Has anyone used South Excursions in Argentina/Uruguay/Chili?

I e-mailed them for info on their private tours in many of the ports on a Buenos Aires to Santiago sailing. I got a nice reply listing quite a few options. My concern is that the recent reviews on trip advisor all over the place from do not use to excellent (all seem to be for their excursion in/around Santiago). So was looking for anyone here with personal experience with this particular company or recommends for another operator. Thank you in advance!

Would like the same info

Our tour with South Excursions in Puerto Montt was a bust. We had requested an English speaking guide. The guide who picked us up had good English compared to my Spanish, but I'm not pretending to be a guide. We managed. He didn't take us to any of the places that I had requested, including a highly reviewed restaurant that I had researched and asked for in advance. (This was all in writing.) Instead, we went to a tourist trap where he disappeared while we had an abysmal meal and service. The material that he brought to us (maps, brochures, etc.) was all in Spanish. We had excellent guides from another company in Monte Video and Buenos Aires. Let me know if you'd like that information.

I can only report that we are having a terrible experience with South Excursions from a customer service angle. In short, when our cruise plans changed, we needed to cancel one excursion and book another. We were entitled to a refund, as the first excursion was more expensive. South Excursions provided incorrect information about the PayPal refund process and subsequently processed the refund incorrectly. This resulted in a delay of nearly one month. At this point, we determined that we did not want to do any additional business with South Excursions, communicated with them about the error, canceled our second excursion and requested a full refund. The company processed the second refund incorrectly as well, despite specific instructions from us and PayPal. This resulted in more work for us, the processing of the refund through a method other than the one we desired and another (continuing) delay in receiving our funds.

We used South Excursions for both cruises to South America. On Around the Horn, we took several tours with them and they were all good with excellent guides.

I have been doing some research on this company, too. It is my understanding, from comments on TripAdvisor, that they do not really run any tours themselves. They are simply a booking agency. They take your money and pass your reservation on to a local tour provider. You have no control over who is actually providing your excursion. I suspect this accounts for the wide variation in the approval ratings. You are probably better off to try to make contacts locally yourself but, as I am finding out, that is sometimes easier said than done.

The number of good tour companies for Around the Horn cruises are limited. There are other companies out there besides SouthExcursions. However, if you wait too long to book, you may have to go with the ship's excursions and that is not good.

I did the tour/transfer Valparaiso to Santiago- excellent!

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Hi, we have used them twice. The first time was around Chile and Argentina and the second time from Argentina to Brazil.. both times they delivered as promissed, very good guides and clean vehicles in all ports... the agents at the office were very easy to work with and accommodating all our requests...so I can defenitely recommend them. I have a bit of walking difficulties but that was not an issue at all in any of the excursions.

Is not that easy to book independent guides for each port in South America.. for us was much better to have someone arranging everything for us in each stop.

:) Any suggestions for Ecuador and Panama?

:) Any suggestions for Ecuador and Panama?

We docked in Colon, Panama on our transit from the Caribbean to the Pacific in 2011. We took a tour that included the Gatun locks and a nature boat ride on the lake to see wildlife. It was a pretty good excursion by the cruise line.

There is nothing to see in Colon, it is mostly slum. Another interesting tour was the train ride across to the Pacific.

Yes I did

Buenos Aires with LIZ Andrea Private Tour Guide

Montevideo with Fanny Margulis

I need to search my papers for Chile as I don´t remember now.....

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rambling_roamer/4/1457712022/tpod.html

We used South Excursions for both cruises to South America. On Around the Horn, we took several tours with them and they were all good with excellent guides.

Did you pay full in advance? I have contacted them and they sent prices, which are not bad but they request full payment in advance. I plan to cruise in early Dec.

I think we paid in advance, but perhaps had the option to pay a certain percentage as a deposit. Since, I had used the company before, I just paid in advance so we would not have to take all the cash with us.

I think we paid in advance, but perhaps had the option to pay a certain percentage as a deposit. Since, I had used the company before, I just paid in advance so we would not have to take all the cash with us.

thank you, nice to know they can be trusted!

Have heard a mixed bag of reviews about Southern Excursions. We did tours from the port of Valparaiso Chile with http://www.winetoursvalparaiso.cl.

Michael the owner is an expat from London, so English is not a problem and he is a wonderful guy.

Get in contact with michael@winetoursvalparaiso.cl.

Hope this helps