Explore Worldwide Reviews 242

Highlights of Portugal Tour
Overall, I'm glad I went on the Highlights of Portugal tour. Explore did a good job of getting us to cool neighborhoods and viewpoints in Lisbon, and showing us some interesting places between Lisbon and Porto. They picked hotels in the right location. And most of the hotels were pretty good, although I didn't love the one in Porto. Explore also took care of getting us from place to place. The tour leader did a nice job of coordinating things and pivoting when we needed that. And she organized some cool things for us to do and generally knew how to lead us to fun.

Warning, Explore offers a pretty low price, but be sure to know what you are paying for and what was not included. The biggest disappointment was finding out that Explore doesn't hire a guide with a wealth of knowledge about the culture and history of the area. So, for example, we were shown some really nice neighborhoods and churches in Lisbon, but given very little, if any, information about what we were seeing. The leader wasn't even from Portugal.

Explore offers a coordinator rather than a guide who knows the culture and history of the country intimately. For that reason, I do not plan to travel with them again.

I have just returned from a tour to Saudi Arabia with explore .. this was my first tour with this company and my first visit to the Middle East!

This was such an amazing tour the country was so interesting and such a contrast everyday! The Saudi people are so friendly and friendly and genuine, they are so pleased to welcome us to their country and love to talk!

There were so many highlights for me from Alula which was beautiful, to the camel market and prophets mosque ..
I would definitely recommend this trip and also explore were fab … and the rooms were all huge!!!! Food was lovely as well ..

Tour leader , was rude and unhelpful. It was the first time he had lead this tour and had very little knowledge of it. He also changed the itinerary without telling Explore or ourselves
The day 2 boat tour was pointless as we couldn’t see anything. Following the boat trip we were taken to a shopping centre to buy lunch. The group dinner, moved by the tour leader by 24 hours, was fried chicken, followed by more fried chicken ( could have been in KFC ). On one of the days you had to carry your overnight bag , whilst walking around lovely gardens or go by bus to put it in a locker at train station beforehand! Not told beforehand
Explore were very good and admitted the faults with the tour, while were away, however, as soon as we returned, we were told we were lying
Many on the tour carried on in Japan, and from their what’s app and photos, had a better time , and saw more on their own
Having travelled with Explore for 19 years, never again
As for your luggage when sent on, it is just left in the hotel lobby unsupervised, you just help yourself, no checking- do not leave any valuables in there!
Explore have changed, every time they change ownership , they are going down hill with it. It is now all about profit and not customer experience as it previously was.
All of the above can be verified by emails from Explore
The tour was disappointing and a waste of money- we should of gone to Japan and travelled around on our own

I have just returned from the Lycian Way hike in Turkey and it was stunning. Beautiful pine scented forests, towering mountains, the warmest people, swimming in sparkling turquoise sea, the most delicious food. Everything was enhanced by a superb guide Nebil who grew up with the history and culture in his veins. Our group was aged between 21 and 79 and Nebil guided us all through a vigorous hike beautifully. I wasn't sure what to expect but I am so grateful to have had the experience I had and will never forget an amazing time.

I have just returned from the Uzbekistan premium trip. An excellent trip! So many 'wow' right up to the last day! Just amazing! A superb guide, Marat, took great care of us all. Organised, efficient and knowledgeable. Thank you, Marat! There were some points to make such as receiving changes to the itinerary en route to Heathrow for my flight. I question the visit to Nukus. The forts were well worth visiting. The art gallery was fine but we had an explanation of the vast majority of the paintings which took considerable time. I felt the visit to the cemetery was a 'filler' and I did not enjoy it. I would have liked more time in Samakand. The train times changed for reaching Samakand and were later in the day. Marat organised a visit to the Summer Palace and a miniatures school whilst we waited for the train. This required an additional cost. The
paintings were superb. Hotels were very good and cannot be faulted. The 'premium' range appears to be attracting a different market. Most of the group were couples with only 2 of us single.
However, a superb trip. Just wish I had visited before! Thank you.

Central America April 2025

Wonderful packed tour covering 6 Central American countries.
We were a small group of 6 including our world explorer guide Tommy "Mash" Morales.
Tommy was excellent and professional, with a detailed knowledge of every country which greatly enriched our enjoyment of the whole trip.
Angela and Kieran

The Highlights of Japan tour is just that & as such is taken at a fairly fast pace. many 1 night hotel stays , a couple of 2 nights. The hotel rooms vary in size but all comfortable. Travel is experienced on all forms of transport which without a knowledgeable guide would be very difficult to navigate! The itinerary is pre set & is on the whole good . The only exception is on the first day ,Tokyo , we feel we didn’t really see anything of Tokyo. The boat tour is not necessary , neither the garden visit . We feel the afternoon time could be of better use & interest visiting Tokyo city &/ or the golden temple.
Favourites of the tour include Kanazawa, snow monkeys , Hiroshima & Miyajima & Kyoto .
The whole experience was made very enjoyable by the guidance ,care & knowledge of our guide ,Hanan . She went over and above to make sure that everyone was having a good time. Special thanks go to her .

My husband and I have just finished one week in Malta and Gozo. Our tour guide Chantelle was excellent. She really went to a lot of trouble to ensure everyone was OK. Plus she loved sharing information about her homeland of Malta. O have done a lot of Explore trips in the past. This trip is definitely one of the best. Channelle.knew so much about the history of Malta going around the temples and museums with her really gave us a great insight into Malta's past. Well done Explore for finding such a superb guide. Also Chantelle knew how to avoid crowds. A fabulous holiday. Thank you Chantelle and thank you Explore.

Ive just returned from the Gozo & Malta trip..fantastic experience that far exceeded my expectations. This trip is jammed full of gems: The Citadel on Gozo, Hagar Qim temples, the views from the riverboat cruise in Valetta, the Mdina & Marsaxloxx were standouts for me as well as an optional visit to the Casa Rocca Picola stately house which was fascinating, especially when we met the Baron himself, who told us more about the property and the amazing interior. Malta is far more historic than i thought, with masses to see, ranging from beautiful scenery to amazing architecture from the Neolithic age & much much more. However, none of this would have been anywhere as interesting or exciting if it wasnt for Althea, our Tour Guide who is simply outstanding-she is perfect in her role-always a font of enthusiasm & knowledge, very aware of her Guests needs & moods & nothing too much trouble. Althea went to great lengths to ensure that we got the maximum enjoyment & understanding from these beautiful islands. Quite a full on tour-not much down time however time is tight because traffic is heavy on Malta so that can cut into 'down time' a little. Locals very friendly, food comes in big helpings & is delicious, the 2 hotels we stayed in perfectly adequate too. Last but by no means least, I was blessed with being part of a fantastic group who gelled together so well & had many great times & good laughs-having such a great bunch of fellow travellers really 'made' what was already a fab time thanks to Althea. If youre considering this trip then dont wait!

The most incredible holiday! Well organised from start to finish. Our tour guide was fantastic and we were all so well looked after! Remote locations, the beaches were beautiful and some lovely hotels where the staff couldn’t do enough for us! A bonus was we barely had our cases, all of this was taken care of! Thank you Explore! I can’t recommend you enough.

First impression arrived in Laos group meet and greet meal not enough food to go around followed by rush tour as disorganised guides caused delays followed by Vietnam worst guide ever just wanted to sell extra trips at inflated prices trip saved in Cambodia by fantastic guide full of knowledge and experience.

Went on Prague to Budapest trip last October 2024. 1 of the things I wanted to see was closed for repairs
If this was unforseen then it's acceptable. If the company knew in advance then they should have told me.
2 of the other trips were unavailable as they "were out of season". The company would have known about this in advance but advertised these as available.
My first 2 emails to Explore stating that I was very disappointed and wouldn't have booked the holiday if I'd known that 3 trips would be cancelled were ignored. Eventually I received £50 in compensation. A paltry amount compared to a whole holiday bring spoilt.
Explore have now removed the trips from the itinerary on the basis that the information was misleading but that's no help to me.

A couple of months ago I tried to book the Simply Japan tour with Explore. It was a nightmare getting a few important questions answered before we could proceed. Multiple times we were told "we will check with the travel guides on the ground". After three times being told the same thing regarding the same question we just gave up. No one ever got back to us. This company has a low Trust score and as others have noted their customer service is quite bad and they appear to just not care!

I have been on 8 explore holidays over the last 20 years and the decline in customer service is very apparent. Yes they offer lots of holiday choices but don't anymore curate any of the experience subbing it out to local tour people and cutting them to the bone. Which you will notice when you are there with poor quality food options or no options that strips out much of the experience of the destination. When you complain they just don't care. With my last 2 trips the guides who are ment to be with you, neither eat with you or eat what you do. Or they take you to places where they are very likely getting kick backs
I suggest anyone looking for a real adventure should look to book either with a smaller company or book direct excursion when you arrive. You will get more for your money and better quality. Sad really

As the company goes, Explore was easy to deal with, good customer service. We got there easily, had fun and got home. No headaches. Pretty much all you can ask for.

As for the trip -

Went on a cycling trip from Marseille to Barcelona.
I'll break it down into a few sections. Group, Group Guide, Places and Food.

The group was a mix avid and armature cyclist with a mix of regular and e-bikes. People on e-bike stayed in the back which was great so noone got ahead of each other, we stayed together and rode as a team.

Our guide Peter is an avid rider and historian. Loved all the facts and tidbit information about the locations we visited. Every time we stopped for lunch had a fully catered meal by our support truck. Which is something to note, had a support truck to carry luggage, bike repair kits and the bikes when we went from biking to taking a train, so it was painless experience getting from point A to point B.

Places - Each day was a 3-5h ride with stops in between, on the road most of the day. Going from lovely cafes along the sea side to cute towns, everything you envision it to be. If you envision an idyllic French towns stopping to get some coffee as the meadows are in the background. Yep that's pretty much covers it.

Both my wife and i are foodies and we were able to experience local cuisine, friendly people and well prepared meals. The ingredients were always fresh.

Well worth a visit.

I contacted Explore several times about giving feedback about my last trip with them and for some reason this was never provided, so I'm writing a review here.
I travelled on the two week Ancient Sicily Tour which was magnificent. The guide, a former academic, was incredibly knowledgeable. I came home feeling like a Sicily expert.
Please be aware that this is indeed a full-on, semi-academic tour and you'll have very little time to yourself outside the group. During what would be your daily free time, there are some excellent talks given by the guide and you'll have to be strong willed to elect to miss these.
When I attended this trip, there were a good number of days when we were on archaeological sites exposed to the scorching hot midday/ afternoon sun.
There are some hotels with swimming pools, but you'll not really experience beaches until the end of the tour, so do consider adding extra days to your stay.
Be aware that the people travelling are mainly indigenous British and not diverse.
On this occasion a large clique was formed by a regular over-bearing female Explore traveller who very much dictated who was in/ out. As I move to the beat of my own drum, this individual and another older female effectively excluded me from the group. A comment was made by a male member of the group, that shall we say was someway to the right of centre and should perhaps not be the subject of discussion at dinner.
These experiences meant my overall holiday experience was average to poor.
Perhaps Explore needs to consider asking people to read and sign up to a traveller code to avoid forming cliques, displaying their petty or major prejudices and request for people to behave like easy going adults.
In future I would give very strong consideration before ever electing to travel with Explore again.

I recently went on a walking holiday in La Gomera with Explore . I was one of a group of 15 people and stayed in a lovely little hotel Torre del Conde in San Sebastián . We all agreed that our
guide Ester La Gomera Galindo was superb and couldn’t have been more helpful and her attention to detail ensured that everyone had a great experience. 5 star service all round.

Very very poor customer experience and sadly getting worse. It takes the staff days to do anything and their loyalty discounts are a joke - the sales they do through the year offer bigger discounts….loyalty doesn’t come into it. Very disappointing. I’ll be doing my 7 or 8 trips a year in future with undiscovered destinations or wild frontiers or one of the many other similar agents who actually understand customer service, loyalty and look after the customers spending a lot of money with them.

On a recent Explore trip, on arrival at one of the hotels I was unexpectedly separated from the group and told I would be staying in the guesthouse, used by the guide and driver, as one of the hotels guests needed to extend their stay. The guesthouse was located further away from the town, across a main road, and had to be accessed through a petrol station and past car parks (and drunks on the pavement). I didn't feel comfortable walking alone in the evening so didn't venture out. As a solo female traveler, this was completely inappropriate. There was no consultation or apology from the Guide.

I’ve been waiting for a response from Explore since 30/9/24, having emailed, chased & had auto replies, from their Customer Relations and Customer Services Teams so they are fully aware & have all the details - Unacceptable!

UPDATE: After being reassured this was being dealt with personally, and again having to chase ... I was offered £45 compensation!

Recently went on Maldives Dhoni cruise offered by Explore other name Voyages Maldives. Absolute disgrace. Food served morning toast with jam fewer fruits, Lunch tons of pasta and minimum protein, dinner same as lunch. At the end the crew said to the passengers that we have to tip them, as this is by Explore policies and signed paper which was untrue. I did contact Explore asking them, why crew is begging for money, first they said that it will be nice to tip them, when I asked is this by Maldivian law or Explore policy they then said its optional. So why are you telling your staff to beg to tips, the tip is deserved and only paid when passenger is happy, Utter disgrace. Th cabins are so tiny no AC nothing, they didn't even provided a shampoo, we had to take shower with hand gel, and all this for £1700 a piece, the coffee and tea was also not to standards. the only good thing on this boat was that the crew was very friendly and nice. Most of the time we were in water, some of the snorkeling activities were rubbish, team leader last two days was non-existent he didn't seem bother to give any explanation, sleeping the whole two days, we stayed on the boat most of the time, barely seen any island or stepped foot on. I will never use this company again.