BEN VERHOEF TOURS - Santa Cruz

So myself and my girlfriend booked a supposed "luxury" tour with Ben Verhoef Tours from San Pedro de Atacama to the Salar de Uyuni. I feel the need to write this review about Ben Verhoef Tours as we feel that we were ripped off and our safety was compromised.

This luxury tour cost approximately $1,750 USD excluding admissions for the two of us (by way of comparator so you can get an idea of how expensive this is the four day Inca trail to Machu Picchu had only cost circa $840 USD for two of us including all admissions fees, food and use of a porter). We had heard the Salar was tough so we wanted a little comfort after finishing the Inca Trail the previous week where we camped for 3 nights.

The accommodation in the Tayka hotels was quite good considering we were in the middle of nowhere. What we didn't like was the fact that our driver and tour guide were not allowed to dine with us in the evenings because their boss did not want to pay for their meal. This was uncomfortable to say the least as we were in such isolated areas they struggled to find anywhere else to eat. Clearly the staff on these tours are not treated well.

What's worth noting is that Ben Verhoef Tours don't actually do the tour, they get another cheaper Bolivian company to do it - yes we were suckered in with the promise of a European operator running what we thought was a decent operation in Bolivia. We had the misfortune of getting a company called Eco Andes which, funnily enough, after some investigation operate under the site www.salaruyunitours.com
Always be wary of tour operators with generic names and names that don't match their website: it makes finding bad reviews of them difficult.

So the only thing on the trip that could be considered luxury (considering where we were) was the hotels. The jeep was a wreck and broke down numerous times on the trip. Now I know this is to be expected when driving on rough terrain but when we have a leaving time of 6am from the hotel and at 12pm we still haven't left, well it doesn't make for a fun or safe day ahead. We had to miss out on most of the sites on the way back because of the delay and we also had to endure flat tires, the engine overheating numerous times and driving in the middle of nowhere in darkness, not exactly luxury. My girlfriend's seatbelt didn't work despite us previously checking the jeep would have seatbelts before we booked. The tour guide and driver did not have a satellite phone which meant we were completely at the mercy of the driver's ability to fix the jeep each time it broke down with no way of contacting anybody else for help.

On the last day, overruns in time due to the faulty jeep meant we missed our potential bus transfers back from the Bolivian border to San Pedro de Atacama not once, not twice, but three times.

As a result at the border we were told to stay in the jeep and were brought to the main road back to Chile and asked to hitch hike back to San Pedro de Atacama. I am not joking here! When I refused, our driver and guide actually still tried to find drivers for us to hitch hike with. They wanted myself and my girlfriend to get into a truck with two strange men who they had stopped, honestly you could not make this up. When I refused to do so after much arguing they reluctantly drove us to San Pedro where customs then got a bit weird due to the circumstances. Our tour guide and driver then fabricated lies in order to get us over the border. We just went along with it and gritted our teeth, again this was extremely uncomfortable, stressful and hardly luxury.

All in all Ben Verhoef tours are overpriced. They actually don't do the tours themselves so therefore have no control over the quality of them. When I complained the company completely changed their attitude and didn't seem to frankly give a damn - completely different to when they were trying to win our business. We were refused a part refund for the last day and basically told to suck it up as this is what happens in Bolivia. I was looking at Ruta Verde (similar price) when I booked this and wish we had of gone with them. You live and learn though. To think that the cost of our tour was nearly 2 years salary in Bolivia - to this day I have no idea what the money was spent on (it certainly wasn't the jeep or food for the staff), or how Ben Verhoef justify charging this price...there is only one word to sum up Ben Verhoef and Eco Andes...shambolic!

Ben Verhoef Reviews
Eco Andes Reviews

Viajamos desde Chile a conocer Bolivia. En la zona de Santa Cruz encontramos las ofertas de Ben y confiamos en él.
No nos equivocamos: fue muy correcto, sincero y el servicio que nos entregó fue excelente. Lo recomiendo a él y el equipo de personas que le colaboran. Gracias.