October 2023 and the trip of a lifetime…
October 2023 and the trip of a lifetime to Nepal, cost £4250 (not including the extra £200 for the flight to view Everest) - sadly the trip left a bitter taste. Things didn't go well, the group leader showed tendencies of misogyny, aggression, belittling, and making a loud insulting comment to me in front of others, and said that McCabe shouldn't allow people over a certain age and weight on this tour, and singling me out and drawing me aside to show me photographs on his phone of the sexually explicit wood carvings was not appreciated.
It was labelled as a Pilgrimage, however there was little or no “spirituality”, except when visiting the Hindu/Buddhist temples, watching and joining in with worship, however our leader, a vicar, led the group in prayer on the first morning following our arrival, making do with a very hurried prayer, there were no further offers of prayer or meeting to reflect on our experiences, with a eucharist that seemed to have been levered in, with seemingly little pre-arrangement.
We spent two full days (8 hours) on journeys that we were told would be approximately 5 hours, leading to our itinerary being changed. There was no prior warning regarding the 264 steps from the road down to a hotel we were booked into, nor the 1000+ steps down the mountain after visiting the mountain top Stupa - there were folk on the tour who could not make those particular walks, and had to stay at the hotel, or in the coach on those days. McCabe received several notifications from members of the group, sent during the tour, drawing their attention to the problems.
Following the two very long days travelling by coach on roads where there has clearly been major works being done for at least the last couple of years, some of the group wanted to return to Kathmandu by plane, avoiding the 10 hour journey back by road.
On our return home a number of complaints were made, mine included, and I found the company was good at "ghosting", and had to be chased for response, I was promised a phone call by a Director, that never happened.
In spite of their offer, to all the group, of a £250 voucher to be spent with McCabe, I would not travel with them again.
That voucher tells me that they agree this was not a good tour, but it also tells me that in order to get any compensation you must spend more money with the company in order to redeem it, a win-win situation for McCabe.
Was the trip worth all that money, in my opinion – No! So, shame on McCabe.
I am only glad that we all came back with some happy memories in spite of a rather inept group leader, and a company that didn't give a damn about its unhappy clientele.
Finally, if you want to write a critical review of this company via AITO you won't get past McCabe because they get to decide who's reviews can be shown, which is why there are no criticising ones. What does that tell you?