East Asia Art and architecture Trips

We totally appreciated Betty's efforts on our behalf. The guides she provided were very good. The experiences were wonderful.. For helpful comments. It might help travellers if you could give some printed and verbal guidance on how to get WiFi, use the shower mechanisms and get a bus or a metro ticket. Location maps were also helpful. Darryl

The trio was terrific-I thought it was very good value for everything that we got. Beck (T.D.Beck) was amazing-she was extremely well organized and kept us all on track. She knew a lot about the two countries that we were in and all of us looked forward to her presentations on the history, including information on Isabella and Ferdinand (“Izzy & Ferdy”), 2 very instrumental figures in the history of the areas we explored. Also, Things came up (someone blathering on her cell phone when the rest of us wanted to listen to stories on Izzy and Ferdy), and Beck handled it (and all other problems) swiftly and with a lot of style. Our driver, Joao was also outstanding. We saw a LOT, and loved it all.

This was a wonderful itinerary with an excellent tour director and driver. The pace of travel was very nice and quality of the individual tours was very good. Personally, I wish we had more free time to explore on our own, but I also recognize with an 8 day tour there is only so much time. I wish there were no included meals other than breakfast. The included meals were probably our least favorite of all the meals on the trip, but the optional meals were all excellent, and worth the expense. We met great people and had a wonderful trip, so overall truly excellent!

Very good coverage of Spain but a little light in Portugal. Second day around Porto would have been nice for sure. I think generally the food provided was very good at breakfasts but dinners were a little underwhelming. Considering Spain is a real foodie country now this could be elevated. Our tour guide Patrick was excellent - a real pro. He made our first tour of this nature very memorable and enjoyable. Luis was our driver and also excellent. Hotels were very good and comfortable. València could be a second night as well but break in Costa del Sol was much needed

I thought the itinerary for this trip was good. Warsaw, Wrocław & Kraków are lovely cities. I would suggest that Auschwitz is added to the itinerary as the majority of the group had booked the trip to visit there. Even with the links provided by Explore, and booking far in advance, one member of our group ended up having to leave the hotel at 2:30am to queue for hours to get tickets. I think if Explore organised this, it would make things much easier for everyone. The traditional Jewish dinner with music was an absolute highlight for me, make sure that stays on the itinerary! The Salt mine was incredible & the Gnome hunting was also fun. While our tour leader was a lovely person, this was her first time doing the trip, which meant things were not always what I've come to expect from an Explore tour leader. She seemed a bit disorganised at times, we didn't get a proper introduction and she didn't always communicate to the entire group. At one point we were having a walking tour and I didn't even realise, I had been told it was later and that this was the walk to lunch! I'm sure though with a few tours under her belt this will change. The local tour guide we had in Wrocław was excellent, very funny. No complaints about the accommodation. The place we stayed in Wrocław, which had been changed last minute, was a bit quirky but not unpleasant. A note about the food, the portions are very large, so you might not spend as much money on food as you would expect. I would recommend this trip but just be aware that some of it is very emotional at times, due to the nature of the places you visit. For the free time in Warsaw, I would suggest visiting the Rising museum. I also did the optional excursion to the Ksiaz Castle in Wrocław which was well worth a visit.

Excellent….i think a few less catherdrals and a little more time in Porto, Lisbon and Costa de Sol Betty, our guide could not have been more accomadating. She was very articulate and always informative wherever or whatever we wished to know Overall, great tour