Reviews

Exodus broke a duty of care

First of all, I would like to point out that we are great fans of Exodus and have enjoyed many trips with Exodus in the past:
Turkey, Leysian activity week, 2012
Morocco, Marrakesh mountains and coast, 2014
Italy, Puglia cycle the heel of Italy, 2015
Finland, Finish wilderness week, 2022
This year’s trip to Thailand was an unforgettable mistake … more of an ordeal and less of a holiday. Why was this? Too much time spent on a bus. Your response to this is probably that the trip notes warned us of the times to be spent on the bus, but I would argue that the times given were purely the Google drive times without allowances for short stops and heavy traffic. To put it plainly, if we had known how long we were going to spend on that bus, we would not of booked this tour. The bus travel times that you gave were misleading.
By now, you will be well aware of the bus driver’s mistake when he took us down a busy dual carriageway on the wrong side of the road. We were incredibly lucky to avoid a fatal accident. I believe that an accident enquiry would have led to “lessons to be learnt”. One of the lessons would have been that the driver was required to drive more hours than could be reasonably expected of anyone. You possibly weren’t breaking any local laws, but that’s not the point. The point is that our driver was being pushed to such an extent that he began making errors, thereby putting our lives at risk. In summary, the trust we placed in Exodus has been broken.

Most Inspirational Moment

Walking along Hellfire Pass whilst listening to a superbly produced electronic guide. Less than an hour to do this felt crazy.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Nai our group guide and leader was beyond amazing … an inspiration both as a human and as a client oriented organiser. He was ably supported by Kelly, an equally strong and caring individual.

Advice for Potential Travellers

It is currently not a safe trip due to the unreasonable demands placed on the tour’s bus driver.

Reply from Exodus

We would like to thank you for your review, Mr Fielding, although we were regretful to learn that your latest Exodus adventure did not live up to your expectations. Our customers’ safety is of paramount importance to us, so we were particularly concerned to hear about an incident involving your driver and that you felt this was caused by the excessive distances you covered. We understand that he turned onto the wrong side of a dual carriageway, incorrectly believing it was one main highway with all lanes following the same direction, which must have been extremely worrying. We understand that concerns were raised by members of your group and that your tour leader reiterated our expectations regarding road safety with your driver. To provide some context as to how this driver was assigned to your group, we are advised that in Thailand our local operators source vehicles and drivers from third party suppliers, and we usually find on our trips to this part of the world that they are diligent, safe, and highly experienced. However, yours was of course the first departure of this new tour, which meant we needed to source a new supplier who could provide the service in this part of Thailand. We sourced the services of a company our local operator had worked with on non-Exodus tours for many years and always delivered an excellent service. We can also confirm that all the relevant documentation checks were done and that your driver had many years of experience behind the wheel. Whilst he did not complete disproportionate amounts of driving for this type of tour, the incident that occurred on your trip does not fill us with any confidence in this driver’s ability to safely transport our groups, and we have, therefore, replaced our supplier ahead of all future tours; we will closely monitor the feedback we receive to ensure that the next supplier meets our expectations. We realise this does not do anything to change the experience you had, but we do hope it shows that we have listened to your concerns and followed up appropriately in keeping with our commitment to customer safety. In terms of the driving times referenced in our literature, these are of course a guide and do not factor in traffic and rest breaks, as these are unpredictable and vary on every departure; nevertheless, we recognise that our trip notes could be clearer and we have updated them to include more realistic driving times, based on your group’s experience. We hope you feel heard, and that despite your clear disappointment you will give us a chance to restore your faith in Exodus on a future trip.

Winter wonderland

Going in winter one gets to see Iceland in all its Winter Wonderland glory. The frozen waterfalls, good chance of seeing the northern lights, once you’re away from the golden circle sights its much quieter. We were Very lucky with the weather until last couple of days when the strong winds and closed roads altered the itinerary, but there are other things to see. The tour covers a lot of ground, with a fair bit of driving, but there are lots of stops along the way and the scenery is lovely!

Disappointing

This was my first Exodus trip since lockdown and was highly anticipated. Unfortunately I came home feeling that the holiday just hadn’t lived up to my expectations. The hotels were situated well outside of towns and almost every evening the group meals were in the hotel restaurant. Because we were a full group of 18 (the largest group I have travelled with in my 20+ group tours) the hotels served buffet meals. I have not come across this on previous trips and I was disappointed that we did not get many opportunities to visit local restaurants. In some hotels there was the option to order from the a la carte menu but this usually meant a wait of over an hour before food was served.
The itinerary was changed for day 10 a few days before the trip started – this meant a 6am start for hiking on Horton Plains. This was followed by a train ride from Ella to Badulla rather than from Bandarawela to Ella and this meant that we missed the scenic train journey to Ella and, by the time we were picked up at Badulla for the drive to Katharagama via Ella, we did not get any views at Ella Gap because it was evening and too dark to see. We did not reach the hotel that evening until after 8pm so the itinerary for that day needs a rethink.
On day 13 almost everyone in the group went whale watching. A private boat was arranged by the guide and trip notes suggested that the larger commercial boats do not always respect the welfare of the animals. As a group we were concerned and disappointed to find that all the whale watching boats, including our boat, chased after the whales and dolphins if any were spotted. I appreciate that this is a difficult situation as we have all paid to go whale watching and obviously want to see something but the noise and pollution from 20 boats chasing around trying to get a good view cannot be environmentally sound practice and is perhaps an optional activity that Exodus should reconsider.

Most Inspirational Moment

Meeting and talking to the local people.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Roshan was a good guide however he lacked the sparkle and enthusiasm that I have come to expect from Exodus guides. I think this could simply be because he does back to back Exodus tours and is probably exhausted. As soon as our trip finished he was off to start the next trip. He answered all queries and questions with a smile but it almost felt as if we were having to raise the issues and it would have been good to find out more about the country and people today.

Advice for Potential Travellers

A good trip and covers a lot of ground. When there is the opportunity try and eat in local restaurants - cheaper and far better food. Take plenty insect repellant.

Reply from Exodus

Thank you for taking the time to submit a review, Linda, although we were saddened to learn that your most recent Exodus holiday did not meet your expectations in some areas. We try to select small, independently run hotels that offer a more personal service, in keeping with our commitments to support local communities. In many of the locations this tour takes in, particularly in the “cultural triangle” region, we are extremely limited in terms of centrally located accommodation options which offer suitable quality, and many of the nearby towns and villages tend to feature hotels that are either unable to host groups of our size or provide unsuitable menu options for tourists. Where possible, our leaders are happy to suggest local restaurants, although we have found that service can be very slow, which is why groups usually prefer to dine at their hotel. Although we endeavour to maintain the itinerary as described in our literature, the nature of adventure travel is one that sometimes requires last-minute changes due to various factors, for example local festivities or adverse weather impacting the standard activities. Our leaders will always try their best to avoid any significant disruption to the itinerary and have a “plan b” to ensure the trip can continue as smoothly as possible and we sincerely hope this was the case on your trip.  We are proud of our responsible travel ethos and were, therefore, regretful to hear of your concern regarding the whale watching activity. This is something we have been monitoring very closely with our local operator and we are actively looking into viable ways to encourage better practice across the industry. We recognise the impact our tour leaders have on our customers’ overall enjoyment of a trip, so we were sorry to hear that Roshan missed the mark for you. He is one of our best-performing leaders across all our trips and has been a regular nominee and past winner of our Leader of the Year Award. Nevertheless, it’s disappointing that your experience of him fell somewhat short and we will address this with Roshan ahead of future trips he leads. We sincerely hope that this has not discouraged you from travelling with us again as we’ve hugely appreciated your loyalty and wish that you will give us another chance.

 

Sarah Puttnam, Product Manager

Not ‘Designed for children aged 9-12’

This review is based on being specifically ‘Designed for children aged 9-12’.

In summary, in our opinion, it is not.

It is simply the (excellent) adult trip with a few omissions and permitting children.

To give my review some context:

Our children are in the age bracket for whom this trip is designed.
I’ve been travelling with Exodus since 2006 and this was my seventh trip with one of those being the adult version of this trip.
Last year we travelled all over Vietnam on a family holiday with Intrepid.

All of these trips I’ve mentioned were outstanding experiences and no matter the price, excellent value for money. I continue to recommend those trips and Exodus at every opportunity to both the uninitiated and the many repeat trippers looking for something they haven’t yet tried.

But unfortunately this was the first where I felt my expectations weren’t met and I felt rather disappointed.

I would endorse the views expressed by previous reviewers Jon Browning and Stephen Dossett and encourage you to read them.

Fantastic experience

The trip benefitted from an amazing bunch of like minded people and a brilliant tour leader. Add to that the backdrop of Vietnam and it couldn’t fail to deliver.

Very varied, comfortable and fun!

Although it’s only twelve days, there’s lots of variety in this trip. There’s time on safari, some nice coastal walks, some bird watching, a relaxing wine tasting Sunday, a great city break in Cape Town and penguins! There are only really two travel days and the accommodation is indeed premium. The main stops (2 nights) were all great, especially Amakhala and De Hoop which have real style. Stellenbosch is very good and has plenty of space for relaxing after all the wine tasting. We had a good group and a great guide. And the food and drink in south Africa is great too.

One of the best experiences of my life!

Jordan and Petra in particular has been on my bucket list for a while and this trip did not disappoint. I was blessed to be a part of a small group and we all got on so well, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

Beautiful and busy Sri Lanka

This trip was a good tour of the island with a mix of cultural sites (Sigiriya, temples, Buddhist villages etc) with wildlife sites (some river/lake tours) and two opportunities for safaris in the national park. It was quite busy at times and although we stayed in some amazingly beautiful (and expensive!) hotels we didn’t always get the chance to appreciate them. Lots of big chain hotels which feels a little away from the small group ethos. The Guide was brilliant and the transport excellent – although it was a large coach.

Beautiful Sri Lanka!

What a truly beautiful country, filled with beautiful people. With so much to experience in a relatively short space of time, this is the way to do it. It’s a packed schedule and very ‘full on’ although we did have an air conditioned coach with driver and assistant for the entire trip making all transfers and trips very easy. No stress there. Some days were early starts and occasional late finishes so limited the time spent at the hotels for relaxation, however you can always make the decision to drop out of some activities. I took part in all of the planned activities, opted out of the optional whale watching, resulting in just one full day of very welcome down time at the beach. We were warmly greeted at each hotel, usually with a drink or flower and made to feel welcome.

Brilliant Trip - So much history!

This trip was truly amazing. We saw so much, and the tour leader who was an Egyptologist was just brilliant. All the accommodations were top-notch, the cruise was out of this world. I would do it again in a heartbeat.