I was extremely dissatisfied with the service I have received from frontier, THEY ARE CRIMINALS AND THE EXPEDITION IS A SCAM!
Below i have summarised my issues with Frontier:
Firstly, the website is very poorly laid out and caused many stresses when areas I needed to complete and things I needed to apply for kept on appearing with no warning - Ie the medical forms. (hidden by the bottom of a page titled something completely different)
Also the 'support' was pathetic, essentially we were just pointed in directions, told they could not answer our questions and told to pay ever more money.
My partner (upon arriving back in the UK was diagnosed as having salmonella) was extremely ill for weeks on the trip and Frontiers 'medical assistance' was nowhere to be seen when some days he was too weak to get out of bed.
Secondly, our trip was all but ruined by our tour guide for the following reasons:
Our leader was essentially socially inept, and made it VERY difficult to enjoy ourselves, this got to the extent that when people realised we were travelling with him they would actually actively apologise.
Our leader chosen by frontier acted very unprofessionally by firstly getting a tattoo in a hostel in our first few days in Mexico.
He would start drinking some days by 11AM - when neither I nor Kipp are really drinkers so felt uncomfortable when he kept pressuring us to join him.
He was smoking weed midday in a hostel which forbade drugs (in a county where drugs are socially hated, and are plauged by drug related crimes and gang culture/violence) whilst my partner and I were very ill and needed some support (food poisoning).
He further behaved inappropriately by taking the numbers of school girls in La Ceiba and bragging about them 'fancying him', just to clarify, these are underage girls, who were put in his care in a school. Trust which he instantly abused.
Making one girl in particular who was barely 16 very uncomfortable to the extent she had to simply ignore him, when he told her she "could be a model" and made several other statements about her appearance and body, and then ccntinued to buy her alcohol against her mothers wishes. (and specific wishes not to do so).
Constantly borrowing money from us and conveniently forgetting to pay us back. Not to mention this 'group' expedition was just myself and my partner trapped 24/7 with such an insufferable individual.
I have been absolutely revolted by all of this behaviour in a county where drugs are such an issue, and to behave in such a way that it made myself, my partner,and others so uncomfortable.
I paid nearly 2000 pounds to frontier towards this trip, that is nearly 257 hours work for me and Im absolutely REVOLTED that the whole trip cost me more than £4000.00 in costs including flights and Visas, and spending money. Yet all I received in return was two measly meals a day, accommodation worth nothing, to be led around by an insufferable individual and to be shipped around on buses. I totalled that it can't have cost more than 500 pounds to keep me out there, and that's a profit of around 1200 pounds. It was an ABSOLUTE SCAM and if I could go back and cancel it I would.
I understand that profit has to be made, of course I under they are a business. But to so grossly take such a huge amount of money from people who worked so hard to achieve the funds to go on this trip.
I don't want to have a responce from Frontier claiming all the humanitarian and ecological work my money is supporting. I went and volunteered in the school, there I saw them hit a child with a broom, and put a baby In a bin bag (blocking all breathing, and laughing as they watched) and neglect these children. If Frontier are using my money to support this then they are equally as criminal.
