Discover the World Traveller Reviews

We take the safety and security of our clients extremely seriously, but sadly crimes against people are a fact of life and can occur anywhere in the World. Discover the World respectfully feels that both the Foreign & Commonwealth travel advice and its own travel advice was sufficiently clear and necessary precautions advised. In particular specific advice was given to be extra vigilant and avoid drawing attention by wearing or displaying any extremely high valuable items. Further, a recommendation to leave any such items at home especially when travelling to a destination you are unfamiliar with, especially where such advice exists. As soon as Discover the World were aware of the situation, contact was made with our customers immediately, so we very much regret if our actions were deemed dismissive or unhelpful. While this is just one of the many reasons why adequate travel insurance should be purchased, this is not a substitute for minimising one's own risk and not something that any holiday company would compensate for. We are though extremely sorry that this situation arose and regret our customers view of Discover the World as a consequence.

We take the safety and security of our clients extremely seriously, but sadly crimes against people are a fact of life and can occur anywhere in the World. Discover the World respectfully feels that both the Foreign & Commonwealth travel advice and its own travel advice was sufficiently clear and necessary precautions advised. In particular specific advice was given to be extra vigilant and avoid drawing attention by wearing or displaying any extremely high valuable items. Further, a recommendation to leave any such items at home especially when travelling to a destination you are unfamiliar with, especially where such advice exists. As soon as Discover the World were aware of the situation, contact was made with our customers immediately, so we very much regret if our actions were deemed dismissive or unhelpful. While this is just one of the many reasons why adequate travel insurance should be purchased, this is not a substitute for minimising one's own risk and not something that any holiday company would compensate for. We are though extremely sorry that this situation arose and regret our customers view of Discover the World as a consequence.

We are sorry to receive this review given the various conversations you had with our staff prior to your departure. We provide detailed holiday quotations based on our understanding of customer requirements and would certainly not expect any of our customers to proceed with a booking if they were not entirely happy with the proposal. Both Gatwick and Heathrow flight options were discussed with you and we explained the best priced flights at the time, were those from from/to Heathrow (leaving Heathrow at 12.40 and arriving back at 19.30 hrs.), which you asked us to proceed with booking. Had we been aware that these were not convenient for you or you were unhappy in any way, we would of course looked at other options based on availability and cost. As no concerns were raised about your flight arrangements, or any other element of the trip, we had no reason to believe that you were not entirely happy with the arrangements and your request to proceed with confirming your booking was on this basis.

The hotel suggested in our quotation and subsequently booked for you, has been a very popular choice with both our clients, and many other visitors. We offer numerous accommodation choices in Reykjavik and would certainly not offer any accommodation if there were concerns regarding guest satisfaction and, despite many other positive reviews, are sorry this did not meet with your expectations. When you contacted us shortly prior to your departure, and some months after booking the holiday, to discuss possibly changing your hotel we looked at and discussed various other options with you, but at that stage there were issues with both availability and price as you were travelling at a peak time, and based on your requirements felt that the hotel you were already booked into would be best option and location for you. If you wish to provide further specific details regarding your excursions we will look into this, but having offered these trips to many other customers for a number years, we have no reason to believe they are not as described or offered.

As a tour operator we offer both pre-designed or bespoke packages, but in all cases the advantage of booking a 'package' trip is the benefit of financial and consumer protection, so the choice of whether to book through a fully bonded and licenced tour operator, versus booking independently is purely customer choice. It is not simply a case of only offering selected services based on commission levels - of course we have negotiated rates with the suppliers we work with, be it hotels, transport providers, excursion operators etc. - as do all tour operators and holiday companies. Despite the contact you had with our team, we're sorry you are overall disappointed with our company but appreciate the opportunity to respond to your review.

We have already spoken to you and resolved this with a positive outcome, but we are really sorry that the holiday did not live up to your expectations. Our client feedback in invaluable to us as it enables us to improve on our products and services, and we have been proactive regarding the issues that you have raised.

We're delighted to hear you had such a wonderful time and achieved your objective of seeing Orca and the Aurora, and much more besides. Iceland is a perfect destination for self drive holidays allowing you to explore and discover at your own pace.

We aim to provide personalised and specialised advice to our customers, tailored to their own trip objectives and preferences, so we're happy to hear this was certainly your experience. We're of course very sorry there was an issue with your first accommodation, but pleased that our 24/7 duty manager was able to resolve this swiftly, and appreciate your kind review comments. We certainly look forward to assisting you again in the future.

We are delighted to hear you had yet another enjoyable trip with us, and it was certainly our pleasure to assist you again.

We consider ourselves very lucky to have such a great team here at Discover the World, who have a passion for what they do and for providing great service to our customers. It is always appreciated when this is acknowledged, so your kind comments are warmly received and we hope we will have the pleasure of assisting you again in the future.

Thank you for your review and kind comments. We are delighted to hear how much you enjoyed Iceland - it certainly is a fascinating and diverse destination.

We hope you may consider a return visit to Iceland in the future and that we may have the pleasure of assisting you again.

Thank you for taking the time to add a review of your trip. We are delighted to hear that you had such an enjoyable time and hope you have returned with many wonderful memories of your experiences in Iceland. In many remoter areas, accommodation can be limited and itineraries may sometimes consist of various differing types of accommodation styles and grades, including simple guest houses or farm stays, but they should nonetheless offer a warm welcome and a comfortable stay. Individual accommodation prices may not necessarily be reflective, but we acknowledge the point you make.

As a tour operator we select the accommodation for our holidays and negotiate rates etc. and therefore would not necessarily offer other accommodation where we have no such relationship or arrangement. Since you have also sent additional information to us directly regarding your accommodation we will of course be happy to respond further to you, and very much appreciate you getting in touch. Thank you again for your comments.

We would like to take this opportunity to re-assure Mr Caliskan and our other clients that when booking any polar voyage through Discover the World, they will always pay the best price available to them from the voyage operator at the time of booking. Regrettably discounting is common in the cruise industry and polar voyaging is no exception. We make not attempt to hide the discounts offered – which include early booking and late availability offers – and our clients will find them on our website throughout the year. In this particular instance our client booked a voyage with an early booking discount (he later also received a free cabin upgrade) and then the operator, Quark, later came out with a last minute offer, closer to the departure date. It’s an unfortunate situation but one we have no control of. We would like to add that the majority of holidays offered by Discover the World are organised by us from start to finish and for these we do not offer discounts as we believe in setting prices at the correct level from the start. Unfortunately this is very much the exception in the modern travel industry. For passengers travelling on expedition cruises to the polar regions we advise that if they want a particular cabin type, on a particular vessel and departure date then we recommend booking early. Most ship operators offer an early booking discount. However if you’re happy to take a chance on availability and airfare prices, then you may be able to take advantage of late availability offers.

We would like to take this opportunity to re-assure Mr Caliskan and our other clients that when booking any polar voyage through Discover the World, they will always pay the best price available to them from the voyage operator at the time of booking. Regrettably discounting is common in the cruise industry and polar voyaging is no exception. We make not attempt to hide the discounts offered – which include early booking and late availability offers – and our clients will find them on our website throughout the year. In this particular instance our client booked a voyage with an early booking discount (he later also received a free cabin upgrade) and then the operator, Quark, later came out with a last minute offer, closer to the departure date. It’s an unfortunate situation but one we have no control of. We would like to add that the majority of holidays offered by Discover the World are organised by us from start to finish and for these we do not offer discounts as we believe in setting prices at the correct level from the start. Unfortunately this is very much the exception in the modern travel industry. For passengers travelling on expedition cruises to the polar regions we advise that if they want a particular cabin type, on a particular vessel and departure date then we recommend booking early. Most ship operators offer an early booking discount. However if you’re happy to take a chance on availability and airfare prices, then you may be able to take advantage of late availability offers.

We are delighted to hear how much you enjoyed the wonderful and spectacular scenery and wildlife. This really is a fascinating and diverse country and we very much hope that you and your travelling companions have returned with many good and lasting memories of your experiences in Iceland.

We are sorry to learn you had any difficulty with the ipad and iDiscover information. Connectivity should not have been an issue as this has been thoroughly tested around Iceland, so I am sorry you experienced any problem with this. We are though looking into it further to ascertain whether there may have been any particular issue with the ipad itself, as this is not something that has been reported to us previously. The iDiscover concept has only recently been launched and we are already working on the next development phase to expand further on the content to make this more comprehensive and a unique one-stop itinerary and information guide for Discover the World clients.

There are two ferries a day - one departing early in the morning (so involving a very early start), or the later afternoon ferry that was booked for you. Generally we reserve this later ferry for our clients and arrangements work well, with an approximate arrival time of 19.15 hours at the accommodation. What we will do in future though is to mention that if there is any delay with the ferry, that guests may wish to consider dining at a hotel restaurant nearby as an alternative option, rather than arriving later at their hotel after the dinner service has finished.

Thank you for taking the time to add your feedback and we sincerely hope we may have the pleasure to be of service to you again in the future.