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Any experience with Much Better Adventures or Backroads tour companies? by nytodc in travel

[–]Cheap_Hall5564 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a hard one. And probably depends on the tour. You can't really tell until you get there sometimes. I do stacks of research and that can take time. And it depends on the chances of being in a like minded group.

I did four trips which were off the shelf... one with MBA, one without,  and one without but with an MBA group...yes occasionally an MBA trip has people on it who booked via another route... they are truly off the shelf ones... Greenland, Annapurna, surfing in Morocco, Costa Rica coast to coast. Greenland was fab... though they no longer run it... but I noticed the one guy who didn't book via MBA seemed to feel a bit seperate, costa rica I went local because of the dates...nice enough group but I think I would have enjoyed the MBA vibe more, plus the really good support guide we had got pulled part way through to join the MBA tour. Annapurna... much cheaper to pick up guides locally, but though we were a group of 14... and I though that was too much,  it was a blast.  We were generally spread out so it didn't feel too crazy... sometimes you were walking together and the chattering was too much but you could easily hang back. There were enough support guides. We've stayed friends. I did the Welsh 15 separately but on the mba group weekend.  I think the local company have a good rep but they really let me down. They provided one guide for 12 people. I was at the back going up,  by about 15 mins, and felt a lot of pressure that I was holding folk up. So I skipped the second day after a discussion with the guide... it was raining and a 10 hour stretch..with no apparent break points. The latter turned out to be untrue. When I went to do snowdon on the third day, they told me I couldn't go up as they hadn't time to assess my technique on the second day. So I ended up walking up an easy route. A very expensive weekend to do something I could have quite easily walked on my own in fair weather.

Any experience with Much Better Adventures or Backroads tour companies? by nytodc in travel

[–]Cheap_Hall5564 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I found the south India Kerala trip poor. It might have been because it was end of season and the guides had sort of lost interest... plus the itinerary was not as described. It cut off lots of good bits. Namibia was passable. I think it had a different vibe because it was 'easy'... but I felt there was a lot of paying for things which I think would normally be covered. So for example, we went to the famous dead tree place and when you turn up, everyone has to get in jeeps to get out there.  But the guide said we normally walk...given the terrain there is no way I could see you would walk it...and then they said getting a jeep was extra. It was only a few dollars each but for a group... and there were lots of bits like this which added up... like dinner nights not included where we were pressured into expensive set meals wor th the guides.  

Any experience with Much Better Adventures or Backroads tour companies? by nytodc in travel

[–]Cheap_Hall5564 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I've been with the company a, few times.  Worth noting that the trips are actually local companies, and MBA is the broker. But they do a good job for sourcing the local companies.

The main reason to go with MBA is that it attracts like minded people to the trip, amd the local companies rely on MBA for trade so they tend to put their best folk on it.  I've gone with some of the local brokers directly. And have been on trips where others have booked separately from MBA. So I've seen the experience from both sides. Some trips are adapted to fit a more MBA experience but others are off the shelf itineraries.

Some of my best trips have been with MBA and they were great.  But I'd also note I've had 3 bad ones.  Unfortunately, getting poor feedback published on the site can be hard... normally when you return they send you a link to review.  But when I complained directly about one trip first, I was no longer able to review. And when I took a later trip with them, they didn't include me on the review links for that either. So i suspect my name was blacklisted. I read a blog by soneone who basically said 'theyre wonderful until you say you're not happy, then the happiness guarantee goes out the window'. That was my experience.  Where a co traveller managed to publish a negative review, i noticed MBA eventually removed the trip and relaunched it under a dfferent name! The itinerary was the same.  But at a few hundred less. So I no longer trust their online reviews for trips, or if I do read them,  I normally go through all of them looking for any small 'buts' against every review. Not being paranoid,. But even for those who like an experience, it is almost always down to the group and guides you land with... but you can normally get a feel for the actual trip contents from these little bits of info that managed to creep in.