California Dreamin': Monterey, Yosemite & Napa

The trip to Yosemite national park even during the government shutdown. The add on trip to Lake Tahoe was wonderful.

Overall it was a great tour experience. Our tour guide was great and always ready to help with any issues. She had a wealth of knowledge about the areas we visited. Her idea of rotating our seats on the bus each day was a wonderful idea. Our baggage was always handeled by the hotels. The only time we had to drag our baggage was at the airport. Most of the hotels were nice and the breakfast food was great each morning. The Farm to Table meals were excellent. I loved hearing about the farming industry at each of the farms we stopped at. Very interesting. This was my first "senior" bus tour trip so I don't have much to benchmark it against but our days were full and we were up early each morning and went until early evening. The only negative thing I have to say is that Customer Service (or whoever books the flights) had us going out of the airport and coming home at a god awful hour. In retrospect, if I did another tour I would try and find a better flight myself and hook up with the tour at the first hotel. Other than that it was a great trip!

Tour manager spoke much too fast most of the time. Many complained it was hard to understand in the back half of the bus. Hadn't been to Yosemite NP in 50 yrs it was great. First time at Lake Tahoe, very nice boat ride.

Sweet Kelley made our tour a joy! I loved seeing the Monterey coastline. I loved Yosemite National Park and cruising on Lake Tahoe. I enjoyed San Francisco--riding in a driverless car, Alcatraz, Muir Woods, riding on a trolley, doing the hop on, hop off bus tour. (I know all of San Francisco was on my own, but I enjoyed the opportunity.) One thing of disappointment--we had a great tour of an olive farm and learned all about grading and processing. But, yet--when we got to Napa Valley, we had no tour of any kind. Yes, we had a good meal, but there were no "tastings" or opportunities to ship product home, like we got at the olive farm. Please change this for future trips. Napa Valley did not include the tour we anticipated.

My husband and I throughly enjoyed our visit to CA. Our tour director Kelly and bus driver Kenny were both excellent. There were 2 mentally as well as physically challenged men who were not traveling with a much needed caretaker on this trip which was a negative for all the other guests as well as our tour director and bus driver. I would have to say that Collette needs to have a better screening of trip requirements for each guests in regard to physical and mental condition. Both men sat on the front seats and one kept his foot in the aisle as we departed the bus so the rest of us had to exit the bus carefully. I feel the guests on the bus were inconvenienced because of their mental and physical conditions. My husband one day helped one of the men to get their food on the buffet line. I appreciate both Kelly and Kenny make the best of an awkward situation. Now for the positive, the tour was awesome getting to explore the different areas of CA that I had never visited. Getting to visit an almond orchard, winery and tasting at an olive oil business were educational as well as enjoyable. The weather was perfect for our boat ride on Lake Tahoe. Yosemite was a thrill to see El Capitan and watch individuals taking the climb. The 17 mile bus ride along the coast was memorable. We stayed the extra days in San Francisco. The hotel was just the right location to be able to walk to so many places we wanted to visit as well as great to try restaurants. The Hotel Zoe had a beautiful atrium to enjoy comfortable seating with fire pit tables. S’more kits were given out at the front desk so guests could enjoy a yummy treat by the fire. The perfect spot to unwind at the end of the day. Thank you Collette for a well planned out trip!!