11 Gecko's Adventures tour reviews shared by other travellers

This tour was fantastic. The tour leader was great. Very pleased this with our selection of tour/provider.

i had a amazing trip!! the best trip ive ever been on. its was better than i thought it would be and our tour guide, fred mekenzie was awesome!! aswell as henry our cook and james our driver! i would recommened this trip to anyone. i wish i was still there. the only bad thing to say, is that the travel time (on the road) was not the real time estimated, despite traffic!

Walid was great 10/10, the logistics and organizing was flawless. We were always well briefed on what to expect. The overnight train from Cairo to Aswan was a little long and tiring and I would recommend flying instead, not just to save the 14 travel hours but also to prevent the fatigue felt the next day. I would have preferred to have spent an extra day in Aswan and less time in Cairo (after Mt Sinai was cancelled). Also the floor mosaic in Jordan wasn't of much interest. Dead sea swim is a must do, as is the hot air balloon at Luxor. Everything else was incredible and we had a great time. Thank you Geckos.

I couldn't be happier with how this particular trip went. Our guide was amazing. This trip gave everyone of us on it the chance to see the REAL Vietnamese people and take a close look at there day to day living styles and habits. What we see as being a struggle in our own lives is some what normal for these people and so we all walked away with a new found appreciation for even the smallest things that we have. A great cultural experience that I think everyone should experience. And a most beautiful place to visit.

great to see both countries!! It was a good taste of northern India and Varanasi was definitely a highlight!! Wouldnt have enjoyed India as much without it! and Nepal is so amazing! fantastoc to do it after India coz much more chilled and you can get right into it. Lumbini, buddha's birthplace was the perfect place to chill post india and then Chitwan national park so so gorgeous, great little village we stay in loved the elephant rides and canoeing and then Kathmandu is so awesome!! definitley stay on for a few days to explore the city! ill be going back to Nepal for sure!!

This was a fabulous tour. I would thoroughly re commend a visit to Ecuador and Peru. Ecuador is the under recognised South American country. It has amazing scenery, great adventure and thrill seeking activities, is safe and incredibly cheap. Peru was fantastic, I have always wanted to see the Inca ruins and I certainly got my wish! Machu Picchu was absolutely breath taking. The guides were knowledgeable and encouraging and arriving at the Sun Gate after 3 long days of trekking will remain with me for ever. The island homestay on Amanati Island was amazing, to spent time with a family is a grat experience. You barely see Bolivia in this tour, but what you do see can be confronting as it is quite a lot poorer than the other 2 countries.

Go! Do it! If you are going to pay to go all the way to Africa, this 3 weeks is an amazing experience. Doing the gorilla trip first was worth every cent. Uganda is a little less civilised than Kenya and Tanzania - for example, the electricity doesn't work very often - but even though thrashing around the country for days in a van was a bit uncomfortable, you really get to see the country and the people. Seeing the gorillas is indescribable. You are supposed to stay 7 metres away from them, but they don't know that. They pushed through our group and even kissed one guys hand! We were very lucky and only had to walk for an hour before we saw them - not everyne is so lucky. The 2 days on Bushara Island with really hot showers were quiet but very enjoyable. The 2 week safari in the truck is long but rewarding. Though our guide recommended doing it in migration time, I disagree. We saw tens of thousands of animals and there were a lot less tourists around than in peak time. I've been to South Africa and Zambia before and never saw so many animals there. The Gecko's truck provides terrific viewing, way above everyone else, and our guide could spot and identify animals we had trouble seeeing at first. BUT. Africa is not Australia. Everything is at least a little different. If you order a hamburger, it will not be a hamburger as you know it. Cold drinks can be few and far between - the locals are happy to drink beer off the shelf. Coffees are hard to come by, and then the milk tastes different. Don't expect anything to be quite what it is at home. But why travel, if everything is going to be the same? So, I highly recommend this trip, but not if you are a prince or princess type. It can be uncomfortable, and you do need to help with tents and the general camp duties. But it is worth every minor discomfort.

I'm 29yrs old and went solo with Gecko. I'm not a precious or high maintenance person so I was pleasantly surprised with everything. I’m not a fan of the squatting toilets in Thailand but I got over it. The Overland Indochina tour runs for 10 days starting in Vietnam, tours Cambodia the longest and finishes in Thailand. Our group crossed paths with other Gecko groups but I’m convinced our group was the most fun. We were aged between 25-31yrs and predominantly from Australia with the exception of one couple who was from Switzerland. I was concerned with the accommodation as it suggested taking a 'backpack' for the lack of lifts at hotels and crossing borders?!?! But lack of lifts are not a problem, there are bus boys that are very willing to carry bags at hotels. With border crossing, just have a suitcase with wheels. You do have to walk 100-200m with your own luggage. I took a duffel bag-type suitcase with the extendable handle and 2 wheels. The hotels are chosen by the local tour leaders for its comfort, cleanliness and compliance to Gecko's safety standards. They were all equivalent 3-3.5star to Australian standards. I later stayed at a 5 star resort in Phuket on my way home and the places in Cambodia were pretty much the same! They are not shy of air conditioning! Mittapheap in Phnom Penh was tops and City River Hotel in Siem Reap was my favourite place for having a decent buffet breakfast. The Royal Saigon in Ho Chi Minh was about a 2 star but so close to everything. Travel was done in air-conditioned mini buses with very experienced drivers. It’s a wonder that a whole days travel would only clock up 300kms as road conditions are not as good as developed nations. Tipping is not mandatory but the envelope goes around for the well deserving drivers and tour guides. I was very generous with my tipping and not so hard on my bargaining because I anything I spent was relative to my dollar at home. I waste more money on useless things here than they make in a year. Our tour guides were good guys. The stand out favourite was Kheang in Cambodia. If there was ever a free night with an optional dinner, we all put our hand up. He couldn’t get a night off with us! None of us had anything to complain about, there were no injuries or brush with crime. Some did get head colds but we just kept going as there's so much to see. Generally, the tour for me was AMAZING. Ho Chi Minh was an eye opener with chaotic yet organised traffic. I once saw a man on a scooter carrying a large fridge. Cambodia was my favourite place. It’s not every day you get to see the largest religious monument in the world (Angkor Wat) built in the 13th century. By the time I got to Thailand, I was pretty Royal Palaced out and tired of Tuk Tuks. I did love bargaining at the market. Who knew you could bargain on a calculator and not exchange a single word! If you’re the type of person to sit by a beach or go shopping, this tour is not for you. I took in so much history and culture, I find Melbourne quite boring now. Some tips: If you keep in mind that these countries are close to 3rd World and still developing, you'll have a good time. If your tour leader recommends a dish from the menu or suggests you do something, just do it. Take coloured pencils for the kids who beg for money. Better than giving them money. Safe travels

The first part of the tour was good because of Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Zanzibar, though you really must find a better camp site in Serengeti, ours was really bad. And it's not the only one, the camp site in Lilongwe, among others, was also very bad. And about the campsites, it would really help to have some tables, not just chairs. Some other overlanders had them and it makes a big difference at meals time for comfort and communication purposes. We even saw other groups with candles! In a camp with no electricity it was very helpful and even contributed to the atmosphere. The guide was not well organised sometimes. Some people missed the Hot Air Balloon flight over the Serengeti because he couldn't get the 3rd car and driver ready on time and we got there about 2 hours late. Most of the time we left later than announced, other times he asked us to be ready very early when it wasn't necessary at all, considering that we would arrive early to a destination where there was absolutely nothing to do! Once he made us have breakfast at 6 am and lunch at 9 am! Even when it was more than enough time during that day to have lunch at a decent time! Also, when the day is scheduled to start very early, like 4 am, it would be better to have packed breakfast in the truck, that would save a lot of time. Especially when you know it's a long driving day and it's much better to get to the destination before dark. The cook was very irregular, some times food wasn't bad for a camp site but other times it seems like he put half a salt packet in the pot, so I had to try a little bit of everything before dishing, to make sure I could eat it. Another thing to consider is that when a trip, like this, is scheduled to celebrate important holidays en route, you really should organise something for the whole group to celebrate together. The company that we traveled with on a previous trip did that and it really contributed to the group spirit. Everyone wants to celebrate Christmas or New Year and just a little gesture means a lot. For example with the other company we had a dinner and an exchange of little gifts and they had booked a place for all of us for New Year's Eve. And speaking about Christmas, you should have told us that the visit to the orphanage in Arusha was cancelled because of the holidays. We made the effort of buying some stationery for the kids and carry it with us for days, only to find out that that visit wasn't happening. Was it so hard to let us know beforehand? We felt cheated about the optional called "Visit to a Masai Village". It was anything but a Masai village, some Masai drove from time to time through the village on their bicycles but they didn't really live there. We saw some tourists visiting Masai villages on our way through Ngorongoro and we felt really disappointed that we weren't given a chance to do that, which could have been one of the highlights of the trip. A lot of time was wasted. Why can't the cook go shopping on his own instead of leaving us stranded for 2 hours in Arusha (and other places) with nothing to do? It always seemed like the stops and destinations were organised to suit the driver, the cook and the guide, never thinking of the travellers. We even felt that some overnight stops were not necessary at all and it appear as though we were sleeping there just for the convenience of the crew. The tents are an absolute nightmare to put up and down, so heavy and complicated! Even worse when it had to be done at night or when it was raining. And then next day they were all muddy and dirty and became super heavy and very difficult to fold. You really should have friendlier tents! Malawi was not worth it at all and although the lodge in South Luangwa was great, it was way too much hassle to get to South Luangwa (the roads were terrible), and the park was nothing special, so it also wasn't worth it. This was not our first overland trip and the last time, with a different company, the guide really managed to get a lovely group spirit, even with a great variety of ages and nationalities. I can't say the same of this guide, who very seldom interacted with the group and wasn't really helpful. The worst of this trip is that a lot of days were terribly boring. I can understand that the roads and distances in Africa make it difficult to find interesting sites and things to do every day, but I really think it should be better designed. We spent so much time in that awful truck doing nothing and then arriving at camps that were far away from everything! We couldn't even get a glimpse of the cities we went though, let alone visit a museum, a village, a traditional show, a craft market, etc. The only thing we could do was get to the camp site bar and stuff ourselves with beer. A couple of nights a week is fine, but everyday? Boring!!! By the way, there was almost no opportunity to buy some crafts on our way, which was also very disappointing. Some people ended up buying some hand painted T-Shirts in Lake Malawi with the map of the trip on the back. That let us thinking that it could be a good idea to design nice T-shirts with the route and your logo and just add them to the trip price. We also felt cheated by the company we chose, which was not Gecko's. I like Australian people and the travellers in our group were a great bunch, but if I had enough information beforehand I wouldn't have chosen a tour managed by an Australian company because I'd prefer to interact with people from different cultures and not feel like we are the only outsiders in a group where everyone else shares the same background. We booked with Imaginative Traveller and only at the last minute were we informed that they didn't operate the tour themselves. I know that it's not your fault buy maybe you should know about the flaws of your partner company. The communication with ImTrav was always very difficult, like they were keeping us at a distance. We never felt supported by them, like we really did when we booked with another british company some time ago. Finally, we also felt like we wasted many great photo opportunities en route. A lot of us had good cameras with us and really wanted to make the best of this trip in that regard but there was no way we could communicate with the driver to ask him to stop for a few shots on our way. I think you should consider at least a few stops at interesting places en route; lunch and toilet are not the only stops a traveller needs! In short, one of the few trips in my life (and I've traveled a lot) where I was actually looking forward to the last day. We were not happy and it was evident in the fact that we didn't tip anyone in the crew, even when my South African partner comes from a big tipping culture and always tends to overtip! And I think we were not the only ones, as we got a chance to talk with other people in our group and apparently all of them decided to show their unhappiness restraining themselves from tipping. What other way does one have? No, thank you, I wouldn't recommend this tour to anyone and would't travel with Gecko's again.

Considering what we paid, we were happy with the transportation and the quality of the hotels for the price and given the towns we were in (some smaller, very developing areas - so don't expect Hilton's, etc). The guide left a little something to be desired, as he stirred us in the wrong direction on numerous occasions because of financial incentives for him (a few bad restaurants, a few overpriced shops) - but when confronted with this, he said this was the nature of travel in India (the guides all make commissions off of their recommendations). This may be the case, but I wish he wasn't so obvious about it.