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Anne Marie McGonigal

United Kingdom

Customer
Rating

10

Customer Rating On return from their adventure we ask customers: “On a scale of 0-10, with 10 being the highest, how likely is it that you would recommend Swoop to a friend or colleague?”

Anne Marie McGonigal's Trip Date:

20th Dec - 7th Jan 2019

Overall, how was your trip?

The trip was incredible, so many contrasts of landscape, weather, etc! It was particularly special being away at Christmas!

In one sentence, what did you think of Patagonia? Did it live up to your expectations?

Lived up to our expectations and then some! :)

Would you visit again?

Maybe

How was the service that Swoop provided?

I don’t think we could have managed all the specific logistics ourselves. There were so many details that we are grateful for swoops coordination. The itinerary and recommendations were utterly perfect for us! Fortunately, we did not need to use the 24-7 support line.

How likely is it that you would recommend Swoop to a friend?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

10 out of 10

How was your experience in Buenos Aires?

Hotel and staff were fantastic. Airport transfers were on time and well organised/timed with our flights. Really enjoyed the city - went on two free walking tours. City was much bigger than we realised though! Amazing choice and range of food due to various cultural influences! One of the highlights was a wine tasting at Pain et vin!

How was your experience in El Calafate and El Chalten?

El Chalten turned out to be our favourite place of the trip - such a lovely, charming town with amazing restaurants and bars! Our meals on Christmas Eve and Day were delicious! Hosteria Senderos was a great hotel with lovely staff, and we could even see Fitzroy from our room! Walk Patagonia were fantastic, helpful and very attentive! They knew all the details and were very warm and reassuring! Loved our guided walks (Sofia was fab), especially to the base of Fitzroy! We only went to the Mirador Torre on the second walk as we wanted to enjoy the town a bit more before we left; however, this was perfect as I got the view of Cerro Torre that I wanted! Transfers were very easy to/from El Chalten. Hotel in El Calafate was gorgeous. Big Ice trek was an outstanding experience - staff were great! We would never have thought of such an experience and that’s a credit to Swoop!

How was your experience in Torres del Paine?

Ecocamp was incredible and again this was a Swoop suggestion that we probably wouldn’t have thought to do! Loved our suite dome and we are so glad we upgraded here. Heard people talking about the standard domes and shared bathrooms, and were glad that wasn’t us! Food, drink and service at ecocamp was exceptional! Francesca - one of the guides - was especially lovely throughout our whole stay! I’m personally not ‘ecocamp sociable’, but it was enjoyable and ok for a few short days! :) The walks were fantastic - wild horse tracking with lamb bbq, towers trek and Lazo Weber trail. The weather was very temperamental but came through for a few minutes so we could our views/photos that we wanted! :) The only negative is the very long transfers to ecocamp. We had to get a public bus from El Calafate to Puerto Natales that seemed to go past TDP, and then we double backed. Perhaps this could be made more efficient somehow. Unfortunately, Puerto Natales airport doesn’t have many flights so you need to travel to Punta Arenas. Hopefully it will improve for future travellers.

Do you have any tips or advice for other people planning a trip to Patagonia?

Use Swoop - you guys made it so easy and so much better! Even though I still worried and stressed (because that’s the person I am), it was far far far less than if we organised on our own. It was great knowing you were there if we needed you! :) We noticed quite a few people struggling on some of the walks, so maybe some advice for future travellers Is to be more aware of and mindful of the physical activity being undertaken. Also to make sure that they actually do some training and take appropriate shoes and clothes!

Anything else? Tell us anything you’d like to share that we forgot to ask! It’s ok to leave this empty too :-)

We have so many amazing photos so happy to share some more if you’d like to see them! Thanks again to Michelle, Chloe and the team for everything and their patience with all of our questions and queries! It was utterly incredible, everything we wanted and more! :)

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