Travelling with my elderly mother, I called the company the day before the planned tour to see if see they offered ladies bikes or only unisex. I could not reach the office so took the call-back option but no one called back. Against my better judgement, I called again the next morning and asked if they had ladies bikes. The operator said no one had asked for ladies bikes in years and did not know if they had them or not. We booked anyways and when we reached the location, were relieved to see they had ample styles of bikes including ladies. We specifically chose this company because they offered small-group tours (up to 10?). We were supposed to leave at 1:45 but were kept waiting until 2 pm while newcomers continued to join our group,finally numbering..I counted 19..hardly a small group that we had signed up for. The leader Joseph had voice problems and being in a large group in a noisy city, you couldn’t hear him 75% of the time. They needed a leader with a louder voice or a microphone system for him and of course a smaller group would have helped. There were frequent stops where he would go on endlessly with facts that anyone could pull from Wikipedia or Google so we learned little when we could hear him. The ride itself was pleasant although sometimes challenging due to the numerous slopes and inclines. I had no problem, but my elderly parents who are in excellent health, and casual bike riders started to struggle in the heat with all the inclines and slopes. Eventually it became a crisis and I reached out to the company’s support person trailing the group for options of ending the tour early for myself and my parents. He advised that it was not possible. I explained the situation with my parents and that we needed a solution. He then said that he needed to check with Joseph the leader but could not reach him as by now we had lost sight of the group and he seemed not to have a radio or cellphone to contact him with. By now another 15 minutes had passed and I was becoming very concerned with the health of my parents as I pushed them on. I finally said that either he could help us end early or we would abandon the bikes right there and get a cab. He then found a way to contact someone and proceeded to lead us out of the park and was quite pleasant and helpful after that. It took a long time to get back, circling around the perimeter of the park and not 5 minutes after we returned, the main group returned as well so I’m not sure if the route we were led on to leave early was really the best choice. When we returned, the office staff did not ask about how my parents were or inquire about our experience but instead said…you can leave a gratuity for Joseph with me. I had been very very concerned about the health of my parents at one point and the readiness of the company to provide assistance and support for them but it seemed not to concern them.
I understand that my experience was out of the ordinary but any company can excel when there are no challenges. It is their readiness for and how well they handle an unexpected challenge that really shows how good of an organization they are and this one is lacking.
I will not recommend this tour or this company and there is lots of competition out there so look around!