Viva Expeditions Reviews 505

Our experience with Viva Expeditions (via Pia Knarston, Senior Expedition Specialist) was excellent. Pia has an intimate knowledge of most things South American and tailored our SA adventure after listening to our many and varied requests.

Our experience on the ground was seamless. The Whatsapp contacts were a really good idea, having someone local in each country to contact, if necessary, was definitely very helpful. The local guides were all very professional and passionate about speaking really good English and made each tour so interesting and enjoyable.

The location of hotels was also really great with most only being a short walk to city centres, etc. What was also wonderful, in our opinion, was after arriving at the next destination, we would exit Airport Arrivals and someone would be waiting for us holding a sign with our name on it - no need to worry about transport and finding the way to our hotel!

Thank you

exceptional service and knowledge

Magic in the Air
Everyone on Rakiura was a pleasure to meet - a wonderful community sharing magical spaces. Our guide, Shona Sangster, was all we could wish for, and the Twinkle tour hosted by Al was the standout experience.

Viva Expeditions put together an amazing adventure in the Pantanal, Brazil. The documentation before arriving set us up for the time, with clear communication and information. The choice of lodge was excellent as the service, friendliness and activities was truly amazing. The location of the lodge inside the Pantanal National Park allowed us to experience wildlife in their environment. Sitting outside with macaws freely flying about is a memory I will have for a very long time. The activities were varied allowing us to access the surrounding environment in different ways. Where else would we see otters swimming in the river, anteaters strolling across the land and monkeys swinging in the trees. From start to finish, it was truly exceptional.

Wonderful trip to Stewart Island to hunt the Aurora. Lucky enough to see on first day although cloudy.
We had lots to occupy us the rest of the time with beautiful scenery and bird life . A highlight was seeing albatross
Shona was wonderful and accomodating. Will definitely be back
Thanks for a wonderful experience

Viva were excellent to deal with and tailored our trip to match our interests. Local guides and drivers were extremely knowledgeable and went out of their way to learn what we were interested in and adapt the trips accordingly. Later in our trip one of us became ill, and the local representative went way beyond expectations to navigate us through the hospital system and support us during this tough period. We couldn't ask for better. Thank you Viva.

Itinerary was great. People were friendly and helpful. Things happened as they said they would.

Overall was good, but lacked communication on pickup / drop-off times and how to get that information, which was a bit stressful when abroad.

Stress-free travel. All flights, transfers and organised tours were seamless and well organised. Accommodation was great.

Everything was well organised and all meetings and guides were there, on time and very helpful

The train from Toronto for 3 days was amazing
The bus trip from jasper to Vancouver amazing absolutely loved it
Unfortunately was was sick for the cruise to Alaska

Everything was extremely well organized and the local guides and drivers were fantastic. I had a wonderful holiday.

The varied experiences, great tour guides who were friendly, professional and caring. They were very considerate of needs i.e I had sciatica so the pace was determined by how much I could manage. Another guide Xavier, arranged for the driver to visit a shop where I could hire or purchase a walking aid (it proved to be a real blessing and worthwhile purchase. Hugo in Chile was a real hit from start to finish, assisted us when checking in luggage until we went to departure lounge. Having Hugo there made our checking in so easy and stress free. I would very readily recommend our Viva experience to others.

Well organized all worked well guides were informative and knowledgeable
Accomadation was great

Stewart Island/Rakiura Aurora Hunting: Small group tour; Over promised and under delivered.

Emma curated the perfect trip for me. Machu Picchu was always on the bucket list but after understanding the kinds of things that fascinate me Emma also suggested the Nazca Lines which was a wonderful addition. The trip was perfectly planned and everything ran like a well oiled machine. The local team (especially Saulo) were wonderful and very helpful. Thank you for making this trip one that I'll never forget.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Costa Rica. The itinerary was great and we enjoyed meeting other travellers sharing the various activities. We loved the forest walking and thought all of the guides were excellent. Their youth, enthusiasm, ability to communicate in English and levels of knowledge were impressive. The choice of accommodation was varied and of good quality. The vans that transported us between the hotels were comfortable and well driven. Driver capacity for communication in English was inconsistent, and on one occasion (the scheduled evening night forest walk) the driver failed to arrive. There was some difficulty tracking down the reason for this. It was raining heavily and the van arrived an hour late. Under these circumstances it would have been better to cancel the trip and have the money reimbursed.
Having said that, however, the only other recommendation is for greater clarity in the written information provided in relation to the trip. What we read from VIVA did not always align with what was additionally sent to us by Condo Verde, when we arrived. It was a little confusing to read general information about a region and then to read what had been planned specifically for us.
Many thanks. We have lovely memories of this very interesting country.

Great communication, awesome itineraries and great pricing.

Booked the new "Stewart Island Aurora Hunting: Small Group Tour" with Viva which promised tips/assistance to catch the aurora and several guided group tours on Stewart Island which would have been difficult to book independently given the off-season and minimum numbers required for many tour operators. However, the Dark Sky (stargazing) was cancelled due to operator illness and only a water taxi was provided to Ulva Island for reasons still unclear. Viva was fairly apologetic and responsive in refunding the tours within a week.

Our group leader was charismatic and great at flexing to the changes and keeping morale high. However, upon arrival we learned she was technically an "escort" rather than a guide, meaning she lacked the training to guide any activities herself or provide any expert tips or tools to help view the aurora. Fortunately other group members recommended some forecasting/alerting apps.

Overall, Stewart Island is fantastic, and everyone seemed to have a great time despite the setbacks. Hopefully Viva will work out the bugs for future tours.

Very helpful & efficient all the way.
Nothing was any trouble at all someone was there immediately to assist us.