Salamander Adventures Reviews

Name: Salamander Adventures
Rating: 4.92

4.9 Rating 203 Reviews

99 %

of reviewers recommend Salamander Adventures

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4.9

Based on 203 reviews


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Salamander Adventures 5 star review on 31st October 2023

Craig Henrichsen

143

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Rated 4 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“I enjoyed the Tour du Mont Blanc but I would recommend this trip with reservations. The group of people was lovely. The scenery was simply breathtaking. I consider myself fit and the hiking was challenging, uneven, and steep. Constant vigilance was needed to prevent twisted ankles and worse. But yet, I enjoyed it. The only thing that diminished my experience was our guide, Dave. He was the type of guy who would take his kid on a road trip across the county and wouldn’t stop for ice cream… but they arrive at the exact day and time dad planned - meanwhile the kid didn’t have much fun. Sorta missed the point of the road trip with your kid. He seemed to be a nice enough guy and got us from place to place safely but overall my adventure often felt rushed and I was given little to no information about what the day held in store in terms of distance, difficulty, breaks, or anything else. At the beginning there was no review of hydration, sunblock, outdoor bathroom etiquette, blister prevention, safety protocol, or itinerary - we just sort of started. He did one brief lesson on poles. Like children, we were “allowed” to eat a tart/cake at small establishments along the way but he insisted he order for us and we were not to order other food because the proprietors would be upset or would be overwhelmed or any number of excuses that implied if we didn’t listen to him we would be breaching some form of unspoken cultural faux pas. So, not understanding local customs, we followed his rules. Which in hind site felt manipulative. I assume we missed these local meals because of a timeline or itinerary that he had but was never communicated to us. I never heard him encourage anyone or praise anyone. I didn’t dislike him, but I needed more open communication and for him to appreciate we were all on our vacations not on a mission or deadline. When I expressed my desire to linger and “smell the roses” and eat local foods to make the exhausting hike more pleasant he stated something about the complications of a democracy - which sort of told me it was his trip and he ran it his way. 5 of 14 people didn’t complete the tour - either from skipping sections or quitting. Again, overall I was pleased with the adventure but sadly I felt like I missed a lot of experiences to get to the hotel a smidge earlier. I would recommend it to fit people who like a rapid pace. If I did it again I don’t think I would do the 9 day trip. It was an hour or two longer than I wanted every day and there were not enough opportunities for resting our feet, tasting local food, or just taking in the profound beauty of the Alps.”

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Posted 8 months ago

“Great trip, excellent guide. The accommodation was as good as it could be. Helped by some great weather, there were stunning views every day. It was tough but very much worth it.”

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Posted 8 months ago

“August'21 did the self-guided hike of the Tour De Mont Blanc with Salamander as our organizer. They provided us with maps, places to lay our heads and eat in. It was well done and we had a great time. It was tough, the scenery was beautiful, we did the reverse direction it was perfect as we met different people each day and it didn't actually rain [so lucky]”

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Posted 1 year ago

“A very scenic trek, which we were pleased was more difficult than we had anticipated. The daily distances looked relatively short on paper, but some steep sections and difficult terrain made up for this and merits the grade 3 challenging. Excellent varied accommodation and food throughout, and great guiding by Pete, especially through some atrocious weather on the first couple of days. Frustrating at times due to two very slow (and fairly selfish) group members, but on the whole I'm glad I did it: the scenery is well worth it.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“Great organised group and vibes. Highly recommend!”

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Posted 4 years ago

“Trip notes very accurate good hotels and locations great walks my first time to dolomites my 4th trip with Nigel Lewis very good team leader thanks for great memories Paul Dickinson”

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Posted 4 years ago

“We loved the whole experience of the Tour du Mount Blanc. We were happy with our experience with Salamander Adventures and would look to use them again in the future.”

Salamander Adventures 4 star review on 17th October 2019

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Posted 4 years ago

“Well organized and set up comfortable accommodations. All our email communication with them was promptly answered. They did a great job making sure my brother had his own private accommodations. We were self guided so never met anyone from Salamander. Our notes and maps were pretty straight forward except for one. The way it was worded led us 2 miles in the wrong direction. Otherwise we loved the TMB. Would recommend going clockwise as we did. It’s less crowded!”

Salamander Adventures 4 star review on 19th July 2019

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Posted 4 years ago

“We decided to hike the TMB with Salamander based on positive reviews & the excellent communication with Natalie & Phil. Make no mistake, the TMB is not « a walk in the park ». Salamander explains in detail what you can expect on this challenging & arduous 10 day trek: 18 - 24 km days (6-8 hours of actual hiking) & daily ascents/descents of anywhere between 700 to 1100 mètres. Not for the faint of heart. We found the 1st couple of day's hiking pace a bit fast (possibly bc there was some overcast/rain & the guide wanted to get through the day quickly?) My husband & I are above average fitness levels for 65, have hiking experience & we trained months before our July start, but still we needed to ice our knees. The 3* hotels were very good as were the breakfasts & dinners. It was great to know that at the end of the day you’d have your own room (beds were excellent), a hot shower and/or bath & often a spectacular panoramic view from your balcony ), For lunch our guide, Suzie, bought picnic provisions daily, which included delicious local cheeses, cold cuts veggies, fruit & baguettes. All very appetizing & filling. We highly recommend SalamanderAdventures.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“The trip was fabulous, albeit a bit more challenging than I thought it would be, but well worth the effort. I loved the variety of accommodations and towns arranged by Salamander. We were self-guided and so didn’t have any personal interaction with Salamander staff. The directions they sent were fine...it would have helped to have had a bit more clarity, particularly in exiting towns to reconnect with the trails. All-in-all though, Salamander gave us good value for he money.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“We are a group of 8 travellers from Singapore first time trekking in Europe and we are glad we used Salamander Adventures. Phil was able to make special arrangements for us based on our available dates as well as pickup and drop-off arrangements. I find Phil to be very accommodating and prompt in answering my queries. Everything happened as planned right down to the last detail. So it is with full confidence that I recommend Phil and his team to you. There is no guess work and you can trust that everything will be as planned when you book your trip with Salamander Adventures.”

Salamander Adventures 4 star review on 17th October 2016

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Posted 7 years ago

“My husband, adult son and I did the self-guided TMB Tour through Salamander in August. We had a wonderful trip and it was truly a bucket list experience. We stayed in a variety of accommodations arranged by Salamander, but loved them all even the least fancy as it was all part of the experience. The only room for improvement on the self-guided tour was that there a few places in the instructions that should be clarified. We once came very close to getting seriously lost and a quick addition to the instructions would help others avoid this in the future. We were also fortunate in that we were staying the same hotels as a Salamander guided tour and on several occasions asked the guide for advice. Overall, we felt that this tour was an excellent value for the money and would recommend Salamander to others.”

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Posted 7 years ago

“My wife and I did the self-guided Tour de Mont Blanc trip. We thoroughly enjoyed the trip and the organisation by Salamander was very good. It suited us since we only had a limited amount of time, we didn't want to have to carry all of our luggage all of the time and we wanted to mainly stay in small hotels rather than mountain huts. Look carefully at what the corresponding guided tour includes to decide if it is for you. We didn't fancy doing the long walk down the valley from Grand Col Ferret to La Palud, so continued on the TMB path via the Refugio Bonatti Hut, making a very long day. Similarly we didn't want to do the bus ride up the valley up to Val Veny, so caught the gondola from Coumayeur and followed the TMB from there, making another very long day. If you have time, a 10 or 11 day option might be a more relaxed way of doing it, but you would need to have some stays in mountain huts. The accommodation that Salamander booked was fine and they were very helpful in the booking process. Their accompanying notes were also very useful. It was nice to meet up with the members of the guided group in the evenings without feeling constrained by set times and routes during the day.”

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Posted 7 years ago

Salamander Adventures is rated 4.9 based on 203 reviews