KE Adventure Travel Avis 

Absolutely wonderful. Logistics of pick up and drop offs to the airport great. Walking guide was local, incredibly knowledgeable, fun and friendly. The food was delicious and great for vegans! Every day Lassaam made sure we had a mid morning snack and a rest under the shade of a lone acacia tree. Lunch was soo excellent, prepared by a chef who managed to concoct the dishes from the veg which the camels carried. The camel leaders worked their socks off making sure our campsites were set up every night. Everything was provided for us ...matresses, sleeping bags, food, water. An absolutely wonderful experience!

KE continue to provide excellent customer service and a very high quality of travel experience in the countries where they arrange trips. We travelled on their Madagascar cycle adventure on this occasion. Wonderful.

My husband and I really enjoyed the Sri Lanka Temples and Tea Trails trip. It was a very varied itinerary, ranging from historical sites to cultural experiences to wildlife safaris to hikes. Personally we would have preferred a little more hiking and fewer temple visits, some of which we found a bit repetitive, but everyone is different. Anyone doing the trip should be aware that it is a very packed itinerary, with a lot of VERY early starts (e.g. 4 or 5am, even 2am for the Adam's Peak day!). Some of the timings didn't make a lot of sense to us, and one or two of the early starts seemed a little unnecessary.

Our leader Harindu (Harry) was a fantastic guide. He was kind and accommodating of special requests from the group (e.g. one group member wanted to buy a wood carving so he arranged for us to stop at a wood carver's workshop). He was also extremely knowledgeable, on a wide range of subjects from history to the environment, and gave us a lot of information about the country and what we were seeing. He communicated clearly and his English was impeccable, better than most English people - he knew English words I didn't know! Our driver Anil was also great - friendly and dealt well with some challenging driving.

The standard of accommodation was very high; we actually felt the hotels we stayed in were too luxurious for the amount of time that we spent in them. Most days we would arrive late and leave early the next morning, so we didn't really have any time to enjoy the hotel. We would have preferred for the trip to have more basic accommodation and be cheaper. Also none of the hotels had mosquito nets, but there were mosquitos in some of them, and we got bitten.

Personally I didn't enjoy the Adam's Peak walk at all. It was far too busy, we couldn't get seats at the top (the seats reserved for tourists were full of locals), and we couldn't even stand anywhere to get a decent view of the sunrise because there were so many people. In my opinion it was not worth getting up in the middle of the night for. I concede it was an experience though, and others in the group enjoyed it more.

Overall we enjoyed the trip and would recommend it to anyone wanting to experience Sri Lanka in an easy package (although unlike some other KE trips you could do a similar trip indepedently with a little planning for a lot less money).

I booked a self guided trip to Vietnam for 3 of us. Was such an awesome trip and I would highly recommend to anyone to explore the self guided options that KE offer.

Vietnam is a special place to visit with so much to see and experience. We travelled from South to North, used private transfers and night trains.

If you have a desire to explore, this is a safe way of doing this as the itinerary is there for you (which you can dabble with), everything is booked and KE provide a fantastic App which is personalised to your trip. It provides your daily itinerary, a raft of emergency procedures, maps, contact details and all sight seeing information. The App does all the work for you, you just read the app and set off !

We had some beautiful hotels which was wonderful after a long day exploring.

I am already looking for my next trip.

I have enjoyed every trip I have done with KE, including the latest one to Fuerteventura; excellent locations, walking, leaders and organisation

I am just home from an amazing family trip to Inida with KE - we were extremely impressed by our guide and driver and very happy with the quality of accommodation and planning that had clearly gone into making our stay as memorable and smooth as possible. Highly recommended.

Well organised trip, good food, informed and helpful guide. Overall very enjoyable experience.

Had a fantastic holiday cycling from Bangkok to Phuket. Fabulous accommodation and food with very friendly and knowledgeable guides.

I've never come across a travel company that provided such excellent care and guidance before a trip! They patiently answered my endless questions, and always within 24 hours. The management and organisation were superb, with everything happening at the right place and time, and our guide was terrific; he knew very quickly what each person in the group needed and did everything possible to make the trip an enjoyable experience. It was all I'd hoped for and more.

It's just my personal opinion, but I think we need to be more aware of where our money is going. I used to travel with them and believed they were a sustainable company, but when you look closely, how sure wre are you that the exorbitant prices you pay nowadays go to local businesses etc.? The price I was given meant that after deducting costs that could be reasonably expected, most of the money was pure profit for the company.
Another aspect of true sustainability is localisation. It's difficult to imagine that a company organizing intercontinental trips could be sustainable. We all know the cost of one intercontinental flight.
My experience in the past was mixed, with some trips where the guide left us alone and no water was provided, to completely changing the itinerary because of food poisoning that in my opinion could've been avoided.
All in all, I would look for other truly local options in a country you want to visit.

The walks were great, and a good mix of levadas, coast, forest etc. Our guide, Jorge, was very knowledgeable and good fun. The only downside was the poor choice and quality of the food for vegetarians in the hotel restaurants.

We recently completed a week-long Tajikistan trek followed by a week in Uzbekistan visiting the Silk Road cities. Although they are very different, both are interesting, well-structured trips with much to recommend them. To KE's credit, having guaranteed the trip, they honoured their commitment despite other (non-related) people falling out some six weeks before departure. Perhaps understandably, we did not therefore have local guides selected from the First XI, although they were satisfactory; the local agents, particularly that in Tajikistan, were helpful and very hands-on. Far more importantly, our luggage failed to arrive for the trek (not really KE's fault and entirely due to the inefficiency and ineptitude of Turkish Airlines): we therefore carried out a demanding mountain trek with no equipment, no spare clothes, no water purification, no medical stuff, etc. This not only made it much more challenging and uncomfortable, but resulted in illness over the trek itself. My recommendation is to try to travel by any another carrier rather than Turkish Airlines or, if there is no choice, to have a minimum 6-hour stopover in Istanbul which might be boring but minimises the chance of Turkish Airlines ruining your holiday.
That all said, the itineraries in both Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were excellent, both countries were, in their different ways, fantastic, the accommodation in the latter above average and the overall trip was very good: hence 4 stars for KE - but 0 for Turkish Airlines.

Absolutely superb holiday from start to finish. Excellent Company with a truly superb team on the ground in Nepal - just one of the best trekking holidays one could have

I trust them to deliver. The trip itineraries are always good and they choose their on the ground sub-contractors well.

I went on KE's nine-day Choquequirao to Machu Picchu trek. As advertised, it's a tough, demanding hike, but the fantastic scenery and the incredible city of Choquequrao make it worth the effort.
What went well:
- KE admin staff responded within a day to inquiries and were polite and professional.
- Support staff on trek (cooks and horse wranglers) were friendly, efficient and excellent at their jobs-we always arrived to a set up camp and enjoyed constantly changing, but uniformly delicious, ample meals.
- Equipment was well maintained-we had two nights of major rainfall, and not a drop entered our tents. The toilet set up at remote camps was clean and odour-free.
- One camp was run by coffee farmers-we had a great tour of the site, watched coffee being hand roasted and could purchase fantastic organic coffee at a reasonable price.
- Travel between the hotel and trailhead and back was smooth and timely.

Where KE could do better:
- Admin staff gave me the name of the wrong hotel in Cusco, (the company uses two) and then tried to blame the error on me. I only discovered the issue when I was looking to book an additional night. Later, my plans changed--and while KE blamed the local company for the policy, the end result was because I canceled the extra night without 30 days advance notice, I forfeited the US$65 cost of the hotel room. No refunds. No one mentioned this policy when I booked.
- The guide had been guiding since 2007, but this was his first year with Lima Tours, the ground partner of KE. He was technically competent, a strong hiker and always cognoscente of group safety. However, he needed more training in communications and general group social skills. On the first morning, for example, he told us that the tip range recommended in the KE materials was far too low and the horsemen and cooks felt underpaid and unappreciated. He refused, however, to tell us what an appropriate amount was, leaving us guessing and uncomfortable. He also left it up to us to determine how to divide the tip pool between him and the others.
- He also mentioned items (like toilet paper) not covered in KE's packing list, and said we needed to have a 500 soles emergency cash store--again, not covered in KE's materials. This lead to a wild scramble to get the missing items the night before we left for the trail.
- The guide unfortunately harassed me about not eating enough-as a smaller person I could not finish the large portions that were presented to us in pre-determined quantities on our plates. I have experience hiking at altitude, had no problems with energy and was fine. He didn't take hints--I finally had to ask him directly to stop badgering me and commenting on my eating at every meal.
- In Aqua Caliante, the original plan was for us to carry our packs, 10 kg duffel bags and poles through the streets for 15 minutes to the hotel--which was ridiculous at the end of 7 hours hiking. Because I sprained my knee hurrying down a steep slope to meet the train (we had been too long at lunch), the guide arranged for the hotel to pick up the group's luggage, which should have been the original plan.
- The Flower's Hotel which KE booked for us (but not the guide) is literally across a narrow street from the train station, so we were all woken by idling train engines at 5:00 am., which rumbled away for 30 minutes on a regular basis for the rest of the day. Sound buffering from street noise was also non-existent and none of us slept more than a few hours.
- One person in the group could not keep pace and slowed us considerably, with the group often stopping every 5-8 minutes. KE needs a policy like some other companies, that states the guide will require (not suggest or encourage) a person ride the emergency horse that is available on these treks, if they are slowing the group pace excessively.

I would love to do the trip again--at a more regular pace and with a different guide. It really is a wonderful trek and worth the time and effort.

Price of the tour and what we got for it was not acceptable. The accommotion and food could have been better. The guides cared for us really good, their explanations and organisation was terrific. The transport of the suitcases damaged my suitcase badly also it is a really good once (vaude). I travelled now for years and it never good so badly handeld. I think it was the 1. transport in Rumania.

An excellent trip with a fantastic leader. Superb trekking in stunning mountains combined with cultural experiences.

We did the Tour du Mont Blanc, self-guided, and KE Adventure arranged everything beautifully.

This is not an ordinary hike. It is really tough emotionally and physically. You will be following a route hundreds took to flee the oppression of Nazi-occupied France, into what was supposedly the freedom of Franco's Spain. On the way, there are plaques and moving memorials to remind you of that enormous undertaking. It was the highest of several routes over the mountains and, to avoid detection, was deliberately chosen to follow extremely rocky paths with often vertiginous ascents and descents. Our leader Cyril was a compassionate and accomplished guide. Every single one of us found the route challenging but he held us together. The night in the atmospheric shepherd's hut was a highlight, Cyril cleared the table and with the aid of sticks and other paraphernalia gave us a quick history of the Pyrenees, which he obviously loves. Bravo Cyril.. your humanity was infectious!

I wish I could give zero stars. KE Adventures has gone down hill. Guide was not sensitive to people getting sick on hike. Took us to fly ridden restaurants instead of letting us eat at the top of mountains without flies because of his prejudices against the restaurant owner. Stolen hiking poles which also were taken by the trail guide and mysteriously disappeared. KE stopped providing lunch on their tours which made it difficult to get lunch on the mountain or in grocery stores. No zero day on a long 100+ mile 35k elevation change hike. Poor planning all around. Guide extended daily hikes by an hour or two every day because of stopping to talk about botany and different plants. Some says we wanted to get to the hotel to clean up and relax. We didn’t sign up for a plant teaching class that extended our daily hikes.

In response to your reply this was my first trip but everyone else on this trip had done KE before and said you did lunches in the past and they too complained about the areas of the trip as I have such as extending the hikes and poor food etc. again as you have continued to avoid responding about Roman the guide who was very prejudice and provided one type of service to another hiker while not giving me any accommodations. One hiker he gave much more latitude because of her knee. While me, with the flu was not given any accommodations.

If you read my response on the hiking poles. He asked for my poles, not everyone’s but mine and mine were the only ones stolen. So he did take my poles and after that I never saw them again. While others took their poles and put them up themselves or in their room.