This was such an incredible trip. There were so many awesome things to see and do which will take your breath away. The only downside was that transitions with traveling were not without some sort of obstacle. The African airlines were always late and there wasn’t much communication. We were given false information about luggage and as such, we had to go without them for two days in Zimbabwe. On our way to Cape Town the bus broke down and we were stranded on the side of the road for at least two hours until backup transportation arrived. Outside of these issues the trip overall was incredible. Excursions were so much fun and many of them will leave you speechless. Lastly, the hotel that we stayed at in Cape Town was pretty awful. If you can, I’d suggest staying somewhere else. I think it’s listed as maybe like a four star it definitely one it had roaches.

My family just returned from a trip throughout Peru. While our guides were amazing and knowledgeable, we were greeted with a new face daily. This became a problem because many times we didn’t know our schedules until the morning of. The most egregious of examples would be our arrival at Cuzco. Our guide dropped us off at around 5:00 pm and informed us we would know by 7:00 pm our plans for the next day (which was our bus and train transfer to Machu Picchu, the whole reason for the trip). We were informed at around 8:00 pm that there would be a meeting in the hotel lobby with our next guide at 9:00. Not a big deal but we did just get off the bus after spending 10 hours on it with stops. 9:30 came and went and the guide notified the front desk worker via text that we would need to be down in the lobby for our bus at 4:10 am, in 6 hours! Not a big deal for an adult but for the children on the trip this is a problem. We went back up to our room and fell asleep until 10:20 pm to which we were woken up by a telephone call to tell us we would actually need to get down to the lobby at 4:50am. This really put a damper on a day that, while it turned out to be a wonderful life changing experience, could have been better by receiving proper communication and frankly proper effort put in by a company we paid a substantial amount of money to. We won’t be using this service in the future.

This trip was a total disappointment. Upon arrival in Istanbul, we were told by the transport company who was to take us to our hotel that Exoticca had not paid them & that transportation could not be provided. It was finally straightened out & we were eventually taken to the hotel. No one at the hotel to greet us, no one to talk about the upcoming tour & no apologies from ExoticcaThe major problem with this tour was that it was run by Euroriente NOT Exoticca. This company is a huge provider of tours in Turkey & they are about quantity not quality. Most of our time was spent on a tour bus. Food stops were very rarely at nice cafes to enjoy local cuisine. They were at gas station rest stops. We were continuously taken to places that tried to sell us goods…carpets, jewelry, leather goods, Turkish delights, ceramics. We got to our hotel at 7 in the evening & up on the bus by 7 am. We were at the Agean & Mediterranean and never stopped in a town to enjoy. Just a short tour of ruins and then back on the bus. The best tour I took was thru Airbnb experience as I had an extra day in IstanbulSave your money and do not take a tour of Turkey thru Exoticca. Our fellow passengers on this tour felt the same way & many of us had travelled with Exoticca to other destinations. Every one of us felt this tour was terrible and we would never travel with Exoticca again I would recommend a different travel company to Turkey.

Basic city tours provided by Exotica were good overall. However, the guides were not fluent in the English language. Another fact to note was that individuals had to book many extra excursions to fill their day to enjoy each country. The additional excursions were much more expensive bought from Exotic then if you buy them through the tour guide directly. A big drawback for Exotica was that we were on our own the entire time. Their was No welcome meeting, gathering or dinner to introduce us to our guide or give us an introduction to the country. We met other Exotic travelers on different tours and some were in our hotel and others were at different hotels. It would be nice if we traveled as a group and stayed at the same hotel(s) since we did travel on most of the tours together. We spent at least one hour before each tour picking up passengers from other hotels and in Argentina the bus driver/ guide( Exotica) would not drop us off back at the hotel where we were picked up but had 3 dedicated drop off stops where people would have to take a taxi back to their hotel.