Quito To Rio (15 Weeks) Kingdoms & Carnivals

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  Jon
  Written on July 19, 2010

  5.0 - Excellent

  My first overland trip, and did not disappoint. Four months on the road in South America with a fantastic group and great crew whose local knowledge and overlanding know-how was matched only by their enthusiasm, which seemed to spread to the rest of the group. As for Oasis, the standard of the transport, meals and accommodation is as good as, if not better, any I have seen from other overland companies. I cannot understand, therefore, just why they are so much cheaper. I can only assume they are less profit-driven than other companies, and that they manage to somehow make the money go further. I think it speaks volumes that last year (2009) I had no hesitations whatsoever in travelling with Oasis again in Africa, and would travel with them wherever they decided to run trips in the future. Overall, I really cannot speak of them highly enough.

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  Anonymous
  Written on March 13, 2009

  This was my third Oasis Overland trip and I have to say that I was extremely disapointed. This trip had the potential to be the best of their catalogue but was let down due to a lack of information provided and professionalism from the tour leader and driver. I have come to expect a high standard from Oasis Overland and this was not the case for this trip. The tour leader and driver had not done the leg from Santiago to Rio De Janeiro so had little information to provide. It also seemed that the notes provided by the previous leader and driver were insufficient and at times completely misleading. Oasis have been doing this trip for a number of years and I would expect much more information to be at hand. We travelled in Parallel with a number of other budget overland trucks and more often than not got our information from the tour leaders from these trucks. Two in particluar were more than helpful even though they new we were on a competitors truck. These were Kamuka and Budget. To make things worse the tour leader and driver on Oasis had no or little time for the passengers and seemed unwilling to help or provide information when asked. They were more interested in getting to the next destination as quick as possible so they could start drinking again. The redemming factors of the trip were the Inca trail and Machu Picchu which is spectacular, the down hill mountain biking on the most dangerous road in the world in Bolivia, the condors at Colca Canyon, Piranha fishing in the Pantanel in Brazil and the Vilcarra Volcano climb. Basically being on the truck sucked but the activities and sites were amazing. This trip finished in Rio in Brazil and by this time a number of the passengers had had enough and agreed the trip couldn't have ended soon enough. Rio completely took our mind off the trip and we had the best party of our lives. If you are looking for the biggest and best party atmosphere in the world, make the effort and travel to Rio for Carnaval. It would be my suggestion that if you were thinking about doing South America, do an organised tour between Quito and Santiago, as these countries are much proorer, more dangerous and harder to travel between. Then travel the rest independantly. From Chile right through to Brazil it is easy and safe to travel and would not work out to be that much more expensive if at all. However if you are going to do an organised tour all the way, I would NOT use Oasis for this tour but would highly consider either Kamuka or Budget.