“Just returned from our Exoticca holiday to Jordan and Egypt. I will never use them again.
Firstly, they never produced an itinerary that matched what we did, which made it impossible to plan our free time.
Travelling from Amman to Cairo we arrived around 18.30, only to be told we had to be ready to leave our hotel at 02.45 the next morning to get the 05.30 flight to Luxor. Due to the organisational shambles of the locally contracted tour operator, we didn’t get into our hotel room until 21.15
thirdly, Exoticca routed us via Bahrain to/from London to both Amman and Cairo. Cairo to London direct is about 5 hours. Via Bahrain, from Cairo to Heathrow was scheduled to take 12 hours including 2 hours in Bahrain, which is a pain, but I guess it was significantly cheaper. What actually happened was that Gulf Air cancelled our 20.00 flight from Cairo to Bahrain and rebooked us on the 13.00 flight out of Cairo. So our journey took 19 hours including a 9 hour stopover in Bahrain. We lost most of the last day of our holiday in Cairo. I chased Exoticca for 4 days to find an alternative, but they did nothing until the day before our return. They came up with an option that I had already found online to fly direct with British Airways if we paid an extra £460 each, which was the full price I could get easily online. Any clown could find that flight and say they had offered us an alternative. By doing my own research (no help from Exoticca), I found out that Gulf Air would offer us a transit hotel room and evening dinner free of charge, which did help to mitigate the overly long journey. Would have been nice if Exoticca had used their travel expertise (not!) to advise us of this.
Nightmare company!”
“Dreadful company. Before booking I asked about baggage allowance and was assured this was included before booking. Flight information has come through and they want us to pay for bags.Why would i Book a 12 day holiday with a carry one case. Apparently they are listening to the tapes- not holding out much hope and have requested a copy as I don't trust the company. I will never recommend or use this company again. Below average and poor customer service. Its taken 3 days before anyone has answer my call and No reply to my email I sent 4 days previously. Agree with one of other the reviews they need reporting.”
“This was one of the most stressful and disappointing holiday experiences we have ever had but it is only now that we are home that the true awfulness of it comes through.
Fist of all, we paid a significant sum to spend 8 days/ 7 nights in 3 different locations - Athens, Mykanos and Santorini. We didn't realise until it was actually happening that ONE WHOLE DAY of our holiday was spent getting to and from Greece. Because we had transfers both ways in Germany, the journeys took forever, at least 12 hours! Cheaper for Exoticca but totally tiring for us. It was the same when we moved on from Athens to Mykanos - our ferry (dirty, overcrowded and basic) took 6 hours! There was a 2hr ferry, we subsequently found but it was a bit more expensive. Another 1/2 day wasted by the time we got to our hotel.
Then there is the organisation and communication. At both Athens and Mykanos, our hotels were changed without notice. No biggy in itself but should we have had to hear it from a TAXI DRIVER and a rep who we never met before and who we never saw again! Not good enough! On the day before we were due to travel to Mykanos, we had absolutely NO transfer information until late that night after some 20+ calls to the reps, the emergency contacts and Exoticca itself. 20+ phone calls - imagine the stress and the frustration! The lack of emergency contact was really worrying as was the fact that Exoticca agents in Spain and Florida eventually stopped picking up!
Anyone who thinks this is just wingeing, it's not. As well as several minor problems, at least 5 other sets of travellers had exactly the same things happen to then, including single travellers and travellers from the USA.
If you book with Exoticca, just be ready - they'll ruin your holiday and hang you out to dry!”
“EXOTICCA - Holiday Horrors: London was messed up none of vouchers worked; Edinburgh was messed up we got no tickets - all Pre Paid and NO SERVICE; they leave you with nothing buy BAD MEMORIES; Exoticca have made no effort to help correct the situation, we are seriously out of pocket to pay for everything twice; Misrepresenting there product and services and the vacation is over and you get nothing but STRESSED OUT VACATION; no refunds, no credits and no nothing / they don’t care and no help! BUYER BEWARE!!! You will be Disappointed… BS customer service and they don’t know what they are doing, as they have NO STAFF; responses are standard BS and without resolution! Please report this company to nearest Travel Government Agency and have their license revoked;”
“MESSED UP VACATION: none of the excisions/activities worked; None of the Pre Paid tickets were every delivered to us; No customer service to help! Last minutes changes to hotels and no guides anywhere to be found; extremely stressful; lesson learned Never trust this company and forget about getting you money back; They cannot even contact their own out sources; You are on your own; WARNING: DO NOT BOOK WITH EXOTICCA - you will be sorry!”
“I have just returned from my second holiday with Exoticca, to Costa Rica, having been to Argentina and Brazil just before the pandemic.
I wouldn't have booked the second time if the first had been bad.
I found the value and the organization
great so would definitely go again. Wanted to avoid transit through Miami as it is a notoriously busy airport and was switched to Dallas Fort Worth which was much better.
Definitely not a scam!”
“A friend and I booked a 13 day Greece island hopping trip that started in Athens. We wanted time to explore the city so came a week before. First issue is they said the airport transfer would be included but then they wouldn’t pay because we came a week early. Said they would just cover a transfer from our Airbnb to the hotel instead which was one block away saving them approximately a $50 airport transfer. Day 1…all our confirmation emails state our transfer from the Airbnb to the hotel would be at noon on April 27th. No one showed up! Leaving us to fend for our self to get to the hotel. When we arrived at the hotel they say we aren’t booked till the following day. Our confirmation clearly states the 27th transfer to hotel with each days excursions clearly listed starting with the Acropolis tour on the 28th. After a call to exoticca they say someone will come meet us. When the exoticca representative shows up he wants us to pay for the hotel for the night and says that our whole tour is a day behind all the confirmed dates we have making us stay in Athens an extra night with nothing to do the next day and loosing a night off in Santorini at the end of our trip. Secondly we were Told our tour group would be 6-10 people and then found out that it will be 29 from this same rep. This is upsetting to us as I have medical conditions and booked a small group so I would have less exposure to others on a bus etc. Lastly when we checked in the hotel (which was changed after booking the trip to a way worse looking one) staff told us to be very carful outside the hotel as it isn’t a safe area 😳 So keep this in mind if you are thinking of booking with exoticca. So far nothing has be done for us for the massive screw ups and crappy hotel.”
“Disgraceful company. Booked a holiday with them. It was cancelled. Booked again at a higher price. Cancelled again. Booked again for May 2022. In March asked for substantial balance or holiday would be cancelled and we would lose our money. Paid and shortly after they cancelled again. No excuse for it as far as I can see though they blame covid but nothing changed after they extorted money from us. Now I’m asking for my money back but needless to say they won’t engage. They ignore e mails and if I phone when they eventually answer they put me on hold while they forward to the right department but the hold turns out to be permanent. This company is criminal, literally.”
“I have had 2 holidays with Exoticca and both have been good value - for the price, I would not expect to have first class hotels and the organisation was acceptable.
HOWEVER !!!!
Exoticca cancelled my booking for another holiday and you would have thought that it would be a simple matter to obtain a full refund of the amount that I paid. I have e mailed them 4 times and telephoned 3 times and have still not been refunded. I also need to be refunded for an excursion that did not happen on my last trip with them, but there is no sign from Exoticca that they are willing to refund any of my money.
Be aware that if you have to have any of your money refunded ...... best of luck !!”
“We have just returned from a tour of Turkey (Istanbul, Cappadocia & Ephesus) and found it excellent value for money.
The tour guides were extremely good and 2 of the 3 hotels were excellent.
The 3rd, in Istanbul wasn't the best, but to be honest, it was such a busy itinerary, we didn't spend long in the hotels anyway
The absolute highlight for me was a balloon ride in Cappadocia”
“THEY PAY $50 FOR EACH 5-STAR REVIEW ON TRUST PILOT. My fiance's parents found this trip to Peru and thought it was a great deal. The red flags started almost instantly. After we had paid a sizable down payment to book a trip for four, they said that they would give us $50 off of our trip to post a 5-star review on Trust Pilot. Alarm bells went off but what could we do? They already had our money. I posted a review about how the booking process was easy (the part where they take your money) and left it at that. After I had posted my review, I followed up about the discount and was told that it wouldn't be applied to THIS trip, but to a future trip with them (which they already know you aren't likely to take). When you're booking, you can reach them anytime, day or night. After you put down a deposit, they will only answer your call during business hours when you're working, I assume to make it harder for people. I called the 9-5 number and a woman answered. I let her know that we had booked a trip and I had a couple of questions. She hung up on me. I called back and let it ring and ring and no one ever answered. No one responded to my email to customer service either. I guess they work on commission so no one wants to spend time taking care of existing customers. We were told that we would receive a detailed itinerary at least 30 days before the trip with all the information we needed. Despite us asking for it multiple times, it finally arrived three days before we left. Exoticca also failed to notice or care that my fiance's passport expired less than six months after we returned home from Peru, meaning he wouldn't be allowed to travel. Fortunately, our trusted travel agent was getting everything together for our honeymoon and SHE caught it and let us know. At that point, he had to call and get an emergency appointment eight hours away to get a new passport in time. Thankfully she caught it or we would have had to cancel and Exoticca would've kept nearly $5,000 of our money. The first hotel was fine, the second had no hot water and no heat (not even a space heater) with temps in the 40s. The third hotel had ants in the bathroom which I found on my toothbrush and ants crawling on the food at the breakfast buffet. Hot water was spotty. But the worst part was the smell. Our bathroom had a window that opened onto some sort of utility shaft. The window was broken so that we couldn't shut it all the way and the utility shaft and our entire room reeked of raw sewage. After one night we were both sick. The next night we figured out that we could shut the bathroom door and shove a blanket under the crack to keep most of the smell out of the bedroom and that helped some. But since the space heater was attached to the bedroom wall, that meant that you couldn't get any heat into the bathroom and had to take a cold shower in a cold room. We've traveled to less affluent countries and never encountered situations like these. The trip was poorly organized as well. For instance, instead of booking the 1-hour flight back from Cusco to Lima next to the 5-hour flight from Lima back to Miami to make it easy, they had us land in Lima late Saturday evening, bussed us an hour and a half away to what I can only assume was a hotel much cheaper than the ones close to the airport, and picked us up again at 4 o'clock in the morning to bus us an hour and a half back to the airport. We would've gladly paid more to at least stay near the airport and get a few more hours of sleep. We made the best of the trip and Machu Picchu was phenomenal. Most of our guides from Condor Travel were wonderful as well, especially Rodrigo and Alexis. But the one who picked us up at the Cusco airport told us that she had been about to take off and leave us behind. We had been off of the plane for 10 minutes, just long enough to grab our bags and make a quick stop at the bathroom before going outside to try to find her. She literally said that she was about to leave four Americans, one of whom was disabled and only one of whom spoke broken Spanish, stranded in a foreign country with no way to get to the hotel or home or anywhere because in her opinion 10 minutes was too long to get off of the plane and out of the airport. Exoticca is a get-what-you-pay-for situation. If you're okay with no communication, no customer service, no information, no hot water, no heat, no sleep, ants, raw sewage, and possibly being left stranded at an airport, then go for it. If not I highly recommend paying a bit more for a reputable travel company.”
“I would give this below zero if I could. This is by far the WORST organisation I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. They steal your money, promise it back, and then a year later, you are still having to ask for it. It is simply unbelievable. DO NOT USE, PLEASE HEED MY WARNING.”
“My holiday was cancelled in July. Ever since I have been repeatedly told I can get a cash refund (3k) - the latest being March 2021, but I would be paid as soon as they could. This then changed to if I hadn't spent my credit note by March, it would be refunded then - this then changed yesterday in the small print of a further marketing email they sent me to Sept 2021!! When I complained again, I was simply told "there will be a very long wait for all cash refunds." without acknowledging that they had suddenly changed the date from March to Sept (this would be a wait of 14 months!) very untrustworthy - and as much as they need my money due to Covid, I need my money back due to Covid!”
“SCAM warming! All the hotels were cheap and nasty, transfers were unsafe and the trip was poorly planned. This was sold as a luxury holiday via Secret Escapes and it was anything but. The hotels in Thailand were £30 a night (we checked) they were smelly, noisy, unsafe, outdated, dilapidated and terrible all-round. What's more is that Exoticca ignored our attempt to contact them about it, when the finally replied they just fobbed us off so I will go through an official complaint route when home. The planning on their side also had holes which made transfers between locations really stressful. They booked transfers with unsafe companies whose drivers were dangerous and left you clinging to the seats praying to avoid a high-speed crash while the drivers casually used their phone, ate, counted paper money, all while driving in the hard-shoulder at speed on congested roads!!! Do not risk your family or loved ones lives with Exoticca!!! The lesson I learned is never to buy a package trip again. Just do it yourself, get better places to stay and be more in control.”
