Ride L.A.R.A. Laos tours - my experiences - read before booking...
Took a tour of Southern Laos last month with Ride L.A.R.A.
Felt the need to make others aware of a number of issues our group had with them - which beyond abusive emails from the boss, Eric, we've had very little success in making amends for.
Among the issues:
We were 7 people in our group including a local guide (Eric didn't join our group) - they had only 6 bikes for us. We missed the entire first day (of 4) due to being a bike short.
The L.A.R.A. website promises well serviced bikes. They were anything but: Bald tires, no brakes, no lights, mirrors, indicators or anything else. Dirty fuel filters - very clearly, the bikes had been ridden hard and sent to us without any sort of maintenance. Our schedule - involved 500kms or so of road riding.
On the last day, one of the CRMs (for which we paid an additional USD50 a day) seized. Our guide insisted we ride it after it started making grinding sounds - and Eric now blames us for the damaged caused. We also had to paid $200 of our own cash to transport the bikes and rider back to Veintiane. We were not reimbursed for this.
We paid $30 for a damage mirror (one of the only remaining ones on any of the bikes) - clearly this money doesn't go to replacing damaged parts - as all the bikes were knackered - it gets pocketed? The rental equipment they supplied was likewise in terrible shape. Unwearable in most cases.
The Ride L.A.R.A website promises support vehicles 'can be arranged'. I wish we had arranged - although I'm sure it would have cost on top of the USD1,039 EACH we paid.
Eric's response to all our concerns has been nothing short of psychotic. My tips, if you choose to use them, would be this: Only collect bikes in Vientiane - and test ride them first, ensure you have a support vehicle or at the very least the provided guide has sufficient mechanical knowledge. Not so I our case, and if not for one of our groups knowledge, we'd have been stranded in the jungle.
In short, the tour had all the potential of being an amazing, 'once in a lifetime', trip. But Ride L.A.R.A failed on just about every level - including after abusive sales service.
Caveat Emptor.
Jim Flashman.
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