Reviews

Best holiday ever

I fell in love with the Dolomites, so beautiful. Cross country skiing is an awesome way to see the winter scenery. Our instructors were great. Being first timers we learnt from the best, Liz is an excellent instructor both with verbal queues and demonstrations. Fun exercises to learn safely.
It was the best winter adventure and most wonderful Christmas.

Undiscovered Atlas

What a wonderful way to spend the Christmas break!-Beautiful scenery, great walking, a great group of fellow travellers, blue skies and wall to wall sunshine!
My 4th trip with Exodus, and once again they came up with the goods! !

The best of New Zealand

What an amazing trip! I cannot recommend it highly enough – it showcasts everything that New Zealand has to offer, and despite travelling for 3 weeks it is not enough. We wanted to stay longer, explore further, be stunned by the mindblowing views. From the rolling hills on the North Island to the majestic mountains and fields in Middle Earth and Milford Sounds on the South Island – it is impossible to choose a favourite spot, and certainly calls for another trip in the near future. I loved, loved, loved it, the country, the people and how happy it made me.

A Fantastic Trip

This was a great trip for me as a novice traveller to India. I was concerned beforehand about cycling on the Indian roads but I was reassured appropriately by Exodus staff and the cycling was very enjoyable. There were a couple of stretches on the trip that were on fast busy roads but that was only when that was unavoidable and our guides always looked after us very well, assisting us to cross junctions etc. This was a lovely introduction to Southern India with a good balance of cycling and rest or other activities. Safi our guide was brilliant as were Viben, his assistant and our driver Santosh. Safi was extremely well organised and reliable and gave us good clear briefs each day and after each break. He and Viben supervised the cycling very well and I was quickly rescued when I accidently took a wrong turn! Santosh was just lovely and always gave us a big smile with our water and gorgeous snacks including our “Dark Fantasy’s”! (biscuits with chocolate in the middle — very clever choice given the heat). Nothing was too much trouble (even trying to get us a turkey dinner for Christmas!) and I felt very well looked after, particularly when I left all my valuables in a safe! Such a stupid thing to do but Safi dealt with it calmly and reassuringly and it was all sorted with no fuss and no loss!
For me the trip was as “described on the tin” but I was also fortunate to share the trip with a fantastic group of people. Everyone was like minded and easy going which meant that everyone got along well, we had a great laugh and I feel that I have met a whole host of new friends.
I have done a fair amount of travelling before and I would not hesitate in recommending this trip to others. The cycling is not difficult (save for Otty hill of course!) and it was a lovely way to see the country and encounter the very friendly people. If you are a photographer there are some fantastic photo opportunities – the only problem is that you have to let some of them pass otherwise you would never end up where you need to get. Thank you very much to Safi, Viben, Santosh and Exodus.

Coast to Coast - the real India

I have been to India before with happy memories of Rajasthan in 2015 and looked forward to my trip to southern India. Sadly although I love travel and I am pleased that I went, as always the brochures and glossy pictures on the Exodus website leave out some of the things you will see –

The province of Tamil Nadu is generally poor; the cities are overpopulated and crowded. The cities are best described as heaving masses of humanity, the air thick with pollution. The towns and villages lack sanitation, the rivers run thick with waste & rubbish. Cows browse street side piles of aging rubbish in their search of food. Dusty roads choked with constant traffic.

The roadsides often choked with shacks that have no running water nor electricity.

Kerala, the second half of the trip on the other hand is much cleaner but even so the urban and rural environments still sadden the heart. Two days at Fort Cochin in a hotel surrounded by building sites near a local beach choked with piles of plastic and other waste was two days too long for me.

True there were highlights and the landscape ( where there are no people) can be just fantastic. And again the history, religion, and the people are very friendly & so welcoming.

Awesome

Fantastic in all respects. The trails were good, ascent and descent almost entirely stepped, nice and quiet . Views were spectacular and the surroundings changes with the climatic zones (subtropical to alpine), plant and animal life was varied and interesting which prevented the trekking from becoming monotonous.
The level of care given by the Guide, Sirdar and porters was excellent. Gum Hari RB were well informed and happy looking after us.
Accommodation was as good as could be expected once on the trails (a long way from modern development), hotels in Pokhara and Kathmando were excellent.
The change from 2 days in Kathmandu to 2 days in Pokhara was a very good choice and indicative of the consideration exodus paid to the enjoyment of its clients.

We intend to go again this year we were so impressed.

Amazing trekking experience.

Namaste! When we decided to book this trek we considered several things – costing, availability, timings and fitness level; and upon reflection, we chose the right trek at the right time – it was a fantastic experience. The trek itself is 18 days (with varying levels of distance) through a variety of scenery – from forests to valleys, from large villages to small hamlets – each day is unique and interesting with stunning views of the Himalayan mountains. You acclimatize slowly on gradual routes with a small group and guides: porters carry your large bag (exceptionally fast!) so you just have a day pack with you.
As we trekked in December we hardly saw other trekkers on our route and this made for a more remote feeling: you are embedded in the local culture from the start and to the end. This will be a memorable trip for you.

Hiking Northern Cyprus

I really enjoyed this trip and the group were fun and our leader was helpful. I would have preferred more challenging hikes as the abilities were quite different. I would also have preferred to be able to choose our own restaurants rather than being taken to one of the Leaders choice which wasn’t always good.

Trekking in the Anti-Atlas mountains

An absolutely amazing trekking holiday! This was my first holiday with Exodus and have booked another one as a result!

Coach trip with a bit of biking bolted on??

Have done quite a few trips with Exodus before and all have been generally well organised. I felt this trip was really organised as a coach trip with a bit of cycling bolted on and its a shame the trip leader didn’t double up as the cycle leader. I was hoping for a fair bit of cycling on this trip but found myself being led to local mosques (it was in the itinerary therefore we must do it, come rain or sunshine) for a “tour” which I was’t really interested in.

The quality of the bikes used weren’t fit for purpose (Exodus, you need to get new bikes for his trip!!), and they were certainly not the front suspension bikes advertised in the trip notes. In fact, given the amount of steep downhill riding, it would be very helpful to have bikes with functioning brakes (my rear brakes could be fully engaged and I’d still be able to push my bike forward!), or even better, with disc brakes. It would also be useful to have bikes that would change gear under pressure (i.e. when cycling uphill). I understand that bikes on these types of trips are heavily used, but that doesn’t mean they should be badly looked after. Finally, on the subject of bikes, the bike mechanics on this trip were also pretty awful – I had a bike that would not change gears on the uphill (see point above) and when I asked the mechanics to look at this, their answer seemed to be to spin the peddles, change the gears and tell me there was nothing wrong (or worse still, that I didn’t know how to ride a bike).

Most of the cycling was pretty great, its a shame there wasn’t more of it. The only gripe I had about this was that the coach would literally trail behind the last rider by only 2 – 3 meters and if you are the last rider, that is not a pleasant experience!!!

The trip leader was fairly knowledgeable, though very repetitive, and a little confusing with his plans at times. I also wish trip leaders on these types of trips would actually recommend nice places to eat, rather than to suggest always eating in hotels – I had high hopes for the food in Jordan but unfortunately I only had one memorable meal. That brings me onto lunches and snacks…. We were asked to cough up 45 JD at the beginning of the trip for lunches and tips for the hotels – this was significantly more than the trip notes suggested (20 – 25 JD) – this covered us for snacks (biscuits and dates and 5 lunches (mainly pre-bought sandwiches). When asked if it was necessary to provide money for snacks (I had brought a lot of my own), I was told it was mandatory, not optional as the trip notes stated.

Quality of the hotels was generally fine. Wadi Rum is an “experience” if you’ve never done that type of thing before. If you have camped out in the desert before, then its just another forced night out in a random campsite. In Morocco last year I did a night out in the desert in a similar camp – the folks running the camp then at least tried to entertain us with local music, but there was no such thing in Wadi Rum – the trip leader and staff disappeared straight after dinner.

Finally, the transport used was kinda dirty, and I mean chewing gum stuck on the back of seats dirty – the coaches could certainly do with a bit of a clean.

Most Inspirational Moment

The day of cycling across the desert - the scenery is amazing, though there are a few steep hills which are quite hard work when your gears don't work!!!

Thoughts on Group Leader

Very knowledgeable but a bit too repetitive and talked way too much. I've also never felt so controlled by the trip leader on a trip before.

Advice for Potential Travellers

If you are wanting a cycling experience, there are better trips out there. If you're interested in culture and are happy to have a trip leader talk to you for ages at a time, with a bit of leisurely cycling thrown in, this trip might be for you.

Reply from Exodus

We would like to thank Denise for her feedback, although we are very sorry to hear that she was disappointed in the quality of equipment provided for the trip and other aspects of the itinerary. We have contacted Denise on an individual basis, but would like to confirm that a new bike fleet has been purchased and these will be used for Exodus trips from March 2018.

We have also reviewed the set-up of snacks and lunches to ensure that this is communicated clearly to clients in an appropriate way.

There is normally a performance of Rababa and dancing at the Wadi Rum camp and we have discussed this with the Bedouin Camp owners to reiterate what our clients and Exodus expect as part of this experience.

Monica Princic – Product Manager for Jordan