Jan 22, 2024
Great trip to the Thermal Springs - The pools were amazing! The price of this tour includes your transportation/entrance to the thermal springs and a small picnic (wine, juice, cheese, chips). Additionally, we stopped at the Chocolate House, a waterfall, and a restaurant. Be sure to bring flip flops as there is a changing facility/bathroom at the springs (they are rugged). I recommend wearing your bathing suit and then changing afterwards. Bring drinking water, towel, and sunscreen! Lovely tour and worth the price!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Nov 24, 2023
Amazing time - This was by far the best thing we did in Chile!!! Jean and his daughter are absolutely fabulous. They were so accommodating and amazing. I would do this tour one thousand times again!!! We made memories of a lifetime!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Oct 22, 2023
I traveled from the US... - I traveled from the US and it was the highlight of my trip. Highly recommend. The views along the way were spectacular. Then to sit in the hot springs and enjoy the snow capped mountains. Unforgettable.
Review provided by Viator
Feb 27, 2024
Springs are great. The tour was not. - Horrible experience all the way around.
The Hot Springs are great. Enjoyed the time there. Many have mentioned the changing rooms and bathrooms. We only used the men's area. It was similar to camping facilities. It was fine.
The tour though wasn’t. The evening before the tour, I hadn't received any messages regarding pick up at our hotel. I messaged the WhatsApp number on the reservation who told me to contact someone else. Which I did. He said he had no tours listed for the next day and wanted additional information. I sent him a picture of my reservation confirmation. He blamed 'Viator' for not uploading the reservation but said he would get me situated.
A bit later, he messaged that we were set and I'd be hearing from driver. I saw that lunch was not provided on the tour so I asked if there was a place to purchase food at the park or if we should pack a lunch. Especially since this was a 'Full Day' tour. He said there was food available there.
The driver messaged that he would be at our hotel at 6am. We were ready and picked up close to that time. Since there was no tour scheduled, I asked if we were the only ones for the tour. He said no and that there were 11 more to pick up.
My reservation was for an English tour. The confirmation read that the tour guide might be 'multi-lingual'. That is fine. We didn't care but we don't speak Spanish. When we were picked up, we were told that he didn't really speak much English. He didn’t. The confirmation also states the tour starts at 7am when everyone is onboard. We didn't get the last passenger until 7:47.
The springs are 2.5 hours from Santiago. This is a full-day tour.
After driving a bit, we stopped at some roadside shack for coffee. That wasn't listed on the tour. We were there for about 40 minutes. People are loading into the van and we now have 16 passengers. The driver agreed to take 3 of the coffee shack workers or family members and drop them off somewhere else. We were a taxi service.
After the coffee stop, we stopped again at some pull-off to see a brown flowing river. That was not on the tour. Another stop was to view the volcano and field of horses. That was cool to see. We didn't need to be there so long but it was cool. It was not listed as part of the tour. None of those stops were mentioned in the tour and are part of our 'Full Day' at the Hot Springs.
We made it to the Springs at 10am. We were picked-up at 6am. We've already been traveling for 4-hours. The tour guide said we had 2-hours at the Springs and we left at noon. We booked a full-day tour at the Springs but were only given 2-hours. After leaving, we stopped at some place for a small buffet lunch. Again, that was not mentioned on the tour and I was told the prior evening there was food available at the park which there isn’t. We stopped for lunch for an hour.
After lunch we drove a little bit and stopped at a Chocolate shop. That also, is not listed on the tour. We were there for an hour or so while we waited our turn to go inside.
After the chocolate shop, the tour guide swung by a water fall and bridge. Cool to see but not on the agenda.
After the falls, he drove back to the roadside coffee shack which was now a wine shack. We stopped for wine and salami at this roadside shack. It was not part of the tour.
We returned to our hotel at 5:45pm. We spent hours and hours on that van doing things that were not part of the tour. We paid for a Full Day Trip to the Hot Springs, and we got 2-hours.
During this entire trip, the only people the tour guide spoke with were the couple sitting in the front seat. He never engaged anyone else in the van. There were other Spanish speakers in the van but he never included them in any conversation. When we arrived at the unscheduled stops, he gave an explanation in Spanish as we pulled into the facility. Most of the time, there was never an English explanation. We didn't know where we were or why we were there.
I responded to our contact from WhatsApp about not getting the tour we paid for. We wanted a 'Full Day' and we got 2-hours because of the unnecessary stops. There was just an apology.
The apology doesn't cut it. We paid for a full day trip and didn't get that. We paid for an English speaking tour. We didn't get that. If there were no tours scheduled, we should not have been placed in some other type of tour with no explanation. We should have been on our tour, even if it was just the two of us.
We don't appreciate being completely ignored during the very long day in a van either. He didn't speak English and never engaged anyone other than the two in the front seat.
Definitely go see the Hot Springs but use a different tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Feb 26, 2024
Springs are Good, This tour operator is HORRIBLE - Horrible experience all the way around.
The Hot Springs are great. Enjoyed the time there. Many have complained about the changing rooms and bathrooms. We only used the men's area. It was similar to camping facilities. I didn't think it was horrible.
The tour though was horrible. The evening before the tour, I hadn't received any messages regarding pick up at our hotel. I messaged the WhatsApp number on the reservation who told me to contact Cristobal Barrientos. Which I did. He said he had no tours listed for the next day and wanted additional information. I sent him a picture of my reservation confirmation. He responded that 'Viator' must have failed to upload the reservation but he would get me situated.
A bit later, he messaged that we were set and I'd be hearing from Gonzalo who would be our tour driver. I saw that lunch was not provided on the tour so I asked Cristobal if there was a place to purchase food at the park or if we should pack a lunch. Especially since this was a 'Full Day' tour. He said there was food available there.
Gonzalo finally messaged that he would be at our hotel at 6am. We were ready and picked up close to that time. Since there was no tour scheduled, I asked if we were the only ones for the tour. He said no and that there were 11 more to pick up.
My reservation was for an English tour. The confirmation read that the tour guide might be 'multi-lingual'. That is fine. We didn't care but we don't speak Spanish. When we were picked up, we were told that he didn't really speak much English. That is true. He did not. The confirmation also clearly states the tour starts at 7am when everyone is onboard. We didn't get the last passenger until 7:47.
The springs are 2.5 hours from Santiago. This is a full-day tour.
Next thing we know, we are stopping at some roadside shack for coffee. That wasn't listed on the tour. We were there for about 40 minutes. People are loading into the van and we now have 16 passengers. Gonzalo agreed to take 3 of the coffee shack workers or their family members and drop them off somewhere else. We are now a taxi service.
After the coffee stop, we stopped again at some pull-off to see a brown flowing river. That was more wasted time. Another stop was to view the volcano and field of horses. That was cool to see. We didn't need to be there so long but it was cool. Finally we were on the way to the Springs. None of those stops were mentioned in the tour and are eating away at our 'Full Day' tour.
On the way, finally, to the springs, Gonzalo says that we are going to have 2-hours at the Springs. We paid for a Full Day tour. We are now only getting 2-hours???
We made it to the Springs at 10am. We were picked-up at 6am. We've already been traveling for 4-hours. We left the Springs at Noon. After leaving, we stopped at some place for a small buffet lunch. Again, that was not mentioned on the tour. Plus, Cristobal said there was food available at the park. BTW, there is not. We stopped for lunch for an hour.
After lunch we drove a little bit and stopped at a Chocolate shop. That also, is not listed on the tour. We were there for an hour or so while we waited our turn to go inside.
After the chocolate shop, Gonzalo swung by a water fall and bridge. Cool to see but not on the agenda.
After the falls, he drove back to the roadside coffee shack which was now a wine shack. We stopped for more waste of time for wine and salami.
We returned to our hotel at 5:45pm. We spent hours and hours on that van doing things that were not part of the tour. We paid for a Full Day Trip to the Hot Springs and we got 2-hours.
During this entire trip, the only people that Gonzale spoke with were the couple sitting in the front seat. He never engaged anyone else in the van. There were other Spanish speakers in the van but he never included them in any conversation. When we arrived at the unscheduled stops, he gave an explanation in Spanish as we pulled into the facility. Most of the time, there was never an English explanation. We didn't know where we were or why we were there.
I responded to Cristobal about not getting the tour we paid for. We wanted a 'Full Day' and we got 2-hours because of the unnecessary stops. There was just an apology.
The apology doesn't cut it. We paid for a full day trip and didn't get that. We paid for an English speaking tour. We didn't get that. If there were no tours scheduled, we should not have been placed in some other type of tour with no explanation. We should have been on our tour, even if it was just the two of us.
We don't appreciate being completely ignored during the very long day in a van either. He didn't speak English and never engaged anyone other than the two in the front seat.
Definately go see the Hot Springs but DO NOT TRUST this tour.
Review provided by Viator