Review of "Tour #3" by Cloud 9 Tours

• Review by: Christoffer Björkwall
• Tour Operator: Cloud 9 Tours
• Tour: Tour #3
• Year: 2009
• Validated: This review has been validated.

General review

I went on my first storm chasing tour ever with Charles & co in 2009 on Tour #3. The first two tours this year had been quite unlucky with several down days but we were really lucky with the weather. We managed to see everything from one spectacular tornado in Wyoming, some beautiful supercells, hail the size of oranges and so on. Cloud 9 tours feels very friendly. It's, to some extent, like going on a tour with friends rather than a company (both for good and bad). I appreciated this but I guess it could be seen as somewhat unprofessional as well. On the negative side, there was quite a difference between going in one van or the other. The driver in one van was always falling behind, which could be **really** frustrating when you are chasing a storm and every minute counts. When we found our tornado, our driver drove much, much further away from the tornado than Charles's van. All in all, I truly recommend going with Cloud 9, you get a lot of bang for your bucks!

Vehicle review:

The vehicles were quite decent but still one downside of this tour. When we came in on tour #3 it seemed like they haven't had time to clean out the van from the previous tours. They were not dirty, but a bit messy. Our tour was not full and I can't imagine sitting in one of those vans when they are full. You need a bit of extra space after 14 days in the van! I wouldn't mind having neck support in the seats either, both for comfort and safety. I appreciated that they had WiFi and even a DVD-player. It was cool to be able to tell your friends back home to follow your trip through their web-cam as well.

Tour guide review:

It is of course easier to have a tour when the weather is beneficial but I believe Charles Edwards and Cloud 9 made a good job finding the storms as well. I enjoyed this trip immensely and Charles was an excellent guide. I appreciated that Charles was very eager to respond to my flood of questions. I learned quite a lot by asking but it would have been great to get some of this information beforehand as well. Charles is, I have learned afterwards, very well-known and respected among storm chasers and I can see why. He is also a friendly, fun guy.

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