Discover Chile - An Excellent Introduction to a Stunning Country. This was an excellent trip. Having seen many stunning photographs of Chile, I went on the holiday with high expectations. I was not disappointed and indeed my expectations were exceeded. It is a truly stunning country with a huge variety of dramatic scenery, friendly people and interesting wildlife. This trip is a very good introduction to the country, covering a lot of territory in two weeks, allowing you to identify the bits to come back to with more time at a later date.
After COVID - first long haul for us, first tour for Exodus in Chile Very good tour but with a few niggles. This was the first Discover Chile tour for 2 years, both for Exodus and for our guide.
The first niggle was that the guide didn't have accurate or complete guest arrival information. My wife and I were successfully met at the airport the day before the official land tour start. However the guide didn't have any information about four guests and thought that the remaining guest was only arriving the next day ( which meant she would be quarantining). So the Santiago tour was cancelled. My wife and I went on our own to explore, as the guide was expecting to have to meet the remaining guest. However it turned out that all of the other guests had arrived before us and turned up in the hotel lobby for the tour. The guide tried to contact us but we didn't see the messages until it was too late to join her.
There was some confusion for one of the plane trips where our tickets were all marked as standby! We all got on but it was confusing.
For our stay in Punta Varas it was a little disconcerting when many of the restaurants closed at 7. This also surprised the guide, who hadn't been to the town for 2 years.
We also missed out on the boat trip in the lakes because of a landslip and the back-up view from the ski resort was stopped by treacherous sleeting weather. It felt like there could have been an extra day in the Lakes region.
The first breakfast in the hotel in Puerto Natales was very disappointing, but they made a much better breakfast the next time. Perhaps they were rusty after a long break from foreign tourism.
In all the to-ing and fro-ing with Easter Island extensions our final transfer to the airport dropped off. Not a big issue because the guide sorted us out very efficiently.
The scenery was stunning throughout and more than made up for any long journeys
Jacopo is an excellent tour leader. Informative, always helpful with excellent organisational skills. He also goes out of his way to ensure that passengers always know where to go for meals, activities etc when arriving at a destination, often organising it for them and joining them. Noel is also an excellent co driver. Not only in respect of his driving and maintenance of the truck, but his enthusiasm to integrate with passengers and always be helpful in assisting with setting up tents and other equipment etc. Noel and Jacopo appeared to have an excellent working relationship and their enthusiasm was noted by most passengers which led to a very positive atmosphere. I would have no hesitation whatsoever in taking a trip again with either Jacopo or Noel as leader or driver.