Experience Travel Group Traveller Reviews

Wonderful authentic experience with quality hotels.All arangements re cars and guides were punctual and knowledgable. Documentation through Vamoos was excellent. Itinery was well planned and covered what we wanted to experience.

Experience Travel Group just gave excellent service both before and during the holiday.

Perfectly planned, organised and executed to meet and then exceed our expectations. Very professional service from beginning to end. Packed lots in to a 2 centre holiday and still felt relaxed throughout. Couldn't have asked for more.

Excellent itinerary suggestions and attention to our individual requests. Very good communication of all details and impressive knowledge of the countries we visited as well as the sites and accommodation available. A real pleasure to deal with.

Immediately on arriving you are enthralled by the sounds and sights of the birds which abound all over Sri Lanka, their vibrant colours and calls are everywhere you go. In Udawalawe we visited the Elephant Transit camp and completed some incredible safaris. The wildlife was abundant both in Udawalawe and Bundala, where crocodiles were seen, elephants, spotted deer, land monitors, monkeys and an amazing number of birds too numerous to mention. One day we went Whale watching from a rib and were the closest we could possibly be to see the wonderful sight of the groups of Sperm whales at the time. It was a totally real experience never to be forgotten.

Extremely helpful and knowledgeable about the areas we wished to visit. Nothing was too much trouble for them.

Experience Travel provided us with an itinerary which gave us a very good overview of Myanmar. It also included experiences I.e. Home visit to witness cooking on charcoal stoves & joining the family for lunch. Also a train journey to visit a local market. Neither of these experiences seem to have been done by other tourists we met.

Experience Travel provided us with an excellent itinerary with excellent guides & hotels. David Gookey, our advisor, very quickly seemed to understand our requirements resulting in us staying at small excellent hotels & the suggested things to do/see always seemed to be just what we wanted!

Sri Lanka is a beautiful country and it was a privilege to be able to travel around. There is still a lot to do to improve the facilities, but it will be worth while. we particularly enjoyed the scenery and bird wild life. Every bird enthusiast should visit Sri Lanka at least once!

We are very pleased with the overall organisation of our holiday. Before the holiday we had ample time to select our preferences and we could make small changes while we were there. Will recommend Experience Travel Group to friends and family and might use them again for ourselves in the future.

The Mekong river and the Nam Ou river in Laos meander through the country passing fishermen, villages and forest. There is no other way to see this country, it is so peaceful and beautiful. Our two boats slipped through small rapids passing water buffalo and fishermen waist deep throwing their nets. We stayed at two lodges on the Mekong, both in amazing locations but blend in well so you hardly see them and they make no negative impact. The Nam Ou river is smaller and less known but this is even more spectacular with a backdrop of mountain ranges fading into the distance in pale blues one behind the other. The cliffs come close to the river in places and the river cuts its way around the steeper hills. River trips like this are gems and while they are still such backwaters go before either the dams stop the water flows or tourists flock in bigger numbers.

We visited the offices of The Experience Travel company and were shown on a huge screen some of the places and activities we had been talking about. This made the idea of going to Laos come alive and was a big incentive to get on and book the holiday. All our requests were dealt with quickly and we had no delays or problems with any bookings of hotels or activities. They took on board our request for small boutique hotels and booked excellent ones for us. All the guides and transfers went through without a single hitch. Congratulations to them.

Interesting itinerary that mostly worked well. Pre-tour information was very well presented. We went to Sri Lanka at peak season (many tourists from Mailand China as Chinese New Year) so occasionally we had to settle for second best. Kandy was gridlocked! Reethi Resort in the Maldives was a good recommendation with a superb home reef but the a la carte restaurants were a serious disppointment. We loved the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo - a grand old lady.

Experience Travel Group provided a good servive overall.

Something for everyone on this fun family holiday to Sri Lanka. Elephants, dolphins, monkeys and crocodiles. Tea plantations, tuk tuks, historic cities and rock temples. All wrapped up with tasty food, superb accommodation and a professional service. A great family experience designed to bespoke requirements. Nothing was too much trouble for Experience Travel, and nothing was so much fun to do as a family. Thank you

Friendly, well informed and very professional agents, passionate about the destination and the total travel experience. They gave good honest advice, using first hand experience of the destination and were always friendly and helpful without being pushy. Attentive to details right down to the reading list. I highly recommend Experience Travel.

Fantastic experience with a great choice of hotels, quality trips and very knowledgeable guides. We combined Siem Reap with Saigon and, at the end, a rest on the beach at Phu Quoc. This worked well for us as all the early starts and the bust times were in the first two locations followed by an excellent on Phu Quoc at La Verandah resort hotel.

Very knowledgeable and helpful throughout the planning, especially in response to changing itineraries. Highly recommended.

We flew from Birmingham with Emirates, the flight times were excellent and the airline was one of the best Ive been with, we had economy seats which were roomy and comfortable. The seat back tvs were twice the size of usual airline tvs and there were so many programmes to choose from. Meals were good and drinks were included in the price. When we reached Sri Lanka we were met by our chauffeur who held up a board, he introduced himself and gave me his mobile - Thushani from the Sri Lankan branch of ETG was on the other end and welcomed me to Sri Lanka and told me if I had any problems to contact her. The vehicle was a large mini bus type vehicle with blacked out back windows and plenty of room. The aircon was going and it was lovely and cool. The first hotel was Amagi Lagoon in Negombo and as its name suggests was next to the lagoon, a quick 25 minute drive from the airport. Our chauffeur booked us in and left us for the night. It was a lovely comfortable hotel and and food was plentiful and unexpensive. After an excellent breakfast we departed for Ashburnham estate which was in the knuckles mountain range. It was a good 4 hour drive and we stopped a couple of times for a comfort break and to buy fruit. When we arrived at Ashburnham we were greeted by Laura and Ollie who made us feel like part of the family and we were upgraded to a suite which was fabulous. The next day we walked around the estate and were given a tour by the estate manager, we then walked down to their own waterfall and as we walked back up to the first level of the waterfall, Max our guide arranged for beer to be bought down which was very welcoming. Ashburnham is a lovely old colonial house and has only 5 rooms for guests, I would thoroughly recommend this hotel, just wished we had stayed longer. When we left Ashburnham we made our way to Kandy, again a long drive but interesting. We stayed at Sweet Cinnamon which was a really interesting octagonal bungalow, we were booked in by our chauffeur and he returned later in the evening to take us to the Kandian dance and then to the temple of the tooth. Whilst I enjoyed the dancing, I thought the temple was much to busy and manic and I was relieved to leave. I think it would have been good to go at a less busy time, but if you want to see the ceremony of the tooth then you have to go at that time. the next day we departed for Udawalwe national park, again a 3 to 4 hour drive. This was probably the least favourite of mine, as I wasn't keen on the safari and although the hotel was very comfortable, it wasn't an attractive place to look at, which surprised me as it was built in the national park. After the safari the next day we made our way to Unawatuna which is next to Galle. This was around 4 hours. We went on the only motorway in Sri Lanka which is about 50 miles long. The hotel was in a jungle setting and was really interestingly laid out. We had a lovely room overlooking the pool, with a huge bed with mosquito netting, great air con, very quiet. The staff at the hotel were very attentive, they made our anniversary very special, baking us a cake and putting out table out of the main dining area and near the pool. We had lobster thermidor and when we got back to our room Experience Travel had left us a bottle of champagne. All in all the whole holiday was fabulous, the planning was perfect, everything went like clockwork, the chauffeur, Ashara was excellent and again, nothing too much trouble. We were sad to say goodbye to him, I would highly recommend Experience Travel, their knowledge was excellent, I told them what I wanted and they managed to sort this perfectly, I was very pleased and so were the other members of my group. I would definitely use them again. Thank you Experience Travel for a fabulous holiday!!

Experience Travel are an excellent company. they listened to what I wanted from my holiday and delivered this. Each hotel was exactly what I would have booked myself, the Sri Lankan branch were equally good and extremely helpful. If I had had any problems I know they would have been there to help me. The vehicle we were taken on the tour in was modern, comfortable and roomy. All in all an excellent experience and one I would recommend.