Chile Holidays

Overall it was very good and our tour manager Corinna outstanding. I was advised to go a day early to be in time for the opening dinner on day one but was not met at the airport and others arrived too late for the dinner to go ahead anyway. Lunches and dinners in my printed itinerary for the first two days were not provided.

The hotels and meals were very good on the whole and all the flights and transportation worked very smoothly. The exception was the catamaran which was out of service on Lake Titicaca and we went to the island and had lunch on a smaller vessel and then had a long coach journey to overnight on the catamaran which was not prepared for us in terms of food and drink and baggage handling, there was no safe way to board and no security at night. The trip on the reed boat was moved to that side of the lake.

In country tour guides varied with very good ones in Bolivia and Chile and at the Iguazu falls and Rio de Janiero but the guide in Mendoza was flippant, not fluent in English and abandoned us at the airport. The guide in Buenos Aires and the Pampas just could not stop talking.

There were days when we had breakfast, lunch and dinner which was too much and others when we just had breakfast and the meals could have been better spaced out.

The trip was full of highglights Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, blue train, Cusco, Salar de Uyuni, San Pedro De Atacama. desert, Moon Valley, Valparaiso, Maipu Valley, Buenos Aires, Pampas, Iguazu falls and Rio. We spent one day too long in Mendoza and not enough time in Rio.

I would recommend the trip but as it was the first one post the covid cancellations there were several things that could be improved and tightened up

Service rating : The tour 'Chile Top To Toe' was purchased through Wendy Wu and the process of arranging and purchasing the tour was good. However on the ground the tour was a set of subcontracted mini tours each with a different local guide. The service was variable. The flights and transportation was of a good standard. The hotels were also good and in excellent locations (apart from one - a late substitution in Valparaiso. The local guides were variable and this can contribute considerably to the enjoyment of the experience. The ones in Atacama and Patagonia were excellent. The one in Santiago was ok although his attitude was condescending. The one in the Lake District was poor - his timekeeping resulted in long, drawn out days missing some of the key attractions. His desire to insert his own aspects to the itinerary resulted in poor decision making.
Product : Chile has some of the most spectacular natural assets - the Atacama desert and Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia ought to be on everyone's bucket lists. Both are well covered in this tour. The tour is generally well organised but is subject to local operators in the different locations which can make it seem a little disjointed. Some tweaks needed to the itinerary in Valparaiso and the Lake District