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Our entire trip was top notch from start to finish, thanks to Southern Explorations! Fantastic communication, everything is clearly communicated in a timely manner, response times are excellent! Marisa is excellent and took care of everything for us! Love this company and would not hesitate to use them again!
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From planning through execution, the whole experience with Souther Explorations was 5*. Look forward to working with them again,
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Just returned from an amazing trip to Ecuador with 3 other friends. Hiking, biking, rafting and horseback riding provided a wonderful way to see Ecuador, including the highlands, cloud forest and rain forest. Hiking from 15,000 to 16,000 ft in elevation on Cotopaxi was challenging and quite rewarding. Biking was great fun and gave us a sense of true accomplishment. Rafting in Class III rapids was exciting and the guide, Miller, was highly skilled. The tour was well curated with interesting and comfortable places to stay. The guide, Rafael, and driver, Victor, were good company and insightful leaders. I strongly recommend Southern Explorations. Kaitlyn, was responsive to questions and helpful. Thank you for a very successful vacation!
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Our 3rd trip with Southern Explorations was to Lima, Machu Picchu and Cusco. They are wonderful to work with providing expert planning in conjunction with our thoughts/desires for the trip. Accommodations were beautiful. We had the same guide and driver for the several days of our Machu Picchu-Cusco portion. Jose was not only a wealth of history knowledge but also an expert hiker…and fun to spend time with. While fit I had some difficulty with altitude and he was not only kind but tailored our last hike to be beautiful but not as much elevation gain. Our driver was so good navigating the terrain, one lane roads and train station traffic. We always felt safe!
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Southern Exploration organized an outstanding 2 week trip to Ecuador and Peru - one week in the Galapagos with our children and grandchildren, then another week in the highlands of Peru for my husband and me. All the services were top notch. The staff of the Alya (our Galapagos ship) was fantastic. They were so accommodating of our multi-generational family, and were kind and accommodating in every respect. Guides and drivers in both countries were excellent, transfers ran smoothly and on time, and our hotel accommodations in Peru were fabulous nature reserves/lodges. Finally, I want to shout out our guides in Peru: In addition to being an incredibly good guide, Jose Ugarte is a very special person, and getting to know him was a highlight of our experience. On our last day, in Lima before a late evening flight, we really appreciated our guide Mariela for her flexibility, professionalism and extensive knowledge. I highly recommend Southern Explorations for their care and expertise in organizing a wonderful adventure for us.
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I have spent my entire life traveling and being an adventure. I absolutely do not do the standard bus tours, never have and never will. I thrive on unique adventures and experiences. Having said that for my 50th birthday, I decided to let somebody else do the work and have a once in a lifetime trip planned for me and my son. I made it very clear in the beginning that I did not want to be in a herd showed around from tourist trap to tourist trap. I wanted to go off the beaten path and explore the Amazon jungles in the Galapagos. I wanted to go scuba diving as well as see and experience, hiking, the native and first person’s teachings and love of their land. Well, this company was pretty good at making changes to the itinerary. They completely failed and did not understand the assignment. This was the worst trip I have ever been on and my son asked me every day to never ever use somebody to plan a trip again. The value was deplorable. What was on the itinerary did not match up at all to what the actual activities were. Apparently the person that did my trip is obsessed with four or 5 AM. Wake ups every single day. This was never brought to my attention. There was only one morning, where she said that there would be an early wake up, I guess 3:30 in the morning is definitely an early wake up and puts the four and 5 AM wake ups to a better time? It is incredibly sad that a wake up for a dive boat is the morning you get to actually sleep in. There were amazing opportunities missed, and what we ended up on was paying for a private guide that took us around to all the sites where the buses were going. Things that sounded fantastic on paper were shells of AI writing out something that sounded great. The restaurants were extremely hit and miss. And the food choices were choice A or B, and some nights there was only a choice A. This is what you get to eat. I ended up paying to go to restaurants because I actually wanted a menu and found some amazing hole in the walls that were fantastic. The hotels were actually not bad. I will give them credit for that. However, the Amazon Lodge was a complete and utter total failure in absolutely every respect to what we were looking for. Needless to say the value of an American dollar out there goes incredibly far and the amount that I paid for this trip definitely funded this company‘s ability to go on a trip themselves. Itineraries were refused to be shared until you were on the trip and we didn’t even get wake up times often until the night before until I threw an absolute tantrum and demanded to know what was scheduled for us. They won’t tell you what airlines you’re flying on or flight numbers, you don’t know hotels in advance, you have no idea what companies are running the excursions and there is absolutely no way to change anything. I also found that major attractions were left off the itinerary and some really cool things to do were also left off. Overall, it was the biggest disappointment trip I have ever been on and it has completely scarred me from ever using a company again. I spent my lifetime saving up for this trip and if I had planned it, I probably would’ve paid half of what I paid here and actually had to have some amazing experiences. Instead, I ended up on a very vanilla bus filled tour like excursions. My suggestion is be very careful about getting prior details about scheduling ahead of time. That was the first clue that this was not going to be a bespoke custom tour to exactly what we were wanted. I would also look up places and be very cautious if you are looking to be adventuresome as they apparently do not know the difference between bus around and privately bus around versus an actual adventuresome experience. If you are not familiar with traveling in other countries and do not have the confidence to do so this might be an excellent choice. However, if you are used to traveling, this is absolutely not the company for you. Again the worst experience I’ve ever had and it is
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The assistance we received when rebooking when we experienced a medical issue was incomparable! All the transfers were on time and staffed by knowledgeable and friendly guides The accommodations very good and the final hotel in Patagonia exceptional. We always felt comfortable that our trip was going to be what we expected. Thank you for the experience, Miguel
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Well done to southern explorations!!! Planning, guides, excursions were perfect. I would recommend without hesitation.
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Kaitlyn listened to my must haves in the trip and wove them all together beautifully. The restaurant recommendations the glacier hike and the Australia cruise were amazing! She was an excellent communicator and followed up every step of the way!
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Great group to work with. We made a custom itinerary, and it all worked great. Highly recommend these great folks!
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Southern Explorations did an excellent job planning, coordinating, making the necessary arrangements and special accommodations to meet our needs as senior citizens for our Classic Patagonia and Hotel Las Torres exploration and the two days in Buenos Aires. The trip for the exploration went very well. All the people we met and assisted us from the wheel chair assist at the airports for my wife, to the hotel staff, guides and drivers were excellent. They were very friendly, understanding and accommodating. The Final Trip Details provided by Eric Bartanen assisting Jonathan Borgida who was out of the office was very “Informative, Excellent and Right On”. My wife and I really enjoyed ourselves on the trip.
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The itinerary made by Southern Explorations was perfect for a small group with different interests and physical fitness/accessibility levels. The accommodations and transport services were excellent. What I will remember the most from the trip were the people. The tour guides, hotel staff, and drivers were knowledgeable and so warm and friendly. This trip lived up to my bucket list expectations.
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Every detail was taken care of. The guides knew there subject and communicated in a good level of detail.
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All arrangements were skillfully made, all guides were top notch and very informative about local matters of all kinds, the lodging was excellent, the food was very good and the curation of the experience (the most important part of all) was top notch!!!!
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The trip with Southern Explorations was great from start to finish. We had timely pick up each time at the airport. The drivers were always helpful with the bags, especially our large, heavy duffel. Also, we expected to use an airport shuttle that we would pay separately, but SE did all our transfers. The travel assistants waited with us in line to make sure we were checked in at the airports. The guides were friendly, knowledgeable, and really cared that we had the best experience possible. Guides were on time and summarized what to expect the next day, so we were well prepared for our hikes. Guides were always willing to take pictures of us. They pointed out history, facts, and useful information to better appreciate the vistas, towns, and culture. SE was easy to access. We did not have to contact SE while on our trip. Prior to leaving they were easily accessible by phone or email. I would use their services again for South America.
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Southern Expeditions made our trip go without stress or anxiety when it came to airline reservations or connections. The guides that we had for our transfers from airport to limo and the guides we utilized out in the field for our expeditions were all excellent. All of the services that Southern Expeditions set up or recommended, (hotels, tours, airlines, restaurants), exceeded our expectations. I most highly recommend their services.
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They organized an incredible experience for us in Patagonia. Every arrangement they made was perfect, from local transportation guides to internal flights in Chile. Our trip was a dream come true and Southern Explorations helped us achieve this!
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The advice and information provided in the planning process was very helpful. It allowed us to go from little knowledge on how to plan the trip to a high level. Most everything that they planned went off without a hitch.
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Guides were always on time, well informed and very personable. Drivers were punctual and got us where we needed to go in a timely manner. All accommodations were as advertised. Lovely.
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Everything went as planned. Drivers were on-time and professional, tour guides were charming, well-informed and spoke impeccable English. Accommodations were first rate. Even the weather cooperated allowing us to take amazing pictures of the incredibly beautiful Patagonian mountains.
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