SouthAmerica.travel IncReviews of southamerica.travel

We came across South America Travel by chance when starting to plan a holiday to South America. Tom Maker responded and as he is from Sydney language was easy. He has been very responsive and helped tailor an itinerary with tour suggestions and hotel recommendations that work for us providing web addresses so we can look things up to confirm suitability. We had made some of our reservations direct but that was no problem,Tom helped fill in all the gaps.

I recently booked my South American trip with South America.travel and I couldn't be happier with the service provided. My travel consultant, Tom never hesitated to help us out whether it was altering/customizing itineraries or helping us with recommendations. Tom did it all! He was very quick to respond to emails and answered any questions we had about our trip in detail. I couldn't recommend Tom and the team at South America.travel highly enough. I am looking forward to our upcoming trip as it is now so organised and just what we wanted.

We engaged South America Travel for a 3 weeks private tour to Peru & Bolivia. When we arrived each destinations, all the private transfers and pick up were there on time without any hiccup. Everything was nicely arranged. We do not need to worry about anything. Most of the local tour guides are very good except one or two. We are generally very happy with all the arrangements which include accommodations, food, the itineraries and the end results of the tours. The only disappointment we had is...... We were not booked into the salt hotel in Uyuni, Bolivia as per the agreed itinerary, which we were looking forward to.

We read many reviews of the planning and booking process and very few written after the trip. We have now completed our trip to South America and can give SouthAmerica.travel a 5 star thumbs up review! We had planned a 28 day trip to Brazil. Bolivia and Peru. We worked with Diego on the planning, and it was definitely customized for us. We had several different guides along the way, and all but one were excellent--he was very good--nothing wrong, just not quite as personable. The guides all spoke excellent English, made sure we saw what we wanted to see, and were very accommodating. They were always on time. The drivers were also excellent and the vehicles immaculate and in good shape. Our driver in Sucre was exceptional--there was a demonstration and the road blocked and he managed to go a back way that took him over some rough roads but he got us to our next destination! The guides (all but the one) also accompanied us into the airports to make sure there were no problems with our ticketing and departures. Exceptional service. We decided on the 4 star accommodations and would recommend this level. They were in perfect locations, had nice breakfasts, were immaculate and had English speaking people at reception (except in Uyuni which is a very small remote town near the Salt Flats--and it was no problem having a Spanish speaking reception desk, as other guests were able to translate for us!). We were provided a detailed day by day written itinerary shortly before we left by Diego. As we arrived in a new city, the local guide gave us another copy--sometimes the times changed for pick ups, so we always reviewed the new print out. There was always time for us to explore some on our own. The local guides did a great job giving us suggestions. Our guide, Marco, in Rio even accompanied us on the subway to the square we wanted to visit and made sure we knew how to use the subway system to get back to our hotel. We had an unfortunate occurrence in that I got very sick (some bacterial infection) in Bolivia and needed to curtail the trip and return to the US. It was on a Sunday when we knew I needed to get back to the US. We made a call to the weekend emergency number provided us, and they were going to work with us to change our flight home. We ended up booking a flight ourselves so we could leave right away. I was hospitalized when we arrived back in Miami. South America travel worked with us immediately to get dollar figures of the part of the trip we did not complete so I could turn it in on our credit card trip interruption insurance (and we were reimbursed in full for the unused part of the trip). The best testimonial I can give is that we are rebooking with SouthAmerica.travel for next year to complete the portion of the trip we had to miss as well as adding on time in Ecuador (and a small cruise to the Galapagos). I do wish I had asked for more pointers on tipping..we were never quite sure how much to give our drivers and guides and since we did not know how much they were paid for their services, we couldn't base it on a percentage but took guesses. Next year, I am packing slightly differently as well--there was very inexpensive laundry services offered at most of the hotels, and I will utilize that next year.

Our travel representative Christina is very helpful. She is knowledgeable and gave good suggestions. She adjusted our itinerary according to our needs. She is quick in her communications. She is polite in her correspondence via email or phone. She tried to get us as best price as she could. She has promised to help us during our trip if we need any help. We are hoping to have a good trip.

The rep at South American Travel, Martin was professional and helpful throughout.It was a good experience.

We just got back from our two week trip to South America. There were 4 of us travelling and we had a very tight itinerary. We were helped by Jared who was very patient with our constant changing of the itinerary. We were thrilled with the overall trip and had an amazing time. Jared was very good at suggesting how to best utilise our time and when to visit each area so as not to be affected by weather. It worked as we were treated with sunshine everywhere we went, even in Cuzco and Machu Picchu. We did have some missed opportunities during the trip but overall we managed to have the best time and see all the highlights we had wanted to see, (Buenos Aires, Iguazu, Perito Moreno Glacier, Peruvian Amazon, Cuzco, Machu Picchu and Lima). I would highly recommend working with South America.travel.

My review holds for booking a trip for three seniors, each with different expectations and needs, to Argentina and Chile next November 2017. Izabela was incredibly prompt getting back to us, changing itineraries without a fuss, adding and deleting places to meet our budget and time frame, giving us updates on costs, giving us her opinion about places when asked. The whole experience for booking this trip was relaxed, friendly and easy. I hope the trip goes as well. We have travelled the world, a different country each year, for ten+ years. I hope that this trip turns out to be as good as the booking process. Thank you, Izabela!