Reindeer Tribe Tour Mongolia Taiga and Tsaatan Culture

Horrific experience!

I want to start this review by saying that I have travelled to more than 60 countries, including challenging destinations such as the Congo, Afghanistan, the Ecuadorian Amazon and Benin. I have hired private guides and tour companies all over the world, and I have never had an experience as unprofessional and poorly organized as this one. I booked and paid for a fully private tour as a solo traveller, including paying the additional cost associated with travelling alone. Problems began from the moment I was picked up. My supposedly private transportation arrived with the driver’s family in the vehicle. After I complained, I was moved to another vehicle, but that driver also had family travelling with him. The person assigned to me as my “guide” was not, in any meaningful sense, a professional guide. She could provide virtually no information about the history, culture or places we were visiting. She told me she had never slept alone before and asked if she could sleep beside me. We also had a two-day journey on horseback ahead of us, yet she told me she did not know how to ride and was terrified of horses. Instead of having someone there to guide and assist me, I felt as though I was responsible for looking after her. One of the main reasons I planned my trip around these particular dates was to attend a local Naadam festival. The company got the dates wrong. As a result, I missed the entire festival and actually left the area on the day it began. There were also serious issues surrounding payment. The company did not request the final payment until the day the trip began. They told me a bank transfer was acceptable, so I sent it. Two days later, they suddenly told me they would not continue my trip for seven days while waiting for the transfer to clear, meaning I would be stranded in a small town. What made this particularly ridiculous was that they already knew how long my bank transfers took because I had sent my deposit by the exact same method a month earlier. When I pointed out that they had never requested the balance in advance, I was told it was my fault because I “knew” transfers took time and should have sent it earlier. At this point I became seriously concerned about how the situation was being handled and told them I would contact the tourism police. Only then did they suddenly agree that I could continue the trip while they waited for the transfer. The portion of the trip involving the Tsaatan community was the part I was most excited about, and unfortunately it was also one of the biggest disappointments. I was supposed to spend five days with the Tsaatan people, but ultimately had only three full days there. Based on how the experience had been sold to me, I understood that I would be staying with local people, eating with them and participating in their daily life. Instead, virtually nothing appeared to have been organized. My guide brought a small burner and packages of instant noodles, and this was essentially what we ate. This was particularly surprising because when I had questioned the high price of the tour before booking, the company specifically explained that visiting the Tsaatan was expensive partly because of costs such as food. Even worse, my supposed “guide/translator” told me that she could barely understand the Tsaatan people herself because their accent was so strong. She actually told me that she felt like a tourist too because she didn’t understand what they were saying. She spent much of her time in another tent using their Starlink internet on her phone. Very little was translated for me, and virtually nothing was arranged for me to participate in the community’s daily activities. I had travelled an enormous distance for what was supposed to be an immersive cultural experience, only to spend long periods sitting alone in a tent. Every time I raised concerns with the company, instead of trying to resolve them professionally, I was met with rudeness, blame and insults. One of the most unbelievable situations involved accommodation. The company expected me to share my hotel room with my guide. When I pointed out that I had specifically booked a private tour as a solo traveller, their response was: “Private does not mean single supplement. You should know this.” I completely disagree. If someone books a private tour as a solo traveller, it is absolutely reasonable to expect that they will not suddenly be required to share their hotel bedroom with a stranger unless that arrangement was explicitly disclosed before booking. They then demanded additional money for me to have my own room or threatened to downgrade my accommodation. Ultimately, because of the company’s lack of organization, my trip finished two days earlier than what I had paid for, yet they refused to provide an appropriate refund. I asked them to at least book me a flight in lieu of part of the unused cost, and even that became an argument. They eventually booked the flight, but its value still did not come close to covering what I had paid for and did not receive. From beginning to end, this was one of the most chaotic and unprofessional travel experiences I have ever had. I paid a premium for a private, organized, guided experience. Instead, I received transportation that was not initially private, a guide who could not effectively guide or translate, an incorrectly scheduled festival that I consequently missed, an “immersive” Tsaatan experience that was nothing like what had been represented to me, disputes over accommodation and payment, and a trip that ultimately ended two days early without an adequate refund. After travelling extensively around the world and working with many guides and tour operators, I have never felt compelled to leave a review like this before. I would not recommend this company to anyone, particularly anyone considering paying a premium for a private or solo tour. My experience was that the service delivered fell dramatically short of what I was sold and what I paid for.

via Tripadvisor