Gray Line Tours of Denver

I went on the City tour and it was overall OK. The Capital building and Mint was my favorite places. We got out to see the main highlights except for the Mint because it was closed on Friday which was a bummer for me because I love to collect coins. Also, the time wasn't enough for each place. The history that the tour guide gave was boring and not the main highlights of the city.

Not worth the $$$. Was given horrible directions from the booking agent. Luckily we found the check in half an hour earlier than we were told to be there only to have to wait an additional half hour for the bus to arrive. When we were allowed to board the bus we had to sit there another half hour an hour and a half total so far so the driver could do roll and take our lunch order. Which in my opinion could of been done during check in. Then we made several stops that made no sense to most of us on the tour. After eating a decent lunch in a crowded restaurant. We finally got to the train station. Had to wait for the driver to buy our tickets and for the train to arrive. The train ride itself was not what we expected. We felt that you would be better off driving yourself to the Georgetown Loop railroad and save yourself lots of time. It took us from 730 a.m. we got there early until almost 6 p.m. to do this tour. The only things I can say positive about the experience was the tour guide/driver was friendly and very professional. And that the bus was clean and comfortable.

The tour guide on our trip was knowledgeable, experienced, and very nice, but the trip was not what was advertised or expected. We were told to be at Union Station at 1:15 p.m. assuming we would start the tour from here. We were also told that there would be no individual hotel pickups. Well...the tour did NOT start until 2:30, and we did pick up people from the Holiday Inn. Why was that? And, after paying online, why did we have to wait at the Cherry Creek Mall, in a line, with a group who had not paid? And...why did Grayline oversell this particular tour so that we had to wait for the unknowing driver to figure out how she was going to accommodate these disappointed people who didn't have a seat?? Truthfully, I enjoyed the tour once it began, but until these kinks are worked out I would not recommend this tour.

My husband and I went on the combo tour which included the amphitheater, red rocks, lookout mountain Buffalo Bills Grave, downtown Denver, and Capitol Building. There was another gentleman on the same tour with us; so there were only 3 of us doing the tour. The gentleman who was our tour guild was very knowledgeable about the area. The complaint I have is we felt very rushed at Lookout Mountain. We seen Buffalo Bills Grave and that was it. We were told we will be there for 1 hour only. There is a little restaurant on site so my husband and I stopped in to get something to eat. We placed our order but it took like 35 minutes to get our food due to the other orders ahead of us. We ate our food which was very good. We then wanted to go to the gift shop quickly, while we were in there our tour guild came in and said we had to go because they were leaving. We ended up leaving without seeing the museum or getting any pictures. We headed back to the shopping mall where we started from just to spend 1.5 hours there! I did not come to Denver to just spend that much time at a mall, and especially one that is way out of my budget. I can go to a mall anywhere. Guess what I'm trying to say; I would have liked to spend more time at Lookout Mountain vs. The time we had to spend at a mall. The tour was okay but could have been better.

I was scheduled to leave at 8:30 am on the tour. Getting some breakfast at a local diner the waitress spilt hot sauce on my pants. I tried to remove the stains but with no success. I knew I was going to have to rush to make the tour now instead of being there 10 minutes early as I had planned. Made the quick change back at my room and Google Maps said I was going to be at Cherry Creek Mall at 8:32 am so I was somewhat relieved. That was until Gray Line tour called at 8:28 am and asked where I was at. I explained to the lady on the phone about the incident in the Diner and the need to change pants and that I was about 4 minutes away. They couldn’t be bothered and stated that they can’t hold the tour for just for me. Now I have been on multiple tours throughout the US, Europe, and South America and about half the tours were slightly delayed and left later than the scheduled time with no problems. As I am the person who is always early and never holding anyone else up it is funny that the city that is considered to be laid back is also the city that is least accommodating if you are slightly delayed. In addition they give the worst directions on where the meet up location is at the mall.

I clicked one star only because I had to in order to post this review. On June 16 my three Australian visitors took the Rocky Mountain Park tour. Their day started with an extraordinarily rude exchange with the pick up attendant and ended with a very frightening accident near Estes Park that resulted in hours delay of their return, and which caused a passing motorcyclist to crash and require an ambulance. There was never an apology from the company or any attempt to contact those of us waiting anxiously for hours for news of the bus at the drop off sites. I would recommend Rocky Mountain Park to anyone, but would never again recommend Gray Line Tours of Denver.

Well, I am going to start off by saying, Denver is a destination that I have been planning for many years. Of course, part of the trip was to visit the mountains. I called and scheduled my tour with Gray Line Tours 48 hours in advance to be sure I had a space. Well, the van was supposed to pick me up at 7:45am at the Rennaisance hotel, he did not show up until 8:05am. I was told they would pick me up in the valet parking lot, van #89 did not enter the lot, he parked out on the curb. As I saw him park, I ran out to the curb to get in the van, a lady entered the van, shut the door and as I knocked on the van window to be allowed to enter the van, the driver of #89 van simply ignored me and drove away. I was dumbfounded that he did not even look back, but just drove away. I spoke with the dispatcher Cindy, who seemed very annoyed that the driver drove away without me. She did offer to pay my cab fare to get to the departure location, however I would have needed to be there no later than 8:20am. However, by the time a cab would have picked me up, I would have missed the departure time. I am extremely disappointed in this company, as a big part of my trip was to go on this tour. Thanks for ruining my trip. Oh, and I would have given them a negative amount of starts, however it is not possible. I do want to give Cindy the benefit of the doubt, as she did try to rectify the situation ..

Overall a good tour of the city. My tour guide was good and I was the only one on the bus tour in the afternoon. I wish we went to maybe a few more places and stopped so I could get out and walk around like the art museum. I honestly like the hop on and off tours in other cities I traveled to.

The following, is pasted from a yelp review, I wrote in the past - it disturbs me, that since then, the company has taken no actions, to improve: MINORITIES NOT WELCOME!!! Our bus driver, Darcy - treated my family and I with extreme racism, during our tour - "Mountain Peaks Day Trip w/ Georgetown". Beyond that, the entire service was disorganized and falsely advertised. The following is a chronological encounter, of our entire tour thus far... 1. There were not clear instructions on where to locate the starting point, or where the bus was, so my party and others that payed for the tour, were left to wander around a mall parking lot until the bus arrived. 2. Luckily, my family was one of the first to spot the bus, and promptly sat down in it, as we waited for Darcy to arrive - late, to give the tour. 3. Once Darcy arrived, he did not have any positive attitude at all. The first thing he anounced to the bus, in a monotone voice, was that we are still waiting for more passangers, but start taking lunch orders of each individual, before the bus to leave. 4. After that, Darcy, explained to my 9 year old, Indian, brown skined nephew, he could not have his seat at the front of the bus. An older, obese, white lady claimed to have motion sickness, and needed his seat in the front. When my sister, the boy's mother, explained she also has motion sickness - Darcy either did not hear, or purposely ignored her, then insisted there was a passanger coming aboard with "extreme" motion sickness, and needed our seats. After about 10 minutes of me watching this exchange, my nephew politely complied, and moved back a couple rows back with his father. That's when we saw the person that was to take over my nephews seat. An older, obese, white lady, that needed a cane to support her obscenely fat body. She never showed, or gave Darcy a doctors note, that vouched for her having "extreme motion sickness". By all witness accounts, my BROWN FAMILY HAD TO MOVE FROM THE FRONT OF THE BUS, TO ACCOMODATE A FAT WHITE LADY THAT WAS TO LAZY TO MOVE FURTHER BACK!!!! 5. After that incident, Darcy - about 50 to 60 years of age, was tasked with walking up and down the entire gray line, to take every single passangers lunch order. With about 35 people taking the tour, it took the older driver - whom may or may not be partially deaf, about 30 minutes or more, to finish the food orders before we could leave. We departed around an hour past than what was scheduled. 6. After we finally started, Darcy informed the bus, that it doesn't matter if we are starting late, because a portion of the tour - up Mt. Evans has been removed. When my Mom inquired, that we paid for that and thought we would be going there - "you can't tell us that after we started", Darcy agitatedly replied in a negative tone - "Maam! Well, you can take it up with the company for a refund". My Mom said nothing else. Darcy continued on, to describe what we would be seeing on the tour, and did not mention the train ride. So my Mom asked, "Wait, what about the train ride?". Darcy, addressed my Mom with an agitated tone again - " *sigh*, MAAM - the train ride will be in Georgetown, around noon...WHAT HOTEL ARE YOU STAYING AT - I can turn this bus around, If you don't want a tour!!!" Again, after encouragement from my sisters, my mom remained quiet. I tried to voice-up my discontent from this type of treatment. But my father convinced me that arguing with him on he bus, would not do us justice, when we make a complaint later. Darcy did nothing short of treating my family like second class citizens. Everything from his tone to his body language towards us was filled with disdain and negativity. I will be writing this review, everywhere i can, to warn the public of the racism that still goes on, on gray line buses. I will then contact Darcy's superiors as well as the press about this.

We kept waiting for the tour to get better after spending the better part of an hour cruising through old neighborhoods and the tour guide having nothing much to say. We ditched at the Capitol building and went a couple blocks up Colfax to a brewery. It was much better than the tour.