New Zealand: The South Island
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Botswana Adventure
Nature Tour & Trip Reviews
Editor’s Take
What to Look For in Nature Tour Reviews
Most trip reviews tend to focus on some or all of these 5 key areas, not all of which may be relevant to you: the tour guide, travel company, service level, country or countries traveled in, and the trip itinerary.
Remember, just because you see a 1 star review doesn’t necessarily mean that person disliked the country.
Depending on the traveler, a “nature” adventure may be something new to them. Especially if the sound of hiking/camping sounds awful, you may be questioning if a nature trip is something you should go on. There are some surprising parts, such as limited cell phone service in some areas.
Luckily, even in the mountains, most lodges/hotels generally have some sort of internet connection, so you’re not entirely out of touch. When dealing with the outdoors, unpredictable weather can change your itinerary. A good reminder is this can happen on any trip, regardless of the destination.
Overall, many people were beyond pleased with their nature tour. The world has so many awesome landscapes, it’s incredible to get out of the city life and see what nature has to offer. For people who went to New Zealand, everywhere you turned, there was beauty. From the helicopter ride over glaciers to ride a boat through Milford sound, to hiking the coastal walk, and the rolling hills of the North Island, the view was consistently amazing. Many people noted that even with a several week long trip, the scenery was so spectacular, they wanted to go back on another trip.
This seems to be the overall theme of nature trips. Sure, two weeks doing nature things may seem long, but the awesome part of nature is no two days are ever the same. Sunrises and sunset change daily. You’ll experience different weather and capture different views. This is especially apparent for those who do nature trips involving animals.
Safaris are incredible for this reason. You can spend a week long doing game drives every day, and no drive will ever be the same. You’ll see different animals displaying different types of behaviors. You may run into elephants six different times on one game drive, but each time, it’s spectacular. You’re always on the lookout, and there is never a guarantee you’ll see a particular animal, so every encounter is a pleasant surprise.
As if you needed another reason to go on a nature adventure, but in case you do, nature trips often bring new points of views. You can sit on the beach and look at the ocean, or you can see mountains in the distance or from a scenic overlook. Or you could be hiking the mountain, or paddle boarding in the water, seeing the scenery from a different perspective. On top of that, you get to spend the time enjoying the area.
There are plenty of nature tours for people to choose from, so if you’re looking for rainforests, beaches, or mountains, you’re sure to find an adventure. Some tours may even offer all three!
For a professional take on nature tours see the Stride Nature Travel Guide »
Tour Reviews
H
HOLLY
Should Go Smoother September 2017
- Value 3.0
- Guide 3.0
- Activities 3.0
- Lodging 3.0
- Transportation 3.0
- Meals 3.0
Unlike booking a flight, either through an airline or travel agencies like Expedia or Travelocity, if you book through the Aerlingus Vacation Store, you cannot check in online and there are no etickets. You must get your ticket at the airport on the day of your flight. To check in, you must call the airline directly. Waits to speak with an agent can and were long. You must also call the airline to order special meals and choose seating assignments.
The second most important thing to know: your Aerlingus Travel Store reservation number is different than your Aerlingus confirmation number. Always have both handy when contacting the Vacation Store or the airline.
Bottom line: If you can't stomach not being able to check in online and not getting your tickets until you arrive at the airport the day you travel, don't use the Aerlingus Vacation Store. If you can handle these issues, then do. The Vacation Store hotel vouchers and rail vouchers that we printed at home for our Ireland trip were accepted readily. Both my friend and I were on each voucher so we could check in together. Very easy and handy. Once past the hurdle of checking in, ordering meals and getting seat assignments by phone, we relaxed and had a great trip to Dublin, Galway, and Limerick by rail.
J
JOSEPH
Great Trip to Ireland! September 2017
- Value 5.0
- Guide 5.0
- Activities 5.0
- Lodging 5.0
- Transportation 5.0
- Meals 5.0
Looking forward to our next tour!
J
JOANNE
The 12 days through all of Ireland September 2017
- Value 5.0
- Guide 5.0
- Activities 5.0
- Lodging 5.0
- Transportation 5.0
- Meals 5.0
J
JAMES
Dublin city tour September 2017
- Value 4.0
- Guide 4.0
- Activities 4.0
- Lodging 4.0
- Transportation 4.0
- Meals 4.0
F
Frank
Phyllis and I had a fantastic time at every destination, September 2017
- Value 5.0
- Guide 5.0
- Activities 5.0
- Lodging 5.0
- Transportation 5.0
- Meals 5.0
Perhaps our most memorable moment was a dispute between a beautiful male lion just a few feet in front of us and one of the females in his pride, the female ignored his advances until he nipped her after she continued to ignore him. That instantly resulted in loud snarls, flying legs and claws and general mayhem. It all happened so fast and unexpectedly that I didn't have time to make a video. The male went away dejected...
R
Roltexl
China Discovery Tour 10 days 8 nights … September 2017
- Value 1.0
- Guide 1.0
- Activities 1.0
- Lodging 1.0
- Transportation 1.0
- Meals 1.0
Unprofessional and inexperienced tour guide, who spent 90% of the time talking to driver during the trip, and did not interact with us, also she had very limited knowledge of sceneries, barely explained the sceneries and all she said was walked by ourselves and met us within the time flame.
Lunches were inedible with a huge lack of meat and vegetables with an odd odor. All of us hardly touched the meals. We did complained to the tour guide and she said those foods were from country side. “But we joined the luxury tour and expected the good food.”
Suzhou excursion was completely ripped off ($380 for party of four). We spent about one and a half hours in the car ride each way, forty five minutes at The Master of the Net Garden. Eat early lunch around 11:30 in a local restaurant. We told her it was too early for us, we just had breakfast at 8:30am. She said that we had no choice. After lunch, we spent about twenty minutes at the Suzhou Canal River with little history of the canal. She did not provide any information about scenery. Suzhou often called the “Venice of the East” expecting the manual boat ride not the motor boat. Unfortunately we were in the motor boat ride. Once we reached the Entry of Suzhou Village, the boat turned around and we didn’t have a chance to walk around. The purpose we chose the package was to walk the Village and discover its highlights on a guide tour. When we requested her to walk around inside the village, she told us that it was not part of the tour package. We drove back to Shanghai and were dropped off before 3:00 pm. We felt we were so foolish to join the Suzhou tour.
K
KATHLEEN
Trip was great Aer Lingus vacation … September 2017
- Value 5.0
- Guide 5.0
- Activities 5.0
- Lodging 5.0
- Transportation 5.0
- Meals 5.0
J
JAMES
Great time! September 2017
- Value 4.0
- Guide 4.0
- Activities 4.0
- Lodging 4.0
- Transportation 4.0
- Meals 4.0
But, I have a couple of small complaints. First, when we went to pick up our car rental from Dooley's, we had to wait close to two hours for an available car. It seems to me that a car reserved in January would be available in August with no problem. Second, and I'm sure you don't have any control over this, Aer Lingus should really think about fixing/updating their seat displays. Both going over and coming back, my display had to be reset multiple times before it would work. And when it did start working, the audio was almost unintelligible
A
AMANDA
Highly Recommend September 2017
- Value 5.0
- Guide 5.0
- Activities 5.0
- Lodging 5.0
- Transportation 5.0
- Meals 5.0
V
Victoria
Lesson learned: Never travel through EF College Break Again. September 2017
- Value 1.0
- Guide 1.0
- Activities 1.0
- Lodging 1.0
- Transportation 1.0
- Meals 1.0
DaPR
Dan and Pam R.
The trip was awesome and exceeded our expectations. August 2017
- Value 5.0
- Guide 5.0
- Activities 5.0
- Lodging 5.0
- Transportation 5.0
- Meals 5.0
Our guides Chris and Basil were both exceptional. Having the right guide could make or break the adventure and they were both terrific. Both gentlemen were very fun, knowledgeable, accommodating and patient. Nature can be finicky but they both made sure we saw or experienced everything possible. The lodges in both countries were quite nice and the staff were wonderful and made us feel so welcome. The meals were wonderful and offer something for everyone. The staff all represented their country and lodge very well. There was no way to go through the day without a continuous smile on your face.
V
VINCENT
A pleasure to do business with and very … August 2017
- Value 4.0
- Guide 4.0
- Activities 4.0
- Lodging 4.0
- Transportation 4.0
- Meals 4.0
AMM&EM
Ava Marie M. & Eugenio M.
We had an absolutely fabulous time in South Africa. August 2017
- Value 5.0
- Guide 5.0
- Activities 5.0
- Lodging 5.0
- Transportation 5.0
- Meals 5.0
Cape Town's scenic views were breathtaking, especially atop Table Mountain. The Freedom Tour was sobering and eye opening. We plan to provide assistance to preschool we visited during that tour.
Finally, Ivory Tree Game Lodge was beautiful and we saw elephants, lions, rhinos, leopards, hippos, up close which made for great pictures.
All in all one of our best vacations to date. Kudos to you and Lion World Travel.
M
Madhu
We had a fantastic trip. August 2017
- Value 5.0
- Guide 5.0
- Activities 5.0
- Lodging 5.0
- Transportation 5.0
- Meals 5.0
No words on African Safari. One has to experience this adventurous trip. The lodges are well taken care and we had plenty of vegetarian food including Indian.
R&LP
Rick & Lisa P.
Wonderful trip August 2017
- Value 5.0
- Guide 5.0
- Activities 5.0
- Lodging 5.0
- Transportation 5.0
- Meals 5.0
The tour guides and staff did an outstanding job! Thanks again for all of your help booking this trip and especially the handling of our unique airline restrictions. And also for booking the balloon safari (it was great, too).
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