Franzetti Art

Traveled

Arctic Adventure – Norway & Svalbard

My father and I travelled to Svalbard, Norway, this summer. This was our third arctic circle trip in 8 years set up by Monica at Yampu (Iceland, Finland and now Norway), and were each outside the normal Yampu destinations (showing their flexibility). Our itinerary was originally prepared for Greenland but evolved into the Svalbard expedition. Since our interest was in wildlife, Monica made sure that we would be satisfied in our quest for photographing animals–from a remote lodge in Costa Rica, to a remote outpost on the Finnish-Russian border in a bear blind; to a reindeer farm in Alaska; and this time a walrus colony in the Arctic. Yampu mixes luxury and comfort where possible along with a rugged experience that endears you to each location. Every transfer was met, and even small details (like my birthday) were accounted for in surprising way. In a short number of days (9 days total), time was given to visit Oslo and experience the city and culture on the bookends of the trip. Ultimately, after using other travel firms in the past, we will never look back. Yampu is AMAZING!!

Traveled To

THE NORDICS & SCANDINAVIA

Jenifer S.

Traveled December 2017

Yampu did an amazing job

I loved the printed itinerary you provided. It was helpful and we referred to it often. It had almost all the info we needed. I would recommend adding information in there about cell phone/mobile network coverage. I hadn’t thought about it ahead of time but luckily my phone had a daily TravelPass from a previous trip. Loved the hotels – all were high quality, and in great locations. Loved that the accommodations all included free breakfast! The transportation was really well organized – and made me feel like a celebrity. 1) Airport guide in Santiago was fantastic. When he dropped us back off at the airport, he actually stayed with us and helped us get processed through the ticket counter, and up to the security gate. He went above/beyond 2) I loved that Buenos Aires agency gave us printed vouchers with the specifics of everything – hotel, tours, transportation City tours were both really great. The tour guides for both Santiago and Buenos Aires were awesome. Antarctica XXI – Punta Arenas team I’m glad we upgraded the flight to Antarctica – it added some value. The flight attendant on Antarctica Air was fantastic. The daily events at the hotel were a bit confusing. They didn’t put up notifications about times/expectations until the morning of. I would have preferred they give some notice the day before. The briefing at the hotel was well organized, as was the boot sizing, and the registration. Antarctica XXI – Cruise team The entire cruise team was fantastic. The expedition staff was incredible – knowledgeable, personable, and everything was safety first. The rest of the staff (dining, bar, housekeeping, captain) were all also fantastic. My only disappointment was I thought we would be able to get the Antarctic stamps at one/more of the bases on the continent. I had asked during the webinar (provided by Antarctica XXI) and they said we give our passports to the cruise team when we embark (which we did) and get them back when we disembark (which we did). But that THEIR team would get us stamps at a base or two. At the very least, I wish we could have received the stamps from Russian and Chinese base camps at King George when we landed at the airport. Seems like that would have been easy to arrange. Amazing trip overall. Yampu did an amazing job of keeping us informed, updated and ready for the trip.

Traveled To

ANTARCTICA
ARGENTINA