East Asia Walking Trips

A fab holiday. An interesting time in Athens, really loved it so much to see and do from ancient to modern. A great time island hopping with Peter our leader at the helm. Nothing was too much trouble for him to sort out when needed, so thank you. All the islands visited were very different and our escorted walks very invigorating. Travelled with a lovely group so had a great time.

The leader with very accommodating, the hotel in Calgary was not brilliant with several members of the group having some sort electrical faults. My coffee machine didn’t work but was Leaking from the bottom. I loved the wildlife, it may have been better to do the mousse trail in the morning, as more of a chance to see them, and the Moraine boat trip later, but the group leader was trying to accommodate everyone! All in all a great Trip and I will certainly be hoping, finances allowing, to book another trip with Explore!

This was a great hike with an excellent leader who was very knowledgeable, and attentive to our individual needs. We stayed in a variety of accommodation types, but all of them were clean, pleasant and well located.

This is a trip of two contrasting halves, Kyrgyzstan for scenery, Uzbekistan for buildings. Difficult to assign stars when one half was a lesser experience for me. Kyrgyzstan was wonderful, stunning scenery, picnic spots, destinations. I highly recommend. The felt carpet making was very interesting. I recommend asking to see the golden eagle demonstration (an extra). Food was very good with plenty of vegetables. The walk to walnut forest is steep for the first and last 45mins. The track is high, exposed and gravelly. This was noted 7 years ago by a reviewer but the notes still not updated. You don’t need a sleeping bag or liner for the yurt camp, the bedding provided is fine. Accommodation good. Long drives but amazing scenery everywhere. We had an excellent guide who was friendly, knowledgeable and professional, thank you Aysulu. Uzbekistan - wonderful buildings, old cities and interesting history (but all has been extensively rebuilt). A completely different feel to Kyrgyzstan. The itinerary was as described however no excursions or information was given on the development of silk, wool or cotton along the silk road. This seemed a missed opportunity to me given the rich history and importance of textiles to this region. Would also bring variety to the roll call of mosques, mausoleums and madrasas. The yurt camp in Uzbekistan was mediocre and the long drive there and back not so interesting. Our guide was informed and friendly but there was some confusion at times within the group as to what was happening and when. She helped us enormously when we were sick, for which we were particularly grateful, thank you Maftuna. Yes I'm glad I did the trip to Uzbekistan but feel we could have organized it ourselves, (and searched out more textile history). Kyrgyzstan was perfect for a group tour and would be very hard to see by yourself.

This was our first Explore trip but it won’t be our last. We were especially pleased with Irina our tour guide. She was extremely knowledgeable and happy to share with our group. If there was a problem she was there to help. The accommodation was very pleasant and provided hearty breakfasts to start off the day. Both my wife and I felt that the itinerary was well thought out and provided us with a comprehensive first look at Albania historically and today.

Some of the walks were proper hikes rather than walks. But the itinerary is really flexible so there are loads of other things to do if some of the walks are too hard. Excellent tour