We travelled throughout South America in January 2016 visiting Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina & Brazil finishing the Rio carnival for a total of 30 days. We travelled with Tucan Travel on their South American Express group tour & have the following comments on our experience. We knew we had 7 flights within South America but had not realised in addition the amount of coach journeys (most 8hrs long) to get around the country. Instead of taking the bus journey of 10 hrs( turned out to be 16 hrs for the group due to border crossing ) from Santiago to Mendoza we booked a flight which took 55mins leaving us a full day in Mendoza. mornings leaving at 5.20am & often missing breakfast due to the early starts so would highly recommend taking snacks with you all the time as it is hard to plan timing of food stops or whether you will like the food. • Tour leader inexperienced affecting quality & trip experience – Danea did not instil confidence in any of our group that she knew her job as a tour leader. She was often hesitant in manner & came across as lacking confidence in dealing with issues that arose or making decisions. We as a group were also concerned about information been omitted due to inexperience of our tour leader which became obvious when we saw the level of interaction & detailed information been provided by Heidi, who has 12 years tour leader experience, exclusively to her own group. Heidi spent all her time looking after her own group exclusively & her group kept to themselves & even though we observed her & her group in hotels, our groups were very separate. It was obvious by their actions that each tour leader took responsibility for their group only. Danae admitted this was her 1st time out of Peru, that she was only a short time a tour guide. Our expectation was that Tucan should have ensured a fully qualified, professional guide for our tour which would have taken away the worry we experienced about the logistics & details on the trip. • 4x4 land cruiser conditions for 3 days– 1) Fitting 5 to 6 people in each cruiser, the two back seats are v small & cramped, suitable for small children only definitely not fit for adults whose legs were cramped. Health issue in cramped conditions, possible clots in legs due to long drives in cramped position. 2) Seats behind the driver were only 2 seats but 3 people were expected to sit with the 3rd person sitting in the middle on a crack which is part of another seat, not suitable or comfortable for long days traveling. 3) Some seat belts were not working. 4) The handholds above the doors were only available at 3 doors so people in seats with no handholds were thrown around when off road which was quite a lot of the time. • 4x4 Basic share accommodation same gender rooms not provided. One of the nights at the basic accommodation we were sharing a room which had 6 people (4 male, 2 females). Your own information states "Travellers will share rooms with other group members of the same gender" http://www.tucantravel.com/travel-styles/dossier/adventure-tours • Altitude sickness tablets should have been strongly recommended. For everyone to start taking a few days before the trip as this trip is 12 days at high altitude (up to 5000m) from Cusco to Santiago. Many individuals on our trip were very unwell which hampered their experience of the trip. • Two separate Tucan groups competing for available resources. Our trip had Two Tucan groups of 16 people each in the same location at the same time for 80% of our trip. Staying at the same accommodation, requiring transportation (whether coaches or planes) in these countries means trying to find decent facilities & transport for 32 people. As our group of 16 was nearly always 2nd leaving everywhere to the point we were told we were not meant to be the “2nd class (inferior) Tucan group as Heidi’s group from our assessment got to the accommodations before us so hot water was used up before our group arrived. Heidi’s group rooms in Igazu hotels were in the refurbished part of the hotel with our group in the old grim part of the hotel ( ants in shower..). In the Don Raul San Pedro del Atacama hotel when we arrived after a hard day driving over the mountains the only Tucan booking at the hotel was for Heidi & her group, our groups accommodation did not exist. Luckily for us as we arrived for once at a hotel before Heidi’s group & as her rooms were Tucan rooms we took them, Heidi’s group had to be accommodated elsewhere in town. Transportation vehicles that Heidi’s group had available were better quality than ours which we could see with our own eyes. The above information is the reason for the ‘2nd class comment to us from our tour guide to try to say to us that our group were not an afterthought when this tour was been put together by Tucan trying to manage two groups of 16 people at the same places. We should have had equal treatment & quality on our trip to Heidi’s group which all of our group felt was not the case. All of our group felt the same way, the majority of our group members having experience of travelling with other group tour companies to other destinations in the past. All of us will not be traveling with Tucan again & would not recommend them as a company.