Eastern Europe Escorted Tours and Guided Trips

Jordan was epic — and completely safe. Now is the time to travel - there are very few tourists and the country needs our support. I can’t fault the itinerary, and it was the only one I could find with two full days in Petra — absolute winner! Because of the timing, we were the first group to only have Petra by Night as our introduction, and I’d totally recommend it. After being mesmerised by the Treasury, my personal favourites were Aqaba (shopping heaven) and the Dead Sea — it was great to temporarily shed a few years and feel youthful again. If I could tweak anything, I’d swap the return to Amman for a night at the Dead Sea. Our guide Abdallah was amazing — a pleasure to learn from his knowledge and passion. Tips for travellers: You don’t need a Jordan Pass. If you’re Australian, expect to be surrounded by Brits — embrace it and enjoy the banter. There’s an option to donate clothes at the end, which is a great touch. A good level of fitness is needed to really enjoy the ruins and natural landscapes.

From the get-go, Explore were great with information and deadlines. I felt in very safe hands as I'd never been to Sicily before and would not know where to start. We were based in Recanati, just at the close of the holiday season - plenty of places to eat and drink but not crowded. From there, our fantastic, highly knowledgeable and very friendly guide Lara took us to some amazing sites, including the slopes of Etna, Taormina and the islands of Lipari and Volcano with great (not strenuous) walks and superb scenery. It was like lots of tasters of the East side of the island. Wonderful.

The tour leader Juan Jo looked after us well and changed some of the itinerary days around because of wet weather the first few days, In fact we had the first snow of the season on the Sunday. This worked out fine and we enjoyed the first few days walks until the sun came out. Then having the toughest day last up to the Naranco de Bulnes was great as it was the best day and we had all gained a good level of fitness. As a vegetarian I was delighted with the meals the cook at Casa Cipriano served up. It was a really nice hotel and quiet base to stay at. It was my second visit to Sotres on an Explore trip. I had done my first guided walking trip there back in 1997 and always wanted to go back. I was very happy to see Juan Jo was still the guide and enjoyed the slightly different itinerary with another lovely group of people.

For the curious traveller who wants to explore a bit more of Portugal, this itinerary was perfect. The beaches of the south, the plains of the centre, the hills and rivers of the north are all included. The result is an enjoyable time exploring a cultural and historic treasure.

This was a fabulous walking trip in spectacular surroundings. Our guide was excellent, informative, pleasant and helpful. The walking is challenging in places - negotiating rocky stretches, some steep gravelly parts, but manageable when taken carefully. The guide gave good advice on negotiating the tricky parts. Other parts were much easier.

Overall and excellent trip with a diverse group of 10 travellers. We thoroughly enjoyed this tour especially the boat trip to Rinko and Komodo islands. Flores is under development and extremely rural with glorious verdant vegetation and stunning landscapes. A real ‘away from it all’ destination. Bali was very busy with dreadful traffic, however the area this tour goes to offered some tranquility from the hubbub. The boat trip exceeded expectations, was very comfortable with great friendly service. Despite being told we would have a shared multi-berth cabin, we had our own with bathrooms! To finish at the beach in Jimbaran was a great way to relax and restore our energy before the long journey home. Tip: massages are excellent and very cheap!! Highlight: Komodo dragons, snorkelling on pink beach -fabulous!