Asia Countryside village visits Trips

My first group trip Ever. I loved it. Explore from Booking to The actual trip excellent. Sometimes a bit slow in response to emails but all good. I think I’d like a Little more active itinerary next time I book a Trip.

A lovely tour - varied covering different parts, many involving the Mekong. Our guide Jackie was wonderful - competent and engaging. Really enjoyed his company. The local guides were all tremendous and we were lucky to have a group that mixed well and got om

Laos is very beautiful and full of unexpected highlights. In Cambodia we enjoyed the expected highlights! Our tour leader Jackie is one of the very best, and the local guides were also excellent. Just the quality of the accommodation was variable. I had very noisy room allocations for both the first 3 nights and the last 3 nights. The Sala Prabang has a room 101 facing the busy street. The Twitz hostel hotel in Cambodia has a very noisy 4th floor bar with live music and very poor sound insulation. This issue has been raised in the hope that better rooms will be secured for future trips, and anyone put in the same position might want to request a change of room straightaway, the hotel staff are well aware... Otherwise a fantastic trip!

Laos is a superb country to visit before mass tourism negatively impacts it. We saw fantastic waterfalls, the mighty Mekong river, ancient and modern Buddhist and Hindu temples, jungle, ethnic villages plus more. This was a very well organised tour, thanks largely to our fabulous main tour guide Jackie who is a brilliant communicator and a really lovely guy. Luang Prabang is a laid back and charming town. The accommodation was varied, some in resorts with a pool. We never went hungry. Food was cheap, plentiful and fresh. There was a good balance between organised group activities and free time. There was a long day of driving along a rough unmade road but the reward was a stay in a magical jungle resort surrounded by nature. I liked that we had a 2nd local guide in 4 locations.

Fantastic experience. Explore is a very professional company. Contact with staff has always been brilliant. The tour was exceptional. The team that looked after us were also of a very high standard.

Laos was lovely, still not touristy and quite laid back. Luang Prabang is quite charming. There was a good range of places to see and enjoyable boat trips, especially the day on the Mekong, many waterfalls and lush scenery in the North. Very friendly people although not much English spoken and you have to be prepared for some slow and haphazard service in restaurants. Food was generally tasty. The accomodation was very good at times especially compared to many Explore tours although sometimes you didn't have enough time to enjoy the facilities on offer. The roads are generally in a basic state so there were some long days of travel. The tour leader, Tra and our first local guide, AK were excellent. I had been to Cambodia before and would recommend it. The various temples on the Angkor Wat site are excellent. This time I had a tummy bug so wasn't able to enjoy it as much. It would be great if Explore return to offering a two week trip to Cambodia, which is what I did before and started to offer a two week trip to Laos. It can be nice to have the option to see places in a bit more depth.