1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?

On the canyoning day, my nine year old son walking uphill in 30 degree sunshine wearing a wetsuit, wet jacket, lifejacket, safety helmet and abseiling harness saying "this is the best day of my life!"

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?

It's physically demanding doing kayaking and rafting so do some upper body strength training before you go.

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?

Yes.

4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?

Brilliant. I'm booking it again next summer!

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?

We all enjoyed every single day but personally for me it was the kayaking down the river/rapids that was the most memorable! A bit scary - totally awesome but such a wonderful feeling seeing our children (8&10) manage it too!

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?

You're so well looked after I doubt you'd need any additional tips!

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?

Yes, we went out to eat every night which supported the local restaurants and they were meticulous about keeping the environment as it was before we went there.

4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?

First class - we all had a fabulous time and would definitely think of going again when the children are a little older.

A little background on me first....

I am prone to be bracketed as a Grumpy Old Man (though not sure if 47 classifies me sufficiently in the age stakes), but to be honest, its only because I appear to attract some appalling services and products. I am also from the Old School - there really is no excuse for incompetence, laziness or plain crass stupidity. Unfortunately, some of this country's biggest and probably unwieldy institutions seem to be a major breeding ground for these lamentable traits, as a consequence of which I spend far too much of my time complaining - and then getting even more stressed when the act of trying to complain reveals just how bad some of these companies are. I won't name them - or at least, not until I get my blogpage up and running to name and shame these people.

The flip side of all of this is that when I do receive a good product or service, it seem only fair that they get treated just as effusively, so you can stop sweating now, as this holiday definitely falls into this category.

In no particular order:

Information received prior to departure - accurate and comprehensive
Organisation - Faultless
Accommodation - Very good and friendly
Activities - Awesome
Location - Relaxing and interesting
Activity providers - Charming, humorous and safety aware
Ambience - Could not have been better
Your local representative - A Gem

Special mention must go to the local Rep, Carlotta Pascual. Her dedication, enthusiasm, warmth, humour and energy made the difference. I appreciate that she is not directly employed by the company, but she nevertheless is the face of the company for the purposes of your reputation. I really cannot praise her enough.

It gives me great pleasure to heap praise on another small company, but just promise me one thing - please do not grow to such a size that you lose touch with your market and your clients. The first step along this road is the automated phone answering machine where the recorded voice waits anxiously to plunge callers into the archetypal telephonic abyss, from which there is often no escape, so I will be watching you!

To answer your questions:

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?

For me, open Kayaking, but for other members of the family this included the hydrospeeding. In any event, we all thoroughly enjoyed everything.

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?

Immerse yourself and enjoy.

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?

Difficult to say, but probably more so than a week on the coast.

Very well organised holiday that I would not hesitate to recommend to other families. Managed to be both activity and holiday all in one mainly due to the fact that local guides were fantastic, charming and made themselves most accessible and kept things moving along without at any stage seeming bossy! It is very relaxing not to have to keep making decisions!! Group travel kept the environmental effects to a minimum as cars were not needed. Thanks.

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?

For me the most exciting was the inflatable kayaks, for the men folk it was the hydrospeeding... However the most memorable (but not positive) part was the noise that kept us awake for 4 nights - both traffic and the loud music from midnight to 4am...

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?

1) No airconditioning (very positive on the environmental side) means you need to have the windows open at night due to the heat... but if you want to sleep avoid the local festival week as the Spanish keep very different hours and the rock beat gets you down by 4 am... worth checking the festival dates before booking...
2) Get a real idea of the base level of activity vs. your expectations of 'pulse rate' - for our family the week was rather pedestrian and the pulse rarely got above 2 (with the exception of the hydro-speeding which terrified me!) - the trek was a short walk in the park, the canyoning was very slow (due to the size of the group) and more of a small damp smelly gorge; the lakeside activity day was uninspiring...

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?

Yes - it was definitely refreshing to see this aspect of the holiday - a small family run hotel, and a local company leading the activities.

4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?

It was OK - the boys were disappointed and so I wouldn't recommend it to 'fit' families who do outdoor activities - more suited for less active families who would like to try these activities out. The local rep was friendly but was largely ineffective especially when it came to helping organise additional activities. Could have maybe have done more safety briefings for some of the water activities e.g. how to get out of a capsized kayak before getting in...

The location was great - a lovely part of Spain - but not the peaceful mountain village I expected - music until 4am and heavy traffic from 7am... I will go back to the area to explore the hills and the national park - but under my own steam. Not sure about the value for money - seemed expensive at £1000 per head for what we got. Hotel breakfasts were fine, pack lunches OK, but the 2 dinners were poor; some of the activities were over-priced i.e. the trek, lake day, canyoning - but the rafting was good value.

Read the operator's response here:

I’m sorry that the client did not enjoy the holiday as much as the majority who take this trip. Nevertheless, we do feel that the criticisms and two-star rating is an unreasonable reflection on a holiday which received an Overall Satisfaction Rating of well over 90% from questionnaire responses in 2007.

Like most Spanish and Catalan towns and villages, Sort hosts an annual summer festival. In previous years the festival has only been 1 or 2 nights in duration and our clients have embraced the opportunity to absorb themselves in this piece of Catalonian culture. This year, the decision was made to extend the Sort Fiesta to a full week. Neither we, nor our partners in Spain, were given any warning whatsoever that this was the case. If we had known then we would have contacted our clients as a matter of course. For 2008, the authorities are being extremely vague about the dates for the Fiesta stating only that it will finish on either 31 July or 01 August. We have flagged this up strongly in our 2008 brochure but unfortunately we won’t know the exact dates until much later in the season.

Regarding the activities. These are organised on the assumption of no prior experience from family members. We have a 'duty of care' to assume this and ensure that safety briefings, instruction and guiding start from this basic premise. Our further experience has shown that people tend to overestimate their ability and fitness. For the average family, our Catalan Pyrenees Level II offers a series of challenges and activities designed to be fun, safe and yet exciting.

Our pulse ratings are for general guidance and apply to the overall week and not necessarily for a specific activity. If you are working on a rating of 1-5 where a walk is seen as pedestrian and hydrospeeding is described as 'terrifying' even by the 'fit' family then the overall rating of 4 is, in our opinion, reasonable, accurate and responsible.

We do take specific issue on the description of activities in the review. The trek is 4 hours in the Aigues Tortes National Park, the Canyon is not a 'small damp smelly gorge' although we do accept there were timing issues for some groups, which is something we have looked into for 2008.

Our holidays are aimed at normal active families and those wishing to try such holidays for the first time. We pride ourselves on our stringent safety procedures at all destinations and operate to the highest standards and 'best practice' with regards to activities and we strongly object to any inference to the contrary.

Regarding the activity pricing, we spread the cost of activities evenly to make more expensive activities affordable and this can produce a perception that some activity prices seem expensive. In order to make a full rafting day of 40km (including lunch) affordable to a family the price is spread across all the activities during the week. For the trekking, our clients often overlook the cost of transport, the fees we have to pay for National Parks entry, the cost of the official Ranger Taxi Service into the park as well as a guide and picnic lunch.

In addition, as part of our responsible tourism policy we have a duty and moral obligation to pay a fair price to the local community for the service they provide. Many tour operators fail in this key area of responsible travel as they believe it is fair to simply negotiate contracts which exploit the local supplier to produce headline prices. As a company we will always pay a fair price for all services we provide and this will inevitably invite comparison on price and perceived value.

If we do not pay a fair price there will be nobody to care and protect for the environment in the region.