Posted by July 18, 2016 – At home, unpacked, and ready to do a follow-up
This was my first Grand Circle Travel (GCT) tour. My previous 3 had been with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) which is their sister company.
The first difference I noticed was a name tag and lanyard. On OAT tours there is a maximum of 16 people while GCT has a maximum of 40 people. I guess it is hard for us “elderly” to learn 40 names (or is it the tour leader who has a problem?).
Overall the tour was great. We got to see many National Parks and Monuments. We learned a lot of history. We got to meet with Native Americans and hear their stories.
I won’t complain about the long hours on the bus because GCT did a good job of warning us before we left. I will complain about the 15minutes it took to get off the bus. I learned that I have little patience with slow people. I watched people slowly get their bags and hats out of the overhead when getting off. This was for a ½ hour restroom break. When I asked one woman what took so long, she actually said “I needed to finish my puzzle.”
We did switch seats on the bus every day. The door side moved back 2 rows and the driver side moved up 2 rows. Many could not figure out their seats day to day.
My preference is to do only OAT tours in the future but I have 3 GCT tours reserved for the next 16 months. There are some itineraries that OAT does not do. I guess I’ll work on this patience thing.
Best stop: Zion National Park
Best unscheduled event: Walking out to Rim at Bryce Canyon in the rain.
Best non-GCT Activity: Hot Air Balloon Ride with Whitewater Rafting a close 2nd
Best GCT Activity: Visiting Little Bighorn
Best GCT Optional tour: Antelope Slot Canyon
My next trip is in September. I’ll be flying to New York to visit family before going to Europe to do GCT’s “Romantic Villages of Alpine Europe” tour starting on September 20th. I’ll be doing this tour with friends that I have done other OAT tours with.
Next January, Earl, Linda, and I will meet up again on Holland America’s Grand South America cruise which will circumnavigate South America as well as visit Antarctica and cruise down the Amazon. The best travel is when traveling with friends.
Elsie's Travel Blog 
It sounds like you had a great trip. I know what you mean about GCT’s slow people. So far in our tour travels, we have found the GCT travelers to be the worst when it comes to this. We also found a majority of GCT travelers to be some of the most complaining, unhappy people. After a couple trips with them, and on a recommendation, we switched to Vantage Travel. A much better “fit” for us.
Really enjoyed reading your blog. We have been to many of the places you visited, so your daily updates took me back to when we were there. As always, your photos were beautiful!
LikeLike