South America Food Trips

This was a fantastic trip that lived up fully to its billing, as we saw many spectacular and varied landscapes and we sampled many gorgeous wines. The guide Lucia was very knowledgeable and helpful throughout. My only observation is that it was a hard trip in terms of several very long days travelling of 8 or more hours - over 12 hours on one day - which meant we rarely had the chance to relax and/or enjoy the hotel facilities (e.g. pools in most hotels). The Trip Notes highlighted this but even so, after more than a dozen Explore trips previously which we thought prepared us for a lot of time on the road , we were still surprised. Essentially the trip was 12 full days and we thought it could have been stretched to 14 to cover the same itinerary - maybe an extra day in Cafayate and in Cachi? Why for example, did we travel from Mendoza to Aconcagua (a brilliant trip) but then back to Mendoza (3 hours each way) on one day, only to retrace our steps almost all the way back to Aconcagua on the next day, on the way to the next stop? This retracing of the same route wasted 6 hours, or almost a full day? Why did we not go from Aconcagua directly to the next stop, instead of back to Mendoza? In summary, this is a great tour, but we recommend you review the itinerary and through better planning and some extra time make it a more relaxing tour spread over over one or two more days.

Great trip organised by the team! From the first moment, the team has been very responsive to our emails and the way the tour was setup exceeded our expectations. The help from the experience manager was very crucial in many circumstances (best example was that she organised to have a purse delivered from Argentina to Chile!!).

This tour exceeded our expectations and was made most memorable by our guide Jurgen, and our driver, Marco. I have a disability and special accommodations needed to be made for me to access the van for the tour. These two gentleman worked very hard to locate a step stool for me access the van, and treated me with dignity and respect. My husband and I were very pleased with the level of service we received and our knowledgeable tour guide.

Good tour. Guide could have been more enthusiastic. People with passion for their city, country, lifestyle would be great for a position within your company. Tour guides should try to get to know a few of each of the shop keepers along the tour. so the shop keepers would be excited to see us and hopefully sell us some of their items. I felt we were in the way sometimes. Would recommend your guild to have a flag, sign, or umbrella with the name of the tour operator on it so the meeting point and finding them would be easier. Also, directions are good but if you're not familiar with the area, then having the directions in the native language (Spanish) would be good. I got lost trying to find the meeting place and if they were in Spanish (as well as English), then I might have had a little help from the local in finding the correct meeting place. Other than that, I enjoyed the tour and the ability to try some local items.

This trip was much better than I expected with spectacular, varied scenery and enjoyable visits to the wineries. The whole trip was made all the better by our guide Carolina.