California Dreamin': Monterey, Yosemite & Napa

Overall the tour was great! Erik, our tour director, was very knowledgeable and charismatic. We were a bit disappointed in the Carmel stop. An hour and a half at a shopping area was not what we anticipated for our time in Carmel.

Incredible tour guide! Incredible bus driver! Disappointed that we could get not always get vegetarian meals. Disappointed that no one was at the airport waiting for us, as I had to go find the driver. Disappointed at the hotel accommodations.

We enjoyed our trip. The driver and tour manager were excellent! They handled a wild turkey smashing into our windshield with calmness and expertise. We were on our way again in no time.

In San Francisco, the hotel was a drop in quality and the group was left to fend for ourselves for dinner. Sheryl Wilkins and Nate, our driver were excellent! I enjoyed some of the small stops--the artichoke farm, the almond grove, and especially the olive oil tasting. Lunch in Nappa Valley was super! I didn't enjoy Cannery row--I had planned staying at the hotel to enjoy the steam bath, the hot tub, and the pool. I was forced to go shopping. 🤮 The airline arrangements were terrible.

Excellent hotels- meals Restaurants prepared with many servers , ready for a group meals very nice for group fare. Napa valley meal and wine tasting excellent! Lori director very pleasant easy to be with, well prepared. Guide very knowledgeable and eager to share information, pleasant and accommodating to all these different ladies 😁Driver excellent Lots of bus time due to distance but interesting necessary stops to break up the drive and allow restroom and information about the varied areas travelled through. Enjoyed all especially Yosemite and Sonoma. Wanted to see these places and would not have been able to unless experienced this trip.

In reality, the only thing I really liked was Yosemite Park that was all it was beautiful and memorable. Can’t say anything else about the other tours or the accommodations

Yosemite tour was the best part overall it was disappointing Other tours didn't happen, rushed throughout the week accommodations were terrible not at all what I was expecting not worth the cost

A wonderful trip!!

Pepple beach. Recommend hotel rooms have walk in showers instead of bath tubs. Breakfasts were all excellent.

Beautiful scenery, delicious food and great tour guide and driver!

We chose to do an extra 2 days in San Francisco. It was a great decision because we got to experience San Francisco better.

Yosemite

Loved everything except the two restaurants you picked for us to eat at the one on the pier was not good the other one on the pier no good but we loved Napa valley place we ate it

Glad I went on this tour - enjoyed it all - and our walk on Sunday evening to In-N-Out Burger in San Francisco!

Tour was great we enjoyed it very much. Made perfect use of our time ! We seen so much. Came home sick due to lots of coughing on the bus and no bus sanitizing that we were aware of. Tested positive for influenza A We will be sanitizing ourselves next time and utilizing a mask 😷 on the bus . Thank you so much for a great experience 💗

The tour was not relaxing. Too many early starts.. It was not enjoyable.

Was tremendous and made the event even better than it was. The tour I took us to places that I most likely would never have gone to going by myself. Highlights of the tour, Yosemite and Lake Tahoe. However, there was so many aspects of the tour they were almost as good that is hard to pick a favorite.

It was wonderful to see some of the many faces of California. The tour included agricultural sites, historical sites and natural beauty. What a sight to see miles and miles of orchards and lettuce fields. The railroad museum in Sacramento was a perfect stop on a rainy day- dining cars, old steam locomotives, Pullman cars, all interesting- but the model railroad room made me feel like a kid again. Sea otters at the Monterey Aquarium put on a show that makes this a must see. My favorite though was a long awaited trip to Yosemite. I finally saw Half Dome, El Capitan (with climbers scaling the walls), waterfalls, and majestic trees everywhere! Fantastic! Our tour director was current with the weather situation and changed some arrangements so we got to Yosemite and Lake Tahoe ahead of a cold front and snowstorm. There was some bus time but it was worth it to find such comfortable hotels at the end of the day.

Monterey was marvelous The hotel was in a great area.

I mostly loved Lake Tahoe. The trip was well run and organized. Saw so much in a week. It was tiring but worth it. To tell the truth I thought the tour leader could be more quiet sometimes on the coach. Between the sight seeing I would not have minded some "quiet" time. Todd was.excellent friendly knowledgeable and a real pro ! really enjoyed seeing the waterfalls in Yosemite. Monterey was exceedingly gorgeous and Pebble Beach Resort! Going over the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time was thrilling for me. What a view! The restaurant we had lunch in Napa was the best meal!! Loved the art museum in Sacremento . . .

The bus driver and tour guide left a lot to be desired.

Eric was a wonderful guide. The locations we visited were beautiful.

California Dreamin': Monterey, Yosemite & Napa was a wonderful experience. I had never been to California before this trip. In 10 days, I saw and experience California in history, culture and vistas. Our group, also, added the 2 days extension for San Francisco. I would highly recommend adding this to your tour. Our tour guide, Erik was great! He kept us informed daily of what we were going to see and the history of the area. Some of the days were long on the bus, but it was worth it. We were in four different hotels for this trip, they were all wonderful.

Yosemite took my breath away. Enjoyed Lake Tahoe and the boat cruise and would have enjoyed more time there. The trip gave you a taste of Northern California

Yasemite. Muir Woods Napa Valley the Brix

Excellent tour with interesting stops and tour hosts. Tour guide was knowledgeable and informative and of course Yosemite.

It was a little long for me.

Erik Hinman was our tour Director and he was fabulous. When my husband fell he Uber to us to the hospital and then to the drugstore and then back to our hotel in Monterey. He explained everything we were doing daily and at the end of the day he would send us photos and tell about what was going on the next day.

Connecting flights were late forcing us to miss initial group meeting! It took 15 hours for us to arrive in Monterey! A direct flight to San Francisco and ground transport to destination would have been preferred!

Wonderful trip. But I thought we had too much t8me in Sacramento and too little time in Napa

Tour really was excellent. But cancellation of our first choice date ( which as then added back to the selection list) , and a sense that time in Sacramento was too long at the expense of Napa, dropped my rating from 5 to 4 stars. High points were an exceptional guide and driver, the hotels and meals, the day in Yosemite and farmer John.

Visiting Napa valley, Yosemite Park, farmer’s markets, Cannery Row, and Old SCARAMENTO!

It was a wonderful tour!!

Great guide and driver. Most of sites were interesting. Hotels were wonderful and food most of time. Yosemite was my favorite. I would like to return se day.

Everything was perfect. I realize Big Sur was not part of the tour package, but since we were fairly close I wish that would have been included as part of the trip.

Tour guide too political, bus driver not friendly, not enough time in Yosemite, accommodations too far away from Yosemite--this was the draw for many of us and we had 2 hr. of free time in Yosemite. And, why did we not see the giant redwoods--so close, but didn't get there??? 45 minutes in Carmel-come on, that was barely enough time to get a drink...very disappointed in this pricey trip--had heard great things about Colette, but I would not recommend to anyone.

Needed more time at Yosemite and Napa Valley.

Needed more time at Yosemite. Felt very rushed .

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This was our first tour with Collette and definitely won’t be our last. Everything was outstanding, and the perfect amount of tour stops and free time.

Everything went well. Was just disappointed that we did not get to San Francisco until 5 pm and we had to leave by 4:30 am the next morning. Would have liked to have more time.

Yosemite falls and Muir Woods. Tour Guide, Todd Asperger and Bus Driver David were just excellent!!

one hotel had a squishy bathtub; one meal we did not care for; glad we came a day earlier so we could look over Monterry

Yosemite National Park was nice.

too much shopping and would have liked more time at Yosemite to hike on trails.

Todd is a top notch guide. The Monterey hotel was exceptional. Pacing of inclusions was perfect.

Everything was 💯 fabulous would love to go again in the near future. Tour manager was outstanding. Bus driver was great. Thank you

Need more time a some stops. Allowing only one hour only gives you time to stand in line to use restrooms

Everything went along with no problems from being picked up for our trip to the airport to being picked up when we arrived home after our trip was completed.

Everything was on time . Meals were good. The only thing was at the end our transport to the airport took forever the bus driver didn’t seem to know what to do.

Was a very well planned and organiz ed trip.

Well organized, great sites, 2 days at each motel

A great value for the money

If we would have gone to some wineries that were actually producing wine and been able to tour the production process and their vineyards, it would have been better.

I am pretty sure I already did this survey I will take this opportunity to say it was unsafe to have the tour manager in the aisle while the bus was moving. Sound system should have been fixed - no matter what! Please let me know that you read these!

Too many shopping stops. Stop at Pebble Beach golf course was inappropriate. There were many other nature areas we could have gone to. We were dropped off at a place in Yosemite that had no trail heads. There was a shuttle bus but we were not given any info about that, like how much time it would take. I feel we missed seeing a lot of beautiful areas of the park. Needed to spend more time there. The bus's intercom system was broken, so when our guide was talking about things in the area, we could not hear much. I had hoped someone would have come to fix it but that did not happen. We paid a lot and missed a lot more! The bus was a tcs bus #9109. Also the bus was dirty, and had litter in the cup holders. I do not like to be told that we can only use the toilet on the bus, if it is an emergency! That bathroom is the advantage of taking a trip like this! I am not planning on going on any other Collette tour again.

I have to say I am very disappointed using Collette. We booked our entire trip with flights and trip! When our flight changed you had to rebook our flight and we had to pay for another night at our hotel, RIU which was terrible and you tried to make us pay for our transportation home. We spent way to much time on the bus! Our Tour Guide did not adjust everyone seats. The same people sat in the front the entire trip which I felt was unfair. The TV and Microphone on the bus was not working the ENTIRE trip-which forced the tour director to read his scripts from the middle of the bus, which you could not always hear him. Skip the stop at Farmer John's he served us wraps and baked beans, it was terrible. Spend more time in Napa Valley exploring the great wines. The stay at the Casino was terrible, nothing to explore! We constantly had to call for our information from Collette, we did not receive our trip information until a few days before our trip. The car services that drove us home from Newark Airport was terrible-the car smelled like WEED and the driver was a mess. I would not recommend this trip or Collette to anyone. I can truly say that the only good thing about this trip was our BUS DRIVER he was amazing and knew more about California then our tour director! I hope I hear from someone at Collette after writing this reivew!

WAY, WAY, WAY too much activity. Not relaxing at all. Audio/video equipment on the tour bus was not working. Bus was only marginally comfortable. Also not very clean. One of the hotels was pretty awful (the Black Oak Casino one).

I thought I did this before. Can you check and let me know if you got the first one?

It was a truly an excellent trip and the guide was outstanding. It could not have been better. Thank you!!!

The Collette app on my phone was the best! Our tour manager, Erik, did a wonderful job of explaining where and what we were doing. I was impressed with the whole operation.

I just loved everything about the trip! The tour manager was very knowledgeable about the area! Also very personable as well!

The Monterey Bay Aquarium anchovy and jellyfish exhibits. The trip on Lake Tahoe was a close second and the meal at Brix a great time.

I loved all of it. We live in a beautiful country & your tours show it in a great way.

The whole tour was fantastic.. Seeing El Capitan was fantastic. It was one of the best tours that I was on for collect..

THE BOAT RIDE ON LAKE TAHOE

Did not care for accomodations at Black Oak Casino, breakfast was not good at all. Needed more time at Yosemite. Our Driver, Dave was awesome and Michelle our tour direction was very good. Bus was a little cramped and with only one entrance and exit it took too long for our group of 39 to get on and off.

The trip was very well planned. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and helpful. She had surprises along the way for us. The bus driver was excellent. I enjoyed the variety of places we stopped.

Great tour -- Only negative is the hotel in San Francisco

Loved the tour and our hostess Michelle was great.

Saw a lot of areas in Jaime week. Although a few of the dinners need some improvement.

This was another well planned tour of several locations I’ve always wanted to see.

Great scenery, wonderful variety of activities.

Tour manager was awesome. Loved Yosemite and the Golden Gate Bridge. Paid for the extension, enjoyed our on our own time. Saw a lot of Monterey before the tour started and extra excursions to Muir Woods, Sausalito and more.

Wonderful trip , great tour guide Joel.

The whole tour was amazing. I especially loved the stops along the way to our destination, like the artichoke farm or the apple orchard. Yosemite was amazing and watching Free Solo on the way back after seeing El Capitan,was perfect!

We had an excellent tour director! He made everyone feel very comfortable and made the trip a lot of fun!

Good tour manager, good pace of activities, excellent food at the winery.

Too much time on the bus and the rooms were small and dark.

Tour manager was extraordinary. He took care of every detail without making a big deal about it. As a guest it seemed as if everything ran as smoothly as possible.

Tour Manager was the best.

Most enjoyable trip,!our your director Jennifer was outstanding!

It was a great trip. Tour Manager did a great job. Nice group size.

Everything was well planned out!