Testimonials

 

So sorry it has taken me so long to write to you to tell you we had a wonderful trip in Mexico - & we DID end up doing a couple of days on the Copper Canyon route - which turned out being a last minute thing so cost us a LOT more than if we had done it earlier through you as I wanted! Loved it all & would love to go back when we can. Our son & his partner are now having a baby so will definitely have to get back next year! They will be out for a wedding early Sept but only for a few days - work too busy! Still, have to make the most of every opportunity!

Mandy 

Hi Hanna, please find below email from The Edwards.
Kind regards, Sue

"Hi Sue,

This is just a quick email to let you know, as I'm sure you would already have heard, that we are back from our big trip, although we haven't heard from Jill.

We had an absolutely wonderful time. Having transfers at the airports and being taken to and from our hotels made all the difference, and everything went exactly according to plan. So congratulations to all concerned for the planning and thank you so much.

Buzios, just out of Rio de Janeiro, was a great place to stay for a couple of days or so, and the hotel, Port Bay Glenzhaus, was superb. So add it to your itinerary for others!

We have one other comment, and this is about the hotel we stayed at in Rio, the Hotel Atlantico Copacabana. The hotel itself was fine, and the location was good, but the reception staff (middle-aged men) were not at all friendly and there were no welcoming smiles or that sort of thing. Everything was very efficiently done, mind you, but it just lacked that something. Just for the record.

Regards,"
Anthony & Joy Edwards

Dear Ushi, Eddie & Hannah,

We arrived back in Sydney on 21st December after a wonderful trip to Antarctica and a bit of South America.  Thank you very much for all your assistance with our trip to Santiago, Buenos Aires and Iguazu.  The guides were very good especially Deborah in Buenos Aires.  She checked the times of all our flights etc.  I received an email from Ushi about the LAN flight for Christopher which had been changed to a Qantas flight number.  There was no problem with the transfer as Deborah had the correct flight number and someone met Christopher on arrival.  All in all everything went very well.  Just for your information the Duhau Palace Park Hyatt is a fabulous hotel, service was excellent and I would happily stay there again.  Iguazu Falls both the Argentinian and Brazilian side were equally as spectacular. 

We also did a helicopter flight over the falls which was terrific.  As regards shopping, I failed miserably.  I probably needed Ushi to guide me around!!!  Antarctica was absolutely amazing.  We were overwhelmed by the spectacular icebergs and scenery.  We saw lots of chin strapped penguins, adelie penguins and gentoo penguins as well as orcas and minke whales.  We were also lucky enough to see baby chicks just newly hatched and their mother penguins feeding them.  

Once again thank you very much for all your assistance in making our trip such an enjoyable one.  We would like to wish you all a very happy and successful 2011. Best wishes,

Doris, Robert, Christopher & Jennifer Davis (Northshore Travel Sydney)

Hi Hanna,
Please find the feedback from my friends / Geppert & Jeffery:
Kind regards
Biba

The holiday was wonderful and on the whole, I was extremely pleased with the 25 days we were away.

Value for money – I think we did well.

Accommodation
We mostly stayed in the Casa Andina Classic chain of hotels and they were consistent in what they offered. They were always well located, clean, the breakfasts tended to be the same (which did get a little repetitive), some were in better condition than others and all had free Internet facilities.

The best hotel we stayed in was in Ollaytaytambo – the Hotel Pakaritampu which was really nice.

The worst was the next night at Aguas Calientes at the Hotel Inti Punku, which was very clean, the staff were nice but the room was very small and dark and the hotel itself was pretty tired.

Tours
The tour companies in both Peru and Chile were very efficient. They were always at the airports to meet us and always had us back at the airports in good time. The individual tour guides and drivers were very good. They were helpful, informative and took their jobs seriously. The tours were all good and well thought out.

There were only a couple of negatives. The main one was on day 18 (10/10/10) when we left Ceiba Tops quite early in the afternoon for a 2100 flight to Lima. We had about 6 hours to just hang around a hotel lobby in Iquitos. We didn’t arrive at our hotel in Lima until well after 11pm. We were booked on a 0740 flight to Santiago and we told by the tour company that we would be picked up at 4am to go to the airport. A late afternoon flight would have been much better as we virtually had a sleepless night and a waste of money paying for a night at the hotel. To make things worse for us on this occasion the flight to Santiago was delayed and didn’t leave until 10.50am.

LAN didn’t have us in their system as having a connecting flight to Puerto Montt. Due to the lateness of the flight we missed our flight to PM and had to negotiate a later flight and to try and notify the guide waiting for us at the airport that we would be late. When getting our boarding passes for the flight back to Santiago on day 23 (15/10/10) LAN had us as “no shows” because we hadn’t checked in on the missed flight. This was resolved but could have been avoided if we’d been in their system as having the connection.

Whilst the private wine tour and lunch at the Matetic Winery on our last day (17/10/10) was absolutely wonderful it did go over the same countryside we’d been to the previous day. It was expensive for what was quite a short “full” day tour. We were dropped at the airport quite early for our 2310 flight. 

In hindsight I think we both would have liked an extra day in Santiago as we saw very little of the city. To sum up, thank you again Biba for planning such a wonderful holiday. I am telling my friends to see you when planning for their next holidays.

Biba Ashley

Hi Hanna
Just a note to let you know we had a fabulous holiday.  Thank you for organizing everything for us.  It all went well without any problems and we had a great time seeing the sights and meeting lots of people.

Thank you,

Mary Sami

"Dear Ed
Hi! Hope you are well.

We are both well and would much rather be back in (warm) South America than at work!
Apologies for the delay in emailing ... it has been a bit hectic since we got back.

Ed, we wanted to thank you for the fabulous holiday. We had a great time. As you know it was our
first small group trip and we really enjoyed our time. You were a great tour leader (at times
exhibiting the patience of an saint!) and certainly helped to make our trip enjoyable. Thank you.

We think that the trip had the right balance of organised tours and free time (which allowed
everyone to pursue those activities that they found enjoyable - like shopping - without everyone
having to be involved). From our perspective the "lack" of organised trips to shops or factories was a bonus!

Your goal to ensure that everyone had a great holiday made the trip even more enjoyable and
your vast local knowledge was an added bonus.

The hotels were all great and met or exceeded or our expectations. We were very grateful for your assistance in upgrading in Iguassu and Rio.

It could be of assistance to warn people of the early starts - some of our group seemed to get very  tired by the end.

The organisation of the tour was very professional and certainly helped minimise the large amount
of transit travel that is an inherent part of this type of trip.

We will (and already have) recommended Travel Projects!

Thankyou once again for ensuring that our memories of South America will always be fondly  remembered. Kind regards

"Hi Ed, Vic and I just wanted to thank you very much for the lovely holiday we had in South America. It was absolutely a trip of a lifetime and you made it even more special by making things so much easier for all of us.

Unfortunately when we got back Vic was quite sick and ended up in the Emergency at Murdoch Hospital on the Saturday with symptom"s of a heart attack. After a lot of tests they found out that he had picked up a very nasty bug which got into his stomach and blood stream. Anyway he is now o.k. and back on track."

Cilla and Vic

"The client has now returned and the tour you organized was excellent. Especially the "Jungle Tour" and Hotels very good and great service.

Mr. Urquhart did not enjoy Lima, due the everything being closed and it was during the APEC conference, but not your fault naturally. It took QF 2 weeks to get the "lost luggage" to the client. Thank you very much for a job very well done."

Biba Ashley, International Travel Consultant
Mosman Cruise Centre

"This is to tell you how much Doreen and I enjoyed our tour in South America. We have spent some time together viewing each other’s photos and living all our experiences over again.

Our guides were always on time to meet us, were pleasant, helpful and well informed. Our accommodation was very good and we found some interesting places to eat – the meals were good and usually large.

We had a fine day in Rio to ascend Corcovado and Sugarloaf and the Iguazu Falls were spectacular from both sides and I was impressed by the Itaipu Dam being shared equally by Brazil and Paraguay.

We loved Bariloche and Paraty. There were so many highlights that I can’t decide on just one! It was a truly wonderful tour and thank you so much for arranging it for us."

Marjorie Craig and Doreen Waite, Victoria

"I had waited 30 years after studying the Incas at university for this trip. Whilst we have travelled a great deal we both agree this was the best trip we have done. Never before have we travelled where everything was so right. Weather, scenery etc, we were just so lucky.

From our arrival in Santiago first day everything in South America went like clockwork. Great guides who were knowledgeable, spoke excellent English and really personable and each knew what the next link to our program would be after we left them, even when we changed countries.

We found the Casa Andina chain of motels to be outstanding and were fortunate to be upgraded to 4 star for one week. Clean, comfortable, safe and the best buffet breakfasts ever had. Perhaps the one in Buenos Ares was a bit tired but still acceptable.

We have a range of highlights, naturally the Inca Trail for me but despite the incredible effort physically it was a highlight we will never forget. To stand at the Sungate at dawn and look down on Macchu Picchu as the sun transcends is something I have always dreamed of and we had the most glorious morning. The others reckon I was a bit keen as after rising at 4.am on Day 4 I ran for 2 hours passing as many as I could on the track cos nothing was going to stop me getting to the Sungate in time. Our whole Inca experience was fantastic and we were so lucky with the weather.

Clear blue skies all the way to 14,000 feet. Great food on the hike and fantatstic team
Our trip to Sandoval Lodge was made all the better by a fantastic young guide and whilst they hope you see all the animals over the 3 days we saw everything imaginable on our trip in on day 1 thanks to this excellent young man.

Iguassu Falls had had 3 days of rain up river 3 days before we got there. Whilst we were in brilliant sunshine, the water flowing over the falls was according to the guide, the most in years and was truely amazing. 2 days was nearly not enough to see it all and the jet boat ride was great.

Finally Lake Titicaca was amazing and the home stay on Amantani Island was very special.
Obviously there were many more highlights but all 6 of us were incredibly moved by the whole trip. Helen did not handle the altitude well but all hotel staff were most helpful as were the guides.

We all agreed that we had not been on such a well organised trip and we were indeed lucky that the weather the whole way was perfect. To climb to the top of Amantani island in the middle of Lake Titicaca and watch sunset over other islands and on to the snow capped peaks of Bolivia across the lake is something you wish everyone could experience. We really felt as if we could have been the only people on the whole lake such was the serenity.

Rest assured we will have no hesitation in recommending either of your organisations to anyone. Thank you both for an unforgettable experience which lived up to 30 years of expectations."

Rita and Steve Mitchell, Victoria

"Thank you for organising our wonderful 40 day tour of South America. All the connections worked well and the hotels were all most comfortable and in great positions. The highlights of the tour would have to be the 7 days on Skorpios III (including the day in the Torres del Payne National Park), Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca. We were completely in awe of the. Their knowledge of building, planting and water supply would leave our present civilizations for dead.

 

The people of all the South American countries we visited were welcoming and friendly and all of the tour operators we met were most helpful. We most grateful that all of the organisation had been done for us before we got there.

 

We were grateful for all your advise, and realised how beneficial your suggestions were once we we were touring."

Joseph and Monica Charlton, Tasmania

"Just thought you would like to know that I heard back from my friend Sue Baker on the weekend who went sent on the Antartic Dream to Antartica.

They had an absolute ball – they said it was a very tough experience definitely not a cruise experience for the faint-hearted but fantastic adventure all the same. They said the accommodation in Ushuaia that you put them in was fantastic. Very central and close walking distance to everything in town and very very nice and comfortable for a 3 star hotel. Many of the other passengers on their cruise ship were located out of town and were not happy.

Well done and thank you once again for your help."

Fiona Caffery, Victoria

"We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Brazil in four different regions. Firstly, we visited Rio de Janiero with its really beautiful location, circled by a National Park consisting of high mountains with tropical vegetation and the sea. The buildings are a combination of old historic buildings and high density sky scrapers where most people live.

Our hotel was two minutes walk from the gorgeous Ipanema Beach with its surf, crashing waves, white sands, blue water, colourful umbrellas and deck chairs, and handsome young, fit, dark Brazilian boys serving coconut milk to lots of very scantily clad beauties.

The infamous Cocobana Beach was nearby. We really enjoyed walking on the beach and watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.

We spent Easter at an historic little village called Pirenopolis which was formerly a goldmining town. It was gorgeous with brightly coloured single story houses with unique window designs.
We visited the Pantanal; this fantastic area is a wetland that is absolutely massive and is flooded with water during the wet season. It supports a huge variety of bird and plant life. We stayed in a lodge that provides ecological tours and it was magnificent. We saw a huge variety of birds including toucans, macaws and a wide range of animals (e.g. monkeys, armadillos, huge rodents the size of little pigs), spiders (e.g. tarantulas) and insects (e.g. rhinocerous beetle as big as Peter´s hand). We crossed the flooded areas by canoe and horse back (4 hours
riding). We have had a wonderful time here and have spent a day on the waterways and walked in the jungle agog at the variety of edible fruits and medicinal plants. We have come to appreciate the remarkable history of the Amazonia area and its connection with the Portugese. The area is very rich in tropical fruit, fish and mineral wealth.

Brazil is a very interesting country with its delights and eccentricities and we have had an extremely interesting time. The people we have met have been very kind and considerate and our guides outstanding.

The roads need a lot of development and some of the drivers have been unbelievably reckless. Departing from Brasilia airport (twice) has been highly challenging. There is extreme wealth and poverty that has lead to a fairly high level of crime in some cities.

Tomorrow we fly to Santiago via Rio de Janiero, an all day trip!"

Margaret & Peter Kendal, Victoria

"We loved the Galapagos Islands and the boat Explorer 11 was very good. They were a very well organized crew and the activities planned went well. Quito is an amazing city. We have found the Guide to be exceptional.

We had an unfortunate situation where one of the group was ill on Sunday and they were very good in re-arranging the schedule to enable us not to miss any of the planned activities. All of the arrangements to date have been seamless with the tour organisations arranging things for us in country. All is well now and things are going really well."

Rob and Thelma Landos, Victoria

 

"We're having a fabulous timeover here, great weather, fabulous hotels, love the food!!! hospitality very warm, tourist organisation is faultless (thank you!!) guides are wonderful and so knowledgeable. Machu Picchu was awesome and so spiritual. It was Rosemary's birthday that day so wow!!! Had a wonderful spanish dinner in AC, local band sang Happy Bithday to Rosemary with comp cocktails and cake. Forever memorable. Peru is just wonderful in every way.

Flights went OK but very jet-lagged and affected by altitude sickness particularly Rosemary."

Cheers Ron & Rosemary, New South Wales

"WOW WHAT A NIGHT in Rio de Janeiro... it is all the travel agent said it would be and more. Felt very safe as we mingled with the crowd before and after the new years arrival. Huge sound speakers dotted along the beach, people, people, police and military police on hand, we didn't see any action from them. A live band performed high up on a sound stage. Various eateries both permanent and mobile sold food along the beaches. Lots of happy people who after the wonderful fireworks. Amazing to see 5 or 6 cruise ships moored in the harbour to view the fireworks too.

Yesterday we took a walking tour of a favella which is a slum town build right up the side of the mountains, poor people live there. We were asked only 3 time to put our cameras away and the drug lords don't like pictures being taken in certain parts of the favella. Amazing smells, rats in open sewers truly moving to see how some people live in the world today - am glad I was born in Oz; we have met prople from Adelaide, Hobart and exchanged email addresses with people from UK and Canada. Tomorrow morning 7am flight to Manaus in the jungle am looking forward to getting out of a big city."

Judy and John Collins, VIC

 

"We would like to thank you for organising our holiday as it all worked like clock work. Your choice of hotels, tour companies, excursions, destinations were spot on as we thoroughly enjoyed everything.

Highlights were many (main ones being Galapagos, Machu Picchu and Iguassu Falls) and there were times we just had to pinch ourselves as we could not believe we were actually visiting some of these sights.

Thanks once again for your services and we know exactly where to come (or recommend to our friends) when we are contemplating Sth America again (and there will be an again - maybe Chile / Argentina next time!)."

Tony Fares & Cinthia Kralick, Victoria

"We have just enjoyed a very nice dinner in the penthouse restaurant in our hotel here in La Paz to end our visit to South America. The ambience of the restaurant and the panoramic view over the city was amazing. We actually felt like we were sitting in a fish bowl with the lights of the city twinkling up, down and around us as we ate our dinner.

We have had a great time in South America, and we thank you for putting together an itinerary that gave us so much enjoyment.

Thank you for your concern and your phone call to Sacred Valley, and for helping to allay the fears of our family over the earthquake."

Elaine and John Holman, Victoria

"Thank you very much for organizing the trip. We had a great time and the entire trip went very well. In each country your associates were waiting and organized, even when the aircraft arrival had been delayed.

All of the hotels were of a high standard. The Casa Andina in Cusco deserves special praise - they even upgraded us without charge on our return visit. You couldn't have done more.

Your organizing and your operators (particularly the guides) were of a very high standard and we would readily recommend Travel Projects to others."

Dr Michael King, Queensland