Asia Explorer Trips

Excellent travel experence,very well organised with a highly efficient knowledgeable and personable tour Leader ,Alex and two great drivers. We managed to visit the major cultural sites vast distances apart thanks to an internal flight and a speed train plus two long bus journeys. The food was good and the bread delicious. The people were so friendly. All in all a lovely holiday.

The tour itself was fantastic. Great pace, a good amount of sites and not too much travel. It was our guide, Ildar who let down the experience. Among the group there was lots of chatter about his dismissive tone towards some of the older group members (one in particular who had a lot of questions), and his inadequency to listen to the feedback of the group, especially when it concerned group safety. At every attraction he would walk far ahead, only turning around to check on us after he had walked too far. The sites were often busy, so it was difficult to keep track of him as he didn't wear any identifying clothing, carry a flag or even wear a brightly coloured hat to keep himself visible in crowds. The group was often left to keep track of each other, guiding each other in the right direction. His fast pace was brought up by several group members many times, but he never took the feedback on and continued his fast walking at every site and location. Many of the group members were older and this was a huge oversight by him. This led to a very scary and unsafe situation where the group needed to cross a fast moving and busy freeway in a rural area of Uzbekistan. He was so far ahead that only half the group were able to cross safely with him, the rest, despite calling out for him to wait, were left stranded on the other side of the road. He did not look back once before crossing to check that everyone was with him. This was a 4 lane freeway where large trucks and cars were EASILY going over 100km/hr. A few of us had stern words with him when we reunited, and he apologised, but it made no difference to his behaviour going forward. He continued to walk ahead and neglect to check behind him for the group before leading the group into new areas/sites. He knew his information, but it felt often rehearsed like a script, and when extra questions were asked, his responses were often very short, like "yes" or "no". By the end, many group members decided not to ask him questions anymore as they knew they weren't going to get much information out of him. His demeanour was also unpleasent. When he sat with us for dinner he was often on his phone, rarely talking or interacting with us. It was very awkward! Outside of the overload of information that he would give us at the sites, he rarely spoke or interacted with the group. This is such an important part of being a guide. Interacting and joking with the members and being personable helps keep morale high and just makes the whole trip more enjoyable! The trip itself was fantastic, and I would highly recommend it to anyone, but I can only hope for new groups going forward that they have a much more plesant guide!

We had two leaders - one in Sri Lanka and one on the boat. The Sri Lanka trip was fabulous - the tour leader was passionate thoughtful incredibly knowledgeable about his country and culture. The tour leader on the boat was also incredible. We love snorkelling so this part of the trip was awesome - we snorkelled for about 3 hrs every day. It is called a cruise - we went to two islands/atolls briefly but in reality it is an incredible opportunity to snorkel with expert guides. The food on the boat was incredible and the company - guests and staff was fabulous. It was the trip of a lifetime. please contact me if you want any more photos

Everything was amazing, some activities we shuffled around the accommodate rain and being able to go to a festival. There was a little bit of a miscommunication with flight Center telling us we could pay for the optional extras on the trip (and did not need to book them in advance). Tsu was an amazing tour guide and fit in really well with all nine of us Aussies.

A very chilled and relaxed holiday with a guide and crew who looked after our every need and showed us the best snorkelling around the Maldives. Swam with sharks, dolphins and all manner of tropical fish close up. Food was amazing all week and to have a meal on a deserted island was magical.

This is a full on tour with very little downtime. There is a lot of time spent in a private minibus to get from Chiang Mai down to Bangkok, however all of the stops on the way are interesting historical sites such as Si Satchalanai, Sukhothai and Ayuthaya. A lot of the hotels are basic, with the exception of the Boutique Rafthouse on the River Kwai which provided a real treat for 2 nights. The highlights of this trip were the Elephant Nature Park, where the elephants truly roam free and are not there to entertain us tourists and the beautiful Erawan Waterfalls. I would ideally like to see this tour reversed to begin in Bangkok and end in Chiang Mai. I felt that there wasn’t enough time spent exploring Chiang Mai. Our tour leader, Wit, was the best tour leader I have expedited on the 10+ tours. I have done with Explore. One word of caution if you are planning to travel on this trip in April the pollution, smoke and smog were very high in the north.