Most Inspirational Moment
The manicured hills of the tea plantations and Horton plain.
Thoughts on Group Leader
As I said above Roshan was very good and exceptionally calm
Advice for Potential Travellers
Just book a trip to Sri Lanka don’t wait!
Reviews
Your Words – We tell it like it is! Holiday Reviews by previous Exodus travellers
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Reviews
Sri Lanka a dream holiday
A fantastic holiday. Well organised our guide Roshan was informative, helpful and very calm and he together with his team looked after us exceptionally well. A busy holiday but still well paced, amazing sights and I can’t wait to go back.
Perfect
A wonderful get away from it all trek, well organised, great scenery, food, leaders and fellow travellers.
Most Inspirational Moment
The night skies were truly amazing, so many stars and no light pollution at all.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Our leaders Lahcen and Hassan and the team were fantastic, knowledgeable and helpful and looked afer us really well.
I didn't want it to end..........
A superb trip, a lifetime experience
As the other 227 reviews have said, the beauty of the environment, landscapes, birds and animals you see, hear and experience is breathtaking. I won’t repeat the details again, but its all true!
Costa Rica has extraordinary biodiversity therefore ecotourism contributes a big chunk to the GDP, and so they do tourism very well. They know their market and hit it square on. This tour, in a short period of time provides experience of a range of ecosystems, a new environment every 2 days and each day reveals a whole new range of fabulous things.
While nature is the main draw to this trip, it also offers a great opportunity to learn about Costa Rica as a country.
Most Inspirational Moment
Varys day by day, really. For me it was the whole dynamic- you are taken to a range of wonderful places, with a group of great people, a super guide who you could ask about anything and who would give you an informed honest answer .......... maybe it was : the afternoon sitting watching humming birds and toucans, or the time on the water at Tortuguero or the sloths/armadillo/bats/agouti/coati/howlers snoozing by the road maybe San Jose and the sculptures maybe singing sea shanties with the group in the bar ask me tomorrow and it will be a different list - a lot happens in 2 weeks
Thoughts on Group Leader
Mayer Jiménez is an excellent leader- he will definitely get my vote for best leader this year I have the impression that the quality of leaders is high. They take a 5 year tourism degree covering the whole range of information visitors may want, not just around the animals, birds and environment but all aspects of Costa Rica including socioeconomic, sources of energy, you name it . The quality of knowledge and information he seemed to be able to supply and skill in knowing just how much was wanted was great. His ability to spot animals and birds was extraordinary, however this links to one of the things I particularly liked- he seemed to love doing it and his interest and enthusiasm was infectious. So a clever guy, highly trained very experienced, well organised and smart at handling the group. His happy place seemed to be with a pair of binoculars around his neck but he had great people skills too.
Advice for Potential Travellers
1) Packing-Pack light Remember you will pack and unpack 6 times plus the guys loading the bags do so by hoiking up on to their shoulder then through the back window. They don't bat an eye but I couldn't watch knowing the weight of mine! I didn't need my heavy walking boots, or camel back. You do however need walking shoes & sandals with GRIP. Most surfaces have loose surface I'd consider getting one of the adapters you can attach to your camera then take pics through the guides scope Load up a Costa Rica animal app- they are very good 2) Places San Jose Don't just see San Jose as a place to stay post and pre flight. It is a very interesting city. I loved the sculptures in the parks. We were lucky to be there when Jorge Jiménez Deredia was exhibiting which was fabulous. Visit the Cathedral, National Museum of Costa Rica, MADC and Pre-Columbian Gold Museum. If I had another day I'd have done the Jade museum and Museum of Costa Rican Art ............and more cake shops and cafes La Fortuna/ Arenal -10 min walk into town- great icecream shops mmmmmmmmmm! Supermarkets reasonably priced Santa Elena- Beso coffee shop for great coffee and lovely bakery products at other end of the high street. You may be taken to the very pleasant tree house but try to push outside of comfort zone and go elsewhere (Amys was good pm but all of them look pretty sound) . Supermarket here is reasonable and I wish I had bought more in the tourist shop ( I got a mug for $6 here which was $16 in duty free/ airport. In evening, go into town to a restaurant- give the bus driver night off and get a cab back- only $6 and gives you freedom to do as you want. Use official cabs- red with yellow triangle . The views in mountains en route from Santa Elena to Manuel Antonio are so wonderful............then suddenly from nowhere you crash back to reality, urbanization, palm oil plantations and Manuel Antonio- about 15 shops/ overpriced supermarkets and a couple of average restaurants. However........there are nice places Mayer took us to an amazing restaurant next to a bar with a real aircraft in it. Great for sundown. There is also a nice restaurant near the hotel ( ask at reception). The pool is small but nice to chill out by- but watch the cheeky whitefaced monkeys- they will pinch your things. You can also see squirrel monkeys near the hotel.
COLD country with the hot sun
Overall, a good “Highlights” trip, but some of the distances between the “Highlights” are long – there is probably not much can be done to reconfigure that, given the geography.
Also, don’ be fooled thinking Morocco is a hot country. It is a COLD country, with a hot sun – in winter months, (we visited at the end Feb/early March) it can be very cold in the mornings and evenings/night.
Most Inspirational Moment
The desert sky at night – wow! No light pollution, and a wonderful view. The camel ride to get there was great too.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Our Guide Mohamed was very good – informative, polite, considerate and with a sense of humour. And thank you very much for the cake on my birthday – a lovely surprise!
Advice for Potential Travellers
Be aware that hotel gradings in Morocco may not equate to the same in the UK. When it says Premium, the hotel won’t necessarily be 4*! The standards (eg. maintenance of buildings - dodgy sockets / broken mirrors etc) may not be what you would expect. The travel times given in the trip notes might be misleading – when there are lots of stops for breaks en-route, the journey will (obviously) take longer. So to manage expectations, the travel times are probably just road travel times, and participants should be prepared for late arrival at some destinations. I didn’t feel it was a problem, as I was happy to have the breaks and enjoy the journey, and don’t understand what the rush to get to destination was. Top tip: Don’t wear your good mesh-top walking shoes/boots in the sand dunes! The beautiful sand is like powder, and your shoes will fill with sand in the structure of the shoe, which then squeezes your toes – and is almost impossible to get it all out.
Wonderful wildlife
Wonderful wildlife, great guide, highly recommended
Most Inspirational Moment
The night walk
Thoughts on Group Leader
Jorge was great, very knowledgeable, highly professional.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Be prepared for long drives between locations
Super Sri Lanka
Full of wonderful experiences made even better by our Tour Guide – Sujee. Rice & Curry is delish!
Most Inspirational Moment
Lion's Rock was amazing. Little England is a gem and their tea is delightful.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Spot on. He made the holiday special and I believe the group of 18 felt the same.
Advice for Potential Travellers
You must like Curry & Rice.
Best cuided cycle trip so far
There are two exceptional things about this trip, Sri Lanka and our guide Suresh. Sri Lanka is full of interest, landscape, culture, food and wildlife. So cycling through the mainly quiet roads of this beautiful and engaging country was always going to be good. The amazing level of enthusiasm, competence and good humour shown by Suresh and the rest of the team made for a truly exceptional holiday
Most Inspirational Moment
Cycling through the varied interesting countryside and seeing the wildlife at close quarters.
Thoughts on Group Leader
A lot has been written about Suresh in other reviews, so all I can do is confirm that his unbounded commitment to his guests and his country is exceptional. He managed with to get us up and out on schedule, point out all the wildlife and features we passed, and keep us fed and watered with great expertise and humour.
Advice for Potential Travellers
The trip is graded moderate challenging and some days are, particularly the 7800ft of total ascent to get to Nuwara Eliya, but other days were fairly hard as well so do some training, but all achievable by a recreational ageing cyclist and there is always the insurance policy of the bus! We liked the food, it helps if you like curry and vegetarian food which always seemed to in clean well run places, doubtless due to the careful research of Suresh. Some roads do get busy but the traffic was not too chaotic or dangerous.
whats a review title
Exodus should seriously consider cancelling this venue as a cycling holiday. The road conditions in Laos are so bad that they should be considered as dangerous. In our party of 18 there were 5 cycling accidents, one serious enough to require hospital treatment and cancellation of the remainder of the holiday.
With the arrival in the country of Chinese financial input and the construction of a new rail link, the small poorly tarmaced roads of Laos cannot cope. The road surface is being destroyed by heavy lorries bringing in construction materials and equally big lorries taking fruit out of the country for export to China. Many times during this trip, we were cycling in thick clouds of dust being churned up by these lorries. I understand from our guide that they took the decision to change the cycling route on the last day because the road conditions were impassable.
Most Inspirational Moment
The day when we weren't cycling. The boat trip down the Mekong
Thoughts on Group Leader
Our guide Rit is one of the best guides I have ever met. What he has to cope with in Laos considering the above detail on the road conditions makes him outstanding as a guide. He has to do far more than other guides I have ever met.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Don't go cycling in Laos until the road conditions improve. This will not be for at least 5 years while they finish the railway. Only by finishing the railway can they take the trucks off the road and start to replace the road surfaces.
Reply from Exodus
I would like to thank to thank Bob for his review, although we are very sorry to read that he was left disappointed with the cycling on this holiday. Further to client feedback, we have now adjusted some of the route on this itinerary to avoid most of the heavy traffic. We trust that these changes will improve the itinerary in terms of overall client enjoyment and safety. We remain sincerely sorry, however, that Bob felt Laos was not a suitable country for a cycling holiday. Kelly Reid – Product Manager
Good Title as we moved around alot to give us insite of what the country offered.
The group of people on the trip all ‘gelled’ together and with the help of our excellent guide made a trip to be remembered. My only criticism, not your fault, was that I hadn’t realized how warm / hot it would be and, as a result I didn’t take enough light weight summer clothes.
Most Inspirational Moment
Seeing the Volcanoes cone shaped and the tops covered in snow. The salt covered rocks of the canyons in the desert. Flamingos feeding in the lagoons. Watching the Condors circling overhead. The visit to Valparaiso, the UNESCO World Heritage Site. to view all the excellent wall art.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Our group leader was Ignacio Hewstone and he was excellent. Meeting and greeting at the airport went well as did all the other travel travel arrangements he made. His extensive knowledge of Chile was shown to us and it was interspersed with anecdotes (mostly funny) from his youth. This helped to further bring the group together. He was always around should any of us require help , or to advise us on where to eat - many suggestions were given.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Check the temperatures of the various areas to be visited. Take cash or card for money as at some places money can't be exchanged. Comfortable shoes or boots for walking in the desert. Enjoy the Pisco Sour !! and don't forget to bring a bottle home.
Amazing trip
This is a wonderful trip with a lot of variety packed in; wildlife, options to kayak, zip line and walk, amazing food, marine safari, culture and history. There are options to visit a township and Robben Island, plus the cable car up to to top of Table mountain is brilliant. The accommodation is lovely ( best I’ve had on an Exodus tour ) and there are no early starts or long journeys.
Most Inspirational Moment
One of my best moments was the optional private game drive. We saw so many animals and it’s great to see them all roaming free. Also the ascent of Table Mountain was a favourite day of mine. Incredible views.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Our leader was Justin and he was brilliant. He was always helpful, happy and enthusiastic and was keen to teach us about his country. Very knowledgable too. He did a lot of behind the scenes stuff to keep the trip running smoothly.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Although South Africa is big on eating meat there are veggie options for non meat eaters. If you eat meat then definitely try the springbok loin and kudu steak. Make sure you bring mosquito repellant ( or buy some when you get there; the brand “Peaceful sleep” worked really well and is a lot more pleasant than DEET! ). Temperatures can reach 40 degrees C in the summer, especially inland.