Reviews

A Great Adventure

This was a very enjoyable although really quite intensive 2 week holiday with plenty of variety. We covered a long overall distance. The 484k of cycling was manageable with a couple of demanding days . The longest distance cycled in one day was 100k. Most of the cycling was on flattish roads though and only 8 of the 14 days were actually spent in the saddle. There was a lot to do and see. I loved the opportunities for swimming. Most hotels were varied and most had swimming pools. The icing on the cake for me was being able to go swimming in the sea, also the snorkelling and kayaking were great. The time we were there it was Tet, the Vietnamese Chinese New Year Celebration. This added to the atmosphere and vitality of the places we visited but also made the roads more congested. Most Vietnamese road users aren’t used to dealing with cyclists. Our support team were very good at protecting us … very necessary, especially in towns. The Vietnamese people were delightful and I loved Vietnamese food.

Cycling Morocco's Great South

An excellent tour, well supported and well managed, but spoiled by Exodus’s failure to warn us adequately about the very cold cycling conditions high in the mountains.

Most Inspirational Moment

Cycling on quiet, well surfaced mountain roads in spectacular country

Thoughts on Group Leader

Very good

Advice for Potential Travellers

Be aware that the information that Exodus produces on the climate in Morocco applies to low altitude cities like Marrakech, but not to the high mountain villages and towns where we stay. You need to be prepared for the equivalent of UK winter cycling in February.

Reply from Exodus

We would like to thank Tony for his feedback, although we are very sorry that the tour he had planned to join was cancelled. Whilst we can confirm that this departure did not go ahead, we are sorry if he would have preferred to join a later tour. Our trip notes advise that there is the possibility of much colder weather in February, but we nonetheless regret that Tony felt inadequately advised. We were pleased, however that he had an excellent tour and that he found the group leader to be very good.

Tom Harari – Product Manager

Wonderful trip - do it!

A brilliant trip capturing all the chaos, filth, colour and magic of India & Nepal . The memories are too many to detail but will last a lifetime.
Personally I loved every day- I stayed healthy throughout sticking to a vegetarian diet and using loads of anti bacterial hand gel. The food was delicious & i am sure I’ve put on a few pounds.
The group was also great – a perfect mix of solo travellers and couples and we all got on very well.
The organisation behind the scenes by exodus was excellent – our guide in india and first part of Nepal, Jatin was always calm, reassuring & charming. The travel involved some changes due to road closures and a train cancellation but jatin always did his best to rearrange schedules & keep us informed. We covered long distances so there are some long days being jolted around in the bus so be prepared, but the good humour of the group, amazing scenery and a few snacks helped pass the time. I found it helpful to download some music or I player podcasts to listen to en route. Also a blow up pillow and big scarf or blanket for when the air con made it chilly.

Nile Cruise - Premium

Very culturally inspiring trip, with a considerable variety of points of interest. My grandson, Will, said it all: “It was awesome; more than I expected”. Our tour guide really had his act together, and kept a close watch on each and every tour member, yet giving them freedom to do their own extra things (like collecting soil samples and geocaching). One big thing I did learn about the aristocracy of the distant past. The top 1% of societies wanted to leave their mark for not only those who followed, but they also made a way that they could attain another life into the future (from their perspective). From what my grandson and I saw and experienced, we now better know that primitive societies were really quite advanced to be able to cut, transport, and assemble what resources were available – stone. Very inspirational trip!!

Discover Costa Rica

My recent trip to Discover Costa Rica was absolutely amazing – I certainly ‘Died and went to Heaven – as I was in Heaven’, the trip ran so smoothly, perfect in fact – the transfers, accommodation, boat trips, wildlife and birdlife were in abundance. Our tour guide Mayer was simply Perfect No1, who know everything we asked and had an excellent sense of humour.
I really cannot fault this holiday at all – simply perfect.
I want to do it all again if I could. I have worked in hospitality for around 7 years but have never experienced such a well organised trip.
Well Done and thank you so much Exodus, I will certainly be booking my trip with you next year, perhaps seeing the Jaguar in Brazil!
Helen West

Quiet roads among beautiful rugged scenery

This was my first cycling trip and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Morocco is a super winter holiday destination and I will definitely be booking more trips in the saddle! Beautiful rugged landscapes.

Monumental Egyptian Odyssey

Another excellent Exodus adventure. I was pleasantly surprised that we were fully occupied every day with tours and activities. Temples, tombs, mosques, monastery, local baths, perfumery, pottery, animal sanctuary, papyrus institute, museums, war graves and souqs. We used all forms of transport (luxury coach, horse and carriage, felucca, cruise boat, sleeper train, camel, power boat, plane). Truly a memorable trip, so much fascinating history, colossal architecture and lovely weather too!

Great snowshoeing in stunning scenery

Great variety of walks to mountain summits with fantastic views of the beautiful Dolomite scenery. Walking included a couple of ascents of 650m. We walked through wooded hillsides to mountain tops. On most days we stopped in mountain huts for a drink whilst we admired the scenery.

Great intro to Morocco

This trip was a great way to see varied parts of Morocco, from city life in Marrakesh to the desert and up to the High Atlas Mountains, where there was a good amount of snow. This meant that there was quite a lot of time spent on the minibus, but there was some impressive terrain to see. In February, the nights and mornings were cold and dramatically different to the temperature in the mid-late afternoon. There were local crafts to visit (rug making, pottery, argan oil production, spice and incense stores) with retail opportunities, the camel ride into the desert, the steam baths and some down time. I really enjoyed the week, and if this is your first visit to an Arabic country, it’s a tough call between Morocco and Jordan, as the latter has the Lost City of Petra, a great sight / site, which Morocco doesn’t have.

An Assault on the Senses

It’s a while since we have done this sort of trouble, engaging, demanding yet with the luxury of a private guided tour. 10 hours on a Dreamliner and you are plunged into the teeming chaos of Old Quarter Hanoi. A mixture of sharp modern and decrepitude, high-tech phones and spiders web cables. And the motorbikes! There are 45 million and they are either on the road or blocking the pavement thus making road walking essential but dangerous.

From the steamy challenges of Hanoi to Sa Pa at a cool 1600 meters. Virtually nothing remains of the old French hill station; in 20 years a whole new tourist city has arisen with hundreds of hotels. The contrast with the surrounding ethnic villages is stark: Red Dzao women with shaved eyebrows and foreheads elaborately attired in traditional bright embroidered outfits live in large, rudimentary cedarwood houses. Mud floor, three open fires without chimneys, one for cooking, one for the rice vodka still and yet another for curing hams. No windows and lit by a single bulb, pigs and chickens wandering at will. Below are the perfectly contoured rice fields, vegetables at the base plus odd quirks like orchid, cardamom and salmon farms.

Government has provided concrete roads, schools and health centres. Satellite dishes, mobile phones have arrived and motorbikes have replaced horses…. Almost all of that in the last 10 years. See it now before it is gone.