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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!
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.
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I really enjoyed the mix of activity, culture and trekking on this trip. The accommodation was good quality relative to Nepal standards and the adventurous nature of this trip, I wouldn’t call them 5* luxury but definitely solid 4* and the Chitwan lodge was a particular highlight! The trekking lodges were much nicer than the stories I’d heard about Nepalese teahouses, really comfortable and excellent service, with some spectacular views (when the weather cleared).
The trekking was a good pace and not too challenging but there were a lot of steps in parts which tested my knees. The road journeys were not the most “premium” experience, the vehicle was comfortable but the roads in parts were pretty rough and the journey was really long between Chitwan and Pokhara. I know flying isn’t great for our Carbon footprint but a flight on that route would make it a more premium experience.
Chitwan National Park was a personal highlight for me, seeing rhino's in the wild and the canoe dug-out paddle down the river to a sunset drinks and canapes on the river bank (trying to spot crocs) was really special.
Worth taking a walking pole if you have weak knees for parts of the trek. You get fed a lot of food but might want snacks for some of the long road journeys.
A holiday of contrasts -the hubbub of Kathmandu, the magnificence of the Annapurna range and the luxury of the Bahari Jungle Lodge in Chitwan.
We had a superb tour guide in Kathmandu who was happy to answer any question and who took us to see the living goddess! Our original hotel was very average but we were moved to the much more upmarket Yak and Yeti for the final night, which was the original hotel when we booked the trip and is now advertised for future trips.
I really enjoyed the trekking experience, the scenery was spectacular, the lodges were very comfortable, the food really good and the staff excellent. Our guide and porters were amazing, it was very sad bidding them farewell.
Chitwan was a complete contrast, much warmer, very luxurious. We were kept busy there. The jeep safari was my favourite, fortunately we did this early in the morning when the park inhabitants are more lively. To get to the National Park we simply took a boat across the river from the lodge, so easy! We didn’t see a tiger but saw several one horned rhinos, including a mother and calf whom we observed for some time. It would have been great to have one more day there to chill, to enjoy a dip in the pool, to sit on our balcony of our lovely ‘hut’.
Our last full day, the ‘approximately 5 hours’ on a coach turned into about 8 hours on a holiday, a day when traffic is much quieter than normal. We did not arrive in Kathmandu until about 4pm, it left little time to do anything before our farewell meal. I would have preferred to pay a little extra to fly! It was a disappointing end to our holiday.
Getting up before sunrise each day to see if we could see the mountains, which were obscured by cloud later in the day. Our last morning of our trek granted us a spectacular view, which lasted until our departure from Pokhara.
This is a large part of the reason why I did not give the trip a 5 star rating. A premium adventure is supposed to have an expert named leader, there seemed to have been a change at the last moment about which we were not notified, and ours was neither. He was a very pleasant, kind individual and got us from A to B with no problem. However, he had not led a group for four years, hence he was a little out of practice and his English was somewhat rusty, which led to much confusion. On previous trips we have had some excellent Exodus group leaders from whom we learnt so much about the country we were visiting, unfortunately we learnt more in a day with our excellent Kathmandu tour guide than we did in the whole trip with our group leader.
My family saved up money to have a holiday of a lifetime. We were promised in the brochure and online that this was a Premium holiday with 4/5* hotels, an expert guide and superb mountain views. This was not the holiday we received in many areas. Some parts such as the trekking and lodges were excellent but as you will see below in my comments a lot fell short of what we had paid for and I would not book another ‘premium’ holiday with Exodus again.
The guided tour round Kathmandu with Suresh, the trekking with our guide Bikash and the Bahari Lodge in Chitwan.
Poor group leader. Not one of the 'expert named guides chosen for their expertise and spoken English' that we had been promised. Gave out no information on culture, politics, history, religion etc. His English was fairly poor and his communication and organisational skills were poor meaning that we constantly had to ask him to clarify meeting times, flight transfer arrangements and other daily details.
Temper your expectations of how much of the Annapurna Range that you will see. Pollution is bad and unless there is rain during the night to clear the pollution out of the air and on the basis that it is not cloudy then you may see the Himalayas some of the time but by no means all the time. Ensure that what you have asked for (such as 2 x twin rooms at each location) is what is delivered. We ended up with 1 x twin and 1 x double at each location which meant me having to share a bed with my adult son. Not what I had requested. How difficult is it to get the administration and basic requests right? If you have any trips changes - make sure you get the real reason why they have been changed. Our initial hotel in Kathmandu (a 5 star hotel) was changed to the Hotel Mulberry which was no better than a UK 2 star hotel and the reason given was not credible. Ask about the road conditions on the land trip from Chitwan to Kathmandu. We were told that we weren't flying because of the regular delays at the local airport. Instead we were told that we would have a leisurely morning in Chitwan and a scenic 5 hour trip back to Kathmandu. In the event we had to be breakfasted and ready to leave at 8am and did not arrive at the hotel until 4pm. An 8 hour journey on appalling unmade dusty roads for over 75% of the journey being bounced around like a fairground ride. Even local airport delays would not have amounted to an 8 hour delay. It meant basically losing one whole day of our holiday. Cost cutting?? Think very carefully about what you expect from a 'premium' holiday and the additional cost to you above a standard trip. There were many areas of the trip that came nowhere near 'premium' and that was really disappointing as my family had saved up for this 'trip of a lifetime'.
Sadly this was a disappointing experience as we were sold something that Exodus were unable to deliver and certainly mis-sold on their website. We were in contact with Head Office in the UK from day 1 and although they did eventually move us back to the Yak and Yeti Hotel, as originally promised, on our second night we had no communication from them to explain what they had done or confirm that our last night would also be in the Yak and Yeti. Originally we had been told that the Yak and Yeti had fallen below their standards for a premium hotel. Having spent our second and last night at this hotel I cannot believe this to be the real reason as the hotel was excellent in every way and most definitely of a 5*rating. Don't be disingenuous with your clients. Have the decency to email back when there has been a problem. Exodus says that all the hotels have been visited and inspected by their qualified staff to ensure they are of a 4/5star rating. It transpires that the replacement hotel on Day 1 had not been visited by anyone in the UK, they had apparently 'googled it' and then asked the local rep to check it out. These are not the actions of a competent tour company trying to run up market tours for discerning travellers. If the bus journey from Chitwan was a cost cutting measure - then be upfront with your clients and offer them the opportunity to upgrade at a cost to a flight - don't make excuses about domestic flight delays being the reason for the change.
We are grateful to you for taking the time to submit a review, Sally, and are pleased that you enjoyed the trekking and the lodges. On the other hand, we are incredibly sorry that you felt it did not live up to its premium description in several areas, as this is not the type of feedback we like to receive. The tour leader assigned to your group has a wealth of experience leading group tours and was selected for his strong language skills and charismatic personality, so we do regret if this was not evident during your trip. We always act on the feedback we receive and, following your helpful comments, we are currently considering whether your leader is suitable for future Exodus departures. Regarding the changes to your tour, these were made with our customers’ best interests in mind, although we admit that certain decisions backfired and we will endeavour to learn from them to ensure that future departures of this tour run more smoothly, in keeping with our expectations. We hope to be able to resolve your concerns via direct correspondence and would sincerely like to regain your trust on a future Exodus trip.
-Sarah Puttnam, Product Manager
