Exoticca

Fantastic experience: Love Exotica Prices unbeatable Good experience Customer service supportive and helpful Tours as described The hotels are clean and in nice locations The tour guides professional and always in time

Fantastic experience: Excellent service, the agent Agustín García gave me very clear and timely advice to make the booking, he was very professional, this is my third time I have teaveled with Exoticca

Fantastic experience: I just booked a trip with Exoticca & the booking agent was fantastic! He was so personable, kind and helpful and really made sure all our questions were answered. What a great way to start our trip!

Fantastic experience: I have booked about 15 trips in the past with EXOTICCA and have a few future trips booked I can’t wait to experience new places! It’s always fun going with EXOTICCA.

Fantastic experience: Peeno was so helpful. I had a problem getting through on the toll-free 24/7 line (twice got a message no one is available) and didn't get back in time to use my $600 credit. She was very helpful finding me (a solo traveller) a good trip and also was able to get my $600 reinstated. I feel that I got excellent service and have heard such good things from others about your company. I have a feeling I will be booking another very soon!

Fantastic experience: Carolina was super helpful with booking our trip to Portugal. She explained things clearly and was patient with all my questions. We are so excited to start traveling.

Fantastic experience: I booked my first solo trip and everything went great. When I arrived at the airport the Exoticca driver was waiting for me, I had no issues locating him. Everything was very well planned and on time. I liked that I had free time to do some exploring on my own. I booked another trip with them and hope all goes as good as it did the first time.

Fantastic experience: Henry at Exoticca helped us plan and purchase a spontaneous trip to Portugal! He was very knowledgeable and walked us through the entire process. Our trip is in less than three weeks!

Fantastic experience: We've been on 2 trips with Exoticca and just booked our 3rd. Everything was perfectly planned, expert guides and drivers. Even when calling customer service, they did an excellent job of helping us explore options to fit our needs.

Fantastic experience: We worked with Mila via phone to book our trip. Exceptional service.

Fantastic experience: Very professional and friendly customer service provided by Arnold. Great assistance provided with booking trip to Brazil, Argentina and Chile!

Fantastic experience: Ruth was very helpful in explaining and getting all the information required to make a decision on the trip. Easy talking,professional and knowledgeable and helpful all the way, Thanks Ruth

Fantastic experience: Matt was great in helping us book our trip!

Fantastic experience: Very helpful and professional dealing with their personnel.

Fantastic experience: Florence was amazing to work with! She answered all of our questions and was able to fulfill our wishes!

Positive experience: Web site was very glitchy. Hard to operate. No one answered the phone number to help. I am still unsure if I actually booked a trip or not!

Fantastic experience: Nil was very helpful and answered all our questions. Thank you, we are looking forward to thsi trip.

Positive experience: Booking was super easy. Price is great with some fun extras. Looking forward to our trip!

Fantastic experience: Jackson was amazing! terrific customer care helped with my booking tremendously, friendly personable care.

Fantastic experience: Mike did a great job helping me complete my reservations. Very patient and thorough.

Fantastic experience: Great customer service. Great trip planning

Fantastic experience: Easy to contact and very helpful service. Our representative spent nearly an hour working with us to find the best trip for our family.

Fantastic experience: Booking was easy peasy. Looking forward to our trip to Portugal in November.

Fantastic experience: I love this travel agency. Very easy to book a trip and the prices are better than many travel agencies in the US

Fantastic experience: I just booked my trip to Norway. The booking experience went smoothly and my agent Matt was polite and helpful. The price is very reasonable! I can’t wait for my adventure!

Fantastic experience: Booking was easy, even though we asked for changes for the initial flight and we were booking for a group. Michael (in Barcelona) was very helpful and he spoke a flawless English. I will definitely be on the look out for their next deals.

Fantastic experience: Booked a 9 day Portugal Coastal Cities & Cultural Treasures tour with all the sites I want to see. Agent Daniel Matt was so helpful, answering all my questions. Fast order confirmation and $1K discount for a future tour.

Fantastic experience: I went to Egypt and had a wonderful time

Fantastic experience: Carlos was very helpful with all my question and able to secure all the booking for the party of 6. 2 thumbs up

Fantastic experience: I was very pleased with the assistance Henry gave me as I planned my trip. He made sure that I clearly understood and was please with the service he provided.

Fantastic experience: So far my experience with Exoticca has been positive. We have not taken our trip yet and this is our first time booking with this company.

Fantastic experience: I needed to modify my trip and Manuel was very helpful, patient, and kind, the same as Nora. I recommend highly this travel agency.

Fantastic experience: Just booked our 6th trip with exoticca. Had to call this time to book it and dealt with Peeno. She was awesome and probably will call and request her for the next booking too.

Fantastic experience: I have averaged three or four adventures each year…always with Exottica. Pleasant small groups, budget-friendly, basic tour guide help, plenty of time to explore each location by yourself. I am headed to South Africa in February and just booked a March 5th trip to Norway. I am never disappointed with Exottica.

Positive experience: Booking was painless. Price was great. Now to see how the trip, itself, goes.

Fantastic experience: We just booked our fourth Exoticca vacation. The experience was very easy. Jackson was back and forth me and the whole process was very enjoyable.

Fantastic experience: This is a great company to deal with and quite cheap for such wonderful places they go! I've done two with them so far and have two more up and coming trips planned with them. Very well organized and lots of excursions included that had I been by myself, I wouldn't have known about! Dare to compare with other travel groups and you'll see the big difference in price Exoticca has. You can't go wrong with this company. Absolutely splendid!! Robert Brown.

Fantastic experience: I recently booked a trip to Japan with Carlos of Exoticca. He was pleasant to speak with and he maintained a professional demeanor. Being that the trip does not take place until next year, I hope it all works out. Regarding the cost, I was not able to get the black friday price I had seen, but according to Carlos I received a great discount. My family and I are excited to visit Japan.

Fantastic experience: I have travelled several times with Exoticca. all trips have been great and have met all expectations. The Exotica staff are always helpful and always available to assist. I recommend Exotica highly

Fantastic experience: This is my 4th trip with Exotica, but it’s the first time I’ve booked with assistance. I worked with Simon and he was great, he helped me with the little details and made it easy to get the trip I wanted.

Fantastic experience: Booking a trip on Exoticca.com is easy and the information they provide (including a day-by-day summary of planned events) which leaves nothing unanswered. The cost for a 13-day trip was less expensive than booking it all myself, without any of the work. Exoticca has all the logistics worked out with flights, transfers, hotels, tours, entertainment, and meals. So we can just go and enjoy ourselves. I love the fact that their itinerary leaves some occasional free time so we can enjoy the hotel, shops, markets, or anything special we choose to do locally. Our last trip to Rome, Florence, and Venice went off without a hitch thanks to the experienced, expert, and fun travel guides provided as a part of our tour. We are excitedly packing for our new trip to Egypt and look forward to seeing the grandeur of the Shinx. Great Pyramids, and 7- night cruise up the Nile River, just like Cleopatra and Mark Anthony!

Fantastic experience: just reserved a trip through their Xmas deals. Had a great experience with their sales representative, Carlos who was very helpful for finalizing the trip. Hope it will be a great one!

Negative experience: Updated* TL:DR - still horrible, don’t book with them Horrible customer service! Once you book good luck getting someone to reply to you. We were told by their sales person, Brian, to book before prices went up and immediately after booking LAND ONLY tour the price went down by approximately $350/person (for a total of $700). Because this did not include flights this wasn’t because of price fluctuations due to airline tickets. We promptly reached out numerous times to Brian with no reply. We cc’d customer service in a few more emails and no reply. Plenty of emails from exoticca asking us to pay the balance though! After no replies, I finally called and was berated for emailing sales when we already booked. Apparently once you book they will ignore you and not even tell you to email a different email address. When I pointed out I had cc’d the customer service email there was no explanation as to why we never received a reply. Then she said there wasn’t anything she could do and to try going to their online form on their website to submit a complaint. After 3 weeks of trying to reach exoticca we finally received a response saying they wouldn’t honor the price change in any way and to basically kick rocks. The fact that it took over 3 weeks for a response and we haven’t even departed yet is concerning. What happens if there’s an issue or emergency in the midst of the trip? You don’t have a point person and once you finally!! (don’t hold your breath waiting) get a reply it is with someone new and you have to explain the situation all over again. After explaining what had happened over and over again (at least we were finally getting some sort of response due to our negative reviews on social media) we were told we were given $100 in travel credit for a future booking. #1: we weren’t provided what they said, they never added that $100 to our account, #2: $100 for a $700 price change only days after we booked is ridiculous (I provided screenshots of the price change to prove it but since it took almost a month for them to assist us that lower price wasn’t available anymore), #3: why would we want to book a future booking when our experience with them has been so awful to date? I asked, at minimum, for at least credit to use for excursions for our current trip but was refused. By the way, they have ridiculous rules that deliberately make it difficult for customers like if you press add to an optional excursion in your online account you cannot remove it by unadding instead you must call them during their limited hours of operation. However, the optional excursion is considered nonrefundable 60 days before your trip even though you can still add more excursions up to 58 days before your trip and your balance due is 58 days before your trip. Why would a company have policies like this except to do a money grab and scam their customers? Would not recommend!!

Negative experience: Booked a trip in March 2024 for Costa Rica in 2025. I booked my trip to fly out of Edmonton and my friends booked their trip out of Toronto. I noticed the agent linked my booking with my friends and they have me flying out of Toronto as they said that is what aligns with the other booking. I live in Edmonton. Why would i book a trip to fly out of another province i dont live in when this wasnt a group booking. Emailed and called to have it changed still 50 days before departure. No manager was provided. The solution they gave was to cancell my trip- rebook but at the new cost instead of changing my departure airport or compensating me for the now two day hotel and additional flights if I want to keep my trip I've planned since March oh and the customer service agent hung up on me.

Positive experience: The price went down 3 days after we booked our trip. Wouldn’t even make an attempt to help us get the lower price Update - Exoticca replied again and gave us travel credits. Much improved response and service

Fantastic experience: Excellent trip I had a chance to use Exoticca for the first time taking a trip to Portugal and Spain. I enjoyed every single minute of it. Our tour guide (Mr. Nono) Has a major degree in history and helped me appreciate the very rich history of the Iberian Peninsula beside his knowledge about the common tourist attractions and great recommendations. The bus is very clean with smooth ride (Thanks to Carlos Who navigated the best roads to reach the destinations and sceneries) Easy to use app, Great accommodations and hotels As promised by the company, Exoticca. Thank you for making my vacation memorable H. Jeffry

Negative experience: Spent 1h 48min on hold reaching out early. Agent arranged call for 7pm but didn't call. I hung up a full 50min after they were to call me, and they never picked up their own phone at the travel agent call centre. Make it make sense. I was on hold with the new booking line, waiting insane lengths without help is nuts at this early stage in your customer experience. No way to treat people or gain our business. I thought businesses wanted customers. But they refuse to pick up and take my money. Weird choice.

Negative experience: My recent experience shows that Exoticca is not a company can be trusted. We joined a ten day trip of Italy organized by Exoticca from September 26. In addition We purchased two dinners one in Florence and one in Rome. However, on the first day of our trip, the local agent Lisa, the guide leader told us that there will not have “illuminated Florence “ dinner because transportation problems cannot be resolved. She asked us to contact Exoticca for refund of this missed dinner, and she also contacted this company. Since then we have spent lot of time trying to get refund by filing a formal form in its website, calling its customer service, writing emails to Hannah, the head of customer experience etc. Although they admitted receiving of our request for refund, there have not further reply and actions. It is hard to believe that Exoticca treated its customers in such bad ways. Since September 26 I have been fighting to get my refund. Today my bank account received my refund. It has been more than two months. My time and energy really matters! I really don’t understand why Exoticca withheld my refund so long time. Following ChatGPT suggestion, making google review works.

Positive experience: Specifically about the Ireland in 9 days tour: Overall this is a great affordable travel option; however, there are some miss steps Exoticca could improve on. Mainly, a better vetting process for guides and connections. I have written several reviews for some of the experiences and the hotels on this trip, so if you like this review and want to know more about some locations, I invite you to check some of those out. Booking this trip was easy. Selecting my preferred flight times and airline was also a bonus. I highly recommend selecting Aer Lingus if that is an option for travelers looking to do this tour. Unfortunately, landing in Dublin, there was nobody there to pick me up. I met another traveler who happened to be on the same tour as me, and we both were tired and frustrated trying to get ahold of someone to help us. The guide company that was supposed to pick us up were not helpful either, and they said to get a cab ourselves and Exoticca would reimburse the fare. This was a long battle back and forth; however, I was eventually reimbursed. This was not a great start, but I was in Ireland, and had the rest of the day to explore and find great pints. The hotel was in a perfect location, and staff were excellent. (see review of my hotel stays). The walking tour of Dublin was excellent, our guide was exceptional, and it was a good starting point for day 2 to figure out what I wanted to focus on the rest of the time in Dublin. Third day, we start out on the tour. We meet our guide and bus driver, both friendly and knowledgeable. Most of the days were filled with sight seeing and spending allotted time in towns and cities on the way. Overall it was a great experience; however, as another review I had read suggested, Ireland in 9 days is not enough time. Our guide said the same thing on our day at the Cliffs of Mohr. The schedule had us at the Cliffs for 2 hours, the guide insisted on 90 min. This was not enough time, and although most on the tour also wanted to spend more time at the Cliffs, as the fog was lifting, so was our bus. Instead we had over 2 hours at a Monastery, which had an extra admission fee not covered in the tour, which was very misleading in the tour information. I feel most of the other people on tour would agree, we would have preferred leaving out the monastery completely, and have that extra time for the Cliffs and/or other parts that were shorted or eliminated. Because so much is packed into the tour, we skipped past Limerick, missed the Ring of Kerry completely and only drove through Cork, which was a terrible tease to only see it through a bus window. Most of our other stops on the tour were excellent. Although one of the main reasons for stopping at some places was for lunch, I highly recommend using the time to explore instead, and just grab something at a market for the bus. Hotels as I said all have their own reviews; however, what I can say about Exoticca's part in it, is to better vet the locations. Some hotels were quite a distance from city centers and any attractions. So if you are booking, take a look in advance where the hotel is, and plan ahead for cab rides to get to places not listed on the tour. There are plenty of great sight's to see if you plan ahead, and budget ahead to get there. This is one of the most important lesson's I learned on my first trip with Exoticca. Overall, I feel 7 of the 9 days in Ireland were excellent; however, the 2 days along with not being picked up at the airport, it could be closer to 3.5 stars, but Ireland is beautiful, and well worth this tour.

Negative experience: After my trip to Costa Rica with Exxotica,I could only Suggest one thing: "DON'T TRAVEL WITH THEM". Below you will see the condition of the Best Western Resort in Jaco , Costa Rica That I had to stay in for Two Nights ,with Mold all over the walls and in the ventilation system as well,after trying to get compensation for about a month of emails back and forth, for that disastrous experience,they only were able to offer $100 , compensation for discomfort of excursion (witch never took place it was simply "no guided excursion), delay of another one (instead of Three hours it was only hour and a half,and out of pocket cab ride), incident with Vip City Bus Tours,where Guide Named Hector, escorted me of the Bus at the pouring rain in San Jose And of Course The Best Western Resort, which should be immediately shut down and never reopened ever again... Below you will see the answer from Exxotica Representative "Ade". Since I was not able to get a resolution, a Dispute Will be filled, with the Bank,as Well as the Attorney General and the Health Department will be Notified Also. Stay as far as you can from this company. So you will not be disappointed later. Below is a copy of a review left with the Best Western,at Jaco Costa Rica... Here it is: It Was Already Rough from the beginning When we got to the hotel, at 2 pm ,they made us wait for another hour and 20 minutes, for check in, and asked for additional fees for early check in($10 from each member). Stuff was rude and not friendly at all. The "Family Resort" ,that you want to stay away at all costs. With mold all over the walls and ventilation system and roaches. With rude employees and outdated,and dirty rooms. On top of this , one of our group members fell on the wet floor(which was wet and dirty from spilled drinks)and fractured her hand. Resort staff members didn't even offer ice or medical assistance, but suggested that Their Security Guard will "check her", which is absurd. She ended up getting medical attention in San Jose, days later. This was shut down immediately and never reopened ever again! Booking # US-2024282915

Negative experience: Way too many people on our tour! Exoticca claims "small groups" but we had 49 people on our bus, plus the driver and guide. We took the Greece trip in October. There were so many people we were all split up at hotels. Between the different hotels in downtown Athens and the traffic it took an hour just to pick people up. So don't get to visit with people in your group because everyone is spread out, quick pack and breakfast because you'll get picked up early and then sit on a bus for an hour just to get out of town. Every time the bus stopped for a snack or bathroom, it took 30 - 40 minutes just for bathroom and snack lines. Because there were so many of us, we only stopped at "tourist" places to eat and shop. Very unsatisfying. We've had wonderful guides on previous Exoticca trips but this guide was actually rude when asked appropriate questions. She clearly did not want to be bothered. This is our fourth tour with Exoticca and we've had other issues but this was sort of the last straw. Even though they are less expensive, the quality of the experience is certainly variable.

Negative experience: This company is the worst. They show you pictures of luxurious hotels and put you in very uncomfortable inadequate accommodations and refused to budge on any type of reimbursement. The transportation. People were unpleasant and the vehicle stunk of ashes from cigarettes or dirty laundry. When you called them all they did was say sorry sorry sorry but didn’t do nothing to help. I would highly recommend not using them for any of your excursions.

Negative experience: DO NOT I repeat DO NOT make plans or any reservations with this company, the only time you will hear from them is when having to pay. Horrible Customer Service, inconvenient arrangements, total misinformation on changes. At the end they tell you to deal with their local operators after they create the mess.

Negative experience: Do not use Exoticca!!! After booking horrible customer service, canceled our flight costing us an extra $2300!!! Not worth the “deal”. Do not use!

Fantastic experience: We enjoyed our trip to the UK. Our guide Johnny was the best he was fun, caring and very knowledgeable. This is our 3rd trip with Exoticca.

Negative experience: If I could, negative stars. Beyond flabbergasted and upset, and we haven’t even gone on the trip yet. Long story short: we booked a trip to Türkiye and it was from the DC area. Now they are saying we have to add another leg to our trip in NY which will add a significant amount of travel time and not really feasible with our schedule. Despite THEIR change, they are saying we’d have a pretty hefty penalty if changing/canceling. I feel that they should be the ones to offer and incentive or allow changes since they changed it. I feel this is a scam because the plane tickets are usually cheaper if it’s a longer travel time with multiple stops/layover. Really upset and feel like I’ve been scammed so they could make more money.

Negative experience: If I could give 0 stars I would ! This company is a scam !!! Do not book with exoticca.. I’m warning you Lousy lousy flight schedules and hotels are literal trash!! I can’t believe the hotel tried to serve us old food and cold . What disrespect!!!! It’s shameful. Had an excursion booked and gave me 3 different meeting points got to wrong one literally only been 6 minutes and driver refused to turn around. They refuse to refund your money ! They need to be sued at this point for robbery of so many people. It’s disgusting how they don’t want to work anything out with you . Listen to all the bad reviews . Wish I did . What a loss. Terrible terrible terrible! I could write a book from all the inconveniences of this trip. Rip off

Negative experience: I booked the tour South Africa and Mauritius in May-June for 15 days. First they want us to pay all upfront. I booked luxury but all the hotels and services were 3*. Our airline was changed, we were in longer flights probably they money. I told them, my husband had knee surgery, can’t do the stairs. Our first hotel , our room was 15 stairs no elevator. I was keep calling Costmer service but nothing happened. In Mauritius resort, they only booked us for only breakfast. I asked Exoticca book me Al exclusive, agent told me they don’t have option in their system. I can pay at resort couple hundred to make all exclusive. But it was $1000 extra for four days. There was no local restaurant close by. I have to take taxi to go to the restaurant and taxi $40 each way. I was very disappointed, I called customer service, nothing done. They offered me $110 discounts for future trips. Who wants next trip with Exoticca? I would not recommend to anybody to book their tour with Exoticca . I had bad experiences.

Fantastic experience: I’m hopeful this is the same Exoticca office- perhaps headquarters for the Exoticca Cruise Reservation bookings. Promise to continue to share more once the trip is completed. But, for now, I want to share my fabulous experience about the Exoticca Customer Service Center for the international cruise and land travels. It is with great honor and gratitude to give a special thank you to the phenomenal Customer Support representative: Jude, an absolute joy and legend, Stergious, who assisted and took care of our many questions to pass on…, Ms Peeno, initial booking representative, as she is an absolute joy as well. I thank you ALL for YOUR exceptional and outstanding Customer Care and Support to my family and I, in every way possible~ YOU ALL are a 5 Stars and beyond! More importantly , YOU are total assets to this establishment; YOU are so appreciated and highly valued; thank you for going above the call of duty to assist us from the depths of your whole hearts and souls.

Negative experience: I’ve used Exotica twice. Italy was my worse experience ever. You had to pay to go to every hotel by taxi yourself and find every place on your own. No transfers to hotels or airports. Guides don’t show up. Exoticca was called by everyone waiting for the guide at the Colleseum to show up. My phone bill was so high from calling. They told us he was there. They told us to look at two different place to find them. We had around 15 people that we didn’t know, calling and looking everywhere that we did. Exoticca told me he did not show up. We paid again so we can see the Coliseum, because we wouldn’t be back. They would not refund that excursion either. Just went to Switzerland. My husband had a detached retina. We did not have travel insurance. We booked an excursion with Exoticca to take on the seventh day for almost $400. My guide told me that Exotica canceled my flight for my husband and my excursion. Exotica called me a liar saying that he can’t possibly know that. They got the money back, and will give me zero in return. This is an awful, awful company. Please go with Gate one or smarttours. I travel the world. I’ve used many companies that I book myself, through their company. I’ve never had such irresponsible business owners as this one. They lost me who booked four trips with them. I’m warning you. They also make u take your luggage into the hotel and into your room yourself and when you’re leaving do the same thing bring your luggage to the lobby and then outside yourself. We went to seven different hotels and had to do this each day. Everyone said that their backs were hurting badly by the end of the trip. I don’t want to say “I told you so”. I’m not a disgruntled client, I just want my money back for an excursion that wasn’t used, and I was told it was canceled and call or text Exoticca to get my money back. EXOTICCA said it never canceled my husbands flight or his excursion. The airplane trip from Lisbon to Newark had someone sitting next to me. This proved they did cancel my husband’s flight and lied to me. They are good at lying.

Positive experience: We booked the Portugal and Spain trip. Portugal was excellent. Everything was perfect. We got to Spain and you were basically on your own. With this Julia travel took over. You had to get your own transportation to the excursions. Was not able to book additional excursions with Julia travel or exotica. They were either closed or did not speak english.

Negative experience: They are ok. That’s it. They don’t go any more that they have to. Not bad, but not great either. Just did Ecuador (Quito, Galapagos and Guayaquil, and I had a good time because I am easy going but if you want a great service, better hotels, don’t use Exoticca i would say. NOW, this being said, it is worse than that: I am in Guayaquil. Tonight, according to Exoticca booking and confirmation, I fly Guayaquil -Lima- Atlanta but their booking is old and none accurate. I will fly to Lima tonight but have a 24 hours layover in Lima airport !!!! Yiep!!!! Exoticca information and confirmation (we double-checked with them yesterday evening, and they assured us the layover in Lima was 45 mn only) was totally wrong ! Well: I will not traveled with them again. They are not reliable enough. Do you see this! It is the truth. First pic, the Exoticca flight confirmation showing 45 mn layover. The second picture shows Latam/ Delta confirmation. We arrived on May 1 in Lima and leave May 2 from Lima .

Negative experience: I am at a dinner party in Augusta GA. Master’s has just ended and we are discussing travel. This company came up….oh dear!!!! I have never in my life heard such a horror story…from a doctor! Splitting the party up, 3 year old children separated from their parents on the plane, not responding, thousands of dollars lost because of this company. Terrible these people are allowed to conduct business.

Fantastic experience: We had a great experience with Exoticca. We went to Portugal for March break and the trip was planned and executed very well. Our tour guide Nuno was excellent and made the trip enjoyable and informative. Would definitely book with them again!

Negative experience: Scammed! The sales guy did not explain terms and conditions correctly and left me £3000 short. I haven't been able to get a single penny back. Worst company and worst service ever. Will never travel with this company. Absolutely disgusting. Only empty apologies, no resolution.

Negative experience: Went on one good trip with exoticca to Greece, so I thought I'd book a second trip. This time to Panama. It was the worst trip I'd ever taken. They put us in some two star resort full of locals and under construction. Noisy, dirty, messy and this happened after they verified we'd be at a certain hotel. Then, they changed our hotel to this dump. Exoticca reps didn't care or bother carrying about my concerns. My family and I were genuinely afraid for our safety. Terrible experience. Don't be fooled by the low prices. There customer service is by far the worst in the industry. They'll respond with some generic review like asking me to reach out to them to discuss blah blah. They then pretend to call and email you to discuss the issues however, they never ever call or called. I even responded by sending them a screen shot showing how they didn't contact me. This companies customer service is simply terrible and furthermore fraudulent. Stay FAR, FAR away from this company.

Negative experience: South Africa March 2024 I would not use this company again. -They put me under alot of pressure to book. -There is no 14 days cooling off period, which is normal for the uk, as this is not a uk company, if we would have cancelled the next day we would have lost our £4000 deposit -The communication from the beginning was terrible, it was not unusual for me to be on hold for an hour, often I’d get to an hour then put the phone down. I never spoke to the same person twice. -They miss spelt one of my children’s names which then lead to him not being on our booking, we could not book seats on planes or even check in online. -I requested direct flights, they told me that was not possible (out right lie) -I requested 4* hotels we stayed in 3 hotels & all where 3* -Also requested swimming pools in the hotels as we have children, one hotel had a pool but we was only there one night, there was other pool at one hotel but it was so small it was like a bath, it was abit of a joke to be honest. -individual excursions where brilliant, well organised & our guides & transfers where great. This was all down with an external company called ‘Amazon Africa’ I would definitely use them again. -South Africa is an amazing country & well worth the visit, the food is unreal, the service, people, culture, wildlife unforgettable but not with Exoticca.

Negative experience: Awful customer service from start to finish! Once you book you’re on your own. Spend the extra money and get an agent/agency who actually cares and handles the problems/issues that may arise. Stole/kept a refund that a hotel issued me for not staying there due to it being dirty.

Negative experience: This was one of the worst trips I have ever been on and I have traveled the world. This company ruined a multi-generational family trip to Machu Picchu in such an epic manner that it should receive less than one star. The group included an 80-year-old, a 70-year-old, 4 middle aged adults, a 10-year-old, 8-year-old and 3-year-old. First, 1 premium care booking was made, but this agency took it upon themselves to break our reservations into 4 bookings (this is important for many of the errors later). Do not trust their itinerary or flights. Immediately after landing we were informed our continuing domestic flights to Cusco were being split up into 3 different flights all at different times forcing us to be at the airport at 2 am, 11 am, and 3 pm, causing the last flight to miss a stop at a museum. We attempted many times to get in touch with the exoticca to inform them splitting up was not an option as the assistance to help the elders and children was necessary, only to find out that they wouldn't get back to us until the last minute. We refused any option other than what was in the itinerary which was a 10 am flight with our entire group. We get to the airport with reservation paper in hand from the tour guide assuring us we were all on the the flight, only to get to check in and having 7 of us checked in while the 2 remaining tickets had already been SOLD! The cruel amusement of the ground crew of JET AIRLINES was astonishing and infuriating to say the least. After an hour the airline managed to get the 3-year-old on the flight sitting by himself away from every family member, and his father being told to wait stand by at the gate. At the gate the ground crew expected bribes from the customers that had already paid for tickets to be able to board. A quick search on Google while waiting to take off proved that exoticca cut corners and landed our family on the cheapest worst airline (right next to SKY airlines) known for delays, cancellations, and corrupt behavior. The return flights to Lima were also equally so botched, booking us on different airlines at different times. To make matters worse, at this point the company stopped responding to any and all attempts to reach them, even on their "emergency number" on whatsapp. Eventually we were forced to purchase 9 new tickets ($2,300 USD) on Latam airlines so we could all be on 1 flight together. During the tours itself the bus drivers turned off the air conditioner, even when a parent and sleeping child remained on the bus with 88 degrees outside! In Cusco we met other victims of exoticca also complaining of the same issues and additional problems. If we hadn't booked the premium care in hotels we would have been worse off, as some other exoticca victims said their hotels were being renovated. One gentleman ended up getting monoxide poisoning while sleeping at his hotel that was being renovated! We weren't without issues at all the hotels either. The separate bookings had the 3 children sleeping in a different room from their parents on different floors, or every room my partner and I shared we had either 2 small singles or a small twin. The amount of stress and additional money that was incurred due to the poor planning of this travel company is truly unbelievable. I won't include even more problems that occurred with the local tour guides while we traversed the wonderous country of Peru, as some were lacking and some were great. I will be steering any and all people away from this deplorable company. Do yourself a favor and book with Gate 1 travels.

Negative experience: Exottica markets hotels with pictures then reserves the right to change the pictured hotel, by listing other hotels below it as possible alternative accommodations. The reality is they are not "possibly" going to change the hotel, they fully intend to change the hotel. It will be the most "cost effective" option available to them. In my recent case, they "pictured" the Kempinski then waited 30 days before the trip to change it to the Crown Plaza. It is a marketing deception where they retain the right to change the pictured hotel, but the reality is they will change it to whatever is most cost effective for them no matter which category you choose (basic, mid, luxury). I requested adjustment to a comparable hotel and they refused to change it, insisting that the Crown Plaza meets a comparable standard to a Kempinski hotel, though I paid for the "luxury" category. It is not difficult to prove that the Crown Plaza is not comparable to a Kempinski in either price, amenities, or general appearance. There appears to be a pattern with Exoticca, where changes are consistently made to the hotel or flights within 45 days of the trip. This is my second trip with Exoticca and the second time my primary hotel was changed just before the trip. Last year, it was done 2 weeks before the trip. They will tell you they cannot make changes, but clearly, they can make changes at the last minute. I did not receive a formal notification or valid explanation as to why the hotel replacement occurred until after their refusal to make adjustment to the hotel. Of course, after I complained about never receiving one. I will never travel with this company again.

Negative experience: I have used this tour operator for 3 times already and service is going downhill. You better READ their change and cancellation rules before booking as they are the most unfair that they won’t allow changes as adding premium flex (insurance) more than 60 days before departure. During my most recent tour with them, they said they have no control over local operators they hire, that they can not tell them not to overcharge tourists in Argentina. They charge so much more for their optional tours compared to Viator, Get your guide and local operators when you decide to buy them at the destination. I had to make multiple complaints regarding this practice with no action on their part. Two elderly tourists were mugged and robbed in Brazil in the entrance of the hotel we were staying and the hotel management, did not offer any assistance. I had to call Exoticca international customer service in behalf of the victims to make them aware of what happened and request for assistance. I have bookings with them that I am now being forced to pursue as they are no longer changeable or cancellable. BEWARE!

Fantastic experience: Cape & Kruger Explorer South Africa Overall, we had a really nice experience. There were only one or two things that could stand improvement. I would’ve preferred to have a full day in Johannesburg. We enjoyed the panoramic views along the way to Kruger. We also enjoyed the safari.. though it was cooler than anticipated. In addition, we were really happy to visit Pretoria and also the stop to see the farm/shopping! Cape Town was the icing on the cake! We really saw so much via the hop on and off and we loved Table Mountain! Overall, we were pleased and will travel with Exottica again!! We loved our guide, Nestor!

Negative experience: May I ask why Exoticca changed the payment to bank transfers started after Dec 29 2023? We cannot use other payment methods like visa and MasterCard . This will lead people to be very inconvenience . People like me don't want to share their bank information with your company. Is Exoticca ready to bankrupt? I think it will definitely keep the people away and afraid to book the tour .

Negative experience: Be careful, Exotica does not refund money once you have paid, if the activities are not given, you have no way to claim a refund.  That's happening to me.  Take the Anatolia tour in Nov6-27/2023. Pay $894 dollars extra for the ballooning tour in Cappadocia plus the full-day tour in Istanbul.  When the Istanbul guide checked the list, our names did not appear on the list, so he did not let us take the Istanbul tour.  and the cappadocia ballooning was canceled due to bad weather.  total 894 dollars.  I have complained to exoticca and they say that they have a department that is responsible for customer care.  There is no telephone or email where you can communicate, just a form that they ask you to fill out and it freezes when you try to send it.  Overall, don't use exoticca if you don't want to lose your money. Tony martinez

Fantastic experience: I just came from Portugal and was amazing I visit all places mentioned by the tour and service was great, our tour guide Andre was very kind and knowledgeable. He gave us free time as a part of the tour to do some shopping or walk on our own pace. I will definitely book another trip with Exoticca

Negative experience: I travelled in Thailand with Exoticca, between Oct 13 and Oct 22. I am not sorry to say that Exoticca was really disappointing in regards to the quality of the hotels they chose for their clients. This company made me understand that they have chosen on purpose the cheapest and the oldest hotels in Bangkok and Northern Thailand, so they could get profit from their clients. Also, the tour guide that my 7 people group was provided with, had extremelly poor command of English, he was very difficult to understand, his walking pace was way too fast and made the visiting of some of the temples a real ordeal, as he was disappearing from our reach of view and we had to search for him many times. His name is Aek , and I hope by disclosing his name, Exoticca will never use his services anymore. One day Aek took the decision to bring on the lunch table the barbecued rats that a couple from my group bought from one food stall. I would have expected that the people in the group were asked if we agreed to be served at lunch, among other types of food, this disgusting local food. But for Aek, to bring rats on his tourists lunch table was not something out of the ordinary! On top of that, I found very inapropriate that at the end of the trip he shamelessly asked for tips and he even suggested how much the tips should be. This attitude was totally rude and inconsiderate given the fact that the services provided by him were subpar. I visited 4 Asian countries and 2 European countries over 33 days, Thailand being one of these countries during this time frame, but nowhere in these countries I have encountered such a mean attitude like this tour guide had. For me it was the first time I travelled with Exoticca, and definitely is the last time. Not only that I would never recommend Exoticca to my friends, but I will make sure to share with my friends how cheap is Exoticca in choosing the accomodation and how low standards they have in regards to hiring their tour guides. Also, the restaurants chosen for lunches and dinner were of very low quality, cheap, with dirty washrooms, and the taste of the food was not even close to the Thai food I am used to in North America. Besides all of these, there was a total lack of communication and a lot of confusion related to the transfer from the hotel in Bangkok to the airport. In a nutshell, very bad experience with Exoticca which did not make my 10 days trip in Thailand a pleasant one, in fact it was quite a chaotic one!

Positive experience: I’m not one to write a poor review and Exoticca did not deliver this trip. We have taken 2 trips with them. The first in 2021 to Ecuador and the Galápagos, which logistically was smooth and the charm hotels were fine. As I write this review we returned from a beautiful trip from South Africa, Victoria Falls, and Zimbabwe. However, I have been sitting at JFK for over six hours as we missed the connecting flight to SFO, since Kenyan Airlines arrived late from Nairobi this morning. We called Exoticca and were instructed to take it up with American Airlines, as the domestic carrier. They had no record of our reservations. Called Exoticca again and customer service representative said he could not do anything, had to inform another team, and would get back to us. Unfortunately, this was not the first snafu on this trip. Tour advertised at maximum 30 people. Group closer to 60. Buses were not air conditioned from Johannesburg to Kruger National Park approximately 8 hours and a/c was not fixed during the three days while at Kruger before the five hour drive to Cape Town. Charm hotels were not 3 star level, closer to two star. Problems with showers and a/c units. Had to switch hotels in Cape Town due to noise. Also tried to resolve this with service representative and was told had to work with the hotel, which I did. They could not switch rooms because the hotel was fully booked one of the nights. Shared this with Exoticca representative and told she would share with the appropriate team. She did not tell me there were other hotels on an approved list we could be changed to. Not knowing this I made a reservation at my own expense. Exoticca offers great itineraries at great prices. Buyer beware-Double check logistics, hotel reviews, the airlines, and the companies in the country Exoticca is partnering with.

Positive experience: We really enjoyed and loved our trip to Ecuador. Learned so much about culture and wildlife and ecosystems. The hotels were very nice. Accommodations were lovely. Our guide Edison was absolutely fantastic. A wonderful young man full of wonderful information. If I had to mention any negative part of the trip, it would be that the travel was grueling, long layovers, etc. I would book with them again, but I would look at the travel time a little closer.

Fantastic experience: My husband and I finally took our dream trip to Ireland. It's actually my dream trip, but he was excited as well... Our trip consisted of a tour of Ireland, visiting several cities, over the 8 days we were there. Our hotels were wonderful. Clean, comfortable and friendly staff in all. We were fortunate to have the absolute best tour guide, Anthony! Charming, knowledgeable and thoroughly entertaining! Anthony kept our group engaged and informed with history and fun stories. We just loved him! Our tour bus driver, Gerry, was such a great addition to our trip. Yes, he transported us safely to our destinations, but he did so much more! It was as though we had an additional tour guide. I would highly recommend using this company for your travel plans. We got so much more than we expected! 5 STARS all the way around!!

Negative experience: DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY! I'd give 0 stars if Google would let me. My family and I recently took a Mexico Highlands trip through Exoticca to celebrate my in-laws’ 50th wedding anniversary. We all love Mexico and were really looking forward to seeing areas we hadn’t been to before. Unfortunately, the trip was awful and differed considerably from the itinerary and from what the website had led us to expect. Our group was packed into a small van for up to 11 hours a day; this was about twice the amount time that was indicated on the itinerary for most of the days. We had to skip several stops on several days because we didn’t have time to stop there and get to our next hotel before night. Apparently they have done this tour many times before, so why haven’t they dialed in the timing by now? The van was not made for a tour group, so it didn’t have larger side windows that would allow everyone to see the sites. if you weren’t next to a window, you couldn’t see much of anything outside the van. The speaker in the van was broken, so the back two rows of people (half the entire tour group), could not hear what the guide was saying. Several of us complained, but the tour guide indicated that there wasn’t really anything he could do about it. So for over half of the group this trip was 10 days of not seeing much AND not hearing anything the guide was saying. We had a couple of lunch stops that were okay and provided a good variety of options for local cuisine, but two of the lunch stops were gas station convenience stores. Yes, literally. So basically overpriced chips, nuts, or candy bars - not exactly the Mexican experience we had been led to expect. The hotels were also a disappointment. A couple were good and centrally located, but several were so far outside of the local town we were visiting that it was not possible to get to them unless our family group got a couple of $30 taxis. It was a far cry from the itinerary’s promise that we would be staying in those towns and could spend an evening dining at local restaurants and taking in the beautiful sites of the town. There were hotels in the center of all of those towns that were no more expensive than the ones on the outskirts that we stayed in – why weren’t we booked in those? One night we were in a very shabby Holiday Inn Express far from town and our only restaurant option was an Applebee’s. Argh. Again, this was so far from the promises of the tour, and was such a disappointment. The tour guide was okay, but he seemed pretty checked out. He never introduced himself to the group and wasn't inclined to engage with any of us other than when he was providing info about a site we were at. It often felt like he really didn't want to be there. After the first day, I pretty much felt the same. For this special anniversary trip, we foolishly decided to take a chance on Exoticca rather than going with our usual Gate 1 tours. Unfortunately the promises of Exoticca don’t remotely match the reality, and my family just wasted a lot of money on a miserable experience. A couple of us sent complaints to Exoticca, but after more than a month they haven’t even bothered to contact us. Clearly my family’s experience is typical enough that it’s not even worth it to contact us. Don’t waste your money with Exoticca.

Negative experience: Booked with Exoticca three times. The price is relatively cheap but service level is very low. The experience is even worse on the third book. We booked the trip for Turkey in October with flight start/end in Miami. Exoticca notified for returning flight change but it said return flight will ended in Warsaw. When asked for clarification, on one answered. It ended up to cancel our book with penalty “according to its term” (50% penalty?). This agency is NOT professional agency that you can trust. It is rated C at BBB with a lot of complaints, almost all the disputes unresolved.

Negative experience: BAIT AND SWITCH We will never book with this company again. We booked a trip to Morocco from Canada back in November, 2022 for a trip in November. 2023. At the time, two flight options were shown, both acceptable airlines with one change. We only get to see the actual flight details after we paid in full. The flight assigned to us is on Santa Azores airlines with 2 stops, one in the Azores and the other in Portugal. Same route when we return. When we review this airline, it appears to be at the very BOTTOM of a long list of airlines for customer service and are notorious for running late. When I called to request the flight that was originally shown in the advertising, I was told my only option was to cancel the whole trip, loose everything and book again…. Really? Beware if you are even contemplating Exoticca!!

Negative experience: To be honest I rarely ever write reviews, especially if the experience wasn’t 100% to my liking because I understand everyone’s experience and expectations are different but this last experience through this company left me completely speechless and shocked. We had a trip booked to costa rica for my moms 50th birthday. From start to end the experience was just horrible through the company. Thank goodness we booked our activities outside exoticca because I don’t even want to imagine all the other problems that would’ve come if we had. we had planned to go from La Fortuna to Samara and when getting there we were notified by the HOSTILE (not 5 start hotel that we were told was booked) we had no reservations and upon calling Exoticca to try to handle the situation with them they told us well since you’re there you can take what’s available there. no other options. they were spotting us up completely apart, so now my 17 years old sister, who has pre-existing conditions would be alone in a room of some random hostel and my mom and I would have our own bedrooms all separated to different sides of this place. we were given attitude and the lady on the phone was so beyond rude and disrespectful she made my mother cry on her birthday. no help was given and my mom after paying for all these fees and other things had to RE-BOOK at another hotel whilst getting YELLED AT by the rep on the phone for not taking the available rooms and that no she would not be helping us because we were there and it wasn’t her issue. i’m beyond disappointed and disgusted at how the service agents treat people at this company and will no longer ever book here again.

Fantastic experience: They are awesome. Africa was outstanding. Paul was the best tour guide/ bus driver.

Fantastic experience: We absolutely loved our Chile/Argentina Wine Trip. Everything was seamless. We booked the Luxury hotel package and it did not disappoint. All flights went off with out a hitch, and we were picked up in a timely manner for the airport and all excursions. We would 100% use Exoticca again to book our next vacation.

Negative experience: Worst communication ever. Amazing prices but it always comes with something. Definitely dont depend on them to help you and actually hear your side of the story. They will try to portray a false narrative and be dismissive with how things were handled. Im a first time traveler and if you want to book with them and never been out the country; best look elsewhere.

Negative experience: -5 Exoticca Travel will provide you the cheapest and worst hotels to profit more from you money. Bad customer service, after you book over the phone, getting in contact with them is impossible, your only way of communication is by email, their tour coordination is bad. Take a look at their web page and look the google reviews from the hotel they choose, they are all out dated.and with bad reviews. When you provide them pictures of your complaint they offer you a $50.00 credit for your next trip. If you complain with your credit card they threat you will attorneys fees for requesting a chargeback as per their cancellation rule. A nightmare of a tour is Exoticca Tour!

Negative experience: I would NEVER recommend this tour company to anyone. AVOID THIS COMPANY. You will have a miserable experience. You will waste your money. My sister and I looked forward to this wonderful trip as described in the brochures. They were fraudulent!!!!! Lies!!!! Writing to the company does no good...no response ...they do not care about their customers. Seriously stay away! I had to put one star to post this warning but it deserves NO stars

Fantastic experience: We used Exoticca for our trip to Italy back in January (using them again for our Spain tour this December) everything was arranged and detailed in our itinerary. we needed to contact them once we got to Italy to let them know we will be late due to a delayed flight from London and they took care rearranging the car service picking up from the airport. any questions we had they were immediately addressed via whatsapp. everything was a detailed and scheduled in our itinerary.

Fantastic experience: My husband & I just completed the 9-Day trip to Egypt 2 weeks ago and had an absolutely terrific experience! The package from Exoticca made seeing all the destinations we'd dreamed of super easy. Our tour guide Michael was really a super star, not only did he go above & beyond every day to give everyone in our group the best possible experience but he & the Planet Tours team filled in the day w/lots of great additional stops to local shops & artisans that gave us an even more rounded out experience & view of Egyptian life. All while sharing his wealth of knowledge on the history of all the amazing sites we were taking in. I also want to acknowledge the crew of the Nile Treasure cruise who were phenomenal and made us really feel at home on the ship. Here we are at home for two weeks genuinely missing Egypt. It was an amazing experience and that would not have been possible w/o the folks Exoticca set us up with.

Fantastic experience: After seeing many negative reviews I felt it was important to add our positive experience with an Exoticca travel package to Argentina/Chile this year (January). Air and lodging reservations were well communicated, the lodging selections were clean and suitable hotels (and in one instance superb!), and the on-site contacts very responsive. We believe it delivered good value, compared to booking all the air and various lodging on our own. We were sorry to read others have had significant issues, but based on our first experiment with Exoticca we’d likely book another holiday.

Negative experience: I would not book with this company. My wife and I just finished a tour through them to Norway and Denmark. The reason I give them a 1 star is due to their terrible customer support. While we were in country, I had questions about our activities. I asked Exoticca customer support and was routinely told that they didn't know and I would have to contact the local provider. Several timed I emailed or WhasApp'd support and had to explain myself 2, 3, and sometimes 4 times because the agents were not taking the time to understand the issue or question. Fortunately, we did not run into anything too major. But I definitely will not use them again and risk something more major happening.

Positive experience: I feel that Exoticca should be upfront about how they operate. Knowing in advance that the company does not create a group and provide a tour director would have saved a lot of angst, when we were all dropped off at a restaurant and then a driver showed up to take a few of us to the next town, but knew nothing about what we thought were the rest of our group. We would have preferred to know, in advance, that our accomodations would be in locations with vacancies from other groups, that our transfers between locations would be by random buses which may or may not pick up a variety of folks from other hotels and that the tours that we were booked on would be us with other random people. In addition, the company should not use photographs of a place in the trip descriptions when you are not going to the location. Our trip stated that we could rest for the remainder of the day in La Fortuna, enjoying views of the Arenal volcano. We were put in a hotel 35 kilometres from the town, literally in the middle of nowhere, and could not see the volcano. The photograph attached for the Arenal portion of the tour being of the famous La Fortuna falls, which we discovered when we were there we would not be seeing. The trip itself was quite good, but could have been so much better had we known how it was planned. If you enjoy lots of downtime, perhaps this is the trip for you. We, personally, would have liked to see more, but we're unable to book additional trips as the accomodations were not all booked until a day or two before we left

Negative experience: They changed our hotel in South Africa last minut (they said it is the same category but it was supposed to be near the sea in a safe area for tourists and they moved us to a hotel in the city center in a very high crime rate area. I asked for a change, i was ready to pay the difference but the staff would not help and keep saying I have to either cancel my trip and rebook (loosing over 5000$) or book my own hotel at my own expense and figure all by myselft. Very unpleasant experience for two ladies travelling alone. I normally book my trip by myself vut i tought it would be safer to do it with an agency to make sure everything was safe for us. I dknt recommand this agency. Dont book with them they dont care about customers or safety all they want is to sell more and do less. Very disappointed by the service.

Negative experience: Save your money and your sanity and don’t book with this company! I went on a tour of Portugal with them which was great so I booked a tour with my family for Greece. Unfortunately, my family member got cancer and we informed Exoticca that we understand we can’t get our money back but we would be more than willing to take a trip with them later so please give us credits to do so in the future. We emailed and called several times and they literally have no empathy. There’s no understanding on their end and they’d rather keep our deposit of thousands of dollars than give us credit so we spend more money with them in the future. We would’ve booked at least another 2-3 tours in the next year but they’d rather keep our deposit (which is larger than any other company out there by a few thousand dollars) and never have us book again with them. The worst thing of all is that when I was trying to explain our situation to a rep, they hung up on me. The next rep I spoke to again alluded that the call may have been cut due to service issues (basically gaslighting me to believe that what happened wasn’t true). I sent an email right after and there’s been no response for over a week. Quite possibly the worst customer service and literally no care or empathy.

Negative experience: We paid extra for luxury package such as better hotel rooms, only to find out by mistake that the rooms weren't luxury because the room didn't have a/c. Still paid luxury price. Were supposed to have tour manager with us every day, but only saw her for 30minutes on the first day, not to mention we had hard time trying to connect with her at all. Promised tour agent would speak English, when in fact the English was very poor and hard to understand. Wouldn't recommend, and wont be using again.

Negative experience: My friends and I booked a trip to Peru a year in advance for March 1st -March 11th 2023. Peru has had civil unrest from December 2022 until present. An Exoticca representative informed one of my friends in February that they were going to cancel our trip and told her to file a dispute with her credit card company. I contacted Exoticca personally and was also told that they would be cancelling our trip and a member from a special team would be contacting me. I never received a call or email from anyone regarding our trip cancellation. I contacted Exoticca again approximately two weeks before our departure and one of their representatives told me that our trip was still a go since the civil unrest was calming down. One day before our departure Exoticca cancelled our trip because of my friends dispute that they encouraged. Exoticca has made no attempt to refund us any money or give us any kind of credit and they scammed us out of more than $12,000. I would not recommend booking a vacation with Exoticca Travel since there are more reputable travel agencies who won't deceive you or scam you out of your money.

Negative experience: Please do not travel with this company. I can’t even express the laundry list of problems we had with no resolution, restitution, or attempt to make anything right. Worst experience I have ever had traveling and I have been two Iraq twice. The picture is the superior room king bed. This was the part of the trip they forgot to book our hotel.

Positive experience: A DIFFICULT experience with Exoticca right from the start!! Please be careful and don’t be fooled by the low price offers. You get what you pay for. I booked the Unique Ecuador & Magic Galapagos 13-day package with Exoticca for travel in Feb 2023 as a ‘bucket list’ trip. Sketchy details from the start – all ‘subject to change’ until 1 week out including hotels (out of 4 hotels at booking time, 2 of them changed). The BIGGEST problem was flights….their ops team booked us to arrive 1 day LATER from tour start date. It took multiple emails and phone calls to get this rectified. The itinerary itself was disjointed and many of us agreed it could have been better streamlined to avoid multiple check-ins/outs –10 hour days on a bus/tour with NO TIME at the hotel to decompress and enjoy hotel or even surrounding neighbourhood. So many other issues to even list……!!! Our guide for the first 4 days on the tour encouraged us to mention these to Exoticca but most likely they will go unnoticed. On this tour, please know there is NO guide once you fly from Quito to Galapagos. There are miscellaneous greeters and drivers that don’t always know their group pick-up points. The one redeeming factor on this trip was our group of 16 people – they made the trip. Without them this would have been a lower review.

Positive experience: Our trip was great except for the flight to Morocco. Our itinerary allowed for only 39 minutes to change planes in Newark. I called prior to the trip to try and change flights but the Exoticca representative said I would have to cancel the entire trip and rebook at a higher price. He said if United sold the ticket, they believed we had enough time to change planes. Sure enough, we could not make the connection in Newark. I called Exoticca and got no answer on their 24 hour customer service line. I finally talked to someone by pressing the "I want to buy a trip" button. He again said he could do nothing but I should call United. I had already called United and got an unhelpful agent who said I would have to wait in the Newark airport for 24 hours for the next day's flight. I asked Exoticca if they could intervene and help me with United, but Exoticca said no. After 2 hours, I finally talked to a helpful United agent. I suggested that they put us on a TAP Portugal flight to Lisbon, which she was able to do. We arrived in Marrakesh four hours late, which wasn't too bad, but our experience would have been much better if Exoticca honored my request to change flights from the beginning. More helpful customer service when we were stuck in Newark would have been nice as well. There was an earlier United flight from Tampa to Newark that would have been perfect and there were seats available.