![\"copyright_6169\"](\"https:\/\/le-mckernan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/copyright_6169.jpg\" "\\"copyright_6169\\"")
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The feedback on this page pertains to Wild Frontiers Adventure Travel Ltd,\u00a0www.wildfrontiers.co.uk<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 and\u00a0wildfrontierstravel.com<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0only<\/strong>\u00a0 (and not<\/span><\/strong> to www.wildfrontiers.com which is a separate travel company specialising in safaris).<\/p>\n Please note that this is not an “I hate Wild Frontiers” rant. \u00a0Rather, the purpose of this blog is to help people make an informed decision about whether or not they should travel with WF UK (*<\/span>* see notice below<\/span>).\u00a0 This blog provides a summary of my experience with WF UK and I hope that it provides \u00a0an \u00a0alternative \u00a0opinion<\/em><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0to help counterbalance<\/em> the gushy testimonials on WF UK’s site and marketing materials.<\/p>\n First, the basics:\u00a0 my husband and I travelled to Central Asia in August 2010 with Wild Frontiers UK as part of their “Silk Road Odyssey” tour covering Kyrgyzstan, Kashgar (China), Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.\u00a0 Although there were many other travel companies offering similar itineraries and were significantly cheaper, we elected to travel with WF based on: WF’s expert knowledge of the region; deep local contacts; ability to deliver “a truly authentic, off-the-beaten-track experience”; their “no hidden costs” promise; and the positive client testimonials.\u00a0 Given that this trip involves multiple border crossings (and hence, the logistics would be exceptionally daunting), the remoteness of some of destinations, and the rich history of the places we would be visiting, we thought that their expertise justified the premium.\u00a0 We were wrong<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Based on my 2010 Silk Road Odyssey experience and in my opinion, most travellers would do just as well armed with a copy of the Lonely Planet.\u00a0 Not only would this save travellers serious money but I daresay that they would have a more authentic and more satisfying experience. Whilst my husband and I actually did enjoy our trip to Central Asia, we both felt that this was because the region itself was amazing.\u00a0 In other words, the overwhelming beauty and history of these countries enabled us to compartmentalised the faults,\u00a0failures and the overall\u00a0amateur execution\u00a0of the trip\u00a0and to not allow these issues\u00a0to derail our trip.<\/p>\n In the marketing dossiers, there is a page titled “Why Wild Frontiers?”.\u00a0 Allow me to share with you my experience and opinion on “Why NOT Wild Frontiers?”<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 Not at all authentic<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n In their marketing materials, it stated “our unique, original itineraries allow our clients to take journeys that venture beneath the surface of the region …. we don’t subcontract our trips … we are able to give a truly authentic, off-the-beaten-track experience.”\u00a0 Furthermore, at the orientation meeting with our tour leader, she’d talked about WF’s ethos as a “travel company for travellers”.\u00a0 She then proclaimed that on this trip, we would be “travellers and not tourists”.\u00a0 But, to be honest, I never felt more like a tourist than I did on this<\/span> trip!\u00a0 Travellers we were not!<\/p>\n Excluding the time we’d spent at Song Kul Lake and Tash Rabat, the itinerary was neither unique nor original.\u00a0 Based on what I’d observed, the WF tour leader didn’t set the day-to-day plans — the local subcontracted guides did.\u00a0 As such, we basically followed the subcontractor’s itinerary which in essence is the bog-standard itinerary for all tourists.\u00a0 Thus, we kept running into the same tourists from other groups over and over again — at the restaurants, at the sites, and just about everywhere else!\u00a0 The subcontracted guides did more than just set the plans — at times, they were ‘in the lead’ and not our WF tour leader.\u00a0 A particular galling example was in Uzbekistan when our WF leader decided that she wanted a break (to catch up on her travel blogs) and thus abdicated all her responsibilities for the day to the local guide! \u00a0( Question:\u00a0 what is the point of hiring WF to provide expert tour leads if they themselves can’t be bothered to lead? )<\/p>\n Upon return from this trip, in my feedback to WF, I’d questioned the use of and the prominent role played by the subcontractors because WF’s marketing materials clearly stated that ‘WF does not subcontract’ out their trips —<\/p>\n (From their marketing dossier — click on image to see full paragraph)<\/p><\/div>\n WF’s response to my feedback is below. \u00a0(My feedback is in black font whereas WF’s response is in blue.) I’ll let you decide if the two statements are compatible.<\/p>\n Moving away from the issue of subcontracting, the overall experience was not<\/span> what I would describe as authentic or off-the-beaten-track.\u00a0 For example, for our first night together with WF in Kyrgyzstan, dinner was at a pasta\/pizza restaurant.\u00a0 This was not a fluke because later as we transit thru Bishkek again, dinner that night was at a different pizza restaurant.\u00a0 To be completely frank, I didn’t travel thousand of miles to Central Asia to eat Italian!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/le-mckernan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Authentic-Experience-claim.png\" "\\"subcontract")
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