Your Words – We tell it like it is! Holiday Reviews by previous Exodus travellers
Here at Exodus we thrive on feedback from our customers. It’s the only way we can ensure our trips continue to be the best they can be. So, for the real tales, twists and turns of the trip you’re interested in, look no further than the reviews from our previous travellers.
Simply use the selector below to search our trip reviews and start reading real feedback from real Exodus travellers who have ‘been there and done that’!
Lots of our clients also like to post handy tips and advice about their travels. It’s great to know what to expect on an Exodus adventure before you go, so make the most of their experience and you’ll make the most of yours!
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Once you return from your Exodus adventure holiday, you will be emailed a link to add your review. Any feedback collected is posted onto our website, totally unedited.
Alternatively you can navigate to the relevant trip page and add your review via the Reviews tab.
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14215 Reviews
4.7 out of
5
Reviews
Ian Jack
Reviewed April 2024
Accurate
Mayan ruins and the reef off the coast of Belize
Most Inspirational Moment
Tikal
Thoughts on Group Leader
Excellent. The night before we returned to Belize from Guatemala, our guide, Jorge, suggested an early start to make sure we could get to the crossing point early and not join a huge queue (we'd seen it on the way in). We duly got up for an early start with our packed breakfasts provided by the hotel and made it to the crossing point for it to open. By the time we got to the front the queue was well over double the length and the day already starting to get hot. A brilliant move on our guides part. Additionally, very knowledgeable on the bird life and generally keen to show us his country.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Beware the humidity, take very lightweight clothing, including some with long sleeves. Keep drinking the water. You will need more than you realize.
Sara Dauncey
Reviewed April 2024
What a trip, fabulous day after day.
We had such a good time in Vietnam. The guide V was superb, so professional, really interesting and telling us about the historical and cultural aspects as well as what we were doing. His enthusiasm and pride in Vietnam was contagious. We went to so many different places and experiences. Each day I thought we had the highlight of the trip and the next day was fantastic as well, so varied in activities, scenery, weather and modes of transport.
Most Inspirational Moment
Hard to chose between the trek with the lovely hill tribe women helping us, the hot tubs in the homestay, feeling so off the beaten track. Cat Ba and kayaking in Halong bay, magical. The caves were enormous and extraordinary, really beautiful. We went to the water puppets in Hanoi and the AO show in HCMC. Both amazing.
Thoughts on Group Leader
See above, such a lovely person, so helpful in every regard to make the trip perfect for us all.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Go!!
Take good walking boots for the hike.
Not much time to chill but good to do everything.
joyce woffindin
Reviewed April 2024
Exhausting, Exhilarating, Incredible India
A non stop trip round the highlights
Most Inspirational Moment
Seeing Tiger and 3 cubs in the wild
Thoughts on Group Leader
Excellent ,very knowledgeable although he often talked for far longer than the group concentrated for
Advice for Potential Travellers
Food is relatively cheap but If you do all the optional trips it will be an extra £200 +
This is NOT a leisurely tour,its just not very active .I hadnt realised the journeys would be so long ,many early starts late nights and corresponding lack of sleep
mary roser
Reviewed April 2024
This trip is worth 7 stars!!!!
Wow, what an adventure! AMAZING GUIDE, AMAZING GROUP, AMAZING COUNTRY AND DELICIOUS FOOD!!!
Most Inspirational Moment
From the moment we landed, it was an adventure that kept on giving - every day was magical in its own unique way. I'm sure each person in our group pinched ourselves to say 'is this really real' and guess what, it was!! The whole trip exceeded our expectations from start to finish!
Thoughts on Group Leader
There aren't enough superlatives to describe 'V' - what a gentleman - well read, knowledgeable, funny, kind and sincere. What a lovely man - we were blessed to have him as our guide and his presence was the icing on our cake - Surely a top candidate for 'Leader of the Year' award!
Advice for Potential Travellers
Don't hesitate, you will love every second of it!
Oh and be prepared for the most most delicious food ever!
Alan Jordan
Reviewed April 2024
Good trip with long days
Covers all the expected areas and some unexpected ones. Pacing often seemed hurried but in retrospect was about right. Reasonable vehicle used with enough space, although the single seats seemed rather narrow (the seat belt connectors were recessed make the narrowness less noticeable) Lots of early starts but in most cases there was time to look around the overnight stops in daylight. The lunch stops in most cases offered options, but not all. Evening meals were of a good standard throughout. Hotels were very varied, from bunkhouse to very good. As expected the Athens hotel was the worst, tiny room, impossible to walk round the room without climbing over the bed and in a dingy sidestreet.
Most Inspirational Moment
Being in the Olympic Stadium ruins completely alone.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Very good on detail and organisation but does need to limit the static time or learn to talk and walk.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Ignore the advice about the water being safe, it is if you are southern European but very iffy for the north European. Came back with a water borne bug.
Kim Smith
Reviewed April 2024
Belize
It didn’t get off to a good start as the prearranged taxi that I paid £114 for wasn’t at the airport I waited for about 20mins then thought I should get a local taxi which quoted me $50 for the ride to Crooked Tree which was about 20km So I think Exodus ripped me off charging so much for a poor service The arranged taxi did eventually turn up and said he’d been there all the time which was a lie as it’s a v small airport and I would have seen him
The trip itself was great with a lot packed in and an excellent guide Jorge who was unfailingly good humoured and v helpful and kind He even offered to lend me his glasses when I lost mine! The accommodations and food were all good The Jungle Lodge in Guatemala didn’t offer any drinking water except in plastic bottles which rather goes against Exodus policy The ATM caves were interested but I felt were a health and safety hazard as there would have been limited access for rescue services or evacuation Also the ancient artefacts were on the ground just taped off so could easily have been damaged by visitors and some already have been. I felt the administering authority should have taken better care eg providing walkways,emergency exits etc Finally I felt Caye Caulker was marred by a lot of plastic pollution bottles etc along the shoreline and the corals out at the reef were bleached I know that’s not an Exodus issue but maybe you feed back to the resort how to improve the tourist experience
Most Inspirational Moment
Dawn at East temple Tikal
Thoughts on Group Leader
Excellent Really considerate to improve the tourist experience eg setting off early to avoid the queue at the Guatemala border
Advice for Potential Travellers
Don’t go with Exodus taxi if you’re not in the group transfer
Reply from Exodus
We would like to thank Kim for her feedback. We were pleased to learn that she enjoyed her holiday and felt that her tour leader, Jorge, added value to the trip, but we’re sorry that she had difficulty at the start regards to her arrival transfer.
We request that our drivers are at the airport 15 – 30 minutes before the customers arrival time as we don’t want our customers worrying that they have no-one waiting for them in a new country. There are 2 exits at the airport, one of which leads outside where all drivers wait with their respective signs. The driver mentioned that he walked around with his sign looking for Kim until he eventually reached her, so this may possibly be the reason she was unable to locate him at first.
We’re regret that Kim feels overcharged regarding her transfer costs, however, it is possible that the taxi thought she wanted to visit the Bird’s Isle Restaurant in Belize City instead, as this is about 18km away from the airport and correlates more with the price that she was quoted. The distance to Bird’s Eye View lodge is 46.3km from the airport and we believe that this would have reflected closely to what she was initially charged.
We appreciate Kim’s comments regarding safety at the ATM caves. The guides undergo specialized training before being granted their license to the ATM cave, including rescue training. They are required to carry a backpack with all the necessary rescue equipment and the cave management has a set procedure for emergency rescues. Due to the mineral formations of the cave it’s not possible to create another entrance or build additional walkways as the idea is to preserve the natural integrity of the cave. A lot of the artifacts are within guests’ reach and the tape is meant to serve as a buffer between the artifact and guests, as well as a marker to guide guests on where to walk. To further protect the artifacts, cameras and phones are not allowed as the guide would have explained before entering the cave and generally visitors are respectful and abide by the rules.
Regarding her comments on the use of plastic bottles, we do request that customers bring along a refillable bottle as outlined in our trip notes. We also offer them a reusable bottle at the beginning of the trip. We will pass on her comment to the hotel; however, this is how they serve water at the restaurant. Whilst we appreciate that we are not going to be able to dramatically change local circumstances through tourism, we assure Kim that we continuously engage with our supplier partners, sharing best practices on environmental initiatives such as eliminating sing-use plastics.
We’re grateful for the time she took to leave a review and hope that we can welcome her on future trips with us!
– Emma Cambers, Product Manager
Gareth Daniel
Reviewed April 2024
Fascinating but exhausting trip
This was our first trip to India although we have previously travelled widely across south and south east Asia. The variety of sights, sounds and colours encountered on our trip was amazing and we covered a lot of ground in just over a week. We felt there was a bit too much emphasis on visiting religious sites and would have preferred to have seen more of the countryside and city parks and green spaces such as Lodi Gardens in Delhi for example. A bit more free time for private exploring would also have been welcome – although we were happy being on an organised tour, the trip had a breathless quality about it despite its supposed ‘leisurely’ classification. We particularly enjoyed the visit to Ranthambore nature reserve and were thrilled to see a family of four tigers in the wild. Our trip to the Taj Mahal was inevitably a highlight notwithstanding the 5.30am start to catch the rising sun falling on its majestic domes. We also enjoyed the short walking tour of the Chandni Chowk street market in Old Delhi and wish it had been longer. While everything we saw had its interesting facets, we would have been happier to have seen fewer places of worship and seen more of ‘normal’ Indian street life and the everyday life of secular India and its people.
Most Inspirational Moment
Getting a close up view of a family of tigers in the Ranthambore nature reserve and seeing a wide variety of birdlife in both towns and countryside.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Our tour leader Mayank was excellent - hardworking, patient and knowledgeable. He was always helpful and acted as a very effective advocate for the group when dealing with day to day issues. Given his many years of experience in the business, nothing seemed to take him by surprise and he seemed to know everybody wherever we went. He was also very helpful with my attempts to identify local birdlife.
Advice for Potential Travellers
The 'leisurely' label does not do justice to this tour - there are frequent early starts and long days on buses and trains with the consequence that we skipped quite a few hours of sleep in order to arrive early at some venues. India is a big country of course but a little more time genuinely 'at leisure' would have been appreciated.
Emily Rogers
Reviewed April 2024
Brilliant trip
This is a superb trip, experiencing Vietnam at its best. As always we travelled with likeminded people who added to the experience.
The trip is full on and some people added an extension, which would have been great to chill after the trip.
The walking, canoeing and cycling were great.
The accommodation was largely good, some exceptional.
Would certainly recommend this trip
Most Inspirational Moment
The walk across the countryside with our local guide, the balancing on the rice terraces, scrambling up the hills, the welcome ,unique hot tub Bath,food at the home stay.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Vuong was an excellent leader, always available, great fun and of course knowledgable.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Slim down your packing, the trip is relaxed and laundry is available on the 2 night stays. Strong shoes for the walk.
Maria Beer
Reviewed April 2024
Costa Rica Is An Amazing Place
Costa Rica is such a beautiful Country. Can recommend it 100%.
Most Inspirational Moment
Touring Costa Rica was a very humbling experience for me. Nothing could have prepared me for the way a lot of Costa Rican people live. Driving around Costa Rica I noticed how many people live in accommodation that is no more than a shed with a tin roof but the people were happy and smiling. Costa Rica is a poor country compared to many countries around but they are contented .
I have loads of wonderful memories of Costa Rica. My most memorable were
1 zip line at Monteverde. Just an amazing experience.
2 swimming at La Fortuna Waterfall
3 seeing animals in their natural habit
4 swimming in the Pacific Ocean
5 Kayaking in the Mangrove Swamp
Thoughts on Group Leader
Pedro was very passionate about his country. From him I learnt a lot about Costa Rica. Knew all the tricks of the trade to try and encourage the wildlife out of their hiding places. Nothing was to much trouble made sure that everyone got so much out of the tour. Tock us on many early morning hikes to spot wildlife.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Go on this tour with an open mind. What I mean by this is the Caribbean was not how I imagined it to be. The sea was wild and the sand was not the colour I expected it to be. Before going on this tour I watched a lot of wildlife programmes so I was expecting animals to be everywhere and easy to spot in the rainforest/jungle. Yes saw a lot but sometimes on the hikes we didn’t see a thing. Didn’t really mind this as just hiking through the rainforest was an incredible experience . Something that I will treasure forever.
