Reviews

Discover Chile

Wonderful

Stunning Landscapes

This trip was a great way to see the top highlights while leaving you wanting to explore more! Perfect ‘Discovery’ trip! There are a lot of flights and the airline can move around the timings so you have to be flexible and open to late nights/early starts. There really is no other way to cover so much distance in just 2 weeks. Its well worth the travel as you get to see 2 completely different sides of Chile, the Desert and Salt flats of the North and the Lakes and Mountains of the South, both equally beautiful but very different. The food wasn’t as expensive as I thought, similar pricing to London restaurants so by no means cheap but not unaffordable and if you take some snacks with you its easy to skip lunches as dinner portions in every restaurant we went to are very generous. The hotels were clean, spacious and comfortable. The only pool in use (we were early in the season) was in San Pedro. Both optional excursions are well worth doing but I would recommend doing a little research into star constellations before going to help things make more sense as its a lot of information to take in. Our guide Miguel was very knowledgeable and clearly loves his country and the outdoors we were in good hands especially in the National parks as he knows the area well. He is also a keen photographer so we were going to great photo locations and he was always willing to stop the bus whenever wildlife or a good photo angle was spotted! There are long drives, but the scenery was so beautiful that the drives were just as special as the walks and plenty of stops to stretch our legs or take a photo or toilet stop.

Disappointing

This was a trip that is advertised as a culture trip but is most definately is not. There is little emphasis on culture and it should be more accurrately advertised as a nature and photographic trip. While i enjoyed the contrasts bwteeen different parts it was not the trip i thought i was getting.

Most Inspirational Moment

Seeing the majiestic Patagonia mountains and the Lake Grey Glacier

Thoughts on Group Leader

My opinion of the Group leader was very mixed. He did a fantastic job when my luggage got lost on an internal flight, and dealt admirably when our flight got cancelled, but equally continually changed the advertised itinerary and delivered what he had been told to deliver by the local office. There were too many many stops and attempts to add more to an already packed timetable, meant that at times the basic and advertised trip was not delivered. His delivery of the trip was aimed at photographic opportunities directed at the fauna and Flora, rather than delivering a cultural trip, whic may have suited some members of the group, but did not deal with the cultural aspect of theis trip

Advice for Potential Travellers

If you are going on this trip to learn more about the culture of Chile, its history and its people, then this trip is not for you. If you want amazing photographic opportunities of the contrasts between the Atacama desert of the north and the panaramic south of Patagonia then do it. But be prepared for an awful lot of travelling, waiting at airports and the subsequent risk of flights being cancelled or delayed, that does eat into the itinerary. Be prepared to deal with changes in the weather from the +30 degree heat of the northern deserts to the minus tempertures of Patagonia, high altitude excursions and very little downtime. The food is amazing and everything is geared around fish, Lamb and wine.

Reply from Exodus

We would like to thank Paul for his review and were pleased to learn that he enjoyed Patagonia and the Lake Grey Glacier. On the other hand, we were disappointed that he felt there was not enough emphasis on Chilean culture and too much on nature and photography. Chile is of course known for its varied wildlife and stunning scenery and many of our customers appreciate the opportunity to capture this on film. That said, any photography stops should be incorporated into a group’s schedule and should certainly not impact the delivery of the main itinerary. Upon reviewing the feedback submitted by Paul’s group, we are satisfied that this trip was delivered in keeping with our expectations, despite the unfortunate travel disruption they encountered, however our customer services team are in direct contact with Paul to try to address his concerns.

Troy Glennon, Product Manager

Jam-packed holiday

I think this trip should be called Chile Highlights, as you do see best sites of Chile. There is a lot of travelling – planes and buses, so be prepared! Luckily with our trip we didn’t have any plane delays or cancellations, weather also didn’t spoil the plans, which was great! The standard of accommodation was adequate, I particularly liked Hotel Del Paine -mainlyy for the location and views, and Hotel Diego de Almagro (Atacama) had the best facilities and a great location next to centre of San Pedro.

Great survey of Chile, but a bit hectic!

You see a heck of a lot of Chile. The Atacama and Patagonia were particularly amazing. There is a lot of travel, both internal flights, and driving in mini buses. We had 12 in our group, so usually had a couple of empty seats on our mini buses. I’m glad we didn’t have 16, though perhaps then we’d have gotten slightly larger buses.

Review of Discover Chile trip

An excellent introduction to Chile, it was very interesting to see the different climate regions, desert, Santiagio, Lakes and Patagonia. The group blended particularly well together. There were plenty of great photography moments. Felipe (our guide) was excellent.

Disappointing

We booked our own flights with BA and flew direct from Heathrow to Santiago and back again with no problems. We were told to beware picking up a taxi at the airport so pre booked one with Exodus. It was not there when we exited the airport and we had 15 minutes of hassle from taxi touts before it arrrived. Not a good start. After our Day Visit to Valparaiso we were told to be in the Hotel lobby ready to leave at 9.00 am for our flight to Calama. 3 hours later we get a phone call ( or note pushed under the door) to say the flight has been changed and we are now to meet at 4.00 am !!!. This happened with 2 more of our scheduled flights leaving earlier but only being told at the very last minute. On one flight we did not get the late message at all and had a 5am knock on the door whilst still in bed, saying the coach was waiting to leave. In the scrabble to get dressed and pack our cases my wife lost an expensive braclet. These last minute flight changes also meant missing 3 decent hotel breakfasts and instead having a “picnic” box of a dried sandwich, biscuit and drink. Most went into the bin. As a consequnce of the early departure from Calama, we then had to wait over 4 hours in Santiago airport for our connecting flight to Puerto Montt. Fortunately the group did not let it spoil our holiday and the Atacama and Patagonia were both excellent experiences. We have been on about 20 guided tours all over the world (including 6 in Central/South America )with various companies and have graded them 4/5 stars. This was our first with Exodus.

Discover Chile

Our guide Alex Aguilera was fantastic! He organised the group really well, was a fund of information and always on hand to answer queries. The trip was varied and really interesting. The standard of the accommodation apart from Santiago, was quite basic but adequate. The meal by the local lady on the way back from the geysers, was poor, but apart from that, all the breakfasts were fine.

After COVID - first long haul for us, first tour for Exodus in Chile

Very good tour but with a few niggles. This was the first Discover Chile tour for 2 years, both for Exodus and for our guide.
The first niggle was that the guide didn’t have accurate or complete guest arrival information. My wife and I were successfully met at the airport the day before the official land tour start. However the guide didn’t have any information about four guests and thought that the remaining guest was only arriving the next day ( which meant she would be quarantining). So the Santiago tour was cancelled. My wife and I went on our own to explore, as the guide was expecting to have to meet the remaining guest. However it turned out that all of the other guests had arrived before us and turned up in the hotel lobby for the tour. The guide tried to contact us but we didn’t see the messages until it was too late to join her.
There was some confusion for one of the plane trips where our tickets were all marked as standby! We all got on but it was confusing.
For our stay in Punta Varas it was a little disconcerting when many of the restaurants closed at 7. This also surprised the guide, who hadn’t been to the town for 2 years.
We also missed out on the boat trip in the lakes because of a landslip and the back-up view from the ski resort was stopped by treacherous sleeting weather. It felt like there could have been an extra day in the Lakes region.
The first breakfast in the hotel in Puerto Natales was very disappointing, but they made a much better breakfast the next time. Perhaps they were rusty after a long break from foreign tourism.
In all the to-ing and fro-ing with Easter Island extensions our final transfer to the airport dropped off. Not a big issue because the guide sorted us out very efficiently.
The scenery was stunning throughout and more than made up for any long journeys

Spectacular sights and scenary

Chile is a stunning country that has something for everyone. This trip provided a wonderful insight and delivered a variety of sights and scenery: from desert and volcanoes, to lakes (and more volcanoes) then mountains and glaciers, followed for me with the legendary moai of Rapa Nui (Easter Island).

As the itinerary makes clear, a significant amount of time is spent travelling (I feel I am now very familiar with Santiago airport!) but that is due to the large distances covered. There is very little ‘down time’ and several early starts so it is definitely not for someone who wants a relaxing holiday. However, if you enjoy spectacular views and new experiences then it ticks all the boxes.

Our group of 16 got on well and, alongside our tour leader and drivers, helped to make it a fantastic holiday.