Intrepid Travel
Founded in 1989 by two bearded backpackers, Intrepid Travel brings together small groups who are willing to jump in and see the world. Tour types range from leisurely city rides to hard core Cuban treks. Bikes are provided, but you are free to bring your own if you're are willing to box it up and ship it. Tours reach nearly every corner of the globe, and the paths there are well potholed. Those travelling with Intrepid should be ready for some bumpy rides and local food.
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https://www.intrepidtravel.com/us - Price Tier:
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Bali, Burma, Cambodia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Danube, France, Iceland, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, Myanmar, New Zealand, Panama, Rajasthan, South Africa, South America, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Vietnam
One Comment
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This was a cycling tour in the Cape region of South Africa. The trip started out well with an excellent guide but he was injured on the first day. The replacement guide had no previous guiding experience, no local knowledge and no cycling experience, so the group were waiting for the guide to catch up. Even worse the guide had the attitude of a spoiled disinterested teenager on a family holiday under sufferance. For example at lunch with the group instead of engaging with the group and imparting information we would have his head down playing with his phone the whole time in a totally rude manner.
Also Intrepid safety procedures were appalling. The bikes were being jammed into a trailer too small and being damaged. Quick releases being undone, rotors bent, derailleurs miss aligned, tires damaged. Many regular riders rely on their local bike shop for all maintenance and servicing and do not know how to do a bike safety check. Best practice is that the staff should be checking the bikes before they hand them to the riders and then do a group safety check before riding off. Intrepid did neither. In one case they handed a bike to a rider where the disk brakes did not work and they rode off. The guide gave us very little information and when he did it was hard to understand in a bored mono tone and often he did not bother to face us when talking to us like he was not interested.
Intrepid had a system where the support van was in the front and the guide riding at the rear. It would have been much more effective to have the guide at the front and the support vehicle with flashing lights at the rear.
I have done 80 guided trips, 12 of which were cycling and mountain biking trips, so I have had some experience with a number of other operators. I contacted Intrepid after two days with the ineffective replacement guide suggesting that he be replaced but nothing happened. They thanked me for my email the same day and passed it on to the relevant division. But the division appeared to do nothing and did not contact me during the trip. This is my first and last Intrepid trip. The worst guiding in all my experience. The best advice I can give people is do yourself a favor and choose another operator.
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