Reaching the summit of the John Garner pass in clear calm weather and seeing the entire Gray glacier and the Patagonian ice cap.

Great holiday

Eco Camp and the parent organization Cascada Expeditions are an exceptionally organized and professional enterprise. Eco Camp provided all of our airport transfers on time and with excellent communication. The Eco Camp facilities were fantastic in terms of food, staff assistance, and accomodations. We are so glad that we upgraded to a 2 night stay there for the last trekking nights. The ideal itinerary would have been an airport pickup a day prior to the trek with a stay at Eco Camp the night prior to trek start. We were very lucky to have the 2 nights at the end of the trek at Eco Camp but it was simply luck that we got that upgrade. My feeling is that Swoop does not provide its clients with any level of priority to book Eco Camp as I suggest here. for that reason I would recommend others taking this trek to book direct with Cascada. I feel this lack of direct influence that Swoop has with Cascada is a serious detriment.

The Swoop webinar was very helpful but it did lack a number of trek details. My feeling is that your staff have not done the trek recently. I hope I am wrong in that regard and perhaps you can focus your webinar a bit more on trek details. Some examples I would have liked to know ahead of time: -- The camps vary greatly in services and quality. -- A total of four nights are spent in roof top tents which are quite nice, and one night in tents with a nice mattress. This means your sleeping pad is used only 2 of the 8 nights. -- The bathroom facilities for the first 3 camps are appreciated but are very poor. In each of the 3 first camps the men's and women's toilets never had more than one toilet serviceable. At Perros camp, there were zero for both sexes several times. The issue seems to be no bathroom plumbing maintenance of any kind. The camps on the W side of the trek of course had very good bathroom facilities. -- I would rate the hiking difficulty higher than advertised by Swoop. While our guides and our clients did very well, I feel that the webinar and Swoop's advertising undersells the difficulty of the hike and is not completely honest. -- The food on the hike is not completely ample in terms of total calories needed. I have no issue with food quality and food quantity was high - however we all needed extra calories. Our guides supplemented us with purchases along the way on their own and we all purchased extra as well. Our guides used the process each day of 'second lunch' which was really essential to our performance. -- It would have been good to hear that the W side of the trek is incredibly over crowded -- The tents at camps without the rooftop type were very clean but very close. Earplugs are essential -- A minor issue, but everyone used a pack raincover every day even in high winds. That part of the Swoop briefing is simply wrong.

Please see my comments above. In summary my recommendations to others doing an O Trek would be: -- Book direct with Cascada if you can and stay in Eco Camp 1 day prior and the 2 final nights -- Be prepared to supplement your meals with snacks you bring or bought along the way -- The trail conditions are as hard as you could ever expect - be extremely prepared -- Do not depend on serviceable bathrooms in the first 3 camps - in fact plan for none

I would have appreciated some guidance from Swoop on travel arrangements at time of booking. I figured it out but I think Swoop could have done a better job there. For example: -- Travel from the US must be through Santiago and while possible to do an early morning transfer from international to domestic could be possible, it is not likely. Threfore plan a layover day in Santiago -- The flights from Santiago to Puerto Natales and Punta Arenas are not the same each day and this is why we wrongly booked to Punta Arenas so as to allow ourselves a buffer day. Again, some up front guidance from Swoop based on, hopefully, your own experience to arrange the front end travel really should have been in your service portfolio.

See comments above

Yes, Chile and in particular Chilean Patagonia is an exceptional destination with friendly people, excellent travel infrastructure, and stunning scenery.

I feel I am being a bit unfair to Swoop but I feel that Swoop did not really bring a differential set of assistance to the table for this trip. I think Swoop has the best website and marketing for Patagonia. The Swoop staff is very enthusiastic but I feel did not really have the detailed experience concerning the trek.

No

No

No

I think Swoop gets a 10 on excitement and a 6 or 7 on preparation.