It’s no secret that I love to plan–especially when it comes to our trips. After all, I just wrote an entire post on how to plan the perfect vacation! I get such a thrill from researching new destinations, discovering the best things to visit, and deciding which adventures to pursue. So you can probably imagine why I was a bit hesitant about booking my first-ever group tour with Exoticca.
Daniel and I are used to traveling alone and customizing our own itinerary, so the thought of relinquishing control to a planned itinerary wasn’t easy for me. Plus, I’d never heard of Exoticca, so I had no idea what to expect. However, the trip was recommended through one of my favorite travel resources, TravelZoo, which is basically the Brad’s Deals of travel. They vet out the best vacation packages, flights, and hotel deals around and make sure that each one is legit.
In the end, I couldn’t say no to a chance to visit the Galapagos Islands, a place that seemed completely distant and unobtainable whenever it came up but was super-high on my bucket list. So we booked the tour with Exoticca, spent 10 days traveling around Ecuador, and here’s how it went…
Our itinerary included stops in all four major regions of Ecuador.
One of the things I really liked about our itinerary was the opportunity to see all the different regions of Ecuador: the Amazon, the Andes, the Galapagos Islands, and the Pacific Coast. Each area has unique cultures, food, dress, and even climates. And while two to three days in each location went by pretty fast, it was enough for us to explore the cities we stayed in and get a good taste of the culture.
The accommodations were mostly fantastic.
Until we got to Ecuador, I wasn’t entirely sure what our accommodations would be like. According to our Exoticca itinerary, we would be staying in “Charm” and “Superior” hotels. However, there was no real definition of what that meant. The itinerary included a tentative hotel (“or similar”) for each location, so I could do some basic research, but we did end up staying in two entirely different hotels from our original itinerary.
As far as the end result, I was overall very happy with our hotels! The first night in Quito, Daniel and I somehow got upgraded to the Penthouse Suite at the Hotel Rio Amazonas, which I’ll never complain about! But after that, we were in a much older standard room. My favorite hotel was the Hotel River Garden in Guayaquil, which was incredibly modern and had gorgeous views and a rooftop infinity pool.
However, not all of our hotels could be that fancy. For example, amenities and buildings are far less modern in the Galapagos islands. But our hotel (Galapagos Blue Planet) was very clean and had great air conditioning. Wifi was limited to the lobby, but we hardly needed it because we were too busy exploring, and it was safe to stay out late.
The only hotel I wasn’t super-happy with was the Suchikapari Jungle Lodge. I was really excited about this Amazon Rainforest stay because we’d had such a great time at the Montana de Fuego in Costa Rica.
I expected rustic accommodations, but I did struggle with some of the cleanliness factors. 2 cockroaches greeted us at the door the first night, and someone else in our group found bird or lizard feces on their pillow. Another lady mentioned that her sheets were wet the first night. I really enjoyed the other amenities and activities offered here, but those things still bothered me, and I didn’t sleep well due to those factors.
Exoticca took care of all our transportation.
I’ll admit to being a passenger princess, but I did not realize how much I’d enjoy not worrying about transportation! I typically like the freedom of being able to come and go as we please, but it was nice to just relax instead of fighting Ecuadorian traffic or driving 5 hours through the Amazon rainforest.
A driver greeted us at each airport with an Exoticca sign, ready to take us directly to our hotel. For several of our tours, we traveled in comfort with a clean and modern air-conditioned bus that had overhead luggage bins and charging ports under the seats. If a bus wasn’t available, Exoxticca made sure that everyone was picked up in a taxi or van and taken to the appropriate location.
Every driver was very courteous and clearly a pro at navigating the tight streets. That took so much stress off of our adventure.
Sometimes the transportation for day trips was a bit unconventional–like riding in the back of a pickup truck and crossing the final river in a pole boat or taking a motorized canoe down the Napo–but our guides and Exoticca reps always made sure we safely got where we needed to be!
The only transportation we ever had to arrange was for activities in our free time, and it was surprisingly affordable ($2-$4 for a taxi across town).
Exoticca booked all of our flights for us.
Coordinating flights can be a huge hassle, but Exoticca handled our entire flight itinerary. This included flights to and from the U.S., as well as two internal flights to and from the Galapagos Islands. Aside from leaving Ecuador at 11:59 p.m., I was quite happy with our flight times and layovers. The only thing I didn’t like was how little communication I received on the airlines and luggage allowances.
You see, Exoticca booked our flights through JetBlue, which apparently is an airline and a vacation booking service(?). I’m still not entirely sure. However, only two of our 6 total flights were actually on JetBlue planes. In fact, I didn’t realize that we had JetBlue flights until the day before we flew out because my itinerary was so confusing.
One flight was handled through Delta, three through Latam, and the final two through JetBlue. It made it rather difficult to keep track of flights, select seats, and even check in because every airline had different standards.
I ended up chatting with a rep through Whatsapp to get things straightened out, so it all worked out in the end.
English-Speaking Guides Helped Us Through Most of the Trip.
I think this is what really made the trip for us. For the first 7 days of our trip, we had a dedicated local guide with us at almost all times to help us navigate the country, share interesting facts, and keep us on track. Exoticca uses local freelancers, which not only provides visitors with a very knowledgeable guide but also supports the local economy.
From Quito to Tena and back, we had a fantastic guide named Eduardo. He was absolutely phenomenal with our group of 16, and I really appreciated his patience and energy. He helped us choose things to eat, translated for our Quechua guides in the Amazon, and even handled the paperwork for everyone’s transit control cards to the Galapagos.
For our day trip to Quilatoa Crater Lake, a guide named Paola stepped in. We could tell she put a lot of effort into making her tours fun. She brought a tablet with photos and videos to supplement her narration on the 3-hour drive through the Andes, and she had such a good attitude about doing the rather intense hike with us.
In the Galapagos, a local named Christian met us at the airport, took us on a tour of the town, and met us again the next day for a larger tour of the island. He helped several of us find good local tours to take on our free day, and he even worked an extra day to join us on our 360 snorkeling tour! I really appreciated his enthusiasm and eye for spotting wildlife. He went out of his way several times to help me get good footage of creatures below the surface, and we enjoyed getting to know about him and his life growing up in San Cristobal.
But in Guayaquil… the local support pretty much disappeared. One guide, Ricardo, met us for a 2-hour walking tour on our first night, and then we were on our own. He gave us some great ideas about safe activities to do in the area, but we didn’t have any Exoticca rep at the hotel or any other guides to help us around town. While we still enjoyed the area, we had to rely on my very limited Spanish to make do for the next two days, which was a bit of a shock after having the guides.
We had the chance to try tons of local cuisine.
One of the best parts of any international trip (for me, at least) is the food. I love trying new things, although I will occasionally chicken out or only eat a little. But our guides had plenty of great recommendations, and we had the chance to try lots of new delicacies. Some of them were a little sketchy, like a roasted guinea pig in the Andes and grilled palm beetle larvae and lemon-flavored ants in the Amazon. But hey, you only live once!
In Guayaquil, Daniel tried encebollado, a popular fish soup, and claimed it was the best soup he’d ever had! We also discovered tons of new fruits, like guanabana, taxo, and naranjilla. And both of us found a new appreciation for empanadas–especially cheese ones.
Exoticca offered 3 additional tours for an extra charge.
When we booked our Exoticca tour, we had the option to add up to 3 additional day tours through the agency: a hike to the Quilatoa Crater Lake, a ceviche-making class, and a dolphin-watching cruise. There was a big discount for booking all three together ahead of time, but we only wanted to do the hike.
As those day trips came closer, everyone was given another opportunity to book through the Exoticca rep on-site, which was a nice option. Several people in our group added on tours at the last minute, including a market trip that wasn’t originally listed.
These tours typically fell on the free day in each location, which had pros and cons. On the plus side, they provided an activity for anyone who didn’t want to explore on their own. On the downside, the timing made it a little difficult to explore a couple of the cities beyond our scheduled walking tours.
I definitely don’t regret booking the all-day hike from Quito to the Quilatoa Crater Lake, but I am very glad that we didn’t do the dolphin-watching tour because we spent two full days exploring Guayaquil on our own.
We had a fantastic group to travel with.
I had no idea what kinds of people to expect on our tour, but I don’t think we could have had a better group! There were 16 of us, ranging from solo travelers to a family group, and we all got along so well. We had people from England, Canada, America, and Trinidad, but we were all connected by excitement for the trip.
Daniel and I were the youngest people in the group, but it didn’t matter. We hardly noticed it, and we had such a great time getting to know everyone! Most of the others had done quite a bit of traveling, so it was fun to hear about their adventures and normal lives. We really enjoyed hanging out with different people outside of our tours, too, and all the different personalities really added to the experience as a whole.
Honestly, I already miss everyone! There was talk of a group reunion sometime in the future, and I really hope we can make it happen.
Closing Thoughts About Our Exoticca Tour
Up until this point, the closest we’d ever come to someone else planning our trip (aside from childhood) was our trip to Costa Rica last spring. We booked through Travel by Jen, but the package only included hotels, flights, and a rental car. From there, we were free to do and see whatever we wanted, which worked out very well.
But the Exoticca tour took things to a whole different level. The package included flights, hotels, transportation, tours, English-speaking guides, and more than a third of our meals. Additionally, there were tons of little stops that weren’t on our main itinerary that really added to the experience. Like a random village near Tena that’s known for the wild monkeys that hang out in the town square, a visit to a local artist’s studio, and lookout points that gave us gorgeous views of the area.
While not everything was perfect, I would definitely book through Exoticca again–in fact, I’m already eying their classic Turkey tour! I think my biggest issue with the tour was the uncertainties. But now that I know how their system works, I would be much more comfortable embarking on another adventure.
If you’re considering a tour with Exoticca, I hope you found this guide helpful. Please feel free to drop any other questions below in the comment section, and I’ll do my best to answer.
They are currently running a special promotion through June 30, 2023, where you can save $200 on your first booking if you use my referral link: https://www.exoticca.com/us/referral/CARRI33C1104846. After that, it goes down to $100 off. But if you do decide to book with them after reading this post, please use my link here and help support the blog! 🙂
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Thanks again for stopping by! Happy travels!
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Hi,
I travel solo and usually do my own planning as well.
I really enjoyed your post, I have also booked with Exotica for the first time and doing the same trip you did.
I leave in a week and still haven’t received E tickets for my flight from Toronto.
Kinda freaking out, did you experience anything like this?
Thanks,
Darlene
Hi Darlene,
Sorry for the delayed response here. Have you received your tickets yet? If not, I would call them directly. We received the tickets pretty close to our actual flight date, too, but I know that’s nerve-wracking, and you need time to plan.
Hi Darlene, Were you able to get on the tour with Exoticca? We booked the same tour for May departure but pretty nervous about this trip with them. Please share your experience.
Thanks,
Terry Tran
Hi Terry and Darlene,
I went back and checked my emails to see when they sent my final details through. Looks like I got the final itinerary about two weeks before the trip. BUT, you should be able to use your booking information to access your tickets directly through the airline you’re flying with! I forgot I did that with Delta and LATAM early because I wanted to choose my seats. So you should be able to see your tickets anytime before your flight. I used the Delta app to handle mine through most of the trip.