How and Why – Kuoda Travel in South America

After an exhausting five days spent on my computer researching the places and destinations that we wanted to travel to and see in South America, I was struggling to put an itinerary together from so many different suppliers and travel companies.  Given that we had only a short month in South America to tour Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia I realised some help was needed.

This is where ‘Team Kuoda’  comes in…

I found Kuoda Travel in Cusco, South America website and I could see that there was nothing but glowing and appreciative testimonials about them, not only on their site but on many other independent sites.

After several email exchanges I was feeling very comfortable that everything was genuine and for real. Our trip planner was a fellow by the name of Thomas, an English speaking travel designer, who paid attention to every detail that I could have wished or asked for.

The booking process went something like this:

 1)     I email Kuoda with my enquiry,
2)     They reply within 24 hours,
3)     Next, I get this email:

 Dear Joanne,
Greetings from Cusco!

 Just to introduce myself; My name is Tom, and I’ll be working with you to create a great trip for this coming June/July. Looking over the itinerary outline you gave, I can already see you’re going to have a great time! I like that you didn’t try to fill every day, as it gives me an opportunity to fill in some spaces with some good suggestions, and of course the flexibility for logistics.
I’ll just go over a few comments and questions, if I may:

Always nice to hear of a child-sponsor, we (Kuoda) have a project helping a community (especially the kids there) so it’s something close to our hearts. Do you know what time you expect to arrive in Quito (and if those 3 nights include arrival date)? May I ask where the child lives, and how much time is required for this? We could leave a day free for this.

For Napo Wildlife Centre, the set 6d5n packages start on certain dates only, but I will check what we can fit to our dates. For Galapagos Islands and the Inca Trail, we may use different operators, but the general itinerary would be similar – and of course no need for a sailboat.

Local homestays are not a problem, and I would recommend this here in the Sacred Valley and on Amantani for Lake Titicaca (including Uros and Taquile). After this, taking in the Bolivian side of Titicaca and onwards to La Paz.

Being June, the busiest month for Cusco, we’d have to hope for the best regarding accommodations, as they are going all the time… Am I right in presuming that when you say 2 adults, you mean one room/bed is required where possible? Also, Inti Raymi (festival of the sun) is on the 24^th, are you interested in taking this in too?

Anyhow, I’m going to start working on an itinerary, which may take a couple of days due to working with Ecuador and Bolivia, but let’s see what we can come up with… In the meantime, please do send me a few lines regarding the above, plus any other information always helps! Questions are always welcome too.

All the best, Tom

It was that delightfully written initial email that got me very interested and six days from my first email I received a 19 page Proposed Detailed Itinerary.

Amazing!

I was more than impressed.

Only  15 days later we have a final confirmed itinerary with all bookings made.

We have done all this by email; I have not spoken to anyone from this company and now I am sending them money by PayPal!

Am I crazy?

Maybe,  I feel nervous and comfortable at the same time.  My gut instinct is only telling me good things.  I am not disappointed.

Kuoda provided excellent service, a safe, comfortable and hassle-free travel experience. The travel is private and our itinerary is individually customised to our wishes.  With Kuoda Travel you travel in your style (budget or luxury your choice) and at your own pace, and their private guides are second to none.

We got to enjoy the company of these local people who spoke excellent English and lived in the local areas we were visiting. These trips were certainly one of a kind experiences.

If you want to get the most excellent and most knowledgeable guides and get off the beaten path then Kuoda Travel is right for you. We had never before gone on a so called “guided trip” so I had stressed to our travel designer that we needed the flexibility to be able to change our minds or divert if we saw something interesting.  I was assured we could do this and we did this regularly on the trip and it was never a problem.

From the time we arrived in Quito to the time we left Bolivia and the month in between we could not have been happier with the organisation of our programme.

I also loved the way the guides checked us in at the airports; it felt a little lazy but special at the same time.

Kuoda Travel is a first class company. They come highly recommended by us, they are very reliable and your trip with them will be just magic.

What is your experience using a Travel Company in South America?