Adrian Allen
3/5
I didn't want to come away with bad feeling about this small company. We travelled to Bhutan with them earlier in the year, our consultant Jade Eaton was wonderful, consistently friendly, gracious, patient and helpful. But just because me and my PhD a couple of issues with our guide, who we did also praise in some ways, and one of the more expensive hotels not giving us the best experience, it seems we're not welcome to book another trip with them. Having recently dealt with a personal tragedy, I was actually looking forward to contacting them to plan our next trip, but in conversation with the manager Karina Morton, she made excuses about being 'nervous'to send me to Mongolia because of a food poisoning episode I had in Bhutan, despite previously assuring me they had their own top chefs and there's be no risk, and that we couldn't go to Myanmar because of the Rohingya crisis. But what really annoyed me and my partner was when she kept saying 'panoramic journeys did all we could to look after you when you were ill' and 'we tried our best to give you a good holiday'. Firstly, I had never until now had anything but praise for them as a company, secondly, the trip cost us just over £16,000, so the least a customer should expect is to be 'looked after' and 'given a good holiday'. I have travelled extensively and never had a tour operator make me feel so rejected, so belittled and unvalued as a client. God forbid I criticised the guide and that we had problems with one hotel. She seemed to imply also that I only want to stay in luxury hotels, which considering she doesn't know me is nonsense, I've had some of best travel experiences in very cheap but characterful places. As I said, Jade is brilliant, maybe the manager just isn't very sensitive when it comes to dealing with customers.
