GV Tours in Puerto Montt-AVOID

[dileep]

Thanks for the information on the GV tours. How were the rest of the tours you booked? Would you recommend all of them?

 

We were happy with all the providers. Just had a few glitches with latintrip, but it all worked out.

 

see list at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=5782916&postcount=53

[geekgirl23]

We also had a few glitches with latintrip.... interesting!

[Bahama Kid]

What were the glitches with latintrip? I am trying to contact them since we will be in the Santiago area for four days. Thanks.

[mike35]

We contracted with Ceci at Latintrip on 1/1 - 1/3/06 at the beginning of our Valparaiso to Buenos Aires Oceania cruise. We understood that we would be sharing a city tour with another couple whom we met on CC, the afternoon of 1/1. Imagine our surprise when a bus pulled up to our hotel with over 20 passengers! Our tour on 1/2 went as expected with a good tour guide (mostly touring Concha y Toro and Cousino Macul wineries). The same guide took the four of us to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar on 1/3. The only glitch here was the horrible restaurant that she took us to for lunch in Vina del Mar. Service was abominable, the place was smoky, and I sent my food back as unedible (after waiting over 40 minutes for it).

 

Mike

[dileep]

What were the glitches with latintrip? I am trying to contact them since we will be in the Santiago area for four days. Thanks.

 

I just sent this mail to Ceci Salas:

 

Just to let you about the services we received. The guides from ADS Mundo were very friendly and the drivers and car from Turis Tour excellent.

Jose from ADS Mundo met us at the pier in Valparaiso on Sunday Feb 5 and he was very knowledgeable. There was one problem though. He did not know that we were to get a tour of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar before stopping at Veramonte on the way to Santiago. I showed him the voucher that you sent me and he called his office and we got our tour, but he did say that there was no time to stop for lunch. We were dropped off in Santiago just after 2 pm, so I am not sure why we could not stop for lunch in Vina del Mar.

We were also told that on Day 2 (Feb 6) we would be picked up at 9 am for a Half Day City tour and they were on time. The guide Carlos was very cooperative but not as knowledgeable about the city. We were also told both on Feb 5 by Jose and then confirmed by Carlos at noon on Feb 6, that we would be picked up at 3:45 pm (1545) for out Concha y Toro winery tour. We had a voucher delivered to our room at the Marriott on Monday morning while we were on the City tour that we were to be picked up at 3:45 pm. Actually those vouchers from ADS Mundo should have been delivered to us when we were picked up in Valparaiso.

We were in our hotel room when our phone rang at 3:15pm asking if we could come down to the lobby immediately because the bus would be there in 5 minutes. We were the last people to be picked up and the bus had to rush to get to the winery by 4:15 pm for the tour. If we had not been in our room at 3:15pm, we would probably have missed the tour.

You need better communication and coordination with ADS Mundo.

We enjoyed our tours and were glad that the two problems that we encountered did not affect our program.

Dileep

[geekgirl23]

We only used latintrip for the arrangements at Iguazu. Basically, our private transfer for two ended up with 8 people (for whom we waited at the airport longer than expected).

 

And due to our time constraints, we only could spend Sunday and Monday at the falls. Their itinerary was for us to spend Sunday on the Argentine side and Monday on the Brazil side. I had read that the Brazil side didn't open until 1pm on Mondays and specifically asked them about that and never received a reply. Of course in the rush right before leaving, I forgot to follow up.

 

When we got to our hotel we were given a specific time for our tour pickup to the Brazil side on Monday morning. We showed up at the specified time and there was no guide- after waiting an additional 20 minutes, we found another guide from the company. They told us that the Brazil side doesn't open until 1pm and that we didn't have a tour. The local company did end up taking care of us in the long run and got us a tour for the afternoon (and we still made our flight out of the Brazil side!), but we had a pretty tense morning trying to arrange it all. Luckily, it all worked out for us though.

 

I accept that it was my responsibility to have planned better, but I also think they should know their products better.

[dileep]

We only used latintrip for the arrangements at Iguazu. Basically, our private transfer for two ended up with 8 people (for whom we waited at the airport longer than expected).

 

They appear to be disorganized and one needs to check and confirm the arrangements, We almost used them for Iguazu too, but chose to go with Defrantur instead because they could get us the flight times we wanted.

 

I am glad that we did!

[geekgirl23]

Agreed... good advice to always check your arrangements. It was my fault that I didn't.

[dileep]

Agreed... good advice to always check your arrangements. It was my fault that I didn't.

 

Hindsight is easier than foresight. I did not confirm our arrangements either, but we were able to recover.

[gpearce]

Just wanted to let you know that we used GV tours in Puerto Montt and they were absolutely terrific. I can not begin to recommend them enough. Everything they did was wonderful!

The company was very responsive to all of my emails and their tour was terrific. We got to see so much and learn so much.

Don't hesitate to take this tour.