AppleVacations.com
- Apple Vacations has been in business for an astounding 40 years.
- Apple Vacations is one of the largest international travel providers in the U.S., winning multiple awards including: Best Tour Operator to the Caribbean 2008 -Travel Weekly Readers Choice Awards, Best Tour Operator to Mexico 2008 – Travel Weekly Readers Choice Awards, Best Tour Operator, Latin America/Mexico 2008 – Recommend Magazine Reader’s Choice Award, Best Online Booking Tool for Travel Agents 2008
- Golf Collection – discounted or free greens fees at the “finest golf courses” included with many Apple Vacations Golf Packages
- Family Collection – Family-friendly resorts with many allowing children to stay, play and eat free!
- Ski Trips – best ski destinations in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Vermont, Canada
- Spa Collection – world-class spa resorts in the Caribbean and Mexico
- Wedding Collection – plan your wedding with Apple Vacations with your very own personal wedding coordinator. Wedding packages include a presiding judge, photographer, tropical flowers, and custom designed menu. Plus, get discounted rates when you book 10 rooms or more in your wedding package
- Group & Family Getaways – book a large group trip or family reunion and enjoy huge discounts when you book for your group. Discounts include a free trip for the 21st passenger!
Our Editor’s Review
We really like the Apple Vacations ‘Most Popular Deals’ page. You simply plug in your departure city and it instantly shows you to the best Apple Vacations deals. To find the cheapest deals, select your closest departure city, hit “go” and then sort the results by “price”. This will show you the best Apple Vacations deals from your home. We also found the deals that Apple Vacations has for groups to be awesome. If you are planning a wedding, family reunion or other group getaway for more than 20 people, Apple Vacations has nice deals available.
We found that booking the advertised promotions and deals aren’t as easy as they should be, especially when you have a family. During our tests, although the hotel listing touted “Two Kids Stay Free“, we were unable to get a quote for that hotel in which 2 kids were actually free. Perhaps we didn’t click just the right button or something, but if that is the case then the Apple Vacations site is too difficult to navigate. It was extremely difficult to find the best Apple Vacations deals because we found no rate calendar. In fact, we found many family vacations that were ridiculously expensive. Taxes and fees in the amount of $1016 were added to one family vacation, and we did not see where it itemized these out for us. From our favorite Most Popular Deals page, we were told that a vacation was “no longer available“ if we had more than 5 people in our family. Perhaps that is why the Family Collection page is so difficult to find. The Apple Vacations website is much more favorable when booking couples vacations for two people. If you are booking a family vacation, we prefer using CheapCaribbean.com. We often find better deals on Funjet Vacations vs. Apple Vacations, so we would compare prices found on Apple Vacations with those that you find on Funjet.
Apple Vacations Hotel Ratings
Apple Vacations hotel ratings are based on real Apple Vacations travelers who complete a survey after their trip. Each hotel and resort is given an Apple score, and quite simply the more Apples the better! What about those “Golden Apples”? The Golden Apple hotels are the cream of the crop, and only given to hotels and resorts that earned exceptional ratings on the Apple Vacations traveler survey. Do you see a little plus symbol (+) next to an Apple? That means the hotel offers more services or amenities compared to other hotels with the same Apple rating.
Apple Vacations Policies*
- Cancellations between 44-31 days to departure = $125+ per person fee
- Cancellations 45 days or more to departure = $45+ per person fee
- Applicable hotel and airline penalties are also added to all cancellations
- If you cancel sometime within the last 30 days prior to departure, y0u may be subject to 100% penalty (ie. no refund for you). TIP: Purchase the AV-OK Total Vacation Security plan at the time of booking which may help save on these fees
*Based solely on research done by TravelSiteCritic.com, these figures may be inaccurate and are subject to change.Verify policies with the website before you book. Please be aware of airfare taxes & fees, applicable to any booking that includes airfare.
Apple Vacations Contact Information:
AppleVacations.com
Customer Care
P.O. Box 6500
Newtown Square, PA 19073
(800) 517-2000
trips@applevacations.com
AppleVacations.com User Reviews:
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AppleVacations.com User Ratings:
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We have used Apple several times for booking Breezes Super Clubs Resorts In Jamaica. No problems or issues. Their prices were the cheapest when we booked. I would not hesititate to book with them again.
Apple Vacations website slow, errors, mismatched property photos, misleading low pricing. After calling 3 different times, on 3 different days, sales reps were always rude, condescending and disrespectful… if they act like that before you give them money, just imagine how nasty they’ll be after! Save yourself the aggrivation, you can get treated like dirt for free… give your money to someone who can give you respect.
Apple Vacations customer service, especially the core customer service is the worst I have encountered and I have traveled a lot. My trip I am to go on in three days, they call me and say.. we have no hotel… but one and it is a much lesser quality. I ask for anything but this one as I know it has no beach…. I save money for a year, book this vacation, then it is totally blown away and after talking to three people (this included manager of Core customer service) and approximately three hours on the phone, I had no one that felt any remorse… just pretty much take it or leave it lady!!! That is what I got from Apple Vacations. I will go back to my standby…travelocity, Funjet or American Vacations. Southwest vacations are nice too! I work in a customer service area in finance and was so surprised by the lack of service, empathy and actually got hung up on two times with no return call!!
Dude – If you couldn’t find a number on Apple’s website you have issues.
It’s prominently displayed in the upper right – immediately underneath their logo.
I have dealt with their customer service people numerous times and all they can to help you when it’s their product that caused the problem, but it sounds like your issue was with Delta. How is it Apple’s responsbility when you miss your connecting flight? Take some personal responsibility man. If you’re not going to be at a hotel – you call and let them know. It’s common sense.
This is why people need travel agents and to stop trying to be cheap and do things on their own on the web when they have no idea how to operate.
Our honeymoon to Aruba booked via Apple Vacations was a disaster. Delta had double-booked their plane and kicked us off the connecting flight in Atlanta. This was on a Saturday evening when our local travel agency was closed. Reservations had been made via Apple Vacations and I went through all of their printed materials, as well as their entire website. There was no phone number listed anywhere! So all I could do was to leave an email informing them of the delay and that we wouldn’t be able to make it to our destination that day.
Next day we arrive at the airport in Aruba greeted by the Apple Vacations rep who found out about the delay from Delta the day before. She takes us to the hotel and we are informed that our room has been booked since we were no-shows. They’d let us stay in the room for 24 hours but then we’d have to leave. The hotel manager was very unapologetic and it got clear that they were able to charge somebody extra for getting a last minute reservation in so they had no interest in dealing with us budget travelers. My wife was in tears, and while driving around looking for alternate hotels my wallet with a few $100 got stolen. Awesome!
The local Apple Vacations rep is able to find two alternate hotels- one that’s a star rating lower and one that’s at the same rating but slightly more expensive. I finally manage to have the local rep give me the Apple Vacations HQ phone number and tell them the story. Their answer: tough luck, you should have looked up the hotel phone number and talked to them directly. We might give you a discount if you go to the cheap hotel, but we won’t pay for your stay at the more expensive one.
After 40 minutes of long-distance debating where they would not budge I gave up and we checked into the cheap hotel. To make a long story short: the local Apple Vacations rep did a decent job but their customer support is non-existent.
Apple Vacations rocks! I have used them 3 times and never have any problems. I’m shopping for another deal on their site right now. I totally recommend them!
I agree that sometimes you can find cheaper deals, but in terms of value and service? Apple Vacations has it head and shoulders above others in Mexico and the Caribbean. I especially like that there are Apple Reps in all of the major hotels and if they’re not physically in the hotel you get a cell phone number so you have someone available in the resort if you have an issue. I love that they include free ground transportation with every package. Their website also has an 800 number with actual, educated human beings on the other end of the phone. If you have questions or need guidance on what hotel or package is best for you – they will walk you through the whole process without making you feel stupid or like you’re asking stupid questions. I frequently stay at the Grand Palladium resort in Riviera Maya and if you are an Apple Vacations customer, you get preferred rooms near the beach. Apple is definitely the big dog on the porch in the Cancun area. The last time I went (April 2010) I was at the Apple desk booking a zipline tour and the Apple rep went out of his way to help a Travelocity customer get the tour he booked when they messed up his reservation. The Apple guys are awesome!
I can honestly say that from beginning to end my family was taken care of like we were rock stars or something and I will NEVER book with anyone else!