MT SobekReviews of mtsobek.com

Our family of 2 parents, 3 children (22,19,15) attended the August 2023 Yellowstone/Grand Teton trip. $27,000 before airfare to eat Wholefoods sandwiches for lunches, cafeteria vouchers for dinners, hotel included breakfasts and substandard hotel accommodations which were not booked correctly. Our daughter is a vegetarian and multiple times there was not a vegetarian option. This Company fails on execution of logistics, cut corners on food and accommodations to the extent it negatively impacted our trip. If we weren’t stuck in the park, we would have flown home.

First, let me say our tour guide Tomomi S. is hands down THE best tour guide I’ve ever had - knowledgeable, fun and made great efforts to ensure that we were comfortable and happy (MTSobek tour guides are independent contractors. Tomomi also works for other Adventure/Tour companies) Secondly, Japan is beautiful, clean and the Japanese people are very welcoming. The hiking in the national parks was amazing. It could have been a truly five-star experience if MtSobek had not cut corners so egregiously. The website said (at the time) group tours are 5-22 people. The tour gets canceled if the minimum is not met. When I paid there were TWO other people booked-a mother and daughter duo. Shortly before our departure date I called to see if the tour would be cancelled. I wanted my money back but Mt Sobek was “pleased to say that the trip would not be canceled”. In other words, I could not get a refund. At the last minute a guy named Matt signed up so there were four of us. Five days into the trip Matt left and took a train back to Tokyo. I said to him “You realize Mt Sobek is not going to refund you”. He said, “I don’t care, Mt Sobek scammed us.” With tax, the tour costs $11,645 for 13 nights. For that price there is an expectation that the accommodations Mt Sobek chooses would be decent and clean. We all fully expected a ‘traditional Japanese experience’ which often means no private bath and 8 out of the 13 nights we slept on futon mats on the floor. However, Mt Sobek consistently booked us in the cheapest Ryokans (hotels) in each area in which we travelled. Most of these hotels were unclean and very out-dated. One Ryokan they booked us in was listed on a hotel website for $40 USD/night when there were much nicer accommodations nearby for $100 USD/night. (The Japanese yen is way down, the luxury Park Hotel in Tokyo was $200 USD/night. A comparable hotel would have been about $800/night in Austin.). We were the only people staying in several hotels that accomadated many more people. The most egregious example of MtSobek’s booking the cheapest rooms is when we were booked at a large traditional ski lodge at the base of a spectacular mountain. It was beautiful on the website but had two very different wings. One wing was modern, clean and beautiful with simple beds. The other wing was very old (similar to a cheap Motel 6 that had not been updated since the 1970’s). The carpet and bathrooms were disgusting and like many of the Ryocans where we stayed the futon mats seemed as though they had not been cleaned In 30 years. Only after our tour guide checked us in did we realize we had been booked in the cheap rooms. I asked Tomo why. Immediately someone from MtSobek reached out to me and said, “gosh, I’m sorry you did not realize you were going to have a traditional Japanese experience”. Really? “Traditional” experience depends upon one’s budget. In the US, “traditional” to some people may be the Marriott, a Motel 6 or the Four Seasons Hotels. We were paying for a Marriott experience and received the one-star Motel 6 experience. Upon arrival in Tokyo I expected to be met at the airport by a driver (as many tour companies do). However, several days before our arrival dates in Tokyo, MtSobek sent an email telling us how to locate taking a city bus from the bustling Tokyo airport. That is interesting if you do not speak Japanese. MtSobek cleverly uses great photography and elaborate descriptions of the national parks and the hiking while using terms like “traditional Japanese experience with tatami-mat sleeping” to disguise sub-standard accommodations. At one point we were looking on-line at the very hotel where we were staying and did not even recognize it from the website pictures. The hiking was amazing. The group size was disappointing with just the three of us. I would absolutely recommend a hiking tour through Japan, just not with MtSobek.

I feel a responsibility to inform you of our experience . I have been on several long treks as well mountaineering expeditions, and never have I had such a shockingly unprofessional , un-safe experience. This is MTS’s most strenuous, challenging trek. It is extremely remote , and goes down a glacier with multiple river crossings, steep hillsides , and loose rock. Our American guide seriously injured his ankle at the start of the trip , one of the senior employees was on our trek and wouldn’t send him home. It was very dangerous for him to go on a 15 day trip , he voiced his concerns many times along the way . He needed other guides to help him. If injured , evacuation can take days. He was sent again on the trip after ours , they didn’t have a replacement guide. An injured guide puts the group in jeopardy , the trip should have cancelled if no healthy guide was available . Also , I have Celiac and was assured when we checked multiple times that gluten free food would be provided . The Pakistani cook had no idea what that was, and I had very limited options the whole trip. I lost 12 lbs and was hungry the whole time. I asked MTS if I should bring my own gluten free snacks , they no ,it’s extra weight and they would be provided . They weren’t . Such a physically demanding trip made little food very challenging . MTS didn’t take the well being of their clients or safety of their guides seriously .

I have not taken an MT Sobek trip in 3 years, but have recently received 2 emails to review a trip I did not take. HOWEVER, after more than 12 pleasurable trips with MT Sobek, our last trip--to Papua New Guinea was our last. Nearly half of the promised activities were "not available", we were told that we would have not enjoyed the native hosted island stay anyway. This trip was fly in, get in an air conditioned bus to the tourist hotel, be warned not to venture from the hotel (I ran-safely-nearly every morning), then drive around and visit a few sites. The trip leader kept telling us how dangerous it was to walk, I insisted we walk to the Goroka show, he had one of his local guides join us, and 3 of us on the trip had the only real authentic experience of the week.

My wife and I had booked a private hiking trip in Peru. When we landed our guide indicated that there would be another party joining us. We said no way. But it put an unnecessarily bad feeling in us and between us and our guide. I left a message to your offices at the time and received No Response! Bad customer relations.

I did an independent trip to Papua New Guinea with MTS. It was totally unplanned, nothing was planned, their guide/leader was not knowledgeable and frankly we wasted our time. He tried to help his acquaintances at our expense MTS failed to live up to it’s obligations. Years ago I took several trips with MTS which were awesome but sadly they are not what they were