Reviews

Two wonderful weeks of high cols

My second Exodus trek in the Alps, and the Haute Route deserves the challenging grade, definitely tougher than TMB. Very well organised by Exodus, excellent leader and camp manager, and a great bunch of 12 trekkers.

Chilled week in beautiful Tuscany

Just returned from a really enjoyable trip. Stunning scenery, picturesque hillside towns, delicious food and wine and a great group of travelling companions. Mark our group leader was a lovely guy, whose ‘can do’ approach, knowledge and personality added to the overall enjoyment.

Fabulous wildlife

I thoroughly enjoyed this trip. The amount of wildlife that we saw was simply unbelievable – from sloths and whales, to scarlet macaws, toucans and 4 types of monkeys. We even saw animals that I’d never even heard of before. (Agouti and coati.)
Tortuguero is simply magical – waking up to the sounds of the rainforest and then seeing turtles on the beach at the other end of the day.
I couldn’t believe the number of beautifully colourful birds we saw in the cloud forest. By the end of it, we were saying, “Oh, it’s just another hummingbird.”
And our time on the peninsula was just spectacular. Plodging through a stream in the rainforest and swimming near a mini-waterfall were great experiences. Never mind being able to spot humpback whales while standing on the beach having a picnic lunch!

Hectic but very rewarding trip

This trip fits a lot in to the two weeks but delivers some very special experiences with both the orangutans and the komodo dragons so it is well worth the hardship of some early starts and long travel days. The accommodation is generally good although the boat is rather basic, but this is a small price to pay for the excellent snorkelling and komodo dragon sightings that the boat makes possible. The food on the boat is both tasty and plentiful and the crew very obliging.
Overall this is an excellent trip and a rare opportunity to see both orangutans and komodo dragons as well as experiencing life in three areas of Indonesia.

Canadian Rockies Wilderness Walks

Generally a nice holiday, in spectacular scenery. The food was varied and very plentiful (although having 10 females in the party of 12, plus 2 male guides might have had a bearing on this). Assorted dietary restrictions were catered for.

The sites were fine, with the exception of the “last” one near Waterton Park (Waterton Springs Campground) which, in all honesty, was unacceptable for a holiday costing in excess of £3,000 for 11 days camping. We had a 1km walk to get hot water for anything, the toilet facilities near our tents were basic and only just about acceptable (if you ignore the lack of hot water) and the sinks for washing up in were disgusting. They had a large number (40-50) of RVs on site, all situated next to the office and all facilities. We were put as far away from there as was possible on the site (presumably so that a “noisy” group wouldn’t disturb their main source of income – the RVs). There may have been another 5-6 people in tents while we were there. We were unfortunate in that, due to fires, Waterton Park was closed the day after we arrived and then totally evacuated, so I cannot comment on the walks there. This was a shame as I had visited there for 2 days last year and really loved it – there is what looked to be a reasonable site in Waterton Park itself, beautifully situated next to the village, although I can’t comment on its facilities as I was in a hotel. In fact, returning there was a major factor in me choosing to go on this holiday. On the plus side, we only stayed at the poor site for one night. The tour company arranged a new site, well away from the fires (a 500km drive in fact), in a much nicer site, at very short notice.

CAUTION: This is a '4' level of difficulty and NOT a '2'; difficulty level grossly misrepresented

We booked this trip to have some cycling time with our son who is a novice cyclist but fit. My husband and I are strong cyclists and have done trips with Exodus that are rated as a ‘4’ and ‘3’; no difficulties with cycling experienced on those trips. However, this Dordogne trip starts off the first cycling day with grades of 5% to 10% and as high as 16%. The second day of cycling has two optional rides with the same thing and even as high as 20% showing on our Garmin. Our son was not here to train for the Tour de France … the goal was to have some relaxing cycling … this is NOT relaxing cycling. I confirmed with an Exodus agent that a trip rated as a ‘2’ should be relatively flat terrain. When you are continuously experiencing elevation grades greater than 6%, it’s a seriously challenging ride. We ride in the Canadian Rockies … some great but tough rides there … this Dordogne trip is as tough as our mountain rides in Canada but not as many kilometres. The difficulty rating of this ride has been totally misrepresented by Exodus. Had we known, we would have booked an ebike. We were unable to get an ebike because we didn’t realize it was necessary until we had done a couple of days of cycling … now they are unable to get us one … so we’re stuck sitting around doing nothing. BEWARE!!!!

Most Inspirational Moment

When we realized that we will never book another trip with Exodus given the misrepresentation experienced on this trip ... and we've done more than 10 to date with them!

Thoughts on Group Leader

No group leader; self-guided.

Advice for Potential Travellers

BEWARE!!!

Reply from Exodus

We were in contact with Tilly whilst she and her family were on their trip. We responded as quickly as we could and arranged an e-bike for their son so he could enjoy the last 3 days of their cycling holiday together. We gather that this gesture greatly improved the end of their trip.

Subsequently, following their concerns of the grading we have looked at this in greater detail. The average daily distance is 37km with the longest ride being 49km and the average elevation gain is 462m with the highest elevation gain being 550m. With this in mind, we have increased the grade to a level 3. 

Good overview of Peru

A lot of travelling by coach (3 full days, including a 5am start, in a coach) that gives you a good insight into three distinct areas of Peru. The desert, the trail and Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca. Inca Trail pace set by weakest, so be prepared for a slow pace!

Walking in Andalucia

A fantastic week of walking through various landscapes and looking out to some spectacular vistas. The cortijo is perfectly based; the staff just lovely and waking up each morning with the sun rising over the hills was really special. As a solo traveller I can easily recommend this trip, I was fortunate enough to enjoy the company of a great group of strangers that became friends through the week.

Mont Blanc Highlites

hiking was wonderful and loved every moment – even the hard parts

Land of the Jaguar - and other wildlife

The trip provided the wildlife viewing we had hoped for – five jaguars, plus giant otters, armadillos, anteater etc etc and a wide variety of bird life.