2.0 - Poor
Based on 3 reviews
The overall rating score is based on all time feedback received and does not express any opinions of Bookmundi.com. The current reviews and scores are thus representative of a company's performance.
  • Geórgenes Marçal Neves
  • From Brazil
  • On
2 - Poor
"We faced MAJOR problems with the company. In Tashkent, Jasmine did not arrange our PCR tests, as we had agreed she would. We had to book it by ourselves with the hotel. And unfortunately this was a testament to a somewhat confusing approach by Jasmine, who did apologize for her mistake (she did it several times during the trip) and even met us in person and handed us gifts. Even though we appreciate the gifts, it does not make up for the problems we faced.

Another problem: our driver, who was supposed to wait for us at the border in Uzbekistan was simply not there, so we just crossed from Tajikistan and were completely by ourselves. We did not have internet and our phones did not work, since we had literally just entered the country, so you can imagine how frustrating this was. We had to take an unlicensed taxi by ourselves and of course we were overcharged by the taxi driver. The company did reimburse us for what we payed, but, again: it is not about the money; it is about fulfilling the terms of our travel contract. In fact, when I texted Jasmine and let her know that our driver was not there to meet us, she dismissively that the driver was indeed there (so I guess I took a taxi just for fun, right?). She then apologized again, for the 100th time.

Our LARGEST problem by far, however, was the issue of payment. We started talking to CAT since March 2022 and, after many discussions with Jasmine on itinerary and hotels, we decided to close the deal on 22 March 2022. It took them several weeks to send us the contract - and this should had already been a red flag. Ms. Anna finally sent us the contract on 07 April - which we signed the very same day. The contract stipulated that we should pay 30% of the tour upfront through bank transfer and the rest 20 days before the beginning of our tour, also by transfer. So we did, and after paying the 30%, I sent Anna the transfer receipt. After that, complete silence: no more communication whatsoever. 20 days before the trip, I asked for the second invoice and no one sent anything. I was a bit desperate and wrote to Jasmine on WhatsApp (at this stage, I was afraid I had been scammed) and at first she said she would not only give me the invoice, but would also forward a voucher with cell phone numbers of our guides. A week passed by with no replies. Exactly ONE DAY before our tour starts, on 13 May, I told Jasmine that the next day we would be flying to Istambul to begin our trip and, upon landing in Istambul, a real nightmare started. Jasmine started sending us direct and abrupt messages saying that our first transfer (which we had done more than a month before) had not come through and that we should pay the remaining balance (for which we still did not have an invoice, despite my several attemps to get it) in cash.

Well, saying that our transfer had not come through was a straight-up lie, since TransferWise confirmed to us that the money had left our account. We had to start making endless phone calls and sending several emails back in forth DURING OUR TRIP (with limited internert access and phone signal) in order to prove to the company that we had paid. It was a huge headache that was only solved after we had already visited Dushanbe, Penjikent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Tashkent. Only then Anna "misteriously" found our payment. In the meantime, Jasmine just kept apologizing. I understand that problems with transfer may happen and no one should work for free, but I would expect receiving information on this way in advance and not having to deal with this issue WHILE traveling. This has ruined our trip.

We did pay the 70% remaing balance in cash, but I have to say that I was very offended by this request, since: a) I had been asking for the invoice for quite some time, with no replies from Anna nor Jasmine; b) the contract did not specify cash payment; and c) I specifically told Jasmine I was not comfortable carrying 4 thousand dollars in cash during the trip. We had to withdraw the money at the airport in Istambul and, since we were abroad, the bank charged us USD 200,00 for it (if we had done it at home, we wouldn't have had to pay anything). They did took the USD 200,00 out of our bill but, AGAIN: it is not about the money; it is about our huge headache with all this mess.

Facing such a display of unprofessionalism, we seriously considered just canceling the trip, but we had already started traveling, hotels were already booked, flights were already purchased and 30% of the trip was already paid for (despite their claim that we had not paid). That is why, unfortunately, I cannot recommend this company. If you're experienced travellers like ourselves and are used to a higher level of services for luxury trips, please book your tour with some other company and avoid turning your trip into a disaster."
  • Geórgenes Marçal Neves
  • From Brazil
  • On
2 - Poor
"We faced MAJOR problems with the company. In Tashkent, Jasmine did not arrange our PCR tests, as we had agreed she would. We had to book it by ourselves with the hotel. And unfortunately this was a testament to a somewhat confusing approach by Jasmine, who did apologize for her mistake (she did it several times during the trip) and even met us in person and handed us gifts. Even though we appreciate the gifts, it does not make up for the problems we faced.

Another problem: our driver, who was supposed to wait for us at the border in Uzbekistan was simply not there, so we just crossed from Tajikistan and were completely by ourselves. We did not have internet and our phones did not work, since we had literally just entered the country, so you can imagine how frustrating this was. We had to take an unlicensed taxi by ourselves and of course we were overcharged by the taxi driver. The company did reimburse us for what we payed, but, again: it is not about the money; it is about fulfilling the terms of our travel contract. In fact, when I texted Jasmine and let her know that our driver was not there to meet us, she dismissively that the driver was indeed there (so I guess I took a taxi just for fun, right?). She then apologized again, for the 100th time.

Our LARGEST problem by far, however, was the issue of payment. We started talking to CAT since March 2022 and, after many discussions with Jasmine on itinerary and hotels, we decided to close the deal on 22 March 2022. It took them several weeks to send us the contract - and this should had already been a red flag. Ms. Anna finally sent us the contract on 07 April - which we signed the very same day. The contract stipulated that we should pay 30% of the tour upfront through bank transfer and the rest 20 days before the beginning of our tour, also by transfer. So we did, and after paying the 30%, I sent Anna the transfer receipt. After that, complete silence: no more communication whatsoever. 20 days before the trip, I asked for the second invoice and no one sent anything. I was a bit desperate and wrote to Jasmine on WhatsApp (at this stage, I was afraid I had been scammed) and at first she said she would not only give me the invoice, but would also forward a voucher with cell phone numbers of our guides. A week passed by with no replies. Exactly ONE DAY before our tour starts, on 13 May, I told Jasmine that the next day we would be flying to Istambul to begin our trip and, upon landing in Istambul, a real nightmare started. Jasmine started sending us direct and abrupt messages saying that our first transfer (which we had done more than a month before) had not come through and that we should pay the remaining balance (for which we still did not have an invoice, despite my several attemps to get it) in cash.

Well, saying that our transfer had not come through was a straight-up lie, since TransferWise confirmed to us that the money had left our account. We had to start making endless phone calls and sending several emails back in forth DURING OUR TRIP (with limited internert access and phone signal) in order to prove to the company that we had paid. It was a huge headache that was only solved after we had already visited Dushanbe, Penjikent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Tashkent. Only then Anna "misteriously" found our payment. In the meantime, Jasmine just kept apologizing. I understand that problems with transfer may happen and no one should work for free, but I would expect receiving information on this way in advance and not having to deal with this issue WHILE traveling. This has ruined our trip.

We did pay the 70% remaing balance in cash, but I have to say that I was very offended by this request, since: a) I had been asking for the invoice for quite some time, with no replies from Anna nor Jasmine; b) the contract did not specify cash payment; and c) I specifically told Jasmine I was not comfortable carrying 4 thousand dollars in cash during the trip. We had to withdraw the money at the airport in Istambul and, since we were abroad, the bank charged us USD 200,00 for it (if we had done it at home, we wouldn't have had to pay anything). They did took the USD 200,00 out of our bill but, AGAIN: it is not about the money; it is about our huge headache with all this mess.

Facing such a display of unprofessionalism, we seriously considered just canceling the trip, but we had already started traveling, hotels were already booked, flights were already purchased and 30% of the trip was already paid for (despite their claim that we had not paid). That is why, unfortunately, I cannot recommend this company. If you're experienced travellers like ourselves and are used to a higher level of services for luxury trips, please book your tour with some other company and avoid turning your trip into a disaster."
  • Geórgenes Marçal Neves
  • From Brazil
  • On
2 - Poor
"We faced MAJOR problems with the company. In Tashkent, Jasmine did not arrange our PCR tests, as we had agreed she would. We had to book it by ourselves with the hotel. And unfortunately this was a testament to a somewhat confusing approach by Jasmine, who did apologize for her mistake (she did it several times during the trip) and even met us in person and handed us gifts. Even though we appreciate the gifts, it does not make up for the problems we faced.

Another problem: our driver, who was supposed to wait for us at the border in Uzbekistan was simply not there, so we just crossed from Tajikistan and were completely by ourselves. We did not have internet and our phones did not work, since we had literally just entered the country, so you can imagine how frustrating this was. We had to take an unlicensed taxi by ourselves and of course we were overcharged by the taxi driver. The company did reimburse us for what we payed, but, again: it is not about the money; it is about fulfilling the terms of our travel contract. In fact, when I texted Jasmine and let her know that our driver was not there to meet us, she dismissively that the driver was indeed there (so I guess I took a taxi just for fun, right?). She then apologized again, for the 100th time.

Our LARGEST problem by far, however, was the issue of payment. We started talking to CAT since March 2022 and, after many discussions with Jasmine on itinerary and hotels, we decided to close the deal on 22 March 2022. It took them several weeks to send us the contract - and this should had already been a red flag. Ms. Anna finally sent us the contract on 07 April - which we signed the very same day. The contract stipulated that we should pay 30% of the tour upfront through bank transfer and the rest 20 days before the beginning of our tour, also by transfer. So we did, and after paying the 30%, I sent Anna the transfer receipt. After that, complete silence: no more communication whatsoever. 20 days before the trip, I asked for the second invoice and no one sent anything. I was a bit desperate and wrote to Jasmine on WhatsApp (at this stage, I was afraid I had been scammed) and at first she said she would not only give me the invoice, but would also forward a voucher with cell phone numbers of our guides. A week passed by with no replies. Exactly ONE DAY before our tour starts, on 13 May, I told Jasmine that the next day we would be flying to Istambul to begin our trip and, upon landing in Istambul, a real nightmare started. Jasmine started sending us direct and abrupt messages saying that our first transfer (which we had done more than a month before) had not come through and that we should pay the remaining balance (for which we still did not have an invoice, despite my several attemps to get it) in cash.

Well, saying that our transfer had not come through was a straight-up lie, since TransferWise confirmed to us that the money had left our account. We had to start making endless phone calls and sending several emails back in forth DURING OUR TRIP (with limited internert access and phone signal) in order to prove to the company that we had paid. It was a huge headache that was only solved after we had already visited Dushanbe, Penjikent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Tashkent. Only then Anna "misteriously" found our payment. In the meantime, Jasmine just kept apologizing. I understand that problems with transfer may happen and no one should work for free, but I would expect receiving information on this way in advance and not having to deal with this issue WHILE traveling. This has ruined our trip.

We did pay the 70% remaing balance in cash, but I have to say that I was very offended by this request, since: a) I had been asking for the invoice for quite some time, with no replies from Anna nor Jasmine; b) the contract did not specify cash payment; and c) I specifically told Jasmine I was not comfortable carrying 4 thousand dollars in cash during the trip. We had to withdraw the money at the airport in Istambul and, since we were abroad, the bank charged us USD 200,00 for it (if we had done it at home, we wouldn't have had to pay anything). They did took the USD 200,00 out of our bill but, AGAIN: it is not about the money; it is about our huge headache with all this mess.

Facing such a display of unprofessionalism, we seriously considered just canceling the trip, but we had already started traveling, hotels were already booked, flights were already purchased and 30% of the trip was already paid for (despite their claim that we had not paid). That is why, unfortunately, I cannot recommend this company. If you're experienced travellers like ourselves and are used to a higher level of services for luxury trips, please book your tour with some other company and avoid turning your trip into a disaster."

About Us

Central Asia Travel is a successful tour operator company with travel experience of over 10 years.

Below is the list of the tours we offer:

• Guided heritage tours around the Five Stans of Central Asia, Western China and Azerbaijan
• MICE programs in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan
• Extreme mountaineering expeditions on highest Central Asian summits (Lenin Peak, Pobeda
Peak, Khan-Tengry Peak, Muztag-Ata Peak)
• Various kinds of adventure tours: jeep-tours, horse-riding tours, paragliding, ornithology, bike-
tours, high mountain ski tours, safari, etc.
• Thematic tours in Central Asia: gastronomic tours and Christmas tours
• Trekking, hiking and outdoor activities in the Pamir and Tien-Shan mountains

Why book with Us

- We have successfully arranged a great number of group tours as well as tailor-made tours around
the Five Stans of Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan),
Western China and Azerbaijan.

- There is a varying approach towards each client, and any of our tours can be edited in accordance
with their requests and wishes.

- We can guarantee high level services for our guests.

Tours and Holidays by Central Asia Travel

Central Asia Travel has not yet published any tours.