South East Asia Solo Trips and Holidays

The tour gave a fantastic opportunity to experience many aspects of Ecuador and the Galapagos, both its culture and its incredible biodiversity. The tour is very well organised by Explore!; we felt safe at all times and our guide, Diego, was exceptional, adding so much more to the tour than just 'guiding' us. His passion for and knowledge of his country was inspirational.

I found the itinerary excellent with both the tour director and local guides taking us on an amazing journey Loved learning about the royals, Templar knights, moors, Seeing the Roman ruins Would have loved another night in Algarve as it was just lovely and would have liked to explore more

Firstly, I will start with a disclaimer I would like to stay in touch with our guide Malina as a friend. While I was walking the Camino she was a true friend to me. She always had best interests of everyone on the tour at heart. I valued her honest council on the walk and will continue to value it through life. My previous review mentioned how much I appreciated the guide and the taxi being there to meet me at the airport. On this occasion neither was there. The guide was out to dinner with the group. The taxi driver left after 1.5 hours. (There was a long delay in collecting our luggage) . Malina left me a whatsapp message which I was unable to access due to no internet connection on my phone. I was able to get an internet connection on a different device and checked the explore itinerary to get the name of the hotel. I then got a taxi to the hotel. When I phoned explore I was told that both the hotel name and address as well as an emergency number are in the final confirmation email. I would highly recommend writing both down before you leave home. I would say the main reason for having a guide is not to point out all the interesting things and the great views but to prevent things going wrong and to deal with them when they do. I successfully walked the Camino last year, ok I had a few blisters but still completed it. It was difficult for me to accept that I would have to do shorter walks this year because of blisters and the heat. But Malina was correct. She took a difficult decision with my best interest at heart to ensure that I not only enjoyed my holiday but also returned home without any health issues. Instead of walking in the heat which was difficult for me I got the opportunity to fully experience the excellent hotels and interesting places on the journey. Which Camino was best I cannot really answer that question. In both cases I was in groups made up of wonderful people with guides who went the extra mile to ensure that everyone had a great holiday. I had two different holidays the first was walking place to place mainly enjoying the journey in the second I had more time to experience the destination. The main thing that both had in common was the camaraderie of the Camino.

This is a brilliant cycling holiday. I particularly liked staying with a local family in a hill village and eating delicious home cooked lunches in local's houses while in the hills. It is the hilliest group cycling holiday of the many "moderate" cycling trips that I have done. An ebike option would make this an even better holiday. We went in mid September and the weather was cool in the hills and lovely and warm by the coast. Our leaders Tarkan and Ali were excellent and chose excellent restaurants for evening meals. Recommended.

Wonderful short trip to the highlights of Sri Lanka! Explore didn’t disappoint once more — everything was well-organized and perfectly planned. Our leader, Ash, truly made the trip special. He was professional, knowledgeable, and shared amazing stories from his own life that brought the country’s culture to life. I’ll definitely be back — thank you for an unforgettable experience!

This was my very first group tour holiday. I opted for the Upgraded- Discover Morocco because quite frankly I like to have 'quality' accommodation rather than hostels. There was one hotel downgrade due to not enough space for all that I did not find was agreeable and certainly not on a par with our other Riads and Kasbah. I hope Explore do not ever consider using this particular hotel on their upgraded tour again. Looking back, I feel I was very disappointed, but the rest of the tour had been wonderfully overwhelming that I had many more fabulous things to experience. Our Tour leader Boubker Boutkhoum, had stepped in to cover for the original tour leader and I get the impression that this may have been short notice for him. Boubker was kind, caring, an excellent organiser as well as being a diligent mediator. He was often often phoning ahead liaising with the accommodations, booking restaurants for us and even finding some that sold wine! (This was important for our group). His passion for his country, religion and being a Berber shone through with so much integrity and intelligence that everyone loved him and learned so much from him. I felt he was really looking after us all and seemed to be calm, have so much patience and a good sense of humour.