Blog

We’re on day 2 of our trip and we have realised that we have wasted our money. 4 of us have travelled over from Europe. Aayra failed to pick up 3 out of 4 of us at the airport as promised.

We had a scheduled boat tour and the boat company tried to charge us even though the price was supposed to be included in our package. Luckily we had a copy of our itinerary with us and fought until they let us take our boat ride for free. Our hotel on the first night also asked us for payment which we had to dispute. Be careful – this company has tried to double charge us on multiple costs that were pre-paid according to our itinerary.

Between the 4 of us, we are paying £300 a day. Tonight, we are staying in a hotel that costs 500 rupees if sharing (so we have 2 rooms) and we have to share a bathroom with maybe 40 students. Our room has 2 windows with no glass, no heating, and only 1 blanket even though it’s currently 7 degrees. This is not what we expect for £300 a day.

We have texted the company and had our guide phoned the Aarya and they are completely unresponsive. Do not book with them. I will post more reviews as our trip goes on. If they finally respond to us and the rest of the trip significantly improves, I will be more than happy to provide a revised review of our experience.

I would like to say that our tour guide has been very kind.

Edit: After only 3 hours of sleep due to the cold and excessive noise from the other guests, this morning we found out that there are rooms with private baths and hot showers for around 1000 rupees a night. This is a dishonest travel company. Not to mention that we’ve had wait in a queue to use the toilet for 20 minutes because there is only 2 toilets and 1 hot shower for around 40 guests.

Edit after our trip:

I promised to revise my review at the end of our tour and after e heard back from the tour company.

The tour company has replied to my review with lies (Trust Pilot, I am more than happy to show emails and the WhatsApp chats that prove that they lied in their review).

After my complaint online, Binod phoned and was extremely rude to me. He called me a liar and tried to blame some mistakes on a fellow traveller (a friend who booked seperately, for a longer trip). His attitude was completely unacceptable. Any business that calls its customers liars will not succeed. He also shouted at our tour guide as a response to our complaint, which is A) unprofessional and B) whom as far as we know was very helpful and a good tour guide and this response was completely unnecessary.

The day after my call with Binod, Mr Sudharsan came to pick us up and escort us to our new hotel and took the time to speak with us. He was far nicer than Binod and eventually after a lengthy discussion, admitted the company’s mistakes. We appreciated the effort put in to have a face-to-face discussion, however, nothing happened after this discussion. Actions are required so this was a big disappointment for us.

A couple days later we went to Chitwan. Our itinerary upon arrival at Chitwan differed from our agreed itinerary over email and the itinerary Mr. Sudharsan gave us. Again, we complained and after this complaint, one of the missed items was added in last minute (we were very keen to see the baby elephants), but we didn’t get to ride in a tuk-tuk as mentioned in our meeting which was a further disappointment.

To the travel company’s credit, they did offer us a free cultural meal on our last day as an apology. This was very nice of them.

However, despite this very small token, I can not recommend this company. If you have travelled before and are comfortable with a bit of negotiation, I would suggestion organising your own trip. You will save a significant amount of money and there will be less stress.

We have spent the last 3 days organising our own travel, including hiking, city discovery and hotels and are having a better experience, with less stress and at a fraction of the cost. Nepal is a fascinating country and well worth exploring!

Edit 22 Nov – I have not lied. The tour guide told us that we spoke to Binod. If it wasn’t Binod, I apologise for using his name. However, the person we did speak to was disrespectful and rude. He should be fired for speaking to a customer so rudely. I have no revisions to make as the above are the true and accurate experiences of our trip. I don’t see how I can send photographic evidence to TrustPilot, but they have my email address from my account and I am still more than happy to send on screen shots of the WhatsApp chat where no one responds to my questions, of our pre-agreed itinerary via email and the chats where we complained that our actual trip didn’t match our pre-agreed itinerary, and also the email confirming that we would land at 9:20 when we were no picked up for 30 minutes (after we called to complain). Stop lying. There is proof that you have done wrong. If you had admitted your mistakes at the start, our holiday would have been more enjoyable. Instead we are being forced to constantly defend ourselves and have been called names and been disrespected.

Date of experience: November 15, 2018