Dear Patricio,

Wishing you and your staff a very happy Christmas.

We are having a wonderful trip, thank you. Not only have we seen incredible places, but we have had
extraordinarily great and very knowledgeable guides from Mary in Puerto Madryn to Ramirez here in Salta.
These are not the only ones to be mentioned and we would like to write more when we have more time!

Again, many thanks to you for organising such an amazing trip which hasn't finished yet !!

Best wishes Sandra, Vincenzo and Lisa

Dear Patricia,

Sorry I could not write earlier. Arriving home from Argentina at midnight I had a flight to Ankara for a University event and once there stayed with family for a few days.

Now I am back at home in Istanbul. It is cold and grey.

I would like to elaborate on your questions as follows:
1. Reason for choosing Say Heuque was the prompt feedback starting from the first contact. Also I had the feeling that the responses to every and each question and requirement was dealt with attention in a customized manner.
I found Say Heuque on the internet, your web page was friendly and informative. I initiated the contacts, so I felt responsible towards my travel companions but in the end everyone was equally happy with this choice.

2. The best thing travelling with Say Heuque was the feeling of confidence of being well cared for.

3. I cannot point out one hotel as the best, all met expactations according to the category chosen. Only Ivy Hotel in Iguazu was a bit run down and requires a better maintenance.
All hotel personnel were friendly and helpful.

4. I enjoyed all excursions, we were also lucky with the weather.

Though not an excursion I would like to mention the Tango Show at Esquina Carlos Gardel. Personnaly I did not enjoy this show. It was a mass tourist event, only bad food we had in Argentina was served in this place. Performers, as it appreared to me the owners of the company proved that middle aged chunky people can also dance the tango, the lady singer off-key.
I think it would be good to watch tango in a more exquisite place, a club or similar if available and my advice would be to include such a choice in your portfolio.

5. All guides were good, giving a lot of information. From time to time non-stop loud speaking in both languages was a bit too much.

6. Keep going with the enthusiasm and expertise.
One small thing, which was important for me was related to the vouchers. When dealing with group of people like ours, please ask if they would prefer vouchers in each persons name. I personnaly was not comfortable to be considered as "group leader" which proved right as in Ushuaia we missed the morning Penguin tour that we were booked on. I overlooked that we should be present at the pier missing the information provided by the tour operator there, so we waited at the hotel for a pick up. Fortunately they could take us to the tour in the afternoon.

Having said almost eevry small detail, I hope I could be of help to you. Overall, we had an unforgettable trip in Argentina. People all over the country was very friedly and helpful.

I would recommend Say Heuque to anyone should they ask my advice.

I wish all the best to you Patricia for meeting us at the airport and being with us on the city tour, to Silvia and Yuna who worked on our itinerary and bookings, to Juan for the afternoon walking city tour in Buenos Aires and to Rodrigo for his presence in the airport on our last day.

Wishişng you a merry Christmas and a very happy and successful New Year 2017.

Lots of love from Turkey

Guven Talinli

We enjoyed all the hotels but the one in Molino was unique. In El Calafate, the hotel was really nice, like a home, with excellent staff. But we liked all the hotels. We liked the location of the Bobo Hotel in Palermo. Staff were excellent at all the hotels. We would recommend all the hotels you chose.
Among the guides, Juan in B. Aires was excellent---very knowledgeable re history. Juan in Salta was excellent as well. But the best was Daniela in El Calafate. She was not only knowledgeable but she heightened her guiding with pictures and maps.
We liked being picked up at the airports and brought to and from our hotels.
The wine tours ( 2 was enough) in Mendoza were excellent.
The tango show at El Querendi is fantastic. Also, the night before we took group tango lessons at the Armenian centre near the Bobo Hotel. Highly recommended. Crowded with local people of all ages. A lot of fun.
In El Calafate we rented a car and drove to Mt Fitzroy where we hiked for 4 hours. Not to be missed. Even the drive was interesting. In Cafayate we had a great moderately difficult hike in a gorge, well worth doing if you are moderately fit. The guide, Franco, was excellent. The side trip to Colome with the James Turrell museum should not be missed.

We were not happy about the flight situation where we had to go to Mendoza from Salta via Buenos Aires. It was a long waste of a day. Also in Mendoza we would not recommend a whole day drive to and from the highest mountain in S. America Aconcagua. We would have liked to have spent more hours hiking. It's not an essential to see this mountain but hiking in the mountains a day would be far better.

Re your organizing of the trip, we were worried when suddenly near our departure date after paying the final instalment you told us of a change of plans. It made us doubt how trustworthy you were.
All in all this was a wonderful trip for us. We spoke a lot of Spanish. Other than the flights as mentioned and the day trip to Aconcagua we had a great time.

Dear Juan,

David Rosen suggested to work with your company and we followed his advice. We had an excellent trip with mostly nice hotels (Exception the one in Puerto Madryn, which due to its far off location we did not like ..)

Clearly the former Governors house in Molinos was our favorite hotel … elegant, central, relaxing, nice restaurant

Juan in B.A. was a great guide!

The best excursion was to Colomé. The James Turrell Museum is spectacular and You should visit it Yourself and recommend it to Your clients.

Two things to improve:
1. if prior to a trip one communicates for weeks with one Yuna or anybody specific at Say Hueque, I would consider it polite, if Yuna or any given contact with Your tourists would show up at the beginning of the trip, if only to say hello and make sure Your guests are comfortable and introduce their fellow colleagues who then would do the guiding etc. This is not to criticize Yuna or Say Hueque for not giving its best to organize flights etc to near perfection. It is just a suggestion for a more personal handling of Your guests, after all one is on a first name basis and may have had long e-mail exchanges for weeks before....

Puerto Madryn may be nice for people who know their way around there, but for Your guests it is just the point of embarkation to visit the Valdez Peninsula or the Penguins down South. Make sure not offer a program, where guests are given a „free day“ in that city i.e. where they are left „stranded“. There is really not so much to do outside the just mentioned activities. Luckily and with Yuna's help we were able to avoid just such a situation at the end of our trip.

But all in all we were very happy and satisfied with our trip, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks to Say Hueque, which we will recommend to any friends planning to visit Argentina.

Sincerely Andreas Nidecker, Irma Laukkanen

Hi Vanesa:
Our review has gone to TripAdvisor.
It was a pleasure meeting you in BA. We hope to visit again some time!

My wife and I disembarked from a cruise ship in Buenos Aires and spent 3 days there and an additional 2 days at Iguazu. Our complete itinerary was arranged and booked by Say Hueque.

We thought Say Hueque did a great job in all respects. Travel to and from hotels and to points of interest was always on time, efficient and totally professional.
Our two guides (Vanesa of SH in BA and Mabel from EcoIguazu) were efficient and very knowledgeable. Hotels in BA and Iguazu were top-notch. We came away with a high regard for Argentina and its people, and SH was responsible in large measure for that.

On the downside and in hindsight we would have preferred an additional day at Iguazu, that option was never raised by SH. We have seen other TripAdvisor reviews on SH and would agree that they are not transparent with regard to costs. However we felt that the value provided amply justified the final tab.

Suffice it to say that if and when we were to go back to Argentina to see the 90% we missed this time we would seek out SH's services again.

Stan Hirst

Ezequiel-

I just wanted to let you know that our trip to Argentina was wonderful. All of your arrangements for our transportation were perfect and certainly made our travel free from stress. All of our tour guides were friendly and knowledgeable and we enjoyed spending time with each of them. Our accommodations were clean and comfortable.
Our trip was a great success and we are grateful for your efforts.

Thank you,
Anne McGee

Hello Juan:
I am happy to answer your questions, here they are:

1. Why did you choose Say Hueque? Where did you find us?
I chose Say Hueque because it had the exact itinerary that I was looking for while doing a google search. I found the agency doing a basic google search of patagonia tours. I also found the recommendation in the Lonely Planet travel book on Argentina, and that gave me an additional comfort on the company.

2. What was best of traveling with us?
All the transportation, accommodation, and included excursions were on-time and well-arranged. We traveled with Huellas Del Sur and Buses Receptivo Austral, and both were very good. The all-inclusive arrangement in Torres del Paine at Las Torres Hotel was excellent.

3. Which was your favorite hotel, why?
We loved the Las Torres Hotel in Torres del Paine. We also liked El Paraiso in El Chalten because it was very well located. While the staff at the Meulen in El Calafate were all very nice, that hotel is in a terrible location, far from the center of town, and there is no transportation. We would have preferred a hotel closer to the center of Town.

4. Which was your favorite excursion?
Our favorite excursion was the visit to Perito Moreno glacier, including boat ride.

5. Is there any guide that you would like to mention?
No.

6. Is there anything that you would like to see improved?
Overall, the experience was good. I started working at Say Hueque with Lucia, and I really liked her approach. However, after the initial booking of 50% of the trip costs, I was transferred to other agents. I would have preferred to have had just one agent through the whole process. I had a lot of questions, and it was confusing having to change agents multiple times. Also, I was told that I was going to be offered other tours (in Buenos Aires, etc), but after the initial payment, nothing was ever offered again, and it felt like the agents were annoyed to be contacted. So, overall, it would really be better if there is only one agent, rather than the constant change from agent to agent. (I had Lucia, then Pia, then Yanina, then back to Lucia).

I hope that helps.
Sincerely,

Hola Rodrigo and Patricio and Merry belated Christmas!

I’m sorry for the delay in responding, but work has been really hectic, and I had to catch up on my Christmas cards and shopping. Anyway, below are my responses to your questions after GA. Please review my comments and let me know if you have any questions. I will be happy to write a good review on your website if you tell me where to go. I’m attaching a couple of my favorite pictures from the trip. The first is from Cerro Torres in El Chalten, the second is Monte Fitz Roy in El Chalten, and the third is the Grey Glacier on the W-circuit.

Patricio, it was great meeting you in BA, and thank you for all your help in putting together a fantastic trip. When I was at the Perito Moreno glacier, I met an American from New York, I can’t remember his first name, but his last name was Hagerty, and he also used Say Hueque and you helped him with his trip. He said great things about you and was hoping to meet you in BA. Were you able to meet him? I have recommended your company to several friends who were amazed at the pictures.

I found Say Hueque on the Internet using Google search for Patagonia trekking guide companies. I reviewed the website, and it seemed to have what I wanted. The reviews were good for the most part, so I contacted you and Patricio helped organize everything.

Since i didn’t know much about Patagonia, I felt it was very helpful to have Say Hueque organize the trip and book the hotels, buses, and W-circuit refugios. Patricio gave me options and was very flexible in the places I wanted to go and to stay within my budget. Everything went smoothly, except for the bus delay which I will explain below.

The bus left at 8:30, but it did not arrive at Puerto Natales until 4:30, so I missed the 2:30 bus. There were no other buses leaving that day, so my choice was to either find a hotel and return to the bus station at 7:30 the next morning, or pay 80,000 Chilean pesos for a private bus. I asked if they would call Say Hueque in BA, but they said they would not make an international call. I found a Chilean number to call, and they said they would contact you in BA. I did not have the funds to get a hotel room or pay for a private bus, so I thought I was going to have to spend the night in the bus station. Fortunately, you agreed to pay the 80,000 pesos for the private bus, which I am eternally grateful for, but it caused me several minutes of great stress trying to figure out how to get to Torre Central.

The woman at the bus counter says the buses are always late, especially Cootra and they would not recommend using that bus service. In the future, I highly recommend NOT booking the two bus trips from El Calafate to Torre Central on the W-circuit in one day. I would have travellers spend one day in Puerto Natales and catch the bus to Torre Central the next day. I would have to say my opinion of Say Hueque would have been very bad if you did not agree to pay the 80,000 pesos for the private bus. I realize it was not totally your fault that I missed the bus, but one hour is simply not enough time to expect the first bus to arrive on time. My return bus trip from Puerto Natales to El Calafate did not arrive in El Calafate until 2:30, so expecting the bus trip to take 5 hours is unreasonable.

I wanted to mention a couple of other items that I think Say Hueque can improve on:
a. the brochure for El Chalten is outdated. The employee at the Pudu lodge said at least two of the restaurants in the brochure had been closed for years. I would update the brochure to delete the closed restaurants.
b. Say Hueque said that credit cards generally did not work in Chile/Puerto Natales, so I left my credit cards in El Calafate. It turns out most places, even the refugios on the W-circuit, had credit card machines that worked fine. There are souvenirs that I would have bought if I had a credit card on me. I would delete the wording in your material about credit cards.
c. I would find a better hotel to use in Puerto Natales. The food at the Amerindia Hotel was good and the staff was friendly, but the rooms were terrible and the location was not the best. I don’t know if I was put there because of my limited budget, but I would have paid more if I had known the shower would not have warm water.

Thanks again for a memorable trip, and I wish you the best for a healthy and peaceful 2017.

Muchas gracias,
Gabriel