Choose a Challenge Reviews 232

- During Covid I was charged £300 to defer my trip because Nepal was closed to travellers (completely out of my control). No assistance was offered from CAC, I had to pay it out of pocket.
- Our rep was 45 minutes late to the airport on our departure flight, ticked our name off on a list and then left. No guidance was given on checkin, and we could’ve just checked ourselves in instead of waiting and delaying us.
- Someone on my flight was ‘unable to be fed’ due to dietary restrictions. Presumably CAC should have provided the airline with requirements and been told this in advance, but instead this person has the pleasure of going hungry on the plane.
- My trip was bought up one day because of flight delays, and despite being told all meals were paid for, I had to go to an ATM and pay for my own meals for this extra day. Again not communicated in advance, more money out of pocket.
- The first 3 days of our trip were spent on the airport floor, as our trip was booked at the end of Monsoon season. Our expectations here were awfully managed, as when I spoke to some of the locals and guides they informed me it’s normal for flights to often be cancelled this time of year, but this was news to us and CAC described doing an alternative trek as absolute worst case.
- Since my trip was moved up 1 day, I was joined together with another group. Had there been some planes to Lukla, the other group (which now had all the same dates as me and paid the same money) had complete priority, and I was told if a plane took off, they would go and I would stay there. This continued throughout the whole trek with the other group always getting priority, one example being my groups hotel had single beds and ceiling fans, whilst the other group had mostly double beds and air conditioning. The only time this flipped was when our guide put their foot down and said it isn’t fair, and we got the nicer hotel.
- With two groups combined, the group size was far too large with no counter measures taken. We were provided 3 guides, which was not enough for 50 people and I could visibly see they were massively overworked. To their credit, the guides did an outstanding job despite the numbers, but more personnel should have been bought in the moment the groups merged (CAC were aware of this weeks in advance)
- Due to the time of year, there was a huge number of leeches on our trail. This was not a huge bother to me personally, however a lot of people were stressed about this, and noone had prepared for it (e.g. sprays, repellent, appropriate clothing). It is common knowledge in Nepal this was the case, and yet again CAC should have communicated it in their kit list and emails.
- After the trek there was yet another day of no meals provided, more money out of pocket, and I was let know on the day. Yet again I had to pull more money out, tanking the ATM fee.

The list could go on, but overall some of the worst communication I have ever had from a company.

I would like to be clear that this is largely management causing these issues, and the only positive I can take away from CAC is that their local guide selection and student reps were great. Santosh, Bhoomi, and Rishi were outstanding guides and made me feel safe and comfortable. Adam (our CAC rep in Nepal) did a good job, despite clearly having to answer my questions politically without giving real answers sometimes, very likely because he had been told nothing from management!!!!

I would encourage anyone to please book your trip with another operator.

I took part in the Machu Picchu challenge with the Amazon Explorer extension trip, and it was an incredible experience!

Our group's guides Ruben, Lenny, and Rudy were all so supportive and encouraging of us, we really could not have done it without them. Despite some altitude sickness the first couple of days of the Salkantay trail, I really enjoyed the trek. The views along the way - and of course Machu Picchu - were definitely worth it. All the porters and cooking team were also amazing, most of us agreed that we were eating better in Peru than we did at home!

The Amazon Explorer extension was also really good, the accommodation was impressive and the guides there were so knowledgeable and enthusiastic. It felt like a little holiday after the efforts of the trek!

Choose a Challenge's information packs, briefing videos, and webinars really helped me to prepare for the trip. There could have been some more information on some of the additional costs/excursions but overall I felt well prepared. The fundraising was hard work but I felt supported by my charity (Marie Curie) the whole time.

I would definitely recommend this trip, I have made so many new memories and some new friends too!

The Machu Picchu trip was great but that is purely down to the in-country travel provider that Choose a Challenge use.
We were told to turn up at the airport 3.5 hours before our flight. In our case, this meant we had to arrive at Heathrow at 3am. We were told to meet a CAC employee in the terminal who would be holding a CAC flag. All the participants arrived at 3am and we waited their for an hour and a half before the CAC representatives finally arrived at 4:30am, 2 hours before our flight. We couldn't check in until 4am anyway so this was a frustrating start to the trip, especially to get up so early before over 24 hours of travelling. The CAC representative also did nothing to help, she barely said hello and just watched us all check in which we could have easily done on our own.
Once we got to Peru, the trip was amazing and the in-country company Valencia Travel that CAC use were fantastic. The guides were so knowledgeable and with us throughout the trip. I paid to go on the extension trip as well which was great.
The main problem with choose a challenge is that they try to take on as little responsibility for everything that they can. We had to have duffel bags for the actual trek with a weight limit of 8kg. In the pre-departure video we were told these would be provided in country. In the pre-departure briefing webinar though we were told we had to take our own because they couldn't guarantee that we would be given one. One person told us that we could hire them and someone else told us we would be given them. I seeked further clarification on this matter from CAC and I was told to take $25-$50 with me to cover the cost of hiring a duffel bag. I thought this was unreasonable so managed to source one at home and packed it into my main suitcase. When I got to Peru though I was handed a duffel bag free of charge by the travel company and had to put everything into it. This issue caused lots of stress and concern for me and lots of other participants which didn't need to be the case if CAC actually knew about the trip that they were sending people on.
Choose a Challenge then also didn't tell us about the fact that for the extension trip, if our bags were over 10kg, we had to leave stuff in a separate bag before embarking on the trip that we could collect when heading to the airport at the end. Things like this needed to be communicated. The final briefing pack that we were given really could have had a lot more information in to better prepare the participants.

CaC have continually been a nightmare to work with through the pandemic - whilst this can't be helped they were poor communicators, asking us to pay high deferral fees (£400+) for things completely out of our control such as travel bans in Nepal. Finally though we were going on our trip to Everest and so excited, we arrived at Heathrow at the scheduled 8am to find no choose a challenge reps there. After struggling to get in contact with them they arrived late at 8.45am, checking our names off a list and then leaving before we were even through check in. Turkish Airlines refused to feed me due to dietary requirements on the outbound flights to Kathmandu, giving me anxiety for the rest of the trip. Once we arrived in Kathmandu, all 50 (we were never aware of such ginormous group sizes) of us were confused and poorly communicated with in Kathmandu airport until we found a rep eventually.

Myself and another member of the trip with dietary requirements were not put at ease at any point throughout the trip that they were aware of how severe our allergies were, I made it very clear to CaC about my anaphylactic nut allergy but did not feel this was taken seriously at all. Throughout the trip I was given eggs for breakfast despite being allergic to them and making the appropriate people aware of this. This lead to massive anxiety about what I was being fed and if it would kill me (no exaggeration). Most days any members of the group with dietary requirements would be forced into calorie deficit, which as you can imagine isn't ideal when climbing a mountain.

We expected to reach Lukla via Kathmandu the following day after we arrived in Kathmandu but it was clear from arrival this wouldn't be happening due to weather (we had arrived in Nepal in monsoon season for some insane reason) – we tried again the next day with poor communication and very little transparency. Another failed attempt to get to Lukla. This is when it was explained to us that Group A (we were Group B) would always be the priority to get to Lukla... we still have no idea why this is the case as we all arrived on the same flight from London. On day 3 our flight still didn't leave for Lukla due to weather conditions, whilst this is fine and we recognise CaC can't deal with the weather conditions it was the lack of transparency we all had issue with. CaC lead us to believe that it was only in very rare circumstances that groups went to Annapurna instead of Everest, we later found out that it is very unusual for flights to leave for Lukla in early September. God knows why we travelled at a time when it's VERY unusual for our required flights to fly. This should have been made so much clearer to us as the majority of our group had waited 3 years to do this challenge due to COVID and would have liked to have made it to Everest, not Annapurna.

The huge disparities between Group A and Group B continued into the trip to Pokhara, they were on a much more appropriate and larger coach to Pokhara whilst Group B were squished into a coach not appropriate for our size group or for in fact, adults of any size. They then arrived to the better hotel of the two and of course at this point it had created such disparity between the groups that we (due to CaC incompetencies) didn't like each other.

Group B's flights to Kathmandu had been brought forward a day on the itinerary a few weeks before we travelled, this meant that we all had to take extra time off work and add extra days to our travel insurance very last minute. No compensation has been made for this, not even an extra day to attempt to make it to Lukla.

Throughout the trek there was poor organisation from CaC and a lack of guides in ratio to the 50 people we were also trekking with. These trails aren't designed for 50 people to walk at once, it's not safe on any trail but especially on the trails in the Himalayas. I have never felt so much like a money making scheme on a group trip.

Finally I'd just like to acknowledge how in difficult circumstances our guides were above and beyond. Santos, Rishi and Boumi deserve all the credit for any positive experiences we had on our trip to Annapurna and could not be faulted. Any fallback from the poorly run and badly communicated trip to Nepal should not be on them but on anyone in the offices of CaC. Do NOT travel with this company.

Frank and Luiz were absolutely amazing guides and I now can’t imagine our trek without them. Both were so friendly, knowledgeable, funny and passionate. Their experience on the trail was vast and I am so grateful we were lucky enough to have them as our guides. Camilla too worked so hard and solved any problems that arose.

Frank & Louis were amazing tour guides who really made the trip something special; their experience, knowledge and great personalities made sure we had the best experience possible. Camila was also super helpful and on hand to help us with any queries we had.

Exceptional trip. We had 3 guides for a group of 30 (Lenny, Rudy and Ruben/papi). All three had phenomenal knowledge and went above and beyond to make the trip an absolute pleasure. If you have the opportunity to go on this trip with this company, take it!

Very good and organised well

This extension trip is something that I’m definitely glad I signed up for. On top of everything, Manisha really made this trip much better than it could have been, so thank you Manisha!

This trip is average to poor. But Manisha is a wonderful ICO and even better person. Make sure you get her as your ICO or you will have a poor time. Otherwise don’t bother.

Had the most amazing time in Zanzibar with manisha she gave us the best tour we could ask for and I’m so excited to come back again thankyou!

Great Extension trip and so worth any extra money! Our ICO, Manisha, was really really nice and helpful and showed us the best restaurants and local shops.

Zanzibar extension trip has been incredible so far, all the reps have been on hand to provide the highest level of service. All guides have great local knowledge, particularly Menisha

Amazing hotel and awesome organisation on the activities. Would definitely recommend the killi extension trip

This has been a great trip with great options for activities. Our ICO Manisha has been really friendly and made the experience as amazing as possible. Also as a positive, the hotel is great!

On one hand we had an great trip thanks to the amazing local team, our guides Jose and Rene were incredible, they were so supportive and helpful and taught us loads about our surroundings. The porters and chef were great and kept us well fed snd looked after.

However, choose a challenge themselves were absolutely awful. Before the trip Choose a challenge we’re very unhelpful with any questions asked and told me my passport had expired when it hadn’t. The online webinar was done by the sales team rather than people who actually had experience in what we’re doing. At Heathrow airport we were met by unhelpful and unwelcoming representative who didn’t even know where we were going. Trying to check in we found that there were forms to fill out that they hadn’t told us about. On arrival despite being met by amazing local guides, We we’re informed of around £200 of hidden costs. The kit list gave no indication of what we needed for the trip, the itenery was quite inaccurate. I was also informed by another person doing the challenge that despite making us believe we’re raising money 100% for charity, choose a challenge take 50% as profit on top of what we pay them. We have been asked by choose a challenge to complete this review before the extension trip but based on the itinerary it does not seem to be worth the money as the “week in the Amazon” is actually 2 days in the Amazon.

Overall the trek we did and the local people supporting us have been amazing and made it a trip of a lifetime but choose a challenge have been unhelpful whilst scrounging money from charity and quite frankly awful.

The trip to Machu Picchu has been absolutely amazing, the trek was a great experience. The tour guides here have been so friendly and helpful and I can't fault them at all. However, the lack of communication from Choose a Challenge before the trek made it really hard to plan for things- they would send emails with the same information again and again, but I still arrived here not really knowing how to properly prepare or what to expect. There is also a lot of hidden costs that comes after the registration fee so it doesn't really work out cheaper than a normal trip away that you would organise yourself.

Our tour guides Jose and Rene were absolutely amazing! Camilla from choose a challenge was so helpful and kind when I was sick. However I feel that choose a challenge could be more specific with what’s included in the itinerary so there is no surprise costs (tickets for the salt mines and moray were not included despite being on the itinerary).

Just completed the Machu Picchu trek! Camila was amazing, she was so welcoming and made my trip in Cusco city.
I would not have been able to complete the trek without Our guides, Jose and Rene, who were funny, so motivating and made the trip so memorable!

Only let down was A few details were not made clear enough by the London team in the info pack and webinars, mainly about what we needed for the trek, such as a sleeping bag to cover more than -10 as it was freezing at night so bare this in mind if you have signed up!

AVOID THIS COMPANY!
I paid over $2000 for a two week trip including a trek to Machu Picchu and an extension trip to the Amazon. About a month before my trip in 2022, Choose a Challenge requested an additional near $500 with a one week invoice deadline for “inflation rates”. I already paid the entire trip balance in July 2021, as I was supposed to attend in 2021 but the trip was moved due to Covid. When I said I was unable to come up with this surcharge money in a short amount of time, they threatened to cancel my trip. On the trip itself, it only went smoothly when Valencia Travel was involved. Whenever Choose a Challenge was in charge of planning itinerary items, they forgot to give us meals that were included in the itinerary. They didn’t pay for extension trip activities that were promised in the itinerary. When requesting money back for missed activities and meals, there was radio silence on their end. Their US employee Liz Jordan was the most frustrating person to get in contact with. Their in-country rep Ellie from the UK was the only understanding person I came across. If you want to visit Machu Picchu, I suggest you book with Valencia Travel directly and avoid this company.