Patagonia Planet Tour Operador — Local services in Puerto Natales

I was supposed to go on a boat tour with Patagonia Planet in Punta Arenas. Pick up was supposed to be at 6.45 am, so I was in our hotel lobby with the receptionist at 6.35 am.

When nobody arrived by 6.55 am, the receptionist and my travel agent started to contact them. Planet told them were ‘on their way’, and that they will arrive in 10/15 mins.

The same message was repeated until 8.30 am when only then I was told that at 6.45 am apparently somebody came but they said we nobody was there (including the receptionist). Unfortunately for them, the hotel receptionist has camera footage of that time to prove that this isn’t true and the company wasn’t telling the truth. Obviously we both were waiting in the lobby so we would have seen them if they actually came for pick up.

It is clear somebody made a mistake and forgot the pick up, which can happen, and somehow there was an issue in the communication of whoever was communicating to us from Planet that they were on their way, and whoever was actually doing the tour. But what was upsetting is that instead of admitting their mistake they lied that they did come at 6.45 am.

They offered me to go on their 9.45 am tour., but I didn’t wanted to go with them anymore as they had lied. Despite that, they then did arrive at 10 am to pick me up 😅.

Mistakes happen, but operators that work with staff that lie are not to be trusted. God knows what more they lie about and you go on a boat/drive with them.

I am not interested in compensation from this company, as I deal with that directly via my own travel agency who organized this trip and selected this tour operator. I am just annoyed the company made me wake up at 5.30 am, let me wait for 1.5 hours, to then only tell me a lie.

Even if you are more lucky than me and they do pick you up, think if you want to use a company like that. Do yourself a favor and take...

Sometimes you have a tour with a nice, polite guide and you feel afterwards “Well, that was a nice tour”. But sometimes (very rare) you have a guide like Miguel. And it feels so special that next day you feel sad you’ll never see this wonderful person again. This was much more than “formal” friendly attitude. Me and my husband felt like we were hiking with a friend because he’s such a warm and open person.

This is what makes travels so special — meeting local people like Miguel, chatting about each other’s cultures and having fun together. Even the hike felt much easier because we were chatting a lot and sometimes I didn’t even notice how time passed.

Apart from the warmest attitude, I want to highlight Miguel’s good timing & organisational skills and empathy. E.g. before the final hiking section Miguel told us that we could go ahead with our own pace (faster than the group) if we wanted. For us it was SO important because it usually takes me around 30 minutes to take photos with my camera and then I need another 30 minutes just to sit and enjoy the place. So, thanks to Miguel’s suggestion we arrived to the top much faster and had enough time for everything.

Lots of love from Russia and we hope we’ll say “privet” to each...

We did the Torres del Paine full day tour, was 65k each. We got Jorge and John. The whole day went smoothly, John is a really good and knowledgeable guide. He was very patient and funny, his English was great as well. Jorge is a very good driver, he was very smooth, no jumping about flooring it. He avoided all the potholes and we never once felt worried, in fact quite the opposite. Also, Jorge has eyes of a hawk, driving along a highway... Out of no where he says "Puma". Hundreds of metres away there is this sand colour shape, we stopped and looked and it was a big Puma. We all got clear videos and photos, we genuinely had no idea how he spotted that whilst driving. The whole day was one of, if not, the best tour we've done in any country. We had heaps of time at each viewpoint, we also had beautiful weather as well so the lagunas were super blue and the mountains looked unreal. As well as the views it half felt like a safari, we saw so many animals! Puma, Rheas (patagonian emu), Guanacos etc etc we got very close and got some great videos/pictures. We can't praise these guys enough or the experience this company offers, we also got free...