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Testimonials

Please have a look at a little of the feedback we have received from clients over the years...

Here at Chile we firmly believe in the feedback of our clients, be it good or bad, as it really is the key to us moving forwards and improving our service and the overall experience. With the price of hotels and flights only on the increase we feel it is important to know where we have gotten things right and where wrong. In the below, please see what our clients are saying about us and judge for yourself. (please note that ALL of the reviews we feature are 100% real and unedited. If you would like to speak to any of our past clients please let us know).

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Hi Nick,

Thanks for your email. All worked out fine, both of us had an amazing time! What a beautiful country.

As requested some feedback below, just note these are the only 'critical' notes we could come up with. Overall we were really satisfied with the arrangements.

1) Hotel Nuss - great location and very friendly and extremely helpful staff. Would definitely recommend.

2) Design Suites Calafate - beautiful hotel, although staff not very helpful nor friendly. Had to find out ourselves that there actually are taxis going to town, but when we asked them they only hinted at the shuttle going in 4 hrs... Out of town (10mins by taxi), probably good to mention. Would not stay in Design Suites next time.

The Big Ice was amazing. We are both young so no problems and probably had our most amazing day, but I guess not all travellers automatically can do this tour as it is physically demanding (good to ask for 'fitness level').

3) Casa Los Juncos Bariloche - a shock when we arrived but once inside absolutely amazing. The owner Gabi was extremely helpful and arranged us a rental car on the spot. You definitely need one here, as its a good 20mins by car out of town. Food was great. Would stay here again.

4) Posada Salentein Tupungato - beautiful location yet far from Mendoza (1:20hr). You definitely need a car here, unfortunately due to its distant location not easy to arrange (suggest to rent straight at airport). Posada itself very nice, great rooms and food was good. Note that there is no choice in dinner, and given the location you must eat there every night, a few other guests were struggling with this as well. Somehow they built this posada without view of the Andes! Weird if you ask me... Nevertheless, Valle de Uco is amazing. Might stay here again (def Valle de Uco though), although the neighbouring posadas look very -if not more- interesting.

5) LOI suites Iguazu - large but beautiful hotel set in midst of jungle. Great food and service. Village itself not very inspiring so the two nights here are sufficient. The Great Adventure trip is really worth it, the falls are awe inspiring. Would stay here again.

Transport was well arranged and comfortable, always on time.

All in all an amazing trip, will recommend you to our friends who are very keen to go after seeing the pictures! Thanks for the arrangements in the short timeframe, worked out without flaws.

Take care,
Rik and Natalie

Rik and Natalie

Trip was great.  El Colibri worked out perfectly for us - great riding and other diversions as well.

Thanks for your help.  Hubby wants to get to Mendoza sometime so I'll be in touch!

Beth and family

Hi Nick,



Sorry for the massively belated reply.



The trip to argentina was absolutely amazing! We both loved it. I am not very good at long drawn out emails so despite the brevity please be assured we had a phenomenal time.



Buenos Aires is beautiful. The hotel you choose for us was perfect, they kindly upgraded us to the suite on the top floor. They could not do enough for us, the decor is wonderful and they are extremely generous. 

In BA we went to the cemetery, popped over to Colonia for lunch and doesn't the day wandering around the city on the lonely planet walking tour (the highlight is the ice cream shop)!



The night bus to cordoba was perfect, I would highly recommend it. If you have any clients that are willing to take it I would encourage they do. The food is terrible but the beds are comfy and there is no wasting any of your time in airports. 



Los Potreros is one of the favourite places we have ever been. It was stunning. The horses are amazing, the Beggs are very hospitable and the guides were brilliant. We had a wonderful time playing polo, herding cattle, rounding horses and galloping up and down the rolling hills - beautiful. They treat the horses so well and the head gaucho was brilliant. I cannot recommend them highly enough. 

Again night bus to Mendoza was perfect.



Lares de Chacras is a funny place. Good value for money but could be so much better. It was nice the food is excellent and the beds comfortable. The staff are friend and helpful they just lack the initiative that would make this place wonderful. The private tour of the vineyards is pricey but well worth it, Ruca Malen is THE place to go for the most wonderful lunch. For a more rustic but equally good and low key lunch Bodega Pulmary. We also went white water rafting and zip lining. The rafting is quite take but food fun. It is a lovely drive in to the Andes and a decent day out for relatively good value (£90 for both of us). 

The internal flights are very good to be fair. Brand new planes with TVs and ok snack food. 



Porto Madryn was fine, the attraction is the Valdes peninsula. The hotel was lovely with great food. The Patagonian Pinot noir is the best pick of the wines. We saw penguins, sea lions, elephant seals, lamas, ostriches and mares. So a decent safari. We also saw seals swimming under the pier. 



We then went back to BA. The mine hotel is ok. No where near as good as the mitico. But fine. Maybe a bit pricey for what they offer. We spent our last two days wandering around Palermo and the race track and polo ground followed by la boca, which is enormously touristy. I am glad we went but only to see. I am sure the food is average as is the tango. 



So that is about it! Thank you also to you Nick for organising us a great trip and your help whilst we were there. It was all impeccably organised. Though the complimentary wine was terrible!! ;0) I have forgotten to mention the tango lesson, this was great fun and the teacher is very good. We then went to the tango show which was good but again very touristy. Which is fine but worth noting. 



So I think that is about it. I hope this is interesting and helpful to you. Most of all we had a wonderful time. Thank you.

Alex and Catherine

Nick organized, with very little warning, a perfect three week honeymoon for us where we managed to see the best of Argentina. The excellent accommodation was complimented by numerous recommendations for activities nearby, and having organized transfers for every destination only added to the seamless nature of the trip. 
 


We had such a great time, the prospect of returning to the UK in January was truly depressing. We are now planning to elope!

Gavin and Vikki

So what can we say? 

Your input and suggestions were extremely helpful. Argentina is such a large country with so much to see, and you helped us select good destinations and helped us decide how much time to spend at each. 

It was nice to have everything planned and mapped out in advance, and it all came together and worked.  It was nice to also have someone there on the ground in Argentina to deal with changes made necessary by flight disruptions. 

You listened to what what we wanted (smaller, local hotels/bed and breakfasts) and arranged a trip consistent with our style of travel and interest. 

We had a GREAT time in Argentina.

Ron and Linda

Hello Nick,


Hosteria El Pilar was wonderful!!  We enjoyed it so much.  The people, the food and the hiking were excellent.

Charlotte

Hi Nick,
 


So sorry for the delay in my response, but I have been completely snowed at work since my return from Argentina and so haven’t had the chance to call or put pen to paper.  Although already a distant memory, I had an amazing time and no complaints (apart from the weather, which was a little wet and at times very wet!)
 


I was lucky enough to get upgraded to business class on the outward journey which was a treat.  Also turned out to be a blessing as I got severely delayed on arrival at the domestic terminal in BA, due to bad weather with many flights delayed or cancelled, so was grateful that I’d had some rest.  
 


The Loi Suites hotel in Iguazu was fantastic – a really quiet and beautiful setting that is still new and fairly unspoilt with good-sized rooms.  Only downside was the number of small kids running around which made it not so quiet, particularly by the pool. (Jo travelled in the main holiday season for the hotel - Ed's note!) The local company who took care of the airport transfers were very professional.
 


Lares de Chacras was probably my favourite hotel of the trip, although looking back I think I stayed one day too long in Mendoza – should have had an extra day in Buenos Aires (actually think you may have advised this when I booked, so my fault for ignoring your advice!)  The staff at Lares were very welcoming and couldn’t do enough for me.  When I ate in the restaurant, they were very happy to prepare anything for me, even if it wasn’t on the menu, and you are really made to feel part of the family there.  I was definitely glad that I’d stayed in Chacras de Coria rather than Mendoza itself.
 


The Nuss Hotel in BA was in a perfect location with some great bars, restaurants and shops very close by.  Thanks for the welcome bottle of wine, much appreciated!
 
Thanks again for all your assistance. 

Joanne

Nick French will show you the heart of Argentina. I thought I had seen everything after five trips, UNTIL I met Nick.

Jennifer

Nick (and the South America Specialists) provides outstanding service – utterly professional, deeply knowledgeable, well connected locally and highly responsive to our requests and emergency needs. We have just booked our second South American trip through him.

Herb and Janine

Myself and my husband booked our tailor made honeymoon through the South America Specialists for October this year. We had an idea of the countries we wanted to travel to but had not fully decided upon our itinerary. Nick was such a help for us in planning out our trip, nothing was too much trouble. We decided upon a 15 night stay to include Argentina and Brazil.

The trip started in Buenos Aires for 3 nights. Upon arriving in BA we were met by a representative at the airport and transferred directly to our hotel. This was fantastic as it took away any stress that arriving in a new continent may have-particularly after having a pretty exhausting few days with our wedding celebrations!.

Our hotel in BA 'The Mine Hotel' was really nice and located in a great area called Palermo-full of bars, restaurants etc. We subsequently flew south to Patagonia to a town called El Calafate. We absolutely loved our stay here. Nick had organised a trip for us to the Porito Moreno Glacier called the 'Big Ice'. This was a 5 hour ice trek on the Glacier which was unforgettable. We booked a 2nd excursion with the transfer company that had collected us at the airport called Estancia Cristina. This was also definitely worth doing. Really stunning scenery.

From El Calafate, our next stop was Bariloche, in the lake district, a 3 hour flight further north. However, due to an erupting volcano in Chile we were diverted to another airport 4 hours north called Esquel. Nick was a great help to us in filling us in on any flight changes.

Our next stop was the Iguazu Falls. Nick had pre-arranged our excursions to both the Argentinian and Brazilian sides of the falls. As our flights had changed, we arrived pretty late the night before our planned full day excursion to the Argentinian side of falls. The local representative was great in re-arranging our itinerary for the following day.

Our final stop was Rio de Janerio which was a fantastic city. Definitely well worth visiting. As usual Nick had booked us into a reasonably priced great hotel just off the Ipanema beach.

We had a fantastic honeymoon. Couldn't recommend the South America Specialists highly enough. As we didn't know of anyone else that had booked through this company we were a little apprehensive about the trip, but it really was unforgettable. Nick was so helpful and showed great local knowledge in booking all of our accommodation and organising our trips.

Brian and Carolyn

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