Dear Sir/Madam: Here is an...
Nesrin Y, Apr 2017
13-Day Best of Patagonia Tour from El Calafate to Ushuaia: Los Glaciares, Torres del Paine and Tierra del Fuego National Parks
Planet Patagonia was sloppy and unorganized the evaluation form they gave us to evaluate the day's activities was already used by someone else.
Dear Sir/Madam:
Here is an overall review of our trip '13 day Patagonia. This is an insider review for you to know what actually happened on the road. Also to give you the analysis of agents to put this trip in place. If you have any specific question, we are more than happy to answer!
El Carafate
Picked up from the airport and explained everything, that was good
Hotel, Las Dunas, was nice, good breakfast, very helpful staff, slight problem: being outside the city, taxis were not always reliable.
Los Glaciers National Park: was very good, Daniella, the guide, was very passionate about Argentina and the park, explained everything well.
Kayaking la Leona river: it was nice, we were a small group, had a lot of fun. It was great that all the equipment was provided. However, description of the trip needs to be updated, it did not give enough information about the hike/walk etc.
Bus: Double decker bus was very comfortable and smooth we enjoyed stopping at la Leona ranch and reading the history.
El Chalten
Hotel Posada El Barranco: Small but ok, very helpful and friendly staff, their breakfast needs improvement, meat and cheese perhaps and some non-sweet cereal would be nice.
Hikes: it was nice to decide and do the hikes on your own and discover the town as you wish.
Puerto Natales
Frances Drake Hostel: No one spoke English but one person and she was never there when we needed.
Torres del Paine National Park: The driver who drove the van drove fast on an uneven road without considering the effect on passengers. Nadia, the guide, did not seem to share her knowledge with the whole group. She did not point out half the information listed on the sheet given to us by Planet Patagonia. She didn't give explanations about much of the park. Seemed as if they were rushed to complete the trip and go on their own business.
Planet Patagonia was sloppy and unorganized the evaluation form they gave us to evaluate the day's activities was already used by someone else. When we pointed this to Nadia, she shrugged did not even tried to find a solution. When we were out of the hotel, Planet Patagonia left a bus voucher for the next day at the hotel for us with no explanation. Any question could not be answered because no one understood enough English to help. Hike in the park would have been nice rather than driving around in a van, which was very uncomfortable Puerto Natales was nice and easy to get around to.
Punta Arenas
Lacolet hotel was the nicest place we stayed except they gave us the matrimonial suite instead of two single beds. We had the best breakfast there and the staff tried everything to help us even though they didn't speak English.
Planet Patagonia's ticket voucher given to us, which we realized later, was for a different bus company at a different time than what our schedule from Say Hueque said. Our schedule said 9:00am departure time, when we reach to the location at 8:35am 1/2 hour before bus leaves there was nobody. We thought we were at the wrong place so we tried the other bus company listed in our itinerary, there was a person there that helped us realize we had missed the bus.
Ushuaia
In Hotel 'Rosa de Los Vientos' room was not clean, shower was broken, adjusting heat was hard, the beds were very narrow, we slept with a fear of falling of the bed to the concrete floor .
Trekking in Tierra del Fuega National Park and paddling in Lapataia river: it was a good hike, provided lunch was good, paddling in Lapataia river was fun. This was a very good excursion.
Beagle Channel: it was good, Rodrigo, our guide, was very informative.
Martillo Island: Fantastic! The guide Anita was very informative and pleasant.
Say Hueque
Augustina was very helpful throughout the booking process and the actual trip. She helped us the most when we missed our bus due to a time and company discrepancy on our itinerary. She even tried to set us an extra excursion while we spent an extra day hanging around in Punta Arenas which was not much fun, but it just happened to be too windy to go to. She has been prompt in responding to questions and has helped us even with situations that did not include excursions booked through Say Hueque.
Overall Viator did very well, we enjoyed being met at the airport, and explained the details for El Calafate. The hotels being chosen and paid for so that we didn't have to deal with all the details but find out about the places we were interested in and do as we pleased was very helpful. One last thing, we were surprised to find out that two people from our group who paid to stay in the hostels, the lowest price, stayed half of the time at the same hotels we did. We are wondering why we had to pay more for the same services!!!
Hope this will help you to figure out if any improvement is needed. Thanks for all