Reviews

Reply from Exodus

We would like to thank Kim for her feedback. We were pleased to learn that she enjoyed her holiday and felt that her tour leader, Jorge, added value to the trip, but we’re sorry that she had difficulty at the start regards to her arrival transfer.
We request that our drivers are at the airport 15 – 30 minutes before the customers arrival time as we don’t want our customers worrying that they have no-one waiting for them in a new country. There are 2 exits at the airport, one of which leads outside where all drivers wait with their respective signs. The driver mentioned that he walked around with his sign looking for Kim until he eventually reached her, so this may possibly be the reason she was unable to locate him at first.
We’re regret that Kim feels overcharged regarding her transfer costs, however, it is possible that the taxi thought she wanted to visit the Bird’s Isle Restaurant in Belize City instead, as this is about 18km away from the airport and correlates more with the price that she was quoted. The distance to Bird’s Eye View lodge is 46.3km from the airport and we believe that this would have reflected closely to what she was initially charged.
We appreciate Kim’s comments regarding safety at the ATM caves. The guides undergo specialized training before being granted their license to the ATM cave, including rescue training. They are required to carry a backpack with all the necessary rescue equipment and the cave management has a set procedure for emergency rescues. Due to the mineral formations of the cave it’s not possible to create another entrance or build additional walkways as the idea is to preserve the natural integrity of the cave. A lot of the artifacts are within guests’ reach and the tape is meant to serve as a buffer between the artifact and guests, as well as a marker to guide guests on where to walk. To further protect the artifacts, cameras and phones are not allowed as the guide would have explained before entering the cave and generally visitors are respectful and abide by the rules.
Regarding her comments on the use of plastic bottles, we do request that customers bring along a refillable bottle as outlined in our trip notes. We also offer them a reusable bottle at the beginning of the trip. We will pass on her comment to the hotel; however, this is how they serve water at the restaurant. Whilst we appreciate that we are not going to be able to dramatically change local circumstances through tourism, we assure Kim that we continuously engage with our supplier partners, sharing best practices on environmental initiatives such as eliminating sing-use plastics.
We’re grateful for the time she took to leave a review and hope that we can welcome her on future trips with us!
– Emma Cambers, Product Manager

Reply from Exodus

We’re delighted to read that John enjoyed many aspects of his return trip to India after a long time away, and that he found some of the sights covered on the tour to be amazing. We regret, though, that he was somewhat disappointed with some areas of the holiday. Regarding the hotels in Pushkar and Jaipur, we have recently changed the hotel in Pushkar and are looking for an alternative to the property in Jaipur, which we’ll be using from October of this year onwards.

We understand that John would have appreciated more interaction with local people and small, local businesses. We would mention that the visits to carpet, spice, and marble vendors John comments on are only offered to clients as optional visits; however, we take John’s point and have raised his suggestion to include more engagement with local people on this tour with our team in India. Similarly, we get John’s disappointment with the cost of food at times. Our leaders arrange group meals and, especially early on in the trip when clients are getting used to the food in India, our groups are taken to restaurants with high hygiene ratings, which do tend to not be local establishments and can cater for tourists. Customers are, however, always free to opt out of group meals if they wish, or organise them amongst the group members themselves.

Regarding the tipping budget, this is outlined in our trip notes, and our leaders carry a tip sheet which lists all the tips they give throughout the trip, and which clients can ask to see at any point during the holiday.

Finally, we were disappointed to note John’s mixed feelings about his tour leader. This is not at all common feedback for us to receive about our leaders in India, and we will follow John’s comments up with our local manager to ensure that all our leaders are providing conscientious, personable support to all members of our groups.

We’re grateful for John for taking the time to leave a review, and hope we’ll be able to welcome him back on another Exodus trip at some point in the future.

– Sarah Puttnam, Exodus Product Manager