Used GV tours in Puerto Montt recently??

[aslaw]

We may be one of the naysayers in the group. We used GV on our recent Star Princess sailing. They had enough passengers for 4 vans. We were in the first van; a teenager led us to the van and it became apparent that he was our tour guide. I asked him how old he was; he said he was 14. This was unacceptable because I don't believe a 14 year old is able to provide insight or in depth answers to questions or has enough maturity or judgment to lead a group of foreigners. Eventually Annie, Veronica's daughter and Gail's step daughter, became our tour guide. Annie was a recent high school graduate and was beginning college studies in March. Her English was fine because she spent 6 years in Alaska and Oregon. She was knowlegeable and tried very hard to make the tour interesting for us.

 

It was my impression that GV did not want to turn away the Star Princess business and hired the 14 year old as a guide. The vans ran somewhat on the same schedule and at the first stop, Vernonica approached me about the tour guide issue. Her only comment was that the 14 year old spoke excellent English. I explained to her that GV website and all correspondence with them never indicated that we would have a guide other than Veronica or Gail and that a 14 year old was not mature enough to lead a van of tourists.

 

At the end, we were satisfied with the tour. However, wherever we went, except the lunch stop, we saw Princess passengers on a ship tour. The ship exursion was about $15 less than GV.

[chica]

We just toured with them last week. We had daughter Ann as our guide. I think she did a good job. My complaint comes in that once we were on the tour we were told we would be given a choice about continuing on to the emerald lake after the falls as it was a rocky road. I sort of thought this meant you could either stay behind at the falls or go to the lake. Wrong! Unfortunately I was with a group who was not interested in going to the lake or really anywhere outside of back to the ship, so no emerald lake for me. Since I book a private tour in order to see more than the ships tour, I guess I learned a lesson about not just booking the tour with people I know share the same interests. Nonetheless for $65 including lunch of salmon with wine and Pesca Sour I think it was an excellent value. We saw the town of Fruitillar ( a German settled town), visited the Petrohue falls, stopped at a bed and breakfast for an excellent view and the chance to see llamas up close and personal and a stop at a crafts market.

[jewels95]

I just got back from the South America cruise. When we got off the ship in Puerto Montt we hired a tour company that was at the pier. It turned out that the guide spoke perfect English and we had one of the few air conditioned buses. He took us everywhere the cruise ship tour office took the passenger at a fraction of the price.

I don't know the name of his company but his name is Martin and his e-mail address is martinamadors@yahoo.es. He was truly wonderful.

Sharon

[canadiantraveller]

We just returned from our cruise and we were dissappointed with our Puerto Montt tour with GV. We didn't get Gail, Veronica or their daughter as a guide. Instead we had a lady who wasn't very good at all. Her English wasn't that good and she didn't really offer much info at all about anything we were seeing. Her answers to questions seemed rather brief and uninformed. After all the raves on Cruisecritic we had expected better.

[nancycoop1]

We just returned from our trip and also used GV as our tour. Our biggest disappointment was that we had been promised a van as two of the passesgers were very large men. We were put in a small car which was very crowded and uncomfortable.

 

The tour was a good value and less than HAL was offered.

[auntdot]

Hmmm... we are starting to plan for our 2009 SA trip and were considering GVtours in Puerto Montt... the 'glowing' reports got me interested plus the promise of 'personal' service on their website. However, lately I have read about a number of 'disappointments' with them - promises not kept, a 14 year old tour guide, a guide who is not fluent in English, etc.

 

What's happening? if it's this hit and miss, maybe a company to avoid? Any other alternatives? Martin sounded good - but only one recommendation.

 

Any suggestions welcome!

 

Dot

[sjpelvis]

Dot, We are using Carlo email address galindotour@hotmail.com next month. He has been very fast at answering all of my emails. I believe other cc have used him. You may want to do a seach. I will try and let you know how it goes.

 

Jean

[auntdot]

Dot, We are using Carlo email address galindotour@hotmail.com next month. He has been very fast at answering all of my emails. I believe other cc have used him. You may want to do a seach. I will try and let you know how it goes.

 

Jean

 

Thanks, Jean. I will see if I can google a website to read about what he offers; otherwise I'll email and ask for info. Sounds to me like GV has suddenly become popular b/c of great recommendations, and now they can't handle the increased business??

 

I'll look forward to your information about carlos when you return. Have a great cruise!

 

Dot

[A.Emgee]

I toured with GV Tours (17 year-old Annie was our guide) recently. I thought it was "acceptable" but not great - certainly not worthy of a glowing review. Perhaps those who go with Gail have a different experience in the nicer vehicle. I didn't have any problem with the 14 year-old who happened to speak fluent and articulate English (as well as Spanish and German), but apparently it was not acceptable to others. Personally, I'd sooner have a "child" guide who can speak my language than an experienced guide who cannot.

 

There were three vehicles - one nice, new Mercedes van, a nice Hyundai van, and an older lethargic Kia van. If you care what kind of transportation you are in, aim for the Mercedes! Our driver was safe (well, for South America, anyway).

 

We only had 15 minutes in Frutillar, 15 minutes in Puerto Varas, 10 minutes up at a lookout point to share with llamas, and a little longer at Petrohue. It felt rushed, especially since we had quite a bit of time before ship's departure. [in all fairness to GV Tours, it's probably better to play it safe than be sorry and miss the ship.] I thought it was odd that admission to Petrohue Falls (something like US$2.50 or CLP1200 per person) was NOT included in the tour price. The lineup to purchase tickets to get into Petrohue wasted 5 minutes as each member of the group had to pay individually. Our longest stop was sadly lunch in Ensenada. We weren't given the option of seeing the Emerald Lake (Lagos Todo los Santos) after lunch - we just went straight back to Puerto Montt and got dropped off at the Feria Artesanal de Angelmo (a street market lined with stores selling alpaca knitwear, souvenirs, and wooden handicrafts).

 

The only option for lunch was deep-fried bread with salsa, salmon with potatoes, and a berry dessert made with Ensenada's own "la murta" berry. Choice of drink was pisco sour or soda.

 

Other practicalities: If you need a toilet, the only free ones are at the tender building before departing Puerto Montt, inside Petrohue Falls, and at the restaurant in Ensenada. If you plan to use a pay toilet (in Frutillar or Puerto Varas), please have either small denomination Chilean pesos or US$1 bills - you won't have much luck with your US$100. The casino at Puerto Varas (one of only a handful in Chile) would not allow cruise passengers to go into the building.

[A.Emgee]

Oh, and as for "the ship excursion was about $15 less than GV" (post #26 above), I don't see how that's mathematically possible since a similar tour offered by Princess (Petrohue River & Frutillar; Tour ID: PMC-A) is priced at $129pp vs. $65pp for GV Tours.

 

Some New Yorkers on the tender back told me that they hired a taxi at the pier to take them to Frutillar, Puerto Varas, and Petrohue. The cost was $60pp in a vehicle for 4, and the driver spoke limited English. Pointing was the main method of communication.

 

$129 for the ship's tour, $65 for the 14 year-old who speaks English plus salmon lunch, or $60 for the Spanish-speaking taxi driver with no lunch? It's apples and oranges...

[annski]

4 people in one car with Gail, enjoyed every minute. The Salmon lunch was good (dessert only fair) red white wine or beer were our drink choices. The informative interesting info given by Gail was great. He allowed us extra time if there was greater interest in

a particular area and dropped us off at the market area just along from the port etc Certainly far better than one of 40 on a coach

[ddjwms]

We just got back from our cruise yesterday, and we used GV in Puerto Montt. It was one of the highlights of our trip. Annie (daughter) was our guide, and she was great. She is a university student; but hardly a child (I presume the "child" some people are talking about was her younger sister; GV does seem to be a family affair...)

 

Annie's English is excellent (as others have noted, she grew up in the US: Alaska and Oregon.) She is quite knowledgeable and adds information she learned in her studies (advantage of having a student as a guide) as well as her tourist information.

 

We spent time in Fruitillier (Beautiful scenery, interesting houses and a small, but interesting museum about the area) and Puerto Varas (nice handicraft market next to the casino), visited the emu and llama farm and Petrohue Falls (scenic, but not spectacular...), and had a nice lunch all for $65. The ship's tour for a similar schedule (minus the llama, emu place) was over double that, and you would have been with 50 or 60 others on a big tour bus, instead of the nice, uncrowded van we had with 9 people...

 

Annie did explain that the Emerald Lake road was under construction with many hold-ups, so we did not visit there, but since a delay in our tendering had made us late getting started, we didn't really have time for anything more anyway.

 

But as I said, we were delighted with our day with GV, perhaps the best of the cruise. Sorry that others' experiences didn't match ours, but don't write GV off; we thought they provided great services...

[CathyK2]

As with ddjwms, we too just got back from the same cruise. We also were on GV tours but were in the van with Veronica. Taken from my review....

 

Tour with Gail and Veronica (a husband and wife team) from GV Tours. This was one of the first tours I had booked after booking this cruise. As it turned out, many others later booked it from our sailing so we ended up having two vans. Ours was with Veronica and had 8 passengers. We were on the first tender (thank you Trish) and were on our way in no time. Beautiful weather. We went to a couple very German towns called Frutillar and Puenta Veranas. All of this was around a very scenic lake called , LLanqueway lake (pronounced yahn KEY way) and also Mount Osmo (a volcano). and got to get up close and personal with Alpaccas and Enus. The baby alpaccas were adorable and definitely worth the stop. Lunch was at a cute little restaurant (included in the tour) with a Chilean lunch at Las Tranqueras. It included one beverage of wine, beer, soda or the ahhh famous Pisco Sour, which I had to try again. I do think this one was a little sweeter than the first two, so wasn't my favorite, but hey, it was a fun restaurant. Also, we had a birthday girl on the tour, so they brought out a huge chocolate cake with cherries.

 

From there it was off to Petrohue Water Falls. What a scenic and nice walk. Veronica did a good job giving us the history of the area and the entire day with lunch cost $65 pp. We ended our tour being dropped off at a craftty shopping area although many went straight back to the ship. We picked up some alpacca scarfs and made the short walk back to the ship.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cathy

[auntdot]

Thanks Cathy & ddjwms for your informative posts. I have written to Gail and mentioned some of the negative posts and he responded promptly and I felt, professionally, so we are willing to give them a try.

 

Did you reserve with CC members? or was the price per person and they fill the van? Our roll call is not too active (maybe because the trip is 10 1/2 months away!!! :D ) and I might need to wait to find others. Patience is not my strong suit!

 

Thanks,

Dot

[CathyK2]

Dot,

In my case, I had booked with Gail before anyone was talking of this tour from our cruise critics sailing. He told me that he would be putting me with up to 12 passengers. As it turned out, others from my sailing were booking and with that, we got together and all caught an early tender.

There was no waiting for any of us, since we were all there. Orginally, he said if were all weren't off on the same tender, it would be first come, first serve and as soon as a van was filled, it would be off and they would work on the next. But with the tendering, if you aren't sleeping in and will make sure that you can get off quickly, it should go smoothly for your whole van.

I do know on our sailing that one couple was slow getting off and Gail waited after the two vans had already left since they didn't hold us up...we had 8 in our van and I'm sure the other was similar. But when they got off late, he drove them to meet up with the other van so they were added there.

I think you will enjoy their very scenic and informative tour. Hope this helps.

 

Cathy

[Bev]

Hi

 

I have been corresponding with GV Tours for our visit to Puerto Montt in 2009. Gail and another gentleman (who lives in Colorado but is listed on their website) keep emailing me for my phone number. They say they know their messages are not getting through to me and they want to call me about the tour. And yet, I am getting their messages. I have written to tell Gail so but he keeps asking for my phone number. Is this a hard sell tactic? Has anyone else had this experience with them?

 

Bev

[Coastaljen]

I can't imagine they would hard sell their tour to anyone.

 

I noticed on the Feb 2009 Celebrity Infinity roll call that someone recently mentioned that they requested their phone number, and the guy called and confirmed they were booked.

 

I did get an email confirmation from him, and he didn't request my phone number. He said to just pay in semi new bills for the tour. I did email him back and forth a few times, so maybe he wasn't worried about my getting it.

[jmfdr]

Bev,

 

I think I am the person Coastaljen referred to as having received a phone call from Gail, at GV tours.

 

We signed up on line for a GV tour for our Feb. 2009 cruise after reading many positive responses on SA forums, including mentions of receiving confirmation phone calls. So when Gail asked for our phone number, because he had concern about the accuracy of their email server, I sent it. Some weeks later we received a call from him to confirm the reservation we had made. He was very polite and friendly, not hard selling or trying to push any other agenda. Just wanted to confirm the date and number of people. I thought it was a nice courtesy.

 

Anyway, perhaps GV feels it is a more accurate way of organizing their tours on any given cruise day and avoiding "no shows" which would make it difficult to accurately plan. ????

 

I had no communication with the other gentleman from Colorado.

 

Jan

[Peregrina651]

I booked this past April for a tour in January, 2009.

 

In the process, I spoke with both Gail and his US-based representative John, a former client who has helped him to consolidate his business. John called because I had been trying to contact GV via e-mail and was having trouble. John and I chatted for about half an hour, mostly talking about what to see and do in Buenos Aires. A few days later Gail called to confirm our reservation. No deposit or credit card was requested.

 

Don't worry about giving your phone number. Neither gentleman knows the definition of 'hard sell' but they definitely like the personal touch of a phone call.

[afghancrazy]

I booked Gail for a tour in January this year and gave him my 'phone number. Gail phoned to confirm the tour and the numbers involved - absolutely NO hard sell (in fact no sell at all). The only downside (sorry Gail!) is that he did not realise that I am in the UK and that we are five hours ahead - he 'phoned at 3.30 in the morning!!! After the tour I forgave him - the tour was absolutely fabulous. You will enjoy it.

[palmettogirl]

I just booked a tour with them for Feb 2009. I had emailed John directly and he emailed me and called me the same day. He was great to talk with and gave me lots of insight on the different ports and answered any questions about the tour. We talked for about 45 minutes. He is retired and just enjoys talking about Chile and GV Tours....great guy!

[MightyQuinn]

Earlier today I e-mailed GV Tours off their website requesting info for a tour in March/09. Within a few hours, I had an e-mail response from Gail in which he answered my query & outlined the itinerary for his all-day tour. He did request my phone number so that......"we can keep in touch as the time gets closer and the computer lines could be down too much." I have no problem giving this info to him ;)

[Peregrina651]

 

In the process, I spoke with both Gail and his US-based representative John,

 

Sorry, GV Tours us rep is Joe, not John.

[MightyQuinn]

My complaint comes in that once we were on the tour we were told we would be given a choice about continuing on to the emerald lake after the falls as it was a rocky road. I sort of thought this meant you could either stay behind at the falls or go to the lake. Wrong!

 

We weren't given the option of seeing the Emerald Lake (Lagos Todo los Santos) after lunch - we just went straight back to Puerto Montt and got dropped off at the Feria Artesanal de Angelmo

 

Annie did explain that the Emerald Lake road was under construction with many hold-ups, so we did not visit there

I've been in touch with GV Tours & have been offered their full-day itinerary for $75 pp. It appears that the trip to Lago Todos Los Santos (Emerald Lake) is not at all a certainty, in that their proposal states that it's "depending on road conditions." From the comments above, several cruise passengers did not get to go earlier this year, being swayed perhaps by mention of a rocky road under construction.

 

What's interesting is that HAL has a Shorex tour that drives to Lake Todos Los Santos, where passengers then take a 45-min boat ride on the lake. If a large bus can make the trip, why couldn't GV Tours? If road conditions are OK, shouldn't GV Tours remove the conditional statement? I'll bring this up with them directly, but I'm wondering if others who have booked with GV Tours have confirmation about this part of the itinerary?

[owl61]

Sorry to be a naysayer, but I believe anyone who purports to run a tour service but carries no insurance on his vehicle deserves to be outed as not good. See :

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=233439

We were trapped in a small compact car with Gail. I thought he was a hillbilly and drove too fast (inconsiderate as well). Others in his family may be more pleasant to be around. IMHO they would have to be.