Intrepid Travel Warning (Intrepid Travel)

Member Name: Darth3PO

Product:	Intrepid Travel
Date:	05/05/09 (511 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Local guides

Disadvantages: Poor Safety, No corporate responsibility,

I travelled with Intrepid to the Galapagos Islands. I would advise no-one to ever consider travelling with Intrepid after our experience; not simply because we were involved in a shocking accident that I will detail below but because Intrepid's response was and still is appalling. Essentially what happened was that the boat we were travelling in, the Spondylus charted from Kemperry Tours, crashed in to rocks of a deserted island at full speed at 3 in the morning and rapidly began to sink. While we were given a cursory safety briefing when we alighted the boat, non of these procedures were followed as the crew simply panicked - only due to the actions of the other passengers was one passenger actually rescued! Furthermore the lifejackets on the boat were old and all siezed up making it almost impossible in the pitch dark to put on. As the boat rapidly sank we all jumped in to a dingy made for 10 people when there were nearer 20 of us - as the bung was missing from the dingy this also began to rapidly sink. The next day the sister ship of the Spondylus, the Angelique arrived to 'rescue' us. However we soon discovered that our boat had not completely sank and was wedged on the rocks half submerged. Our crew then went back to the Spondylus and looted all of the belongings of the passengers - we could actually see them emptying bags etc on the Angelique before they gave them to us missing of all things valuable. Wallets were emptied but returned, cameras were taken from cases/bags with the bags returned - impossible that these things simply fell out and got washed away. When back in a 'safe' port (puerta Ayora) Intrepid were nowhere to be seen and instead placed mis-information on their website and directly to our families about how they were helping us through all this - not true, luckily a friendly local spend 2 days helping us out but Intrepid were nowhere to be seen. Our subsequent contact with Intrepid initially assured us that each passenger would be fully reimbursed for their lost belongings and that safety on such trips would be improved - this we now feel was simply a way of Intrepid diffusing the situation as 10 months down the line they have not done so and do not accept any responsibility for what happened. As a group we kept faith in intrepids promises on the understanding that they would improve safety and refund all our loses - they have not followed through with any of these promises. No-one has ever been prosecuted for the thefts or for the accident and Intrepid have not helped us in pursueing these issues - essentially because they were ultimately at fault. Having spoken to many people in the industry and read many reviews I have discovered that while Intrepid do of course have many satisfied customers, there are many other stories similar to mine that should be a warning regarding how this company operates. My advice is avoid Intrepid.

Summary: Avoid Intrepid Travel