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Reviews

Your Words – We tell it like it is! Holiday Reviews by previous Exodus travellers  

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20 Reviews

4.8 out of 5

Reviews

Amazing British Columbia

This was my first holiday with Exodus and also my first small group holiday. I need not have worried on either account. From beginning to end the organisation was first class thanks to our amazing Group leader Heather and a more diverse and relaxed group of fellow travellers would have been hard to find. My concerns about my age, (there were several older than my 65 years) and the amount of walking involved were quickly dispelled and I was able to opt out of híkes to sketch and paint instead.

Most Inspirational Moment

The wildlife was truly amazing. We saw Grizzlies and Black bears catching salmon, Orca whales hunting seal and a sea otter family playing on the jetty near our hotel. No oportunity was missed.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Heather was exceptional in every respect. She was a first class driver, knew how to pace out the day, and joined in with us for dinners and excursions with genuine pleasure. When any kind of incident occured she dealt with it swiftly and efficiently.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Wildlife is not guaranteed on this trip. We were very lucky with the abundance of wildlife that we saw and also with the weather.

WHALES & BEARS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

A wonderful holiday that really delivered on the wildlife sightings.  We saw whales (grey, humpback and orca) and bears – close up – but also sea otters, seals, sea lions, dolphins, porpoises, bald eagles, and even a river otter.  The scenery was beautiful too, and we were lucky enough to find ourselves among a lovely group of people who we were really pleased to have met.       

Most Inspirational Moment

Quite a few inspirational moments to choose from on this magical trip, but my favourite moment was when we came alongside a pod of orcas during the Campbell River grizzly bear boat trip - our guide, Jack, cut the motor, and as the orcas swam around us we could hear them breathing in the silence. 

Thoughts on Group Leader

Jo was terrific, and her practical skills, knowledge, friendliness and flexibility made the difference between a good holiday and a great one.  The lunch-time picnics she organized were wonderful (and always in beautiful locations), she made dinner reservations for us in great restaurants each evening, and most importantly she was tremendous fun, but at the same time very restful to be with.  Full marks!      

Advice for Potential Travellers

Don't be put off if you're not sure whether a group tour is for you - we really enjoyed the company, and were amazed at how much could be packed into a 10-day trip.

WHALES & BEARS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Keep this trip. It’s new but it’s a corker. Great wildlife in a really beautiful part of the world. Whales – tick! Bears – tick! Does what it says so more than happy.

Most Inspirational Moment

Not so much as a moment as a whole day. Rose in the earlyish morning and cruised through inlets reflecting like mirrors the surrounding misty mountains and forests to our Grizzly Bear excursion. Never did I imagine we'd be able to get so close but there were the Grizzlies, only some shallow water and about 10m between them and us. Such beautiful animals- we saw a mum and two cubs, a lighter coloured mother and elder cub and then spent ages watching a lone male swim and fish and eat. Magical. After a nice lunch still full of excitement at the bear encounters we then cruised back to Campbell river and en route passed a colony of sealions, a pod of dolphins then best of all 6 Orca who we stayed and watched for a while. Amazing day.  The Humpback breaching three times showing off to us was also pretty special.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Jo was great. Informative, fun and flexible enough to allow us to go do our own thing and forget the trip notes when we wanted to try again to see whales and when rain stopped the chance of sea kayaking. She also organized lovely picnics in pretty spots. She also surprised me with a yummy birthday cake!

Advice for Potential Travellers

Advice to Exodus: put the initial whale watch and bear watch on the same day so there is time to do the whales again in the unlikely event of no  sightings, or just to allow a second expedition in a different area with different scenery and whale possibilities.  Advice to other travellers? Be prepared and be patient and realise wildlife is wild and nothing is guaranteed. The weather that time of year can be wet so something that protects valuable electrical equipment is worth investing in. The bus isn't the most comfortable ride so be prepared to swap places if fellow travellers are suffering. Don't worry about being a single on this group - go for the picnic option and then Jo sorts out all meals so you don't need to cope or eat alone except maybe the first day in Vancouver. Listen to the bear etiquette guide and behave appropriately around these magnificent animals. I also recommend the cave tour. It's not hard, there's some really interesting stuff to see, it's great fun and you have to go a long long way (the bottom of the ocean or a blackhole as I learnt on this mini adventure) to experience true 100% darkness, or you can see what it's like in this cave!Try a Nanaimo bar - they are yummy!!

Did what it said on the tin!

We asked for whales and bears and we definitely got them!  Whales = grey, humpback, orca.  Bears = black and grizzly.

Most Inspirational Moment

We had a fantastic whale watching trip with a humpback breaching and lobtailing.  Plus a grey whale and a colony of sea lions in the crashing waves on the same outing. The time with the grizzlies was also amazing.  I hadn't appreciated how close they would be with the group of us just standing beside the river where they were feeding.  They put on a great show and we saw about 10 grizzlies in the 2 hours we spent there.  The outing was then topped off by a group of orcas on the way back.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Jo was a good leader and clearly enjoys leading this tour.  She educated us about the area, the culture, the trees and the wildlife and her local knowledge gave us some good stops on long drives, good picnics and good evening meals.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Bear in mind that the weather in this part of the world is similar to the UK.  September is the best time to see the grizzlies, but it can also be wet.  There is flexibility in the itinerary and some things can be moved to different days to cope with this, but some of the activities on the itinerary just cannot run if the weather is really bad.  On our trip, the sea kayaking on the last day had to be cancelled because of heavy rain and wind.   On our scheduled whale-watching trip from Tofino we saw no whales (but plenty of seals, sea lions and sea otters).  Apparently this is really unusual, but wildlife is unpredictable!  As a group we chose to depart from the itinerary and book ourselves onto another whale watching trip from Ucluelet the next morning.  It was the right decision (see best moment above) but we had to depart from the official itinerary to give us a second chance to see the whales.

WHALES & BEARS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Fresh air  and the great outdoors  – highlights of course are the bears and whales but with plenty more besides

Most Inspirational Moment

Probably the best day out was visiting the Grizzlys on Bute Inlet - being remarkably close to a huge salmon crunching male - superb viewing conditions also of females and cubs on the same stretch of river , then when you think it can't get any better a pod of Orca's on the way home - bliss Our group had a great day in Torfino but were unlucky and didn't see any whales on the first trip - we mustered as a group the next day and independantly booked through the tour operator at Ucluelet ( part of the Gray Whale shop opposite the hotel ) a really superb day with sightings of both gray and humpback - this time in a different part of the Vancouver Island inlets  , well worth the $100 each - will never forget Captain Bob taking us up close ( very close ) to the Sea Lion colony - felt like we were truly in the midst of an HD BBC nature programme , exhilarating and magnificant 

Thoughts on Group Leader

Excellent - good leadership , great humoured - obliging and passionate - knowledgable and reliable 

Advice for Potential Travellers

Travel sickness tablets ! the tour bus got hot in the back seats and despite the distances being relaitavley short ( max 4 hrs ) the windin roads and the bad AC system meant a few green faces - plus the pacific can be a little choppy - no problems after being to the drug store !!!

WHALES & BEARS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Canada truly is 'The Great Outdoors!' – fir tree covered mountains and windswept, rocky beaches provided the backdrop to some exciting wildlife encounters. As well as the natural beauty of Vancouver Island, I was really impressed by the city of Vancouver and the virtually endless blue skies that we were lucky enough to experience.   

Most Inspirational Moment

Watching a huge group of dolphins jump in and out of the waves as they travelled alongside our boat. The calming sound of Grey whales breathing through their blow holes in an otherwise very choppy sea.A Grizzly bear fishing for salmon with her cub. The cub was picking salmon out of the river and playing with it.Seeing a pod of 11 Orca whales drift past our boat was pretty magical!Staying in a great hotel in Ucluelet after lots of time spent outdoors.  

Thoughts on Group Leader

Jo was great and she worked tirelessly to ensure that the trip ran smoothly and that we were all happy - I've never met anyone with more energy! I loved her idea to organise picnic lunches each day and she found some lovely beauty spots for us to enjoy. She was great at managing supplies and topping them up every few days to ensure there was always something new available. Along with the great restaurants that we visited in the evenings, there was definitely no shortage of food! Jo also led several really interesting walks throughout the trip and had plenty of knowledge about the areas that we walked through.

Advice for Potential Travellers

I would suggest taking binoculars and a good zoom for your camera if you want to maximise your experiences of the wildlife encounters. Also plenty of layers - the weather in September was generally warm but we spent a lot of time on boats where it was easy to get cold due to the wind. One of the boat journeys to see whales was very choppy and so sea-sickness tablets might be useful. Although wildlife encounters aren't guaranteed, we saw almost everything we hoped too. The landscape is also spectacular, which made boat journeys and ferry crossings really interesting too.

WHALES & BEARS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

A fantastic experience from begining to end, a wonderful group of people – locations were excellent with lots of wildlife and culture.  A couple of niggles: some initial accomodation was below standard (eg: roadside motel), a seemingly perenial problem – lack of choice vegetarian option on dinner menus.

Most Inspirational Moment

Sea kayaking; paddling in the ocean whilst watching Osprey circle and dive around me

Thoughts on Group Leader

Above and beyond fantastic!

Advice for Potential Travellers

Be aware the food portions are huge!

WHALES & BEARS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

A fantastic holiday which gives you numerous opportunities to enjoy the local wildlife while also allowing time to visit Vancouver, Victoria and some of the other towns. This was my first wildlife focussed holiday which meant there were lot’s of things i had never seen before including black bears, grizzly bears, orca whales, otters, seals etc. I do think you need to be aware however that you are trying to spot wild animals so you need to accept that anything you see is a bonus, there is the possibility that you might not see certain things depending on the weather, conditions and just how lucky you are. Having said that the people involved in the trips know what they are doing and will always swap things around and will do their best to get you the best possible experience. We were not disappointed and saw so much throughout the holiday.

Most Inspirational Moment

For me i think seeing a grizzly bear and her cub playing in the river was a real highlight, it was an absolutely stunning area and to see the bears in their natural environment interacting with each other was amazing. The journey back on that day was fantastic too we managed to see a large group of Orca's together which was breathtaking and at one point the boat was being followed by around 20 dolphins playing in the sea.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Our team leader was fantastic, she was extremely organised and enthusiastic throughout the trip. She made the trip easy for us by suggesting places for dinner and organising picnic lunches for most days. She knew so much about Canadian history which she bought into the holiday and was fun to be with throughout the break.

Advice for Potential Travellers

This is a fantastic trip to do and i would definately recommend this to anyone, Vancouver Island is a stunning place. Just be aware that seeing wildlife is not guaranteed and just make the most of what you do see. I would suggest taking a small waterproof bag to hold your camera and binoculars for the bear and whale watching on the zodiacs as you can't take a big bag and you don't want to get your camera wet.If you do the kayaking then take a set of dry clothes to change into as you will get wet and i would also advise a hat as my head got a bit burnt and being out for 3 hours you need to be careful.I would also suggest participating in as many of the optional activities as you can as these for me really added to the trip for me, the snorkelling with seals was great fun and the seals were so relaxed on the island occassionally taking a dip in the sea. The kayaking as also great fun, although this is not with whales but round the little islands, it is lovely to see the starfish, fish etc. 

WHALES & BEARS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

An immensely enjoyable trip due in part to the awe-inspiring wildlife viewed but also the fact that our group of only 12 had a shared interest made more memorable because of the energy and enthusiasm of our group leader and the very knowledgeable experts escorting us into their speciality areas.

Most Inspirational Moment

The moment, when nearly back at base, our cameras packed away safe from the pouring rain, a transient pair of orcas, male and female, surfaced near our boat. To hear them scythe through the water and breathe through their blowholes and realise their size was truly a tremendous experience. Normally the boats strictly adhere to the 100meters distance rule so as not to cause the animals undue alarm but in this case their was no warning that we were in their path as it was unusual for them to be so near to the harbour.Later on the trip, in brilliant sunshine this time, we were able to observe two pods of orcas meeting thus making up a group of 11 but at least the 100metres away this time.I went sea-kayaking for the first time and as I can't swim was very apprehensive. This was soon forgotten as I viewed the forest of sea-urchins and starfish straight down below me.

Thoughts on Group Leader

The group leader just couldn't have done anymore to make our holiday special. This trip did not include any meals so she always made sure that we went to nice places to eat or bought supplies in and took us to scenic areas for picnics.She was very informative about Canadian history as she drove us on city tours or hiked the trails and spoke very enthusiastically about the massive trees we saw on the way.The mini-bus we travelled around in had to have all our luggage loaded onto the roof everytime we changed hotels so she had to be very fit to manage this and it was lucky that there were one or two in the group tall enough and strong enough to pass suitcases to within her grasp.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Go on a special interest holiday as that will mean you have something in common with the other members of your group.Wildlife watching at 100mtres away, especially at sea, isn't easy so invest in a decent pair of binnoculars.Try and remember to put your camera away now and again so that you can soak up some of the magic of your wildlife experience directly. Sometimes it can be very fleeting and you may never have that sighting again in your life.

WHALES & BEARS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Although some of the wildlife encounters did fall below my expectations as set by the information in the trip notes, the group was great and the holiday was fun – I have good memories of it.  Especially if this would be your first wildlife trip to North America, you will see lots of ‘firsts’.  The scenery is amazing and you’ll have plenty of time to explore Vancouver city too.

Most Inspirational Moment

I don't know about inspirational, but the highlights for me were snorkelling near the harbour seal haul-out and being joined by a pup in the water, and also an unexpected sighting of a family North American river otters when we got back to the harbour in Nanaimo.  Also seeing a mother and cub grizzly bear at Orford River and the sightings of orcas and lots of pacific white-sided dolphins on the boat journey to and from the bears.  And encountering a mother raccoon and three kits in Stanley Park, Vancouver city.The stay at the Canadian Princess resort at Ucluelet was lovely - relaxing and a home from home.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Jo was very knowledgeable, enthusiastic and a good fixer. She is extremely communicative and chatty.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Be prepared to help with lifting your luggage on and off the roof rack of the minibus each time the group moves hotels, and pack a bit lighter to make this job easier.Canada is very expensive, so budget plenty for eating out/buying food (no meals are included in this trip).  In British Columbia you need to add on a sales tax of 12% and (if eating out) a tip of 18% which is in practice mandatory and often goes straight on the bill, so everything is effectively 30% more than the menu price.If you're veggie, choice is pretty limited when eating out, so consider doing some food shopping once there so some of your meals can be 'DIY' in your hotel room.We were blessed with beautiful weather and Jo had the idea of collecting money for a kitty to buy picnic food which worked really well (but wouldn't if it rained a lot!), so we got 6 picnic lunches for CAD40 which was good value.