3 independent reviews for Malaysia tour, Coast to Coast
Reviews for Malaysia tour, Coast to Coast
Henrik Thuesen review 23 Mar 2024
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The chaos of the entire trip was the most memorable. They had not tried the itinerary themselves so we customers were the guinea pigs on hotels, restaurants, sights. The hotels they selected were so far out of town that we had to pay for our own transport to get there, or waste half hour or more walking through unsafe roads! They selected mostly bad places for the included meals, never a decent restaurant, amd we had to pay our own transport to go to their selected venues. They did not take advantage of long road trips to apprise us of the local culture. We sometimes had to go out of our way just because the owner wanted to have a cup of coffee.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Don't use this company! This is the most ridiculous travel we have ever been in.3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Not at all. We had very little interaction with the locals or locally owned businesses.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Very poor. Never again.Read the operator's response here:
It is always disappointing when someone doesn’t enjoy their holiday but occasionally people may book the wrong kind of travel. This tour goes ahead about once a month so the concept of being guinea pigs was rather confusing. I suspect what was taken as disorganisation was the flexibility that genuinely small group travel allows. A couple of people on the tour were not as able as others and so discussions around alternatives for them, needed to be made on a daily basis rather than sticking to an itinerary which they could not participate in. We have also had a 5* review of the first 8 days of the tour where people did understand eating in local restaurants as the whole authentic food concept as outline on our website – local food/street food etc – stopping for lunch at a small locally owned café where we know the food is good and the owners get 100% of the money paid is more important to us than air conditioning and
where the only locals are waiting on tables. Hotels are well selected for being central and near to coffee shops/markets/cafes. When you did pay for transport it was when you chose to select a restaurant off the internet and not to eat with the group. Food is an important part of the tour both in it being a cultural experience, and a group activity. Mealtimes are often where the tour leader passes on information about the country and it’s culture and chats in an informal way rather than reading a script on a long journey. Experience is that they are always available to answer questions – especially during the obligatory 2 hour stops for the driver (where people can also avail themselves of a coffee/toilet break).
Thomas DeChillo review 18 Mar 2024
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The Spice Garden tour and cooking class2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Don't use this company3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
No. Not at all. There was only one hotel that had you fill your own bottles. It did benefit local people by eating in the cheapest restaurants possible.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
I would rate it very poorly. The two guides and the owner's brother, Mark, were always contradicting each other. We only had a half day tour each day. I think we should have paid half price. The included breakfasts, lunches and dinners were always at a "local" restaurant, unless breakfast was offered by the hotel. Which means that they never paid more than $4 USD for a meal. There were higher quality restaurants that were owned by locals, but the company wasn't willing to spend an extra few dollars on our meals. So we went out to lunches & dinners on our own most of the time and were not reimbursed. The two guides rarely, and I mean rarely, ever explained any of the sites to us. Many in the group were frustrated, even those that had traveled with this company before.Read the operator's response here:
I am glad we had the chance to talk through some of the issues you had over the phone as it’s always disappointing when someone doesn’t enjoy their holiday or see it’s benefits in terms of responsible travel. Your expectations of food were clearly not what we say we deliver in terms of our style of responsible travel and our commitment to staying and eating locally and our enjoyment of street food eaten in markets or at the side of the road which is such a central part of the Malay food experience. As we discussed, we don’t have a specific budget for meals and include meals in the itinerary as it is an ideal opportunity for the group to chat, talk to the tour leader and enjoy an authentic experience. One of the advantages of a small group tour is flexibility and does mean we can react to situations/weather/the needs of the group/people’s time keeping/traffic conditions etc. We loved to be flexible and apologies if this was interpreted as contradiction between our Overseas Director (who was primarily there to take nice photos for the website) and the tour leader. They were on an almost daily basis tweaking the set itinerary to ensure that you did everything on the itinerary but taking into account the ability and wishes of the group, weather conditions etc. I appreciate your comments to me that aspects of the tour were tougher than we had lead you to believe and we should review the “fitness” level of the tour – currently easy to moderate. You mention only having a half day tour each day – the itinerary does usually say half day tour with time at leisure. Like you, most people who travel with us are well travelled and used to some downtime to wander on their own as the itinerary suggests or to speak to the tour leader about possible alternatives/sites to see.
Jessica Tyrrell review 14 Dec 2023
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
I liked the variety of experiences that we had on this holiday. The guide was very good about answering all our questions. We got a good idea of Malaysia today and the influences that have shaped it.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Perhaps have some idea or experience of how heat and humidity affect you.3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Well we did have mainly motorised transport between venues, but there was one train journey. No air though, and lots of walking. So overall good.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
The holiday was great value for money, with an excellent guide and lovely comfortable hotels.Holiday Reviews
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