Testimonials

“My time at the Alto Atacama was absolutely great!! Arrangements for pick ups and transfers were faultless. The hotel staff are amazing – it is a fabulous place to stay. The excursions are as advertised and hotel staff are really helpful in advising (particularly in regard to altitude sickness) and accommodating excursion preferences. Their guides are seriously good. Accommodation, restaurant, etc is very good and any problems are attended to. As a single female traveller, I felt quite OK all of the time. I absolutely loved my time there – I think the 4 night/5 day option is just about perfect. Thanks so much Elly for your work in getting this into place and I would thoroughly recommend it for prospective travellers!”

“We have just returned from our South American journey. Firstly, I wanted to say how amazing our host Julie Salt was. We were very relaxed travelling with Julie taking the lead, which obviously we don’t have when we journey away on our own. She dealt extremely well with all sorts of situations, people and personalities, yet keeping the group running smoothly without drama. She was always smiling, engaging with everyone and there to help whenever anyone needed it. I bow to her strength and fun personality, she made the journey run so smoothly. We have travelled a great deal with World Journeys arranging our tours and we have always found that we have had the best service. Top guides, great drivers, excellent accommodation and itineraries. This was our first small group hosted tour, which with only 10 people was perfect in size for us. Once we got to know the others we became good friends and had some fun and lots of laughs. We still made sure we did things on our own at times as well, which was a good thing and was very easy to do. The Galapagos cruise was fantastic, well organized and run. Our suite was a very good size, with a comfortable bed and good-sized bathroom. The service was exceptional, and the guides were very knowledgeable, fun and went out of their way to make our tour interesting. Our accommodation throughout South America was good, our favourites were in Machu Picchu, Urubamba, Iguazu, Buenos Aires and obviously Sacha Lodge. Our highlights were the Galapagos, Piranha fishing in the Amazon, La Paz (great city) along with meeting Mario and visiting his studio and home, Chopper flight in Rio, Iguazu Falls and Chopper flight there, plus our first glimpse of Machu Picchu. To sum up, both Murray and I really enjoyed our tour, we enjoyed every country we visited and the people we met. We felt extremely lucky to have visited places like the Galapagos, Machu Picchu and Iguazu Falls. Seeing the photos of these places doesn’t do them justice, they are breathtaking and inspiring and need to be seen to be truly believed. Having a fantastic host, like Julie taking care of all the details when you’re travelling to so many places in a relatively short time was essential in making the journey run smoothly and we felt very relaxed.”

“The travel documents were excellent…probably the best we have ever received. Every day was a highlight simply because every day was a new adventure. If I really, really had to choose a favourite, it would probably be the salt ponds which we visited unexpectedly. There we were high up in The Andes, and we came upon these beautiful pink and white ponds glistening in the sunshine …filled by a tiny spring that has been delivering warm salt water from the centre of The Andes for thousands of years…the sense of timelessness took my breath away. All of the harvesting is done by hand, in the same manner that it has always been done. When I almost closed my eyes and looked out over the ponds, it was as if time had stood still…magic! I kept thinking of the pink and white terraces that were destroyed when Mt Tarawera erupted. I imagine visitors to those terraces must have had a similar reaction when they saw them for the first time. I cannot think of anything that needs improvement. Because it was a very busy trip, often with early starts, I chose to think of it as an expedition rather than a holiday, and took each day as it came. Chris was fantastic…he took care of everything and I didn’t even have to think…simply the best! This was the first journey I have ever been on where I have completely absolved myself of any responsibility for time and place…to the point I often didn’t know what we were doing from day to day until Chris told us…perfect! The local guides were great…Chris knew and had a warm, friendly relationship with many of them which meant they went the extra mile for us. Some of the hotels were great and others were superb…no complaints at all. The Galapagos Islands were so unexpectedly different from what we anticipated that simply being there was astonishing. The boat was great and so were the crew.”