✉ I’m an 80-year-old widow and I booked a special three-week Exodus holiday to celebrate this milestone, from Cape Town to Victoria Falls, travelling last November. I was horrified to find that my fellow travelling companions were just a Canadian couple, both 62, and a 65-year-old single man. Exodus advertises 8 to 16 as the typical group size. Unsurprisingly, the dynamic was not good. The couple mostly chose to avoid having me tag along and the man made it clear he wanted to be left alone. I was left feeling vulnerable and alone during excursions and awkward in the land cruiser used for transport. There was only one local guide/driver and I think he too found the situation challenging.
When I raised my concerns with Exodus it initially claimed that when a group size falls below expectation, participants are contacted to offer to proceed anyway, postpone or have a full refund. It apologised if I was not contacted and offered a voucher for future use. When I rejected this, it claimed the minimum group size is four and so it fulfilled the holiday. Exodus further suggested I could have got in touch to establish the group size. I couldn’t see anything in their literature or documentation to indicate a minimum of four or any suggestion it is the participants’ responsibility to establish if the group size has failed to meet expectations. After three rounds of communication it has offered me £300 compensation “in full and final settlement”. The trip cost more than £6,000. Shouldn’t they put a nought on that figure?
Helena Fielder
It’s such a shame you didn’t enjoy what should have been an amazing trip but your experience highlights the drawback of small group tours: if you don’t get on with your fellow travellers it can be hellish. Exodus groups are typically 8 to 16 but the minimum group size for your tour is 4 and that’s stated on the website. An Exodus spokesperson said: “We are aware of this customer’s disappointment with her trip to southern Africa and we are sympathetic that in this instance, the customer found the group to not be as sociable as tends to be the case on our trips. Our customers are always welcome to contact us at any point to ask how many people are booked on the same trip as them and our team will gladly share this information.” Unfortunately it won’t increase your compensation, which it says it was not obliged to offer.
A group tour in Cape Town turned sour
ALAMY
✉ I want to take my husband, who is a motorsports fanatic, on a snowy break in December or January where we can go snowmobiling and dog-sledding. He’ll be celebrating a birthday in December and the budget is up to £4,000 for the two of us. Can you suggest anything special?
Wendy Masters
I’d recommend travelling at the end of January, when prices are slightly cheaper and you’ll get lighter days. Pack your thermals for a trip to the Arctic Lakeland region in Finland, the perfect playground for husky sledding, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and snowmobiling. Stay at Ukkohalla, a ski resort on the shore of frozen Lake Syvajarvi, with 15 slopes and three snow parks, whose Sky Cabin Glass Suites not only have cracking views but also a motorised bed and glass walls so you can keep a lookout for a northern lights display while snuggled under your duvet. A four-night tailor-made Arctic Escape starts at £1,790pp including flights to Kajaani via Helsinki, transfers, four nights’ half board in a Sky Cabin Glass Suite, Sauna World entry, a husky safari, a northern lights hunt by snowshoe, a snowmobile safari, visit to a reindeer farm, snow shoes and a one-day ski pass (best-served.co.uk).
The Sky Cabin Glass Suites at the Ukkohalla resort in Finland
✉ I’d love to visit Japan and see the sights but I don’t want the hassle of frequent hotel changes or a huge cruise ship. Is there a small-ship cruise round Japan, calling at various places? I can spend up to £15,000.
David Hartill
You have a very healthy budget for this trip but it’s still not enough for a luxury small-ship cruise around Japan if you’re travelling solo: a suite on one of Ritz-Carlton’s yachts on a ten-night Japanese itinerary in March 2026 starts at a whopping £23,600. But Crystal Cruises’ 606-passenger Crystal Symphony is considered a small ship and is one of the best cruise lines for single travellers, with solo cabins and small single supplements. There are no solo cabins left on its 13-night Tokyo to Tokyo cruise on the 606-passenger Crystal Symphony next April, peak cherry blossom season, but a double guest room with ocean view for a single traveller starts at £7,940. Ports include Kobe, Kagoshima and Okinawa as well as Keelung in Taiwan (crystalcruises.com). Flights are extra.
If you can face sharing your cruise with 929 passengers on the Viking Venus, a 14-night Far Eastern Horizons cruise from Hong Kong to Tokyo in April starts at £13,982 for a single traveller, including flights (vikingcruises.co.uk).
• 10 of the best cruises with fewer than 200 passengers
See Japan by cruise ship to spare yourself changing hotel
GETTY IMAGES
✉ Could you explain why airlines such as Ryanair charge so much to print boarding passes? The actual cost must only be a few pence.
Henry Mabbett
Ryanair’s business plan has always been to strip out the traditional services offered by airlines to keep costs down and it charges an egregious £55pp for airport check-in plus a boarding pass, and £20 for a boarding pass if you’ve checked in online but can’t access its app at the airport. This will change in May, however, when the airline will go fully digital and printouts won’t be an option, so get practising with the app.
• ‘Aer Lingus lost my bag — and now they’re ignoring me’
✉ We bought flights through Expedia to Tampa via a stopover in Boston, then back from Tampa to Heathrow for a holiday last October. After arriving in Boston we became aware that Hurricane Milton was about to impact the second stage of our trip. Tampa airport then shut, our accommodation was destroyed and the local authorities warned people not to visit affected areas. The property owner gave us a full refund and the local authorities advised people to stay away from hurricane-hit areas. We decided that the best course of action would be to travel elsewhere and as long as we were back in Tampa for our flight home on October 19, this wouldn’t be a problem. But we were told by Expedia we would be a “no show” and our onward flight would be cancelled. That gave us no option but to purchase additional tickets from Tampa to Heathrow — in effect the same tickets that we had already paid for. Tampa airport reopened on the morning of October 11, so in theory we could have taken the flight, but we followed official advice and stayed away. Can you help us get £1,995 back for the return flight?
Steve Bland
You acted sensibly but so often this counts for nothing when it comes to travel companies and their rigid refund policies. After I waded in, however, Expedia had a change of heart. A spokesperson said: “Natural disasters are unpredictable and our partners implement flexible policies when travel is disrupted. We adhere to these policies closely to assist travellers with their bookings. Due to the evolving situation in Florida during Hurricane Milton, we will be issuing a refund to Mr Bland for his return trip to London.”
Have you got a holiday dilemma? Email traveldoctor@thetimes.co.uk
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