Tucan Travel - www.tucantravel.com

I took the Lima to Rio tour earlier this year. Tucan travel was cheaper than other companies and this was my motive for choosing them. I wish I hadn't. The tour leader and driver were completely unprofessional and seemed to think they were on their own holidays. Drinking was the norm and we very regularly saw our tour leader stumbling about and tripping over her own feet as she was so drunk. We also had to endure the driver sleeping with a member of the tour group. Don't expect any real tour guiding to be done- as Tucan will tell you- it's tour leader not tour guide. However the tour leaders do not facilitate you exploring your chosen destinations- they only help you if you want to explore the inside of bars! Anyone with a certain level of maturity should choose another company as Tucan seems more suitable for people with an 18-30 holiday mentality. The lunches were also terrible and consisted of the same meal each time, a few meagre sandwiches and stale bread. In the end we resorted to not having lunch and going to buy our own when possible. Some of the accommodation wasn't fit for animals, we expected it to be basic- but not filthy and dangerous as some were.

If you are thinking of travelling with Tucan- please think again as it might just ruin your adventure holiday.

Go with Intrepid. They may be a bit more expensive but I wouldn't spend a cent on Tucan Travel no matter how cheap they might seem.. I did the South American Andes to Rio tour in July with Tucan because they were cheapest and really regret it. The tour leader was unprofessional, incompetent and only 25 years old. She smoked weed and drank alcohol whilst on tour and continuously stuffed up bookings and would give us the cold treatment if anything went wrong (things that SHE was responsible for organising).

We left this tour three weeks early due to serious safety concerns, as did two other girls a few weeks before us.

The group actually had to sit the tour leader down and remind her that she wasn't on holidays and that she needed to start doing her job, and to tell her that everyone found her unapproachable and unprofessional. How did she react? She cried, and then gave everyone the cold shoulder while she sooked- very professional.

Tucan also organises the most expensive extra activity operators possible for the group. We left the tour early due to the poor standard of safety that was offered by the tour leaders, and the customer service manger just tried to sweep the whole thing aside despite having a quarter of the group complaining about smelling weed from the front cabin of the bus whilst it was underway- a HUGE safety concern!. Pay a bit extra and go with a reliable, honest company like Intrepid. Tucan travel will ruin your holidays, and the company will just ignore any complaints that you make, no matter how serious.

I can appreciate that perhaps we just got a dud tour guide but for the company to ignore five letters of complaint regarding the tour leaders being under the influence of drugs and alcohol is completely irresponsible.

And don't expect anything from your tour guide. We were reminded several times that the staff from Tucan travel are not "tour guides" but "tour leaders" which pretty much means they aren't responsible for anything. We asked our tour "leader" to point out the closest grocery store at our first tour stop and she replied "I don't know, reading maps confuses me." Please don't trust your hard earned holiday money to Tucan, you will regret it.

I went on their Jordan and Egypt tour and took my Mum along with me. It was a stress free way to travel as the details were taken care of. The main highlights were included in the price such as Wadi Rum, Petra and the Pyramids. Tour leaders were great, lovely people and real personalities.