Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor suck !

The reality of the recommended travel agencies in Arequipa

By Henry Thorndike

Arequipa is the second most important city in Peru and it is well-known because it is the place where you can find active volcanoes such as Ubinas and of course it is the place where the deepest world canyons: Colca and Cotahuasi are located.

I decided to stay some days in Arequipa because I wanted to do some mountainclimbing in Arequipa and I was really interested to climb Ampato ,the mountain where Juanita “The snowmaiden” was found.

I visited several travel agencies specially those recommended by the Lonely Planet Guidebook and Trip Advisor.

At the beginning I was really confused because of the big difference between the prices but then I realized that the prices are different because there are very good travel agencies and there are others whose quality service is chaotic.

I started with the well-known Carlos Zarate and it was dissapointing for me because when I visited his travel agency the people there couldn´t speak English fluently. ¿How can that be?

The I moved to Ivan Jimenez travel agency called Quechua Explorer which is very popular in Arequipa. The girls there couldn´t speak English . I needed more information and they just show me a piece of paper with very basic information .

I wanted to see the equipment they use for the mountainclimbing and it was terrible.The equipment was really basic and old.For such expeditions a montainclimber has specific needs and as I realized the quality standards here in Arequipa are very poor.

Then I visited Colonial Tours who offer me not just the Colca Canyon Tour but also mountainclimbing. It was notorius that there was not even a backpack in the place,not a piece of equipment of all the tours they offer.

Besides from mountainclimbing they offer river rafting,mountainbiking and I realized that the old lady there is just another travel agency who survives thanks to commsissions!

That is why it is important not to buy adventure tours anywhere! Since adventure sports have a certain degree of risk a traveller has to look for security and guarantee.The worst option is to buy a tour inside hotels don´t ever do that!

I found out that all the travel agencies in Arequipa have very cheap prices because they pool their clients.For example if anybody wants to do mountainbiking everybody offers you DOWNHILL CHACHANI and you travel with a very cheap operator.

If anybody wants to climb a volcano in Arequipa literrally 99% of the travel agencies endorse their clients to Quechua Explorer and this travel agency pays a very high commissions to all the travel agencies which endorse their clients to them!That is why the equipment is terrible! Sustainable tourism in Arequipa? I don´t think so.

All these travel agencies have something in common: POOR QUALITY STANDARDS ,NON ENGLISH SPEAKING TRAVEL AGENTS AND ALL OF THEM ARE RECOMMENDED BY LONELY PLANET and TRIP ADVISOR!

To appear in Lonely Planet it is suppossed that the tourists write letters to the the guidebook so after a specific quantity of recommendations they are visited by a representative of Lonely Planet who invites them to appear in the guidebook and it costs 500 US.

I understand Lonely Planet it is another businness but al least they should qualify the travel agencies of Arequipa according to specific quality standards. How can a travel agency recommended by Lonely Planet not to have people who speaks English? It is a shame!
A written piece of paper with the program doesn ´t mean profesional!

I hope Lonely Planet guys take this advice into consideration because thanks to us tourists you keep your guidebooks in circulation. Do a better job please beause until the moment Lonely Planet sucks and Trip Advisor too!

The worst tour guides are from Colonial Tours

Tourists complain against Colonial Tours from Arequipa

by the Colca Specialist

I was reading Trip Advisor just few minutes ago and I saw this comments which I consider very useful so I decided to republish them here.

What is happening with travel agencies in Arequipa? It seems that they just care about filling their vans and buses with lots of tourists! What about the service? What about the clients?

It seems to me that these guys from Colonial Tours they just care about making money and not about the tourists.

Tourists are clients. Without them Colonial Tours is nothing.

Tourist are human beings not walking US DOLLARS notes.They are not walking credit cards my friends so it would be better if you recognize that your service is not good.

If you want to continue in this businness better think it twice because if you continue working the same way you will end on the street.

If you have problems with the tour guides is because you are cheap and stingy. Colonial Tours don´t have good tour guides because they are exploited and not well paid. That´s the main problem in Arequipa. Travel agencies don´t work with professional tour guides but with youngsters who need to work.Exploitation is everywhere in Southamerica. Peru in not the exception. Corruption is another disease that affects tourism in Arequipa too.

How good can be a 23 year old tour guide who has NO EXPERIENCE?

How good can be a 23 year old tour guide who is thinking about making a 10 soles commission per passenger?

How good can be a tour guide who is NOT FROM THE AREA who just know local discoteques and touristic restaurants?

To be a tourist doesn´t mean to be stupid!

As tourists we need to be sustainable too. We should NOT travel with companies that are just exploiting their workers!

Besides the voice of tourists should be heard too. Clients in the past they complained and their voices were never heard but thanks to internet the voice of the clients can be heard very loud all around the world. The compalints are a good oportunity to see what is wrong with our service in order to improve it. The decision is in your hands.

I recommend all foreign visitors to read this blog and if you like you can download the information about the Colca Valley and the Colca Canyon which is very useful for those tourists who are seeking for the local culture. Thank you very much for your attention and don´t forget that this virtual magazine is dedicated to all my tourists around the world.

The Colca Specialist

Complaint against Colonial Tours (taken from Trip Advisor)

We booked our 2-day trip to Colca Canyon Through our hotel and the company They Used WAS Colonial Tours. The canyon itself is well worth seeing but I am sure the experience could have been a lot better with a more professional company.

The canyon is well worth seeing Itself But I am sure the experience Could Have Been a Lot Better With A more professional company.

Right from the start it was clear that our guide wasn't going to speak much English, although the tour was supposed to be both in Spanish and English.
Luckily we understood some Spanish but I have to say that even then his commentaries and instructions weren't that clear.

All the way through the trip, he failed to tell us at each stop where we were; how long we were stopping for; what was worth seeing in the place; etc. 

Basically there was a complete lack of communication.During the 2 days, we learned hardly anything about the area.  He only bothered to say something if someone asked a question and even then the question wasn't repeated and the answer very vague.We approached the guide and told him that we felt completely ignored and weren't very happy about the tour.

This made no difference. Colca Canyon was an amazing place and I would definitely return to the area. However, I will never use Colonial Tours again! Esta crítica es la opinión subjetiva de un miembro de TripAdvisor, no de TripAdvisor LLC.

Another complaint taken from Trip Advisor

“Colca Canyon with Colonial Tours - Not recommended”

Our hostal in Arequipa (Colonial House Inn) set up a Colca Canyon tour with Colonial Tours. We had a very negative experience with Colonial Tours and I would not recommend them to anyone. We feel that we wasted our S/65 plus the S/35 required to enter the Chivay area. (Total = S/100 per person.)

Leo, our guide, made us feel like he could not be bothered speaking English since we were two of the few English speakers on the tour. The tour we were sold was supposed to include a 2 hour trek in Coporaque on the first day, which our guide felt was too much effort. (Instead, we stopped no less than 6 times on the way out to Chivay including a 45+ minute stop for snacks and tea at a restaurant. Granted a couple of the stops were decent, such as when we stopped to see Vicunas, but many of them were unnecessary.) Leo seemed much more interested in trying to get us to eat at overpriced (S/25) buffet restaurants for both lunch and dinner and I wouldn't be surprised if he was getting a cut of the profits. We did at least go to the hot springs in the afternoon (which cost another S/10 per person).

Rather than getting our group going at 6am so we could have as much time at the canyon as possible, he moved our start time to 7am. (His rationale was that it was New Year's Eve and some people wanted to stay up till midnight. It was obvious his bias was a later start time and he only seemed willing to listen to the people who agreed with him rather than sticking with the tour schedule that was sold to us.) The later start time made us late arriving at at Cruz del Condor and cut our time there in half. We then returned for another overpriced lunch (S/25) in Chivay.

Of the 4 hours we were most interested in (2 hours trekking and 2 hours at Cruz del Condor), the tour only delivered 1 hour at Colca Canyon itself. We felt ripped off at having to pay a S/35 fee at the entrance to Chivay when 90% of our tour was shelling out money to overpriced restaurants in Chivay itself.

If I were to redo things, I'd head straight for Cabanaconde (dodging the S/35 fee at Chivay) and set up a hiking excursion there. Note that the Colca Canyon at Cruz del Condor is only 1200 meters. Compare that to the 1800 meter depth of the Grand Canyon and you might be a bit disappointed. The deepest part of the Colca Canyon (4160 meters) is near Cabaconde, so I suspect the views from there are more impressive.

The worst one day tour to Colca Canyon

by Lisa Cooper

Finland

COLONIAL TOURS AREQUIPA

The other day I had the opportunity of taking a one-day tour with Colonial Tours wich is much recommended by Trip Advisor . We were picked up at 03:00 am in the morning for a one day tour to the Colca Canyon. The van was OK and the driver too. But the tour guide is the reason of this article.

The tour guide we had was a complete disaster and the English he spoke was really bad and we didn´t understand anything of the things he said.

How can be Colonial Tours be recommended by Trip Advisor? Colonial Tours service is terrible. The guide was not a professional guide because a professional guide introduces himself at the beginning of the tour. After that he should give a briefing of the tour and that never happened.
Hopefully we didn´t took the two day tour to the Colca Canyon. Two days with the same guide would have been terrible.

When we arrive to Chivay we were taken to a restaurant to have breakfast and then we continued with the tour.

He started to talk about the terraces in Colca Valley and he said that terraces “were carved” on the walls of the Colca Valley! Carved? Oh my God! Where did he study to be a tour guide? Then he continue talking about the wonderful terraces in Cusco area and how they were built. I don´t know if he realized that we were in Colca Valley and we wanted to know more about the place. His way of speaking English made me thought in some moments that he was drunk!

Then he stopped explaining and he started saying that he was a shaman and that he was not married. Those were the most dumb comments we ever heard during the tour.Another tour guide playing the inca game to call attention of the gringos.

We met other tour guides who were explaining their groups about the people, about their culture and traditions,etc and the one we had just spoke about the terraces of Cusco area and lots of nonsense about the condors. Does a condor live 80 years?

I don´t plan to recommend Colonial Tours in Arequipa because the service given was very low quality. I came to Peru because my main interest was to know more about the inca and preinca Peruvian cultures. Colca Valley and Colca Canyon are very interesting, but because of that terrible tour guide I feel that my holidays in Colca Canyon were just a waste of time.

I would like to thank the Colca Specialist for the wonderful free information published about Colca Valley and Colca Canyon and the next time if I come back to Colca Canyon I am planning to print the information in order to have a good cultural background of Colca Canyon.

Lisa Cooper
Finland.