Mediterranean Active and outdoor Trips

What an epic adventure! Some of which must be attributed to our excellent tour guide Joe, who was assisted throughout the trip by great and friendly support staff at the camp sites and lodges. The number of animals and diverse birdlife seen totally exceeded expectations. There's a lot of travelling and camping without home comforts, however we felt this was made very clear in the holiday notes and in some ways added to the experience in a positive way. A special mention should also go out to William, Pape & Carlos who some how churned out a succession of really good three course meals just using a camp fire!

This tour was a fabulous introduction to this beautiful country with friendly people show casing their lifestyle. The landscape is very dramatic and changes quite quickly. I had never trekked at these altitudes and found the gradual introduction very helpful. Can't quite believe I made it to over 5000m on Chimborazo. The carefully chosen indigenous communities we visited showed the variety of cultures and lifestyles but essential showed people have the same problems the world over it's all about how they choose to deal with those issues. In the main the accomodation was good but I would have preferred to stay another night in Quito rather than return to our first hotel the San Jose, which was a little isolated. I wasn't very keen on the hotel in Rio Bamba + rocky toilet not great- and feel sure more appropriate accomodation could be found closer to Chimborazo. All the Guides were excellent - all the ladies showed a wicked sense of humour. Special shout out to Jason at le Jardin Aleman - his knowledge and field craft were remarkable. Dario and his trusty driver Wilson played such a key role in make Ng this such a memorable trip. Their passion for their country shines through and this together withe their kindness, humour and patience made them the dream team. We also fell lucky with the mix of our fellow explorers as we all seemed to have a similar focus (we weren't a shopping focused group It was a fairly full itinerary but aprming coffee break would have been appreciated and if it was possible to extend by a few days to include a vodysl dot it would be perfect.

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!

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Egypt - thanks to our lovely tour guide Adel who was the best, and our amazing group gelling so well together. It’s a very well put together trip including all the major cultural attractions that you would want to visit and we learned so much due to Adel’s expertise and knowledge. For British groups I think the addition of the Cataract Hotel would enhance the experience - we loved it there. And possibly the home of Howard Carter which we did during time we added at the end. Thank you Explore! 😊

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.

A very interesting tour with plenty of historic destinations visited. It was great that we had sufficient free time to further explore the museums and sites of Sofia, Skopje and Ohrid. Elena the tour guide was terrific - very informative and well organised. Zoki the driver was also brilliant - patient and competent. The only negative for me at 6' tall was that the Sprinter minbus was rather cramped with little knee room and no overhead shelves to store day bags.