Explore Worldwide Reviews 242

Travelled to Ecudaor and Galapagos with Explore in May, the trip was everything I had hoped for and more. Having been a bucket list destination for a long long time, I'm so glad I travelled with Explore, we really got to see the hidden wonders and go off the beaten track, as well as travelling with wonderful like minded people.

Each day was packed with adventures, from sea kayaking and mountain walks to exploring historic sites. Zep our Leader was superb, great with the kids and everything ran like clockwork.
Our accommodation was basic yet clean, with a fantastic pool that became a refreshing retreat after our excursions. The lack of Wi-Fi in the rooms meant we had a much-needed digital detox.
The kids embraced all the activities, quickly making new friends and declaring it their best holiday ever. This trip was a delightful escape from our usual routines, highly recommended for families seeking adventure and cultural immersion!

Family Thailand trip had excellent variety that kept my two daughters amazed and entertained for two weeks. Cooker course and Thai boxing in Bangkok, river rafting (a definite highlight), jungle walks, and some R&R by the beach in Koh Samui. Nui our tour leader was fantastic.

An incredible trip around South Africa and even venturing to Eswatini. Well organised guided walks, safaris and loved the day learning more about the Zulu culture and history. Friendly group and would definitely travel with Explore again, 10/10

Such a great trip! Would definitely recommend the Tour du Mont Blanc with Explore! Amazing trek. Breath-taking scenery. Fantastic challenging holiday with a supportive leader (Ollie). Food - lots of yummy food and the accommodation was appreciated after a long day on the trail. Superb!

Active Sri Lanka with my 19 year old son was amazing!

We did so much on this two week trip, including white water rafting, tea picking, SUP, cycling, yoga, boat, train, bus and tuk tuk rides, kayaking through mangroves, and more. Ash - our leader - was amazing, and really helped us understand the culture of the business.

The perfect way to spend a couple of weeks reconnecting with my boy after he'd been away traveling for a year.

10 of 14 clients robbed at gunpoint on the St Boliviar Highway (tour bus photo stop part of itinery) by 3 masked Ecuadorian men. Cumulatively we lost thousands!! Without original receipts insurance won't pay out. Who keeps receipts especially when over a year. Explore refused to as well. They feel they wete in no way liable. Shamefully Explore tried saying the robbers boarded the bus directly after the last client (who was sat back on her seat on the back row BEFORE the robbers boarded the bus). This is untrue. Explore deny the door was closed & reopened which it was! They have attempted to say our memories of the events were confused with the shock. After 33 Explore tours over 32 years the MD wrote to me directly after I escalated my upset that the actual TRUTH was being covered up & clients should not be financially affectwd. Explore NO LONGER will accept my business! I dared to complain. Photographic proof from a chance full panorama photo (actual time photo was taken included) from the footbridge shows the silver pick up "getaway" waiting the otherside of the footbridge on the side of the highway until everyone was back on the bus. Inside job? Cameras, 2 passports, cash, money cards, credit cards, binoculars, mobiles, jewellery & daybags with contents......all stolen! UK office didn't contact any of the group until over 2 weeks after we got home. APPAULLING!
Loyalty does not pay with Explore. They just want your money & take no responsibility for "issues"

Poor and slow customer service with price gouging by several hundred pounds on the flights.
(Could get them far cheaper myself, online, direct with BA than their 'flight team' could get.)

Cancelled the booking before going any further with them.

We had a poor experience on our tour and despite raising concerns and sending e mails there has been no response. Our tour guide had to be changed at the beginning of the tour due to their personal issues. This meant we missed things off the itinerary because the tour guide was on the phone the whole time trying to sort out his issues. On one day we were taken to a random town to look at a church, we never even got told the name of the town and this wasn’t part of the WILDLIFE tour we had booked. We were pretty much just left standing around waiting for phone calls to end. One of the hotels we went to was awful and if you didn’t want to do high impact activities like zip lining there were no other options available despite the itinerary saying there would be a wildlife tour available if you didn’t want to be involved in the other activities. We ended up staying in the bedroom most of the day because there wasn’t even anywhere nice to sit at the hotel. You do get to visit some beautiful places and Costa Rica is amazing but I think there are better tours out there and definitely better customer service.

I would definitely avoid the Explore holiday in Northern Cyprus and based on their response to my feedback I will probably avoid this company in the future as well. If I could give zero stars I would.
The key issue is that the tour guide seemed to view his role as milking as many benefits as possible from the holidaymakers under his care, whilst getting the walking over with as fast as possible. I emailed Explore directly and the response was either a corporate standard email or AI generated, as it said absolutely nothing but with a lot of words.
And that is why I am submitting this review - I felt fleeced on the holiday and Explore's response was unsatisfactory.

Well good points first . I did the turkey kos trip.Excellent experience and fab people. Had a great group and I loved the activities. I must say though it’s by far the best holihobs I’ve had. Because it was like minded people. And it was great to eat with people and not be alone.Now for the not so good points. I knew the hotel would be bad. Some of the group had some visitors like cockroaches 😡. In their rooms. Shower was broken. The hotel is very dated and why oh why do explore use it????
Food provided by hotel was beyond bad. Especially the lunch on two days. Omg a cheese triangle and Nutella. In that heat!!!! Maybe Explore could provide something else.
I was also told when booking that there were e bikes available. But no not the case.
However saying all this I had a great time.

I have previously used this company many times but recently their customer service and approach has given me downhill. I booked a trip based on the good reviews it received only to find the reviews related to an old trip that no longer ran, my promised vehicle to meet me at the airport was not there on my arrival, they couldn’t cater for vegetarians and when I provided feedback to the company they just made excuses and dismissed it

Our first trip with Explore. From the moment of our arrival in the middle of the night to our departure days later in the early morning, everything was incredibly well organised. The trip itself was exceptional. So many places of historic/cultural significance to see, brought to life by our guide, Saleh, who shared his own personal experiences with us so generously , with an impeccable command of the English language. Jordanians of all ages welcomed us so warmly. It is a very safe place to visit and, owing to the current Middle East conflict, now much quieter than usual. You won't be disappointed. "Awesome" !

Just back from Jordan- booked with Explore Worldwide- our guide Saleh made it one of the best trips I'd been on.
Knowledgeable, friendly inspirational and wonderful!
The country is SAFE and is incredibly quiet at the moment- a perfect time to visit!

Our tour guide, Zep, is brilliant - engaging, funny and not at all prone to exaggeration.

The hotel we stayed in at Kas, was only fair. They do not have lifts or elevators. The rooms are small which is OK, but the lack of a refrigerator, to get with their petty attitude to providing adequate supply of drinking water, was a downer. So too the sporadic hot water for the shower.

The walks and other local destinations were up there in the scale of interesting without being too easy or too hard. A good mix for the average person.

We are just back from a fantastic holiday in South Africa , with the Garden Route tour making up part of that holiday. We have never been part of a tour group before and didn’t know what to expect. We didn’t know how we would feel about spending 12 days with the same 10 people but I have to say it was wonderful. Maybe we struck lucky with thei other guests but we had a fabulous group.
Our tour guide Bianca (Bea) was amazing. She made the trip. She was fun, knowledgeable and took us to places we would never have found by ourselves. All of the hotel/lodges were great. Each one was very different from the others. They were all comfortable and clean and in some cases quirky. Bea tan the tour like clockwork. She kept us together and on time. She joined in the fun with us and some of the best times we of us all eating dinners together
This will not be the last time we holiday as part of a tour. I just hope we are as lucky with our next one as we were this time.

I booked the Jordan Discovery tour with Explore, and it was absolutely amazing. The hotels were lovely, and I had the best guide Abdallah. We started in Amman and worked our way down to the dead sea, camped in Wadi Rum and stayed in Petra. The highlight of the tour was the Treasury of Petra and sleeping under the stars in Wadi Rum. Abdallah was an excellent guide who went above and beyond. His knowledge of Jordan's history is exceptional. I learnt so much about Jordan from Abdallah on this trip. He helped with finding the best restaurants and even gave history talks during the journey to each historic site.
Explore have packaged this trip perfectly. The Jordanians are so kind and lovely. I felt super safe to walk around alone day or night. I highly recommend this tour and hope you get the amazing Abdallah as your guide.

Matteo Giordano proved to be an excellent and loveable guide. Matteo is knowledgeable in both the terrain and history of the Amalfi coast. We were fortunate that Matteo took us to visit his family lemon orchard, where his mom and dad welcomed as friends and treated us to a couple of specialties.
Being in my late eighties, I chose to participate in three of the leisurely walks, which I found challenging but well worth the effort. Midweek the trip to Herculaneum and Pompeii was guided by a colleague of Matteo’s, Francesco. He knows his history and added a lot of interesting information to our visit.
On the other days that I chose not to hike, I spent a few hours reading on the lovely and sunny Hotel Sole terrace and walking about Maiori, enjoying this seafront town. Another day was spent taking the ferry to both Amalfi and Positano.
The multi-generational Hotel Sole staff was very welcoming and every morning, with a smile on her face, the hostess enquired “Cafe Americano?”.
March or November is a great time of they year to take this walk, as the weather is a little cooler, the crowds a little smaller and the restaurants quieter.

Just back from the Inca Trail Trek in Peru and had a great time. Knowledgeable friendly local guide, clean comfortable hotels, good food and tents when camping. Could have had a little more information about what to pack for camping and a little more time to explore Saqsaywaman and Macchu Picchu (though accept that the latter is restricted by Peruvian regulations for protection of the site). Was it perfect? No, but what is; I certainly have no complaints and the fact that this was my 11th trip with Explore in 12 years is testament to the fact that this experience was not a one off.

Family trip to Costa Rica is an expensive shambles - the itinerary is vague and rose tinted. The reality is shabby lodges with terrible food, pointless ‘nature hikes’ with zero wildlife to be seen, on crowded paths only metres from the car park. Food provided is ghastly. Every day is spent hour after hour in the bus, arriving at the next dismal hotel in the dark. Explore have managed to remove any element of authentic Costa Rican life from this trip and keep you isolated in aging hotels, far away from any ambiance or culture.
Save your money, folks, and just hire a car - everyone speaks English & you don’t need the miserable experience provided by Explore