Southern Exposure Tours Reviews 

I have just returned from an idyllic two week Walking and Food Tour in Greece with Silvana of SET. As always, a small group of like-minded people enjoyed a fun, well organized visit, tasting and making very healthy food and enjoying walking in the mountains on marble steps and sheep and goat tracks with a natural vegetation of thyme, marjoram and oreganum and pink oleanders in full bloom. I can highly recommend the trip for variety, well researched activities, camaraderie, a confident and knowledgeable leader and comfortable accommodation. Left with wonderful memories of the turquoise and navy seascapes, white villages on barren looking mountains and delicious food!

From our initial expression of interest in this tour to the framed photographs that greeted us on our return after a great adventure, Southern Exposure Tours provided outstanding travel service and support. Their comprehensive pre-tour information made preparation easy; accommodation was of a high standard throughout, with ger camps a particular highlight; and the knowledge and engagement of experienced guides both impressive and invaluable for a small group of travellers with a keen curiosity about culture and place. While 4WD journeys in the Mongolia steppes were especially memorable, the very different pace and nature of the train journeys provided an enjoyable contrast. This extremely well planned trip surpassed all expectations, as did the professionalism of Silvana and her team.

I have been on four trips organised by SET. First one to Costa Rica, second to The Galapagos Islands, third to Cuba and finally this year to Sri Lanka .
Each one has run like clockwork with no hiccups. The local guides have been excellent, very knowledgeable, helpful and good fun.
I would certainly recommend any of these places. they were all a joy to visit
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A wonderful trip thanks to the knowledge and enthusiasm of our trip leader Silvana.
The loverly villages we stay in to the wonderful high peak mountains with lots of sunshine,meadows full of flowers and lots of lovely walks it was great.
Eating local food and drinking local beverage high up in the valley chalets was stunning.
Lots of fun was had by us all.
I would recommend this trip
Thankyou to SET

Very enjoyable European Alps tour with Silvana in June/July 2019. A lovely group of NZers and fellow Australians.
The itinerary & trip was very well planned and organised. The accommodation in each location was comfortable, clean, interesting and close to transport and sights.
Silvana was great at suggesting alternative activities if needed and to answer questions and queries. The trip was truly memorable, interesting and fun! - I would highly recommend SET and Silvana as tour leader, guide.

We completed a month-long trip to the Galapagos (land-based), the Amazon basin in Ecuador on the Napo River, and a trek in the high Andes in Colombia. SET organisation and advice given by Silvana were extremely good - no surprises. Our local guides were very well informed and educated and spoke excellent English. They all related well to us and accommodated our requests whenever they could. The high Andes trek was perhaps more challenging than we had envisaged, due partly to a late rainy season and partly to the fact that Colombian tourism is still emerging and the tracks and facilities were basic. That all added to our experience though!
Would highly recommend this trip to anyone who has a sense of adventure and is reasonably fit - it is a full-on month!

We have just done a very diverse, challenging, fascinating and very enjoyable month long trip in the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle, Galapagos islands and Columbia's High Andes. All superbly guided and organised by SET. It was very well done - not 5 star but we had some of that - we also stayed in farmers' basic houses at 12,000 feet, a lodge in the Amazon and 3 star hotels in Galapagos. The guides organised by SET were generally fabulous especially Pepo in Galapagos. They made the trip so much more efficient, humorous and interesting. We traveled as group of four, Often just us and the guide(s) but sometimes (like Galapagos) with a slightly larger group. It was great and we will savour it for a while - till the next one :). Thanks Silvana and the SET team.

been back home 2 weeks now from "walking in the european alps" trip with Silvana...and its nice to look back and reflect...did we do all that?!. 23 days of great variety from Cinque Terre on the Italian coast, to looking out our hotel window at the north face of the Matterhorn to list but a few. Then there is the walking - some of it challenging but the reward was spectacular views, cold beer and cheese. Lovely group of people to travel with and well organised and guided by Silvana. This is the second time Helen & I have used SET and have no problem recommending this company.
Talking cheese - didn't mention the fondue...I'm on a prune diet ;-)

I have just come back from a very enjoyable European Alps tour with Silvana and great group of fellow NewZealanders and Australian.
I found the trip very well organised, the itinerary varied and interesting with beautiful walks, and accommodation well located and comfortable.
Silvana was always available to answer any questions and suggest alternative activities if needed to ensure everyone had a memorable trip.

We did a walking tour in the European Alps. It was just the best ever!

We travelled to Patagonia in October 2018. We were referred to SET and specifically Silvana to structure a suitable itinerary for a 15 day trekking adventure covering Patagonia, Buenos Aires and the Iguazú Falls. We required a guide, commuting and accommodation in Patagonia, accommodation, walking tour, food and Tango experiences in BA and a guide and accommodation in Iguazú.....plus relevant flights. A key to making this adventure a success was the quality of our guides in Chile, Argentina and Iguazú. They were all outstanding relating well to the 4 of us and providing the support, knowledge, eat our recommendations and continuous enthusiasm that this experience deserves. Over all First class Silvana and SET, thank you. Michael Sidey

From the initial enquiry to the conclusion of the tour Southern Exposure Tours were faultless. I did the South American Sojourn July/Aug 2018 - from the outset Silvana organised all of my travel arrangements, any queries were answered the same day in a friendly, helpful and professional manner. And the trip itself - WOW! The itinerary is extremely well thought out and our tour guide Lenin was an absolute star! He was very organised, thoughtful, accomodating to any last minute and unforeseen issues, professional and made the whole experience one I will never forget - and a bonus to boot was evening singalongs to Lenin's amazing guitar playing and singing. Even at times when I felt nervous due to my fear of heights he was so patient and guided me through those patches with cheerful encouragement which I was so grateful for, especially at Machu Picchu. Upon returning home to NZ I found a framed photograph of our group on the Uyuni Salt Flats waiting in my mailbox from SET with a welcome home note and a few weeks later received a photo book of some of the photos taken by each of our group and Lenin as a momento of a truly amazing adventure. A lovely original and thoughtful touch. I've travelled with other companies overseas in the past and have never had any other tour company go to that effort to say thank you for my business. I definitely would not hesitate to recommend Southern Exposure Tours - Silvana and the rest of the team were an absolute delight to deal with :)

Preface: The reviewer has trotted the surface of the globe and explored some of its most remote corners for nearly 40 years

What the 'Southern Exposure Tours' website says travellers can expect:
*Trip focus: Moroccan culture and authentic experiences
"We focus on the unique culture and lifestyle"
*Meeting the locals as you hike in the Atlas mountains and stay in a Berber villages

What we actually received was a very touristy 3-star 'package' holiday for the price of a 5-star authentic experience. Were we immersed in Moroccan culture? Did we spend any time with local people beyond handing over cash in exchange for cola and trinkets? Let's examine the details:

We were promised "Meeting the locals as you hike in the Atlas mountains and stay in a Berber villages"..."the night with a Berber family is basic but culturally rich".
Upon arrival we were not even introduced to our Berber hosts. Received wisdom tells us the Berbers are very friendly people who like to interact with strangers. This is probably not far from the truth but on THIS trip our hosts were hidden away from us throughout, and only meekly appeared from the shadows at supper time in the time it took to put some food down and scuttle away as if under strict instruction to leave the paying guests well alone.

OK so this describes only one night, but was a definitve theme throughout the tour. The website says that "Both those experiences are often the highlight of the trip", referring to the mountain and Sahara excursions. Without analysing the entire trip day-by-day, "Secrets of Morocco" can be summed up as a protracted circuit of Morocco spent largely in a minibus but punctuated by unsought trudges to carpet, textile and leathercraft shops etc and 'free days' that totally abrogated the guide and tour company from any obligation or responsibility to their customers at all.

The interminable bus tours might have been put to good use delivering useful info about our forthcoming schedule, or offering alluring cultural and historical facts about our next destination.
However our guide seemed to know less than a kindergarten teacher might have picked up in 20 minutes from the travel supplement of a Sunday newspaper, eg: "The camels in Morocco only have one hump and are called dromedaries". Did I look four years old?
Our guide, Linda, had only the vaguest notions of schedules, departure and arrival times, and even the names (and addresses) of the hotels we were to stay in. When pressed, her stock response was to tell us "This is Morocco, it could happen at any time". On the day our bus got lost and experienced an additional 3-4 hours before eventually returning to out planned route, it was revealed that she had not even brought a map with her.
The ability to lead a party and keep to a schedule was totally lacking. Yet our guide had no hesitation in taking all the time she liked to stop and pat camels, hug mules, stroke cats and feed Barbary apes. Fine...but do this in your own time, not ours.
We were promised drinking water would be provided on our bus. Yes, for about 3 days before drying up. In 37 degrees this is a necessity rather than a 'courtesy'. Printed handouts are a basic provision for tours like this. Not with S.E.T. it seems.

On the day two of our party announced that they preferred to walk the dunes rather than jockey them by camel, Linda offered a withering and dismissive sneer of scepticism at the claim that camel-riding might NOT be best for someone with arthritis of the hips.

Accommodation: Basic in rural areas, for which we were forewarned. In towns however, corners definitely were being cut by SET. Many breakfasts were dreadful. Some of the hotel rooms were so small you could just about squeeze two people into a twin room but fitting in their luggage as well required ingenious feats of contortion. Two showers were so small that once in the cubicle, no turns could be made without loss of elbows, or collision with mixer-taps resulting in scalding.

This holiday was priced at double what it was worth. Accordingly I would like to award S.E.T 5/10. However I am afraid our hapless guide brings a possible 3 star rating down to only 2. Money down the toilet.