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.
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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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14351 Reviews
4.7 out of
5
Reviews
Amanda Johnson
Reviewed January 2020
Beautiful. Fascinating. Enjoyable.
Excellent trip that covered the major sites in a short amount of time.
Most Inspirational Moment
Petra was always going to be the highlight for obvious reasons and it is everything I thought it would be and more but I was surprised at how big a site Jerash was and how little I knew about it. It was really surprising and fascinating. The mosaics in the churches dotted throughout Jordan are just breathtakingly beautiful. Wadi Rum was always going to be special too and the stars at night are amazing.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Ibrahim was a true gentleman. He was funny, passionate about his country, caring and patient. He was always concerned that everyone was ok and enjoying the experience. He tried to ensure everyone's needs were catered for in quite a diverse group. He was always available to listen and help and ensured that any problems were resolved quickly.
Advice for Potential Travellers
To be honest the trip notes cover it and other travellers comments too help ensure you are prepared.
I wouldn't be put off by others experiences of optional trips - I decided I was only here once (I would go back but too many other countries I need to visit) so did the camel ride at sunset at Wadi Rum and also the Petra at night and thoroughly enjoyed both. Basically you get out of them what you put into them - enjoy it!
Also did the hike up the monastery at Petra and the hike behind the tombs to look down on the Treasury from above - both were worth it and a good workout!!
Linda Pearce
Reviewed January 2020
Unforgettable
The week exceeded my expectations. I had thought a week would give me just a glimpse of Egypt but there was so much more.
Most Inspirational Moment
Standing alone in the tomb of Rameses V and VI (kv9) surrounded by huge walls and pillars covered with pristine hieroglyphics of such vibrant colors it took your breath away. It is well worth the extra EP 100 to go inside.
Thoughts on Group Leader
I cannot praise Tefa highly enough. His organization, empathy, knowledge of Egyptology and attention to every detail of our experience was exceptional. Extra unscheduled mini trips were arranged in free time for anyone who mentioned something they would like to do. Health issues were dealt with including pushing a wheelchair round a temple! Tefa really made sure we all had a wonderful experience.
Advice for Potential Travellers
When I read the trip notes I was concerned about how the extra trips fitted in with the basic plan. My concerns were unfounded. It is all very well arranged. I would say.... do as much as possible.
Emma Ruffell
Reviewed January 2020
Best Experience of all of my travels so far!
Best experience of travel I have ever had. Gorillas just WOW. Chimps were amazing and we saw our first one in 5 minutes. Queen Elisabeth park gave us not 1 but 2 sets of tree climbing lions!! And we spotted a Leopard. Lots of other fabulous game that was not so expected from Uganda. Friendly people everywhere.
Most Inspirational Moment
Wow, seeing the gorilla family in the wild was the best experience I have ever had, just breath taking! It was very hard work getting to them (and we were lucky it took just over 1 hour) so hit the gym before you go, make sure you take those gardening gloves and hire a porter. Don't bother taking walking poles (take up room in your luggage) and they will give you a big stick on site that does just as well (and you don't have to worry about loosing since you have to leave your poles when getting near the gorillas).
Thoughts on Group Leader
Our guide David was fabulous, kept us entertained throughout and nothing was too much trouble. Love him!
Advice for Potential Travellers
Gorilla mist Camp is a bit cold and damp (you are in a rainforest at high elevation after all) so I wish I took another warmer jumper for the evenings (but they do put lovely hot water bottles in your bed).
One point I would make - I didn't book the extra Gorilla permits due to money restrictions - the way it is worded on the site is to book them as you are not guaranteed to see the gorillas on one treck, however when you go for your treck they explain that if your group does not spot the gorillas then you can go back on the same permit the next day. (this did not happen to us so no idea if they do keep this promise given the restricted permit numbers).
Sandra Taylor
Reviewed January 2020
fine
This was an excellent holiday – well organised, a good mixed variety of activities and sights, not overly much travelling, good hotels and the leader took us to nice restaurants. And in particular I liked the ‘free time’ element given at the actual sights not provided as these lame ‘ a free afternoon in your hotel’ business when it’s difficult to access the places you want to see.
Most Inspirational Moment
Petra and Wadi Rum
Thoughts on Group Leader
Outstanding group leader. Ibrahim had that prefect combination of being highly organised but appearing laid back and relaxed. I recommend him to any group.
He dealt with any issues that arose from group members well so they never became 'issues'. He was a so knowledgeable and enthusiastic about Jordan but never 'over- informed'. We didn't have to listen to lengthy lectures standing looking at endless Roman and other remains - instead he gave us the outlines and left us to explore or ask questions as we wanted. And above he was fun.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Heed well the advice given in the comprehensive notes
andrew bole
Reviewed January 2020
An amazing trip, a couple of tips
This is a really wonderful trip. I would highly recommend it. You get a unique view of the people, country life and see very few other tourists, outside of the big cities! A good balance between cycling and transfers on the bus.
Most Inspirational Moment
Too many to list.
Thoughts on Group Leader
The guide makes the difference between a good trip and an amazing trip. Our guide, Nut, was excellent. He was calm, efficient and is vastly experienced so easily managed the large group (18) and so we were all relaxed and could enjoy the trip. Simple things were done very well. We visited lots of different artisans along the way but were never pressured into buying things. They guide handled tipping, meals etc
Advice for Potential Travellers
Some tips not in the trip notes:
1. It is hot and very sunny. Over xmas, there were no cloudy days and no rain.
2. Take lots of high factor sun cream. We used more than expected as you are out in the sun most of the day. You can only buy it in the big towns, Bangkok, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Saigon.
3. Wear white or light coloured tops when cycling. Dark colours absorb the heat making it even hotter!
4. You move most evenings, so can only visit the laundry in the big towns where you stay for more than one night, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Saigon.
5. Take a water bottle that fits in a standard bike water bottle holder.
6. We took our own clip in pedals (MTB prob best as in and out of them in the towns), which worked well. The bus is always close by so you can change shoes if you need to walk round a temple
7. To go into most of the temples you need to wear trousers or shorts/skirts that cover the knee. Applies to men and women. You can leave them on the bus, so dont need to wear them when cycling.
8. Take some electrolite tablets for your water, as you are out on the bike in the heat sweating alot!
Mark Riley
Reviewed January 2020
Amazing tour of Cambodia
This trip was amazing. It was such a mix of different parts of the country
From the bustling capital of Phnom Penh to relaxing beaches in the south then cycling around Battenbang visiting different local industries and finishing up with the awe inspiring temples of Siem Reep
With our most incredible guide “Bun” who worked tirelessly to make sure everyone of us had an enjoyable time.
Most Inspirational Moment
I would have to say that the most inspiring thing about this trip was “Bun” a truly amazing young man.
Thoughts on Group Leader
“Bun” was caring,funny,enthusiastic,helpful,knowledgable,friendly and very passionate about his wonderful country... He is a credit to Exodus
Advice for Potential Travellers
Go and immerse yourself in this wonderful country, yes it’s poor but the people are delightful and the countryside is stunning.... This trip gives you a snippet of so many different parts of Cambodia.
We could easily have spent a week in every town.
Clive Marks
Reviewed January 2020
Breathtaking and dumbfounding
The variety of experiences on this trip is among the highest that I have got from any trip, from the serenity of seeing over a million bats streaming out of their roost cave at dusk to the horrors of a killing field and its torture prison, between which are the mystical majesty of the temples of Angkor. are the grand finale to the trip. Along the way were many encounters of real life in this beautiful country as well as snorkelling in the sea.
Most Inspirational Moment
Inspirational is a difficult word to asses for this trip, so let me try some others for you:
Horrifying - the sheer inhumanity of what went on in the torture prison and the killing field (I just had to go and find a quiet corner with my own thoughts - our tour leader, Bun, whose parents had been Khmer Rouge child soldiers, came to my rescue as he was the only person to know so intimately what went on here;
Humbling - meeting two survivors of the torture camp (I was left dumbstruck);
Magnificent - seeing over a million bats suddenly start to stream out of their roost cave and head out to eat enough paddy field pest to save 20,000 tonnes of rice per year (nature at its most beautiful, so shortly after the horrors above);
Majestic - the whole temple complex of the Angkor area (some are beautifully carved, some are vast, others are simply serene in their simplicity and tranquility, Ta Prohm not being among the tranquil ones since the Tomb Raider film.
Crazy - the traffic in every town and city but this was contrasted by the ability of everyone to get through crowded junctions with in calm chaos. Walking out into the road, in the assured belief that you would not get run over, is a habit that one will have to rapidly get out of back in the UK!
Tranquility - so many places were blissfully quiet, even at the fabulous hotel near Sihanoukville, where one had just gone through a vast building site, was so gloriously located on the beach near a fabulous choice of bars and restaurants. This was the first trip over the New Year when I have been able to get to sleep early due to the quiet in our Siem Reap hotel.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Bun was a star so let me tell you why:
he always gave us fabulously accurate and informative briefings about the following day (when we needed to be anywhere; what we would be doing; what we should be wearing; what we should bring with us) as well as updates throughout the day;
he was always able to find suitable restaurants for group dinners and coped well with the assorted dietary requirements of some guests. Finding a restaurant for 17 people at short notice is very difficult in any location at any time of year, let alone over the New Year period. Some evenings, when no group dinner was needed, we would find him joining us for dinner and fabulous conversations always resulted;
his charm was endless, even when some guests were less than polite or helpful;
we always knew where he was as we could always hear his delightful giggle;
when one of the guests developed medical complications from sand fly bites, he was fabulous about ensuring that she got the appropriate medical treatment in the right facility and kept the rest of us informed of her progress;
when another was taken ill during a bus trip, he dealt with it so discretely that most people had no idea that there had been any problem;
his knowledge of his country is amazing;
with his parents having been child-soldiers for the Khmer Rouge we knew that he had a very close connection with that dark phase of his country's recent history - he was amazingly frank about some aspects of his parents' lives and of his own extraordinary upbringing;
he is a great testament as to what someone can achieve in their own life through sheer determination and hard work, making us feel very humble at having had the privilege of meeting him (woe betide any snivelling brat who whinges about not having the latest gadget, just because they "want" it!)
with my husband having broken five vertebrae and twice having had his pelvis crushed, he is a self-confessed "princess and the pea" when it comes to bed mattresses. Bun phoned ahead to ensure that our last hotel had extra facilities in the room when we arrived, helping to ensure some 3 good nights' sleep.
Advice for Potential Travellers
GO
Mira Nair
Reviewed January 2020
Poor hotel food and mixed itinerary
We only stay at one hotel the entire trip, which we had a very mixed experience of. The room was nice and large , cleaned well each day, a lovely big balcony. Sadly the TV had the capability to connect to the internet and Netflix but this was disabled by the hotel which is a shame.
I am very surprised so many reviews of this tour rate the food at the hotel positively. We had high expectations but found it was mediocre at the best of times, and terrible (and made us both sick/get a dodgy stomach) at the worst of times. They clearly designed all the included meals to feed a big group as cheaply as possible — and the health and safety standards were frankly for a first world country. We were invited into the kitchen several times for cooking demonstrations but no one working the kitchen wore hair nets or any other basic hygiene equipment and we weren’t required to wash our hands or wear hair nets or anything else despite standing very much in the centre of the food preparation. It didn’t surprise me that I got ill from the food probably as a result of this. It’s a shame as we only had a couple of ‘free’ meals to experience properly excellent Italian food.
The breakfast supposedly starts at 7am but we went down there at 720am and nothing was out yet — we had to wait another 15min to eat after we found the woman managing it and she set it up. Again, pretty poor hygiene standards as she grabbed the bread slices out with bare hands after touching lots of other things in the setup. The breakfast is a very basic continental and we were pretty sick of the very limited selection by the last couple of days. The pastries started out nice and fresh tasting the first day but I think they re-use them multiple days (we saw her take out the same ones from the last day) and they were really hard and disgusting by the last breakfasts.
The two owners are also the two chefs and they both made lots of very inappropriate comments during their cooking demonstrations — one said that he needs to beat the pizza dough to get it out of his system so he doesn’t beat his wife. He also said the olive oil needed to be Italian, ‘not Greek or spic stuff.’ They both also made repeated negative comments about vegetarians.
The first day lunch is not an included meal but we were forced to buy it at the hotel. I asked the guide if we could go find somewhere else (we had tons of time between getting to the hotel and our orientation walk) and he made it out like we had to go to the hotel restaurant. It was very expensive and small portions and very mediocre quality for what it was. A few days later we had a not included dinner so we went to a very good and very cheap pizza place literally across the road from the hotel. Wish we were given the chance to find this the first day instead of being forced to eat at the hotel (I’ve never been on a tour where we’ve not been given a choice for non included meals for where to eat). I paid 11 euro for a tiny piece of not very good sea bass and an extra four euro for a very lame side salad. The pizza place across the street does you an excellent big pizza for 6-8 euros.
The village we were based in was really in the middle of nowhere. The positive of the location is this clearly is a major hub for starting beautiful walks from. But besides that it’s so remote that you feel a bit trapped.
A pool is advertised but when we stayed, it wasn’t being cleaned or maintained at all — which they don’t tell you. It was full of rubbish so they clearly just don’t maintain it in winter but Exodus should really make that clear or else saying there’s a pool is false advertising.
The itinerary hilights for us were 1) the stunning boat ride along the coast from Amalfi to Capri and 2) the archaeology day we spent doing Herculaneum and Pompeii. Many people told me we would need a full day for Pompeii alone but actually we found 2-3 hours at each site was enough to see the hilights just fine.
The biggest itinerary disappointments included the walk of the gods. We did a very lame short version of this where we walked about 2km one way and then turned back and walk back the same way we came. There was endless faffing and unnecessary short breaks on this shortened walk. I also expected we were doing a BBQ lunch back at the hotel afterward as per the trip notes but the lunch instead was a cold lunch with a cheese and salami platter . I would have much preferred doing the full walk of gods and then getting transport back from Positano, because we really didnt benefit from a guide (just the opposite) to do a tiny there and back again chunk of this walk followed by a lunch at the hotel and nothing to do afterwards. This entire day again felt like false advertising from the trip notes.
The first three days (Capri, Pompeii, Amalfi and Positano) felt like full days and the last two non-free days felt very much like half days (Ravello was very pretty but not enough for a day).
Most Inspirational Moment
Lovely countryside
Reply from Exodus
We would like to thank Mira for her feedback, although we are very sorry that some aspects of this trip and the accommodation fell below her expectations. We have been using the Hotel Due Torri for around 20 years and the feedback we usually receive about it is positive; in 2019 the hotel catered for approximately 1700 Exodus clients. The hotel has replaced the old televisions with smart TVs which have over 100 foreign channels, mostly in English. Whilst we were very sorry that Mira was not impressed with the food on this trip, we feel it pertinent to mention that other members of Mira’s group who privately completed Holiday Evaluation Forms (HEFs), rated the food on this trip as ‘excellent’. The breakfast buffet includes cheese, ham, white and brown sliced bread, yoghurt, fresh boiled eggs, muesli, popped rice and cereal alternatives, fresh fruit, jam and honey, plus dairy free alternatives, fresh coffee and cappuccino and freshly squeezed orange juice. The kitchen at the hotel follows rigorous hygiene standards when it comes to food preparation; staff wear professional clothes and hats/hair net as needed and clients who are selected to help with the cooking demonstrations are given an apron and a hat/hair net and are asked to wash their hands before touching the food. We regret that Mira was not aware that the hotel pool would not be open at the time of year that she visited; this pool is usually open from mid-April to mid-October, depending on weather, and we have now included this information in our trip notes. Whilst we are sorry that Mira was disappointed with the location of the hotel, and aspects of the staffing and itinerary, all members of her group who privately completed HEFs rated the accommodation, itinerary, staff members as ‘excellent’, and rated their overall trip experience as 5 out of a possible 5. We appreciate that everyone’s experience is different and we regret Mira’s feedback, but because, as of January 2020, the 78 people who have left reviews of our Highlights of the Amalfi Coast tour on our website have awarded it an overall rating of 4.6 out of a possible 5, we are confident that this trip is running in line with our expectations. Marta Marinelli – Product Manager
Stephanie Scollard
Reviewed January 2020
Jordan loves you!
This was a fantastic trip. I loved Jordan. Ibrahim, the Guide, was excellent and had everything perfectly organised. The food was amazing, and hotels were nice. Petra was unforgettable. Hiking boots are a good idea. The weather was hot in the middle of the day and quite cold at the beginning and end of the day. (T-shirts, with lots of layers, and a coat required, for December trips.) I have done several trips with Exodus and would thoroughly recommend this one.
Most Inspirational Moment
Petra was amazing.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Ibrahim is lovely.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Take hiking boots.
Anne Macintosh
Reviewed January 2020
Amazing
What a fantastic walking trip – beautiful scenery, well organised and varied walks, and enhanced by a lovely group of fellow-walkers. Eduardo is a first class guide, and manages to accommodate everybody’s abilities. This was the Grade 5 level walk, which was quite challenging towards the end of the week, mainly due to the unseasonably hot weather.. But so rewarding. My first trip with Exodus. Can’t wait to book the next one!
Most Inspirational Moment
Reaching the summit on the last day of the trip - higher than Ben Nevis and in 28 degrees heat!
Thoughts on Group Leader
First rate leader, so proud of his Mallorcan roots. Full of interesting anecdotes, and lots of historical facts.
