Holiday review by Mr. Phil Holmes

Name: Mr. Phil Holmes

Date of trip: 04/01/2018

Number of people: 2

The Grace. Snorkelling and swimming amongst turtles, and (to a lesser extent) hammerheads, white tips, marine iguanas, penguins and sea lions. The location of Boaque del Cabo.

  • Internal patio at Casa Gangotena in Quito, Ecuador © © Casa Gangotena

    Internal patio at Casa Gangotena in Quito, Ecuador

  • Grace Galapagos yacht at sunset

     

  • Outdoor seating area on Grace

     

  • Grace Kelly suite

     

  • Drinks and meals on deck

     

  • Hotel del Parque in Guayaquil

     

  • Signature room at Hotel del Parque

     

  • Hotel del Parque reading room

     

  • Hotel del Parque courtyard

     

  • Bosque del Cabo

     

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Tribes Overall:

All very much as we hoped. Detailed comments against the locations.

Tribes Service:

Everything worked very well.

Guides:

All excellent.

The first guide was Esteban in Quito. He was a little late picking us up at the airport on arrival (we were business class and with only hand baggage) but otherwise fantastic.

Guides on Grace were excellent. They gave a good briefing on snorkelling which persuaded us to join in.

Ditto excellent and knowledgeable guides at El Silencio and Bosque del Cabo.

Social & Environmental Responsibility:

Clearly the tourism industry provides employment and almost all the people - whether guides, managers, waiters or whatever - were local. It would seem that without tourism in many of these locations then the unique ecologies could well be under threat.


The places you stayed

Internal patio at Casa Gangotena in Quito, Ecuador © © Casa Gangotena

Casa Gangotena

Quito

Lovely hotel in a lovely location. Good food in the restaurant and good service.


Grace Galapagos yacht at sunset

Grace

Galapagos Islands

It seems odd to start with a comment about cleaning, but I was astounded at how smart they kept it and how clean they kept the rooms. With a relatively small crew it was amazing.

I think it would have been better if they had done all drinks on a fully inclusive basis (as happens at all the African locations we've been to). There is a $400 option to get a drinks weekly "season" but initially the manager said it had to be pre-booked. In the event we persuaded her that should not be the case.

Food was good and we got on very well with the other passengers - mostly British, some USA and two Italians. One of the US passengers was "Six-time Tony Winner Miles Wilkin"!

Sea passage was smooth and we had no problems whatever with motion sickness. Jet lag notwithstanding we slept well with the aircon working very well.


Hotel del Parque in Guayaquil

Hotel del Parque

Ecuador

Difficult to comment in depth because we arrived much later than planned. As a result, we just about checked in, had room service, slept and had breakfast before leaving. It looked like a really nice place tho'.


Bosque del Cabo

Bosque del Cabo

Costa Rica

Good trip there - Cessna was good and interesting quite short road transfer. Location is fantastic. Our cabin had views over the Pacific and we could sit outside and watch monkeys, coati, toucans, etc. whilst looking over the sea. We didn't go down to the sea - it was described as a fairly tough set of steps so we didn't bother. Good birding trips and a very interesting 4 hours guided walk by their local resident biologist. Food and service were very good.