If there is a negative score possible, we would score this -10 as it did not deliver anything that it advertised. Firstly, my wife and I are of Chinese descent but can only speak English. This tour company advertises English speaking tour guides but this was not even close. The entire tour they were silent, no narrative, no summary, nothing. And the few times they spoke, they could only speak Mandarin, not one word of English. Thankfully there were other guests in the van that could translate, otherwise we would have no idea what was going on. Tour guides usually would narrate a 5 hour drive each way, not these ones, they were focused on using Google Maps to figure out directions to Antelope Canyon. We were in a tight Mercedes Benz van with 11 people, it was terribly noisy with young people and the guides were not interested in interacting. When we arrived at Horseshoe Bend, after leaving the Vegas area around 6:30am, the van pulled into the parking lot, parks, and the guide points his finger towards a trail and said "30 minutes". No indication where we were or what we were expected to do. We walked over a kilomtere to get to Horseshoe Bend which took roughly 20 minutes. The sight was fantastic but then we had to hurry back to the van because of the 30 minute limitation (tour advertised one hour stop). We then find out at that point (through translation) that the guides were told the Lower Antelope Canyon was closed due to high wind. So great, we drove 5 hours for nothing, and the tour company didn't check this beforehand? To top it off, the Upper Antelope Canyon tour remained open but it was sold out ($80 per person extra if space was available!!). However, two of the 9 people on this tour had tickets to the Upper Canyon tour so the rest of us had to wait almost 3 hours in the van while they went on their tour. Absolutely ridiculous that they would mix and match tours this way. The 5 hour drive back was not any better, again no narrative, no information, nothing. The icing on the cake was on the way back at a gas stop (the guides couldn't figure out how to fill the tank even, took them 15 minutes to figure out nothing was going in the van), they had the audacity to ask for their $11/person gratuity. Apparently this is mandatory and we didn't want to risk being booted off the van in Arizona so we begrudgingly paid it. An absolute disaster of a tour and tour company. Wasted 25% of our long awaited vacation and was the low point by far on our first trip in 3 years. Do not use this company, they are terrible and there are far better ones out there at cheaper prices, this was not cheap ($300 usd/person). They should have paid us for wasting our entire day. The advertising specifically says refunds would be offered for changes due to weather conditions and now they refuse to honor it, they even stop responding to my emails. TripAdvisor should be ashamed of having this tour being sold through their site, as that is the only reason we purchased through TripAdvisor.
Response from Host
Apr 2022
Dear Stan,
Thanks for your patience. Here we checked with the guide and here is the response to your feedback.
The Lower Antelope Canyon were closing for the day 2022-April-5 due to inclement weather and wind. The last tour is 10:15AM. Ken's Lower Antelope Cayon last tour is 12:30PM, Upper Antelope Canyon still open. And your tour begins in the early morning when the canyon is still open. We could not forwcast if the canyon will be closed or not. For the closure due to unresistible factors, such as weather conditions, no official announcement will be made in advance from Lower Antelope Canyon. They will notify the weather problem at the last minute. When the guide was notifed by the message of closure, the tour group were already at Horseshoe Bend. The guide tried the best to check if you can still enter Upper Antelope Canyon though you booked for Lower Antelope Canyon. However, unluckily all tickets were sold out already for Upper.
The two guides/driver are commercial vehicle tour guides who passed the commercial drivers and guide test all in English. Their spoken English might not be that fluent as native speakers, but they are professional guides. They will drive the guests who booked for Upper/Lower/X canyon for the whole day and pay more attention on the driving. Also when the tour group came acorss the unforseen closure, they tried the best to help the guests.
The tour did operate with unforseen closure for the Lower Antelope Canyon portion. We are sorry that we could not refund all the fee for this one day tour and we would refund you the admission fee part for the Lower Antelope Canyon and the refund has been done.
Thanks again for your feedback.