South Asia Rafting Trips

Amazing trip to Peru - definitely exceeded my expectations! The itinerary covered a wide variety, with the optional tours and suggestions from Darwin, our tour guide, to fill any spare time we had. The hotels were varied (did have a couple of cold showers) but I loved the quirkiness of some of them and all were comfortable. Darwin was superb: looking after us while we adjusted to the altitude, managing to get us into Machu Picchu (no mean feat) despite the protests, answering all our questions due to his extensive knowledge of his country and it's history and always being so cheerful! And a lovely group of people to holiday with - thank you all!

Excellent trip. Great itinerary, hotels, transport. Julio our leader was wonderful, one of the best I've had on many tours. The highlight of course was the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu, but I was pleasantly surprised by Arequipa and Puno.

We added a day at the beginning to do Lima, which is worth a visit. Accomodation varied, was expecting it to be all 5*, but although everything very clean, and hotel staff very friendly, it could be a bit cold without heating in smaller hotels. Your leader, Darwin, excellent, full of enthusiasm for the history of Peru, and our itinerary was rearranged to ensure we didn't miss Machu Picchu despite industrial action there. Be prepared for cold mornings and hot days in some areas in September. Overall, exceeded my expectations, and well worth a visit.

This was a wonderful tour. My sixth trip with Explore and my best. Our excellent tour leader, Cham, was both knowledgeable and went out of his way to be helpful and the Sri Lankan people were invariably friendly, welcoming and polite. Sri Lanka is so diverse it has attractions for everyone from tropical surf beaches to hiking in the mountains, rainforest and tea plantation hill country, visiting the temples and stupas of ancient cities to safari trips in the national parks, plus a high standard of hotels and some wonderful cuisine. My one gripe was although we stayed in some luxury hotels with swimming pools and great views, the itinerary was so full on that we often had very little time to enjoy the hotel. But I realise, you can't have it both ways!

This tour was another excellent experience with Explore. Darwin, our leader, was superb and always went the extra mile to help with everything. He was amongst the best tour leaders we have experienced. The tour provided a very good introduction to the main attractions of the more visited parts of Peru. Highlights for us were Machu Pichu (of course) and the Uros and Taquile islands on Lake Titicaca, with the boat trip to get there. The whole tour was spent at high altitudes. This should be borne in mind by anyone who has any concerns about their ability to tolerate thin air and a dry atmosphere for long periods. The payoff for this though was superb views of the Andes every day! As we have come to expect with Explore tours, the accommodation quality was a bit variable. The Taquile Guesthouse was actually rather better than we expected, given the previous negative reviews that we had read. Yes, it was quite basic, but it was definitely worth it to experience the rustic way of life of the island, the hosts were very friendly and the welcome a warm one. The accommodation elsewhere on the tour was generally quite comfortable, although our hotel room at Arequipa was a little too noisy. A small point, but we would suggest that the visits from Ollantaytambo to the Maras salt mines and Moray Inca terraces should be included in the itinerary rather than being an optional extra. Everyone on our tour booked for this option rather than the alternatives of kayaking/paddle boarding (expensive and probably in rather cold water) and a craft brewery visit (something you can easily do in the UK, so not a particularly Peruvian experience). Overall, the tour comes highly recommended by us.

Darwin it was an amazing leader! He was caring, funny, intelligent with a deep knowledge of all the places we have been. I highly recommend this tour and Darwin. The best guide ever!