Tiger Trails - disappointing

My husband and I did a 1/2 day elephant riding and waterfalls trip with Tiger Trails while in Luang Prabang.

We%26#39;d chosen Tiger Trails because they were listed as fairly reputable in our guide book but we were really disappointed.

They seemed to lack any sort of organisational skills which started with the guide not arriving at the nominated meeting time. We then had to take a tuk tuk to the head office to find the guides who eventually turned up about another 20 minutes later.

We then left on the trip and arrived late to the elephant camp to see all six elephants leaving on a trip with another group and we were told we%26#39;d have to wait an hour before they were back.

Finally, as it was a half day tour, we were told that we%26#39;d be back in Luang Prabang at around 2pm. But our driver didn%26#39;t show up and our guide didn%26#39;t know where he was. He eventually turned up around an hour late which meant we didn%26#39;t get back to town until after 3pm.

The whole tour seemed really disorganised so I%26#39;d advise anyone considering a similar trip to look at other operators....

Tiger Trails - disappointing

Did you complain to the person you booked your tour with?

Tiger Trails - disappointing

You seem to have a bad experience with Tiger Trails not meeting their schedule at beginning, middle, and end. Frustrating, beyond a doubt. But, that aside, was the elephant experience itself worthwhile? Did Tiger Trails actually provide the promised half-day tour that you booked despite these delays? Were other travellers similarly disappointed?

I%26#39;m interested in your negative report because we%26#39;ve been looking into this tour ourselves. When I type in ';Tiger Trails'; and read other posts on this Forum, I come across such praise as ';excellent,'; ';highly recommend,'; etc. Comparing these other reports, I%26#39;m wondering if in your case they just had a bad day.

As for looking at ';other operators,'; I thought that Tiger Trails was just about the only game in town, and renowned as a unique venture. Or have you heard of other similar tours near Luang Prabang that people say are better?

I%26#39;m not sure if it is exactly the same thing, but when we were in Luang Prabang recently we organized to got to the waterfalls with a tuk tuk. When there you can do an elephant ride, feed the elephants; no need to book a %26#39;tour%26#39;

To answer a few queries, yes we did complain to our tour guide who just laughed nervously and didn%26#39;t do anything to change the situation. When we asked what was going on when the transfer didn%26#39;t arrive to pick us up, he just said he didn%26#39;t know and wasn%26#39;t sure when it would arrive. I think we found that %26#39;no care factor%26#39; even more frustrating! As we were the only people on a half day tour that day, we were the only ones who encountered this problem.

As for the trip itself, yes it delivered on the elephant ride and waterfalls but our frustration was with the complete lack of organisation and confusion. There are lots of other tour operators in Luang Prabang which offer similar trips too - the main street is lined with various operators. Not sure if any of them would be any better but we wouldn%26#39;t recommend Tiger Trails based on our experience.

A couple of years ago our local travel agent used Tiger Trails to organise our accommodation and transport in Vientiane and Luang Prabang. On the whole they did not perform well, a lot of mistakes were made in the bookings, we ended up in the dreadful Phousi Hotel in LP, then had to move out for one night because of a conference, then move back in. It was all very irritating and caused us to waste big chunks of our precious time in Luang Prabang. Tiger Trails took no responsibility for the mistakes and the driver/guides just smiled and shrugged. Next time I will organise it myself.

Just to clarify something - the Tiger Trails trip is with the Ban Xieng Lom Elephant Park Project which goes during certain times of the year to Tad Xay waterfall. You do need to book this in advance.

There are some other %26#39;performing%26#39; elephants at the waterfall, but different owners and very different principles.

Personally I work with Tiger Trails often and send many guests there way and generally speaking they offer a very good level of service.

Tiger Trails is quite a big company. i think they own an elephant camp and few resorts in Luang Prabang. you ought to make a complaint to the operator if you think they should improve the tour,service or a guide. they must appreciate your voice too. just pass on your comment to Markus Neuer

After our disappointing experiences with Tiger Trails our local travel agent passed on our complaints to Markus. She got no explanation or apology. It seemed that he couldn%26#39;t have cared less.

I also had similar trouble with Tiger Trails in 2007 %26amp; went to their office to complain %26amp; was given a time to come back to the office as the first time I went I was asked to see a certain person when I came back a second time the person was not there so I emailed my complaint when I got home %26amp; still got no reply.

We had a disappointing experience with Tiger Trails as well in August of this year. At their in-town office we asked to book a guide and private car to the elephant sanctuary then a boat to the buddha caves, not realizing they are in completely opposite directions and it was highly unlikely to be able to do both in a day. Halfway through we were told that a boat wasn%26#39;t possible and we%26#39;d have to drive to the caves, which is not something we were interested in doing especially since the day was almost over by then. We asked for a partial refund instead, were driven to an office outside LP, had to explain to some manager and eventually got it sorted out to take the boat portion another day, but the logistics, communication and overall organization was not very professional for what they were charging us. The guides were nice enough but the company didn%26#39;t add much value over what we could have arranged on our own at a fraction of the cost.