Reviews

Mr

Scenic walks (apart from the introductory one on Sunday which was a bit of a walk to nowhere) with great views from the top of the hills. It was a bit hot but all the walkers coped with the permanent sunshine.
Gizer, the leader, is a very good organiser, with perfect timing and good knowledge of the history of the places we visited – Girne, Bellapais Abbey, Saint Hilarion, Kantara and Buffavento Castle (the walk up to it recompense the walker with breath-taking views).
He also organised the optional but very informative excursions to Famagusta and Nicosia which offered us the chance to find out a lot of facts about places we knew only from the news.

I would also like to commend Omar, the driver, very efficient as well, helpful and funny; he helped me learn more Turkish language than I knew before 😉.

The food was good, and the best dinners we had were at Niazi’s and Eminem (no connection with the rapper 😉). The best lunch was at the Caravan Serai in Nicosia – thank you Gizer!

Pia Bella Hotel was clean with good sized rooms, very professional, polite, and friendly service, good range of food items at the breakfast.

Al in all, a very rewarding holiday – Thanks to Exodus, Gizer, and everybody else who made it happen.

Cycling the undulations of Puglia

A varied trip with great cycling opportunities, mostly off main roads, led by an experienced leader. Emanuele was our leader, a local man with knowledge and passion for local history and geography. There were opportunities each day to eat and drink local specialities, and a couple of special treats such as cheese-making and olive oil tasting. There are no bus transfers, you cycle a good way each day, sometimes a few challenging hills and dips, sometimes a chance to cycle as fast as you want off road, but on good surfaces. Emanuele is an excellent leader who keeps control of the group at the same time as giving everyone the chance to go at their own pace. You don’t need to be a strong cyclist to do the trip, there are always regroupings so that nobody gets left behind, and nobody feels left out. There are a couple of coffee and lunch stops where we were able to swim in the gorgeous blues of the Ionian Sea if we wanted, or just laze on a bench with a marvellous gelato. A couple of the hotels en route had swimming pools.

living history

For the well season wanderer, a trip to Baltics is a time traveller’s delight. From visiting medieval town (Tallin), 18th century chateau (Rundale), wonderful art nouveau buildings (Riga), dour grey soviet era (nuclear missile site) to an optimistic future (Vilnius). Our wonderful historian on this trip, Andrius, knew pre and post soviet rule and was very clear which path for the Baltic states he would choose

Getting a flavour of Albania

We travelled to Albania at the end of April 2022 and had a brilliant experience. Three days in the mountains followed by three days by the coast. Scenery was stunning so we ran out of superlatives to describe it. We were met by our local tour leader – Erlis- at the airport who competently organised everything. Food on the trip was very good. Mediterranean in style, lots of vegetables, fresh fish and many plates of chips. We were very well fed. Cycling was challenging particularly on the first and last days with some long ascents however the bikes supplied were pretty good and gearing coped well. All the effort was definitely worth it.
We have travelled to a few remote places around the world but Albania was completely different and well worth going to. Erlis gave us a good briefing on some of the recent history of the country opening our eyes to this part of the world.
Definitely a place to visit.

Predictive tech

Technology needs to do what it is told.

Good view of former Soviet states

Group leader (Andrius) was perhaps the best part of the trip. He was born under Soviet rule and just as he entered university the Soviet Union dissolved and his country declared independence. His insights and knowledge of history and society were a real treat.

Our trek to Everest Base Camp

In retrospect, the trip was the experience of a life-time, but always enjoyable at the time and we believe there are things Exodus Travels could do to make this tough expedition easier for future trekkers. Obviously the walking was tough, although my wife and I are seasoned trekkers and knew what to expect. Regarding the route itself, we did wonder whether an overnight stay at Pangboche instead of Phakding would make the trek-day to Namche easier? Also, we question whether a ‘B Plan’ would be possible in case of bad weather at the high end of the trail ? We reached Gorak Shep by lunch-time on 1st May and would have gone on to Base Camp, but heavy snow prevented that and in order to ‘summit’ we had to start early the next day to reach Base Camp, return and then walk down to Pheriche, which made for a very long day. We appreciate that it seldom snows in May, but the local people are finding that that pattern is altering as the global climate is changing. There somehow needs to be a ‘spare’ day in case of bad weather.

Accommodation’

This was probably our main area of concern; we knew to expect that these would be ‘spartan’ but this does not excuse the extent of filth in several cases: at Labouche, mould was clearly evident on the bedding, and at Gorak Shep, the one ‘western’ toilet seat was not only cracked and broken, but underneath it was encrusted with human waste. As someone once said, you can see what the bathrooms are like, but not the kitchens!
As for the bathrooms in general, we found at Namche there was no washbasin anywhere except in the corridors, which was the only place where you might brush your teeth, but you obviously could not have a proper (strip!) wash in a corridor in full view of the public! There were 2 showers in that tea-house but one was filthy, obviously not regularly cleaned.
At Lukla, there was an under floor water-leak, so that whenever taps were turned on in our room, the carpet in the room and outside in the corridor became immediately soaked. Showers were not available there and in a few other tea-houses – we had to rely on paying extra for a hot bowl of water.
At Tengboche, we passed by several newly–built-looking hotels before reaching our tea-house which was much the poorer. (We met other trekkers who had stayed in the newer accommodation and spoke favourably. We wondered there as at Namche why Exodus appeared not to have chosen the best option for accommodation.
But there were some good, clean tea-houses; Chhumoa and Khyangjuma were clean and comfortable, as was the newly-built tea-house at Dingboche, which boasted electric blankets. Could this ‘luxury’ not be provided elsewhere, as would make overnight stays much more comfortable – we enjoyed our two nights there. Pheriche was also clean and relatively comfortable; we saw the toilets being cleaned out by staff in the morning…
The most important omission we found was means of (international) communication in the tea-houses in case of emergency. When our daughter became ill and clearly could not continue the trek down from Pheriche, we found it impossible to contact our insurers back in the UK before organising a helicopter. In order to send just one email, we used the tea-house landlord’s phone positioned in one particular part of a window to get just ‘one bar’ of phone reception; a satellite phone in each tea-house would help in situations such as ours.

Possibly the most potentially serious issue we had was on the trail out of Namche, where we encountered a herd of yaks descending towards us across the entire trail. On one side was a vertical bank, and on the other a sheer drop.
The yaks were moving fast and their driver who was at the back was as much use as a chocolate fire-guard.
Our tour-leader said to move to the side by the bank, but then the yaks veered in our direction, threatening to crush us against the rocks. So we were advised to swap to the other side, and the yaks followed us. Whilst they narrowly missed our daughter and me, they knocked my wife over who was scrambling to avoid being swept over the edge.
The yak driver did not respond to our shouts of concern, and more worryingly, our tour leader did not appear overly concerned and just said that it was ‘crazy’. I think there needs to be some extra care and training given to tour leaders to avoid what could have been a fatal accident in our case.

Sicilian Volcanoes 2022

Beautiful islands and luckily we had some good volcanic activity, especially on Etna which made up for not being able to climb to the top of any of the volcanoes Vulcano, Stromboli or Etna, however I do feel the itinerary could be improved.

Great trip with some breathtaking scenery

I can highly recommend this trip. I arrived a day early on the Saturday and relaxed in Trogir which I would definitely endorse. It’s a lovely town and fun to explore and photograph. Plus it provides a more relaxing start to the tour. Every place we stayed on the itinerary was picturesque and each day was interesting and enjoyable. A good mix of history and scenery. The walks were also at a leisurely pace. Great places to eat, good company and comfortable accommodation. There’s a good mix of group activity and some personal time if you prefer some space from the group. We had a small group of 9 who were all like minded travellers and good fun. If you aren’t sure Croatia is for you please give it a go. This is a terrific week away and a beautiful country. I will definitely go back.

Wonderful view of former Soviet states

Our trip leader (Andrius) was perhaps the best part of the trip. He grew up under Soviet rule and went to university just as Lithuania gained independence. His insights and experiences plus knowledge of history and culture were a wonderful gift. He was always looking out for the group while attending to any special needs. Local guides were generally very good. This was our first trip with Exodus.
The trip was well paced with considerable walking. We had good hotels and restaurants. Weather was often cold and windy with some rain as one would expect for mid May in northern Europe. Spring was just arriving in Estonia and a month farther along by the time we got to Lithuania. Lots of flowers and 50 shades of green from the trees to the fields.