Grande Traversée
17 March 2019
The Riding
The Accommodation
Do you have any comments about the accommodation and food?
Camping was well organised, ok for comfort, dry! Excellent food cooked on camp fire by Flor. Great fun and gave us the opportunity to be well away from civilisation. Horses seemed happy too, grazing on grassy open plain.
Our second night of camping was due following 7 hours in the saddle, but it poured all day: we rode an extra 1.5 hours to a farm to take their refuge and hospitality for a dry night. Very basic, but amazing hospitality from Miranda and his wife Blanca. Dry bed and a barn with fire to dry all our jackets, boots etc. A great fun evening around the fire in the barn with wine and food.
The Estancias along our route were very welcoming, comfortable, great food: home made cakes, bread, jam, home grown veg and salad...amazing. I loved it. Beautiful wood built houses and barns. Horses grazed in their paddocks. So we were all well cared for!
Before Your Holiday
Did you have all of the information you needed to:
How could we improve the quality of pre-holiday information that we send?
Our route from Argentina to Chile was altered extensively, due to a dry river bed, I feel we could have been informed of this before departure. Disappointing and changed the essence of the transition between countries, not really a “grand traversee”.
(ITS NOTE: The itinerary is always subject to change due to weather and other local conditions. In February / March there was unseasonal weather, which meant the guides had to plan an alternative route a few days before the start of this trip. We are sorry that we did not make you aware of the change to the riding route, but unfortunately we hadn’t been told either.)
How could we improve the way we handled your booking and payment?
Found it all fine
Izy (this is their first In The Saddle holiday) Out of this world | The horses were in excellent condition, skilled at their task. Very comfortable saddles, all well maintained and checked by the gauchos.
The horse care was impressive, on a steep altitude climb we dismounted every 20/30 mins, girths slackened and horses rested for 20 mins.
The guides and gauchos were very attentive to our riding safety at all times, checking girths, saddle position, saddle comfort.
Some of our group wanted more cantering, I was quite happy with a few canters, especially considering the terrain and length of riding each day for the horses.
(ITS NOTE: We are so pleased that you enjoyed your riding adventure. The pace on this ride is steady because it is an expedition trip using pack-horses and the terrain is tiring for the horses. We are sorry to hear that some of the group were disappointed with the steady pace).