Explore Tour Reviews

This was a fantastic trip and I could not recommend it highly enough! Good quality hotels, great and varied itinerary with the opportunity to have some free time as well. The highlights included a farm visit and luncheon, a visit to St Johns co-cathedral in Valetta, the coastal scenery and visits to neolithic temples! In addition to those highlights, ...read more the trip was memorable because of the opportunity to travel with like minded people and to be guided by a wonderful and enthusiastic guide (Lisa). We were also able to enjoy some high quality local seafood. You must put Malta and Gozo on your travel list!

Our guide Gabrielle was great - could rattle off most of the history & could answer most of the questions we asked & also looked after everyone equally! I would recommend that the amount of walking & at times quite steep should be emphasised more as a few people struggled - didn't cause any major issues but they were probably surprised at times.

Travelling through the Baltic countries was a great experience. The countries are rich in history and the cities of Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius are beautiful. The trip is well planned by Explore, but I would make the Curonian Spit excursion half day instead of a full day. The accommodation was on the whole good but in a few occasions the shared rooms ...read more were a bit small if you have to share with somebody you don't really know. Also being with a good group of people was fun. I booked the trip online with Global Journeys, as I have done a few times before, and it was easy as usual.

I really enjoyed the trip , the walking, winter sun (interrupted by a couple of rainy days!), and a good group and tour leader - more than anything though, it was great just to travel abroad again after a gap of more than 2 years.

The scenery inland is quite outstanding with dozens of deep, chiseled valleys and gorges of extreme, austere beauty. If we had just 1 gorge of that quality anywhere in the UK, we'd have declared it a National Monument. No need to go further afield for some truly stunning hiking, with a nice dose of local culture and warming, winter sun as an added ...read morebonus!

It was our first foreign trip for two years, and we enjoyed it overall. The Covid safety measures were affective, and we appreciated Cema arranging for tests at our hotel the day before departure. I would add that the New Year's Eve celebrations surpassed expectations - the food and the entertainment were excellent.

We booked a walking holiday that was rated easy. The walks were really interesting and the distances were not too long. The underfoot terrain was very rough and made for hard going. When we walked the aqueduct, there were very severe drops to one side. With uneven tracks, the potential for a catastrophic fall was evident. I felt uncomfortable on ...read more more than one occasion, even though it was a walk I wanted to do. P.S. The meal at the village was excellent

COVID precautions were taken very seriously in Sri Lanka . The hotels took our temperature and provided hand cleaning regularly. The guide organised our return Covid tests at the penultimate hotel, which was very helpful. I felt very safe travelling during COVID times. The boat company for the whale watching handed out sea sickness tablets. They were ...read more ridiculously strong and I could hardly stay awake! Perhaps I was foolish in accepting them but I think they should come with a warning!

All good, everyone had a great time and the whole package was great. One minor comment, and perhaps this is actually about Costa Rica itself, but none of the places we ate at seemed to do much in the way of kids portions. So, we seemed to waste a lot of food!

Once again a great experience with Explore. Customer service was good - a real human to speak to. We had to change from Cuba to Egypt and this wasn't an issue. Fair refund policy encourages me to return to Explore. Indeed I am already booked on my next holiday with you.

This was my first experience of a tour. Everyone on the trip was lovely - it was a really fun, interesting group and everyone got on well. We seemed very like minded and it all gelled. My biggest comment again would be the pace - it felt frenetic at times. ALSO - because we went out for dinner in buses (most evenings) it wasn't possible to get back ...read more until everyone was ready. This resulted in half of us being forced to stay out later than we wanted. Some wanted to drink till 2:30, but most didn't - but even coming back at 11:30pm or so felt like a very, very long day, if we began at 8:30am and only had 30 mins to change clothes in the middle. Perhaps more dinners near the hotel so people could leave when they wanted? It was all very exhausting, which was the one downside. I have lots of energy but .....wow! After a few days the exhaustion does kick in.

The trip was fascinating and we were given lots of information about the disaster. A little longer in the Chernobyl Museum would have been good but probably time will not allow for that. The day in Kiev was very busy and enjoyable - amazing that we got to see so much in one day.

Originally I had planned to go on a completely different trip with another company which was cancelled at short notice for Covid reasons. Almost simultaneously I received an e-mail from you advertising a range of trips and the Toukbal mountain trip was a perfect fit - one call later and your very helpful team had put the wheels in motion to see whether ...read more I could attend and in a couple of days I was booked on with some very helpful guidelines on what was required. Having just finished this excellent break I would like to say a big thank you to all in Explore - your business has had a tough 2 years and I am absolutely delighted that I booked with you. I doubt that I will do this trip again because the positive memories are so strong that they could not be repeated - but I will absolutely recommend the trip and your company to anyone and everyone. And I will now start looking through your brochure to see what I can do in

A very enjoyable cycling tour along a stunningly beautiful coastline. The cycling was of a moderate standard with the occasional challenging hills, but the views and scenery soon revived the aching limbs. The tour leaders were excellent and the local city guides knowledgeable and interesting. All the hotels were selected for their locations with great ...read more scenery, views, beaches and restaurant choices. Local food was of good quality, quantity and affordable, as was the wine! A highly recommended trip.

I’d walked most of the walks already and enjoyed walking them again so would be interested in guided walks to different hills. No complaint about the itinerary which was very apt for the group. The hotel was fab - I’m at the point that I’m happy to pay a bit more for a nice hotel as I don’t get that much holiday time. Poor WiFi was only an issue bc ...read more I broke my laptop en route and couldn’t action a repair, but the owner told me they will have fibre soon. The guides were fun - the banter between them kept things light. Loved the dogs on the trip too. Was good to have two guides so the large group could be split to two different levels. Scarfell Pike is just a slog. Wouldnt do it again. Confidence building I think for everyone that Duane was a member of mountain rescue. First trip with Explore and I’d defo consider another trip. Thanks.

I thought it was very varied and interesting, from castles to making mozzarella, and churches to bakeries. I very much enjoyed the coastal walk to the bauxite quarry which some previous reviewers had criticised. The restaurants organised for the group meals were also very good and varied, which was great at the current time of the virus.

A thoroughly enjoyable trip even though none of the group had originally planned to be in the Lakes. The group itself was excellent as a whole and when split in the smaller 'covid' groups - lots of fun, experience, laughter and shared experiences. A real treat, well done Explore for thinking on your feet and creating this trip when we couldn't go to ...read more where we'd all planned.

Explore adjusted the trip shortly before departure to accommodate the rule of six. Our group of 15 was split into 3 groups of 5 plus a leader in each group. It meant Explore had to provide an additional two leaders but this ensured the trip ran as safely as possible. We saw the other groups out on the walks and there was cheerful banter between us although ...read more we never mixed. It was great to be out on the road with Explore again albeit in strange circumstances. They did everything possible for the trip to run smoothly and safely, while complying with all the current guidelines. The walks were really enjoyable. They were mostly undulating with varied scenery. Would recommend this trip as a good short break in the UK.

All in all a very good value for money trip, we saw lots of an interesting country and met with quite a few local people. We particularly liked the 2 meals we had in private houses. The food was excellent and the hosts extremely friendly. These were excellent choices. Also the night spent at the Erg Chebbi desert camp as part of the trip was an added ...read more bonus, as were the star lit sky and wonderful sunset and sunrise. The desert camel ride also an experience. I must say our group all got on well together and we have had contact since arriving home. An excellent trip.

The notes posted each day by Haymar explaining wake up / breakfast / transport times and what we were going to be doing, needed to take / wear in support of the trip notes were excellent. Nice touch with added drawings. I took a photo each day and used it a few times. Brilliant added information nicely presented in own hand writing / drawing. Made me ...read more feel special.