Explore Worldwide Reviews 226

Recently back from the Machu Picchu and Palccoyo Mountain Trip in Peru, and we did the Amazon Extension too.

Machu Picchu and Palccoyo Mountain trip was great - a good amount of time take to acclimatise before the proper hiking starts, and some interesting sightseeing along the way with a knowledgable guide. Palccoyo is a great, much quieter alternative to rainbow mountain which we were happy we did. We also did the Quarry Trail rather than the Inca Trail, as permits were sold out for the 4 day Inca Trial, and we weren't disappointed! The quarry trail provided some interesting variance, and we had the trail and cmapsites to ourselves with the exception of one couple walking in the other direction ont he last day so it felt like a really authentic experience. After 3 days on the quarry trail, you have a night in a hotel to freshen up before the final day of hiking on a short section of the Inca Trail and into Machu Picchu which was amazing. Explore manage Machu Picchu tours in an organised way to avoid much of the hassle of how busy it is with the buses etc making it quite a stress free experience and a wonderful sight. We also added the Waynapicchu hike which we loved.

Amazon Extension - incredible addition - especially with the premium accommodation option. Fab food and excursions, and we saw loads of animals and plants including 3 species of monkey within about an hour of being there, so we were very lucky! Our guide for the Amazon was fantastic and so talented at spotting wildlife with great knowledge.

Would definitely recommend both parts of the trip, a tab way to explore Peru!

My family and I went on the new Family Adventure holiday on Madeira. The guide and trips were great and the hotel was surprisingly nice too. Very happy people!

Amazing experience from start to finish! Travelled on my first family trip, to Thailand. Everything about the trip and the itinerary was incredible I wouldn’t have changed a single thing. My kids (aged 7 and 10) had such a great time and gave everything a go! The tour leader was fantastic. Found the explore app really useful when on tour too.

I've recently returned from the Botswana Wildlife Safari, what a fantastic trip! It has a well-planned and varied itinerary for seeing as much as possible and our guide Phenyo worked tirelessly to ensure we had a great experience and saw everything we hoped for and more. I had a wonderful group and everything went smoothly from start to finish, I'd definitely recommend Explore and in particular the Botswana wildlife safari to anyone looking for an in-depth safari experience.

Seeing the wildlife was a great experience and the Guides we had were fantastic. They made sure we saw as much as possible. However this trip got marred by the following:
All of the group got food poisoning at the Le Paradisier Hotel. 
I had to ask at the Reception for something as I could not stop being sick or running to the toilet resulting in me having to miss that day's sightseeing. I was shocked when the Receptionist said, "This is a common occurrence" and opened a drawer that was full of different types of medication. 
Three of the people in the group remained ill for three days resulting in them not being well on the internal flight back to Tana, in the Hotel Au Bois Vert and on their flight home.
The Feon'ny Ala Bungalows were damp, smelt with the bedding being damp to. Ok we were situated outside by a rain forest but that is no excuse in having to sleep in a damp room. Also, I and one other person of the group did not appreciate being given an omelette that was raw in the middle for breakfast!
The mixed messages we all got emailed from Explore about the riots in Tana. The first email caused anxiety and upset amongst the group, as it said we had to return immediately to the capital, which would take two days by the minibus, as the FO said we were all going to be put on repatriation flights. On all of us checking the FO website this was not what the FO said. They advised that all visitors in Madagascar should stay away from the capital. We were many miles away from Tana as we were in the Hotel Relais de la Reine by the Madagascar Grand Canyon.  
On refusing to leave as we did not want to go back to riots and obeyed what the FO advised, we then received another email from Explore saying we could continue our tour.
The LAST person to be updated was our Guide! Not good that we had to show him our emails.
I respect that Explore say our safety is always their priority, but on this tour, it certainly did not give us that impression, due to the state of two of the hotels, sickness and the mixed emails causing upset within the group.
Long journeys in the minibus in two consecutive days. I think this needs to be made very clearly to all wishing to do this tour that two days in a row are spent travelling many miles, 11 hours in total, along unkept roads with many potholes, some the size of sizeable craters. This also left some of the group unhappy.
Regarding our Guide, Billy. Not one of us could fault this guy. He was very understanding towards our situation, illnesses and made our sightseeing days very pleasurable with his knowledge.
Our Group. Great fun. We all got on along so well resulting in all of us staying in touch after the tour. 
If you do not like travelling long hours, possibly getting sick, that I personally do not think that this tour will be for you.

Excellent moorish tour of Andalucia visiting all the highlights. Our tour guide Lydia was excellent going above and beyond to ensure all members of our group were looked after. The fault ravel element can be challenging finding room for luggage. So take the advice and pack lightly. Hotels in general were good except for the 2* hotel in Ronda which was very basic. That said I would still recommend this tour

Whilst the holidays look great on paper they are only as good as the local agents and tour guide. Unfortunately there appears to be little or no vetting of the local agents/tour guides. When things do go wrong Explore are are not interested and as others have advised, trying to deal with Explore Customer Service is a terrible experience and a complete waste of time. The Customer Service team are difficult to ever get hold off and never call back when promised. When you do finally manage to speak to someone they tell blatant lies and when challenged over what they say they shut down and refuse to communicate any further. A real shame that what should have been a great holiday was ruined by the local guide and then further exacerbated by Explores attitude to the issues raised.

My partner does the details/arranges after I have selected a shortlist and we both agree on the next walking holiday.

Once selected I go all out reading/researching the details. That's the important part you must do, so that you are not putting your hard earned cash into an experience they are going to provide, because actually the experience type (if you had read the details), was never going to be your cup of tea.

Once you do that, triple check all the dates/times, then am not sure why anything should really go wrong if you are fit and able to take a walking holiday with them. Catastrophes do happen I know and Airports do melt down. But that's what insurance is for. So stay insured.

You are paying more for the customisation, that goes without saying; personally I enjoy the comfort of being led on holiday as am not someone who can just sit on the beach with a book. They do all the donkey work of figuring out the nice and very localised experiences of the region you go to.

IN SUMMARY: they provide amazing experiences and is always my GoTo walking holiday provider. But you have to read the offerings carefully, including if you are fit to complete the walks.

Botswana Wildlife Safari
If you want to see wildlife and camp in the bush, then this is the trip for you. The animals & birds we saw were incredible, often down to the skills of our guide, Titus. We were a lovely group of 10 who gelled together so well, sadly as a result of events on our first night in camp. The staff at the campsites worked so hard to keep us fed & watered & nothing was too much trouble.
Explore must take heed of the need for increased security at the first camp near Chobe.4 of our 6 canvas lodges were slashed with knives in the night leading to loss of cash, passport, phones, costly camera equipment, etc We had been told, upon arrival, that we didn't need to lock our belongings into the wooden cases in our tents. Yes, we did! The rest of the trip I slept with my 'valuables' , something I have never ever done! It was a horrible feeling. After that, a little more security guidance from our guide would have been welcome .
Only one guide/driver for the huge distance we had to travel on several days struck us a a surprise. Is this a cost-cutting measure?
Negatives: distances/travel times undersold in pre-trip notes.
Arrival times at boat & one hotel, as a result, far later than expected, cutting out possibility of other activities.
Food in camp, whilst plenty, was poor - far too much chewy, inedible meat, under-cooked veg & soup like baby food. All luke warm, not good.
Trip notes need amending with greater honesty & transparency & don't get me started on customer service after the trip!

Botswana Wildlife Safari
Our 14th Explore tour.
Travelled as a couple. 10, incl ourselves, on tour + guide - 2 couples, 1 family 3-some, 3 singles, + 1 guide/driver.
This Explore Botswana Wildlife Safari had many wonderful aspects. But wasn't without issues, some in Explore's control, others less so.
A very big up to Titus, one of the best guides we have had. What with 1 party's late arrival, the family group's "missing in transit" luggage, and the camp attack - see later - he kept the tour on track and found many outstanding wildlife encounters.
Surprised though that Titus was solo. He did ALL driving & guiding. All our other Explore trips have had a driver in addition to the guide. It is concerning the number of working hours he has to do during the trip.
Bush camping was better than expected (we have an Explore reference point, having camp-safari with them in Kenya 15 years ago). Roomy tents, comfortable bed/bedding - though the single pillow needed padding. And the personal toilet/shower at the rear of each tent worked fairly well, though hot water for shower limited.
I won't list all the wildlife seen. Everything you'd expect, much of it several times eg multiple prides of lions, multiple elephant herds with many young, even rare wild dog families. 1 leopard, eventually. Regrettably no cheetah - but that's safari for you.
And a good feel for a multitude of different environments - river side, open plains, forested, bush,...
On the downside... we found food very disappointing. The occasional "processed meat" dish were quite nice - BBQ burgers, once, lamb mince, once - as was camp made bread, and breakfasts. But the many evening meat dishes had tough, dry, poor cut meat. Unsauced, only bottle table sauces. All would have been better as stews, and easier for camp cooks to manage. Most veg were almost raw, especially cauliflower and broccoli, of which there was a lot, and tepid! And the meagre 2 spoonfuls of "soup" were baby-food puree and barely tepid. The "minestrone" was essentially congealed gravy. All the soups would have been improved by the simple addition of a cup of boiling water. Puddings barely amounted to a meagre amount.
Not aware of anyone in group having any "hygiene" issues but there was no visible group hygiene precautions insisted upon (unlike compulsory pre-meal hand washing on our Kenya trip) . No encouragement to group to sanitise before communal food. And no Titus hygiene precautions when setting out in-transit shared picnic lunches.
Comparing Explore trip notes to actual - day journey times often vastly underestimated, to the significant detriment of the tour's enjoyment. In particular day 9 "We should arrive at Thamo Telele around lunchtime." and day 10 to houseboat for "lunch" were VASTLY underestimated. In both cases it was midafternoon 3pm-ish when we arrived. In fact unless we had left at stupid-o-clock in the morning there is no way we could have arrived at either location "for lunch".
At Thamo there was no time even for any freshen up after a 7am start and 8 hour open vehicle journey, but straight into buffet "lunch" (actually 3pm), which we had to pay for even though there was no alternative (many kms outside Maun).
I would question Thamo as a stop. Whilst the accommodation was luxurious, the tour of their captive animals (mostly giraffes) in a confined environment felt at odds with the "wildlife safari" of the whole tour.
Timing wise, similarly we did not arrive for "lunch" on houseboat. Merely mid afternoon tea and cake.
The cave painting trip, from boat on day 11, took over 7 hours return - it's not just up the road.
The houseboat "cruise" itself was only 1 mile upstream, moor up for night, 1 mile return. But the wildlife river cruise from the houseboat was memorable.
The most significant incident was overnight day 2 in our fixed (luxury) tents near Chobe. 4 of group's 6 tents, including ours, were broken into, access gained by a knife slit to the canvas of each tent. I heard a noise and sat up, and that probably stopped entry into our tent, and we lost nothing. However, significant goods - cameras, electronics, binoculars, day bags, cash & cards, and 1 passport (thankfully later recovered) were stolen from the other 3.

Titus/Explore moved us to a holiday villas gated compound for the following night. And over the following days noticeable time was spent, for those who had losses, sorting out police visits, reports etc.
Overall it is a recommendation. The night 2 incident was unfortunate external factors (though hopefully that camp had improved it's security measures). But some of the timetable / timescale needs a rethink. And the food rethought, even with the same ingredients.

The tour guide great. The hiking great. The hotels disgusting and ruined the whole trip.

The last hotel especially. Explore were well aware the hotel under construction- dust, noise, dirty- no way to relax after hiking for 5 days.

Floors/bedding/bathroom covered in construction dust and grit.

For these reason I’d never use again. Very underhanded way to save money on guests/customers

I've been in touch with Explore! since returning from a trip in late June - It takes weeks to get a response '28 days' and having tried to find an amicable solution am still waiting. I simply don't understand why someone won't just deal with it instead of providing excuses for not maintaining a friendly and effective relationship. Do people not understand that delays like this only sour things whereby a timely call / message can build a relationship. Such a shame when the people in the field do a good job - I've been ready to book another major holiday with Explore! for weeks, but how can I be expected to when this issue drags on? It doesn't bode well for the future but all they need to do is say they don't want my loyalty and I'll go to their competitors.

Beware of this company whose true colours were shown whe m my sister had the most awful experience as a solo traveller on a trip - she was clearly bullied and singled out daily by the male tour guide and subsequently the rest of the group (who were all couples) she spent the week in complete fright and freeze mode - even putting a chair under the hotel room door- given it was In a male dominated society and workers were all male she didn’t feel safe enough to complain but try to get through the week- she did raise an objection and a complaint on the first day to the tour leader to stick up for herself calling out his behaviour and she was belittled by him and another male tourist on the tour. She refused refused to travel alone for 18 months after that. We took her experience to the tour company and they said (after trying to ignore our complaints for months and took down our negative reviews on other website), that they had no record of any other complaints by other people on the same tour…just because there aren’t any records from others it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen but hey… They didn’t bother to speak to her, didn’t treat her any human respect or apologise. Simply by ignoring and not throughly investigating the complaint shows they didn’t believe her. They do what many do - blame the victim to enable misogynistic behaviour. Awful

Myself and a friend did a 7 nights tour with Explore called ‘Highlights of Puglia’ in June 2025. Puglia is worth visiting but I do not recommend travelling with Explore Worldwide. The itinerary was ok, the guide was good but the hotel accommodation is not. The hotel in Bari was switched at the last minute from a centrally located hotel to one in a dull area far from the historical city centre and esplanade area. The second hotel had poor ventilation, therefore the bedlinens were damp and the room smelled musty which was not good for my asthmatic friend! The Alberobello accommodation was a Trullo, supposedly a highlight of the tour! However, it was very dated, worn, tired, with broken bathroom fixtures and bedside table that collapsed. It was in the middle of a noisy construction zone, and we had to navigate many trip hazards in order to reach the entrance. Both mornings the noisy works started at 6am! The Lecce hotel room had an electrical outlet hanging out the wall, a broken lamp, broken kettle and a broken safe. We paid a hefty price for this tour expecting decent comfortable accommodation and we were massively let down. Staying in a Trullo was one of the reasons I picked this tour so I was quite upset at the standard of the accommodation which fell way short of our expectations. I contacted Explore regarding my feedback, in relation to the Trullo at Alberobello they informed me that “the trullo met the standard agreed under our long-standing partnership”. If that is an acceptable standard then this tour is a rip off! Explore did not handle my feedback in a way I would have expected, they were extremely dismissive and picked and chose what points they responded to and refused to reply to me about things like the safety concerns raised and send me emails saying they consider the matter closed. My experience dealing with Explore after the tour has been quite upsetting. The tour was expensive, it didn’t include much (no meals), therefore I thought for the price we would get pretty nice accommodation at each destination. Also, the bus and drivers are different for each leg of the tour and some of the mini buses were uncomfortable. Because they only drive you from one destination to the next, we had to pay for taxis and train fares at a couple of destinations. Look elsewhere for better value for your money and better accommodation. I would not recommend travelling with Explore Worldwide.

Fantastic trip Madagascar the Lost Continent.Heri our guide was outstanding. Amazing seemless organisation, very knowledgeable and great fun to be with. Excellent accommodation on the whole and included meals were high in quality. Another fabulous Explore trip. Thanks Heri and Explore.

This is my 3rd attempt to write a review of my trip to China with Explore Worldwide so I will keep it brief in the hope that it passes Trust Pilot's quality control.
Everything about our trip to China was amazing. A huge thank you to our wonderful guide Olly. China is a beautiful and interesting place and we can't wait to go back.

Great trip around Mongolia. Well thought out trip with local agents avoiding the masses and included the Nadam games locally away from the capital.

This is about trip 11 with Explore and consistently this is just a great company to travel with; great tour guides who are focused on giving inquisitive travellers the best local experiences.

We had an incredible holiday and our guide Rogelio was fantastic - very knowledgeable, passionate and made sure the tour was the right pace for everyone. The whole crew on the ship were great, working hard to constantly look after us.
The itinerary was perfect and we saw all of the wildlife exactly as we dreamt.
On our flight out to Ecuador, the airline lost our luggage but the local ground agents were very helpful in getting this back to us and helping us find clothes/kit in the meantime.

I have recently returned from an Explore Holiday, walking in Finland & Sweden, which I would thoroughly recommend.
It was a great trip with a well balanced amount of walking in National Parks and on coastal paths, plus plenty of sightseeing.
In addition to a very good leader we had the bonus of a local guide in all the towns we visited.
Sailing through all the small islands between Finland and Sweden on our ferry trip to and from the Aland Islands was a real treat.
An excellent way to see Scandinavia for the first time!

We had a lovely time in China with Explore. Our tour guide Oliver was absolutely amazing and so knowledgeable about every place we visited. He personally took us for meals at local restaurants and he ordered for us as well so we were able to try local dishes! If you're planning on booking a China trip with Explore then I really reccomend you go for it because it was fantastic and Oliver was so helpful and offered really useful advice for visiting the attractions such as getting to the Great Wall very early in the morning to avoid the crowds!