Intrepid Travel
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Delightful trip to South Korea, but definitely overpriced
Delightful trip to South Korea, with an interesting itinerary across the country (maybe reducing one day in Shokso and adding Jeju island from Busan would have made it even better without increasing the overall duration of the trip, and also adding the Seoul Tour on the first night or last day after breakfast - which was theoretically included but the hotel didn't acknowledge) and an amazing tour guide who literally immersed us not only in the places but also in the socio-political, economic and cultural context of the country in a fun and enjoyable, dynamic storytelling, while catering for the needs of every traveller during the trip (dietary, luggage, etc). Sleeping in the traditional village, and Busan were really nice. Also positively impressed about the BCorp certification and the commitment to sustainability and communities. However, two important issues to be mentioned: 1- Back end customer service: after receiving the standard group emails with very generic instructions that seem to apply equally to both premium and basic trips or northern and southern hemispheres.... and are never adapted to the specific programme booked, we struggled to get a response from the customer care service. It took them days to reply to our questions regarding the programme, luggage details and technology doubts e.g. mobile phones or SIMs. When we asked about further details (e.g. about clothing requirements for the DMZ), we got truly generic responses such as: "Business Casual means smart casual. So just don't dress scruffy... no ripped jeans or beach wear. A nice pair of trousers and a t-shirt / shirt or a dress. I would always recommend insect repellant in any country, espescailly Asia." And when we replied saying that we had already figured out some of the responses via internet, we got the response: "Ah that's good that you found more specific instructions about the attire for that visit, I was just explaining in a general sense what business casual meant - not specially for this trip." So, no bother to ask for specific questions about a specific trip... you'll get universal responses that are useless (now I understand why some travellers encountered significant issues with inadequacy of their luggage for the particular trip). We ended up resolving all of our doubts by browsing internet, getting tips from travellers blogs or other travel agencies. Also, we were hoping to avail from any group transfer from the airport, given that we had provided our flight details, but apparently this information was held to no purpose at all. They argued that we couldn't communicate with other travellers ahead of the trip (we were actually expecting them to group us in a single transfer if arriving in the span of a close timeframe) and said that we were all probably arriving on different days and times (which was not even checked, based on the standard response). 2.- Heavily over priced (referred to as Premium price but no premium quality, by other reviewers): while we had no reference about the costs of services in South Korea, we assumed that the cost was correct. However, as we went along the tour (which only covered from arrival to hotel to final departure of the hotel, flight not included) and realized that the acommodation was quite average, most of the transits were via public transport which is quite cheap, and the vast majority of the meals and activities were not included, we started to question whether the price was proportional to the services provided, as the only added value was the tour guide which was a cost that would be prorated amongst all travellers in our group. As other reviewers mentioned, you will likely save at least half of the price from every single booking (public transport, hotels and activities), and could hire a local guide. Just to validate this assumption, I then consulted the itinerary of another trip to Mediterranean countries which I know pretty well, and verified that the cost was crazy expensive, considering local cost of living and even regular cost of typical tourist activities. If you are a wanderlust traveller, I would recommend to search for other travel agencies and I will do that myself, as you could go on two international trips for the cost of a single one with Intrepid Travel, and have same or even better wonderful travel experience.