques, we saw a lot of very interesting local sites. We stayed at the Hacienda Tamarindo just outside of Esperanza on the south side of Vieques, a nice property with a pool that overlooks the ocean and the wild horses that roam the island. The biking was adventurous, but not too strenuous.

Booked their Scandinavian trip offered through Groupon to celebrate my B’day with my wife. In general, service before trip was okay. The guy assigned– Daniel was helpful and responded to inquiries presented to the most part. However, serious issues were encountered while traveling that we considered are the responsibility of Beyond Boundaries– the agency offering and managing the package, here a summary of feedback we sent to them, that you might find helpful if booking in the future. In general, watch out for Groupon’s offers that speak of «independent tours» managed by this agency:
It is simply unbelievable we were booked for a 9 hour flight in the cheapest airline– Norwegian without food and that we were not told. First time we traveled International in a long flight (and we have several times before) and we get NOTHING and even had to ask for WATER.
We never got the breakfast at the Ferry included in the package, agency didn’t book and we have to pay for it.
Their hotel/​cabin selections are really disappointing, they should not advertise them in Groupon as 3 or 4 stars, they are more like 2 stars max. Osterport had insects in the room, next to a train station, so no sleep, crappy bed and really hot. Omena might be a nice new concept very profitable for the owners I bet but highly inconvenient for tourists, basic amenities, half of a bottle for soap, no TV channels working, and no a person to ask to fix as it is not their «system». Anna hotel was damn hot and at the Ferry we were told it was the most basic cabin type assigned to deck 2, even below the car decks, even got a bunker bed and had to talk to front desk to get different accommodations as we are a married couple, REALLY UNACCEPTABLE!
We were promised two days in Helsinki but only got to stay half day. We had such an early flight back home that didn’t even get one of the breakfasts we were supposedly entitled to. Now we understand that it had to do with the cheapest airline option selected for us, which had the stop over in Olso of 8 hours that really made us lose one day. If another airline had been used, probably a different outcome would have occurred.
A better work can be done providing directions to the travelers between airports to hotels/​ports, etc when not included. Beyond’s instructions are just too basic and don’t cover what is to be expected when moving around these countries and is not included in their package. A bit more research that provides better support would make their offers better.
Bottom line, I know this company is a business but if what they are offering is the cheapest plan with so much compromise to be made, they should be upfront and say so, so the customer knows what to expect. If that is not the plan, they have fixes to make.
This would not take away from the wonderful experience we had but certainly could have been way better if your company had done a better job.

It wasn’t until after I booked a Groupon Getaways trip to Turkey and Greece with Beyond Boundaries Travel that I thought to look them up on Unilocal (i know, bad Unilocaler!) So, needless to say, when I saw the negative reviews below after I’d already paid, I was more than a little worried.
But let’s backtrack. before I purchased the deal, I had a couple of questions about the trip. I contacted BBT and immediately received a call back from Doug, who I believe is the owner of the company. (Not only that, but he called me back from his house on a Sunday!) I was wondering if I could extend the return flight so that we could spend some more time in Istanbul, and he said this wouldn’t be a problem at all. When I mentioned possibly going to Athens as well, he highly advised I skip Athens and just spend more time in Istanbul. Considering he could’ve gladly tacked on more plane tickets to the trip and charged me for it, I was really impressed with his honesty! He also seemed very well-​traveled and knowledgable about the area and gave great advice!
I immediately had a good feeling about it and booked two trips with BBT. After that, a travel representative named Coral was very communicative, sending us all the info for the trip way in advance. She answered all questions promptly and send more info than I ever expected, such as a suggested packing list and pages of info about the area attractions, culture, things to be aware of, etc.
The one snafoo came when I received an auto-​reply that Coral was out on maternity leave. I was redirected to another representative who I was never able to get in touch with. Several weeks went by and I wasn’t able to reach anyone via phone or email (I tried three different times). I needed to know what time we would be docking on a certain island so I could plan a diving trip around it.
I sent an email out to the main one (I believe it was info@beyondboundaries) saying I really needed to get in touch with someone and was a little frustrated that no one had gotten in touch. Immediately, I received a call from Doug again! He was apologetic that no one had returned my call earlier and, once again, he gave me great advice– this time on dive spots through the area.
I hope Beyond Boundaries gets some more positive reviews on Unilocal because they really deserve it! The negative reviews below really don’t do them justice! I was totally pleased with our trip (everything ran very smoothly, just as planned!) and all my dealings with BBT outside of that one gap in communication which was quickly resolved!

Our group purchased a Groupon for an Egyptian Nile cruise through Beyond Boundaries. The cruise was 7 nights, all inclusive except drinks, and was $ 499.
I was almost immediately put off by Beyond Boundaries when their representative sent over their optional excursion list– not because I didn’t want to do execursions (we did!), but because the representative couldn’t answer basic questions about their list. We are experienced travelers who did not want to get stuck waddling around with a group of fanny-​pack wearers (if you’re picking up what I’m putting down), so I asked the agent how many people are on the tours. She hemmed, she hawed, she said «Usually like, 7.» I asked if thats the cap and she said no, it just depends on the number of people there. She could not and would not guarantee a maximum group size, so I looked elsewhere for our tours. And, boy, am I happy we did! We found Memphis Tours, a company out of Cairo with AMAZING reviews and I can’t stress enough how pleased we were with absolutely every aspect of our trip through them! Amazing.
I also found out that if we had booked that same cruise through Memphis, it would have been even cheaper than the Groupon price! Oh, well. Live and learn.
Over the months, I attempted to contact BBT several times with questions. I’d email our representative, wait weeks, then finally give up and call, only to find out that our representative was no longer employed there. This happened no less than three times.
As our trip came closer, the situation in Egypt deteriorated. June 30^th brought about a «coup» or «popular impeachment» or whatever you want to label it as, which brought about a lot of anxiety on our end. I tried contacting BBT and again, our agent had changed. They offered to let us rebook our cruise for another date, but were otherwise unhelpful with quelling any of our fears (compared to the Memphis representative, who was INCREDIBLY informative and reassuring about the situation).
We did take the trip as planned. The ship we were on (Royal Esadora 2) was beautiful, the staff was friendly, and the food was alright. I certainly can’t complain for what we paid. There was one other Groupon group aboard and they did book their tours through BBT.. . and all they did was complain about it. Their guide didn’t even go into attractions with them– he’d briefly explain what was going on, then not even go in with them. Our guide would go in, spending an hour + explaining every little detail. The other group actually said they regretted just going along with BBT’s guide.
All in all, I can’t say I’ll do business with BBT every again. If I see another Groupon from them, I’ll be passing– if nothing else, because of the poor communication we received while arranging our trip. It wouldn’t have even been as bad if it wasn’t in direct juxtaposition to our amazing service from Memphis. I’ll give them 2 stars because the cruise was nice, though.
If you’re looking to book a Nile Cruise or any Egyptian tours, I highly suggest Memphis Tours. We regret not booking everything through them.

2 stars.
I gave this company an extra star since the owner cleaned up his initial response left on ¹⁄₂₃ and finally owned up to the ridiculous Living Social (*clearing my throat*) «deal» in this private message I received today, ²⁄₂₁:
«Thanks for your review. Something you should know however is that Beyond Boundaries Travel was not responsible for the language of the presentation of the package you describe on Living Social. We did indeed send that package to Living Social as a per person price and suggested that they should show it as such in order to avoid any confusion. Their decision to do otherwise was up to them, but please understand it was not ours.
As for the experience you had with one of our staff in the office, I apologize that you may not have gotten the answers you desired at that time. I wonder if you had spoken with Jeannie who runs the program to Orlando, whether you may have gotten a more clear answer? In any case, please feel free to call me or Jeannie to discuss as we would like to follow up on the situation. Thanks again for your time.»
Just keeping with «full disclosure», right?
Hey Doug L… thanks for retracting some of your earlier comment and for acknowledging that the public could have been mislead by your Living Social marketing — sorry, my conscience just will not allow me to call it a «deal».
Since it is apparent that we won’t be experiencing Harry Potter and I still haven’t finalized my vacation plans… Why don’t you send me on a trip that would accurately represent your company? I’d be more than happy to give my honest assessment!
Unilocal is real, and so is my need for a vacation right now!

A big group booked over 100 people with this agency, to an all inclusive (what a joke) resort. Literally we were ripped off in one way or another. The liason of the travel agency was no help, they nickeled and dimed us, rooms with no a/​c in a tropical area, refrigerators in room was extra daily, paid in cash for the «electricity» there were small dixie cups you could drink all you want all day long, watered down drinks and the resort was not the cleanest. The flights were booked with married couples not even sitting together, partners were having difficulties trying to even get rooms together. The agency is a joke, they continuously cried that they were working on it, the resort people informed us that well, we were out of luck. I warn everyone and anyone don’t use them, they have changed names already once!!!