Adventure Tour Operators

[clabrams]

I would like to get feedback from anyone who has taken a Thailand tour with:

Overseas Adventure Travel

Intrepid Travel

World Expeditions

Journeys Within

Guides, fellow, travelers, trip itinerary, food (too spicy?), overall opinion of the tour operator.

Edited April 10, 2005 by clabrams

[ProfessorFart]

My bugbear is that these companies always claim to be showing you the 'real Thailand' and 'getting you off the beaten track' yet really do nothing of the sort. OK they may take you to the back of beyond but it is merely a gimmick to give an illusion of exclusivity.

For me they seem to be letting everyone down through using poorly paid and poorly qualified tour leaders and guides who seem to be hanging on in Thailand for some extended holiday or gap year and being a tour leader is a way of making ends meet.

However, having met many people involved with such companies over the years, they often admit that they have to make such claims to sell their tours and their key responsibility is to get their punters around as safely as possible whilst fulfilling their expectations of what a tour of Thailand should be and everyone seems happy enough.

At the end of the day they are merely package tours saving you the hassle of doing it independently but don't expect any major insights until they start using guides with more knowledge of the country.