Please Note: The opinions expressed in these reviews are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Unicorn Trails Ltd.
These reviews are "directly from the horses mouth" and unedited. Unicorn Trails may make additional comments for clarification clearly identified in red.
Review received from LT of Berkhamsted on 09/02/2008
Ride Review
Unicorn Trails sales staff
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no criticism at all
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Riding tour leader
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above refer to Argentinian guide. Chilean guide good too but no English so less opportunity to judge some scores. re Pacing, we felt the fast canters (3 hours on day one) and level of fitness a bit oversold (I realise it is to dter beginners), but your brochure much more accurate and some of others felt Estancia web site very misleading. bit daft as half a brain tells you horse on an 8 hour treck can't canter most of it, especially if climbing mountains
Horses and Tack
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Good Argentina, excellent Chile for horses. horses fit and willing. A bit sparky in Chile with dodgy brakes which made the guide careful and didn't want us to canter which upset some of the others. I told them if they did what he said instead of flying off he would trust us more, but they were young!
Meals
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Accommodation
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Miscellaneous
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Re Accuracy see above, people with other tour operators unhappy with description. Accommodation in hotels/lodges etc only applies to Chile and the first place was OK but a bit run down and dusty with hot attic bedrooms with access to some via other rooms. The last place (Pamela's) was very nice. It was a pity we couldn't stay at the spa (due to gun toting owner) as although they took people to another it was after dinner and late around 10.30 when they set off so we passed. I passed on dinner two nights when it hadn't appeared by 10.30pm, too tired, don't sleep well on a full tummy and gone past being hungry. Time keeping in Chile much better, the Estancia were hopeless but camping good.
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TIPS. Mega issues with everyone. I did telephone to query tips the day before we left but no one came back to me. I queried 7-10% of what as it could not sensibly be the holiday price as that would have been over £200 per person and would have meant tipping on the Unicorn profit/charges ie a holiday surcharge rather than a tip. People felt very resentful at the tone of the estancia memo which said tips were welcome at the rate of US$20 per person per day, but there was a lot of high pressure "sales" to make sure the staff got good tips. Pete and I tipped at that rate as we didn't want the lovely staff to lose out, but all of us felt that wages should be included in the holiday and forced tipping is really a surcharge on the holiday rather than a means of rewarding good service. Some strongly objected to not being able to tip individuals who had made their holiday special as opposed to giving it to Jane for distribution to back room staff as they felt that was her responsibilty and they were just doing what they were paid to do- they said you don't tip kitchen staff in restaurants. We had a bit of sympathy with these views as we didn't like the feeling of co-ercion but I pass them on as the rest felt really upset by it, including your own clients.
The only part we didn't like was the 1 1/2 hours on a very hot, hard and dusty white, heat reflecting road when we set off on the Chilean horse. We would rather have travelled the road by vehicle and met the horses further down the road. This may not be possible if there is nowhere for the horses and lunch to wait but would be good if you could. everyone felt it in their joints and bottoms as the Chilean horses had much faster and choppier walks and the saddles were less well padded. OK by the second day.
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They were tiring days due to length of time in the saddle but generally the riding was easy enough for experience riders and not technically difficult except on a couple of steep downhill parts. It would be a much higher score if people didn't self select correctly and weren't fairly fit but I was not as fit as I hoped due to horse injury (off work a month) and flu just before I went and I was fine.
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The staff were helpful, gave good information, the animals were Ok and the orhgisation of the trekking went like clockwork
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We had an absolutly fabulous time and the holiday was what we expected. People were exceptionally friendly and helpful, particulalry Pamela. Jessie the guide in Argentina was brilliant at PR and charm, Lotte in Chile was very nice and a brillaint horseman who clearly loved his horses. The meat on the camping in Argentina was a bit tough but tasty! Pete had a day off in Chile (felt a bit horsed out) and Pamela took him into town and he went to a museum with local indian culture which he really enjoyed. We would quite have liked a chill out day built into the holiday to visit a town and see the Chilen/ Argentinan people and relax but recognise that this may not suit everyone and adds another day. We were unusal too in that we were the only ones who currently had their own horses and were riding regularly each week so the riding less of a novelty for us. To end a big thank you for a lovely memorable holiday
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