Last Minute Mexico Tours and January

A wonderful place to go and a full itinerary made sure we saw the best of it. Explore made sure everything went well, and I would have no hesitation in using them again. A top trip.

This was a wonderful trip with a varied itinerary and a delightful group of travelers. The bus was a bit crowded and hot making some of the very long travel days a bit uncomfortable. Some buses had a few seatbelts, others NONE. Our guide, Joshua, was excellent: always in good spirits, very knowledgeable and a good administrator. My only recommendation would be for him to break up some of those long travel days with more commentary on the bus. I'm sure I will not be alone in mentioning the border crossing at Puerto Fronterizo Subteniente Lopez on 11/24. We were denied entry for almost two hours. Essentially they are trying to keep tourists from crossing there to reduce their workload. (We observed maybe 2 people crossing the border over a two hour period.)They did not even allow us to sit in the empty chairs...Joshua held his ground and performed beautifully to get us into Mexico. Loved the archeological sites...loved the cenotes! I'll be back on another Explore trip soon!

Luis Flores is a tremendous guide with lots of knowledge and great historical context but also a very pleasant character and cheerful personality. He took us to some wonderful local restaurants, and organised excellent optional activities. We loved the wide range of activities in the itinerary... Spectacular ruins but also cenotes, boat trips, church visits etc. The highlight was definitely the visit to the cemetery for Dia Des Muertos in Oaxaca. We have already recommended this trip to many friends and will continue to do so! Well done and thank you for adding these memories to our life.

An excellent opportunity to explore many of the archeological sites in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize under the guidance of our extremely knowledgeable and charismatic tour guide Ana. This is a ‘full on’ tour, with some very long drives, but well worth it. There is a fair amount of walking, as well as climbing at many of the sites, and a good level of fitness is needed, particularly in view of the hot, sunny and humid days that we experienced on many days. We booked our trip to coincide with ‘Day of the dead’ celebrations in Oaxaca, which was an amazing experience. Accommodation generally poor, and not to Explore’s normal standards. All in all, a great 3 week trip.

We thoroughly enjoyed this trip but we were SO glad that we chose to go at this time of year so that we could see the Day of The Dead celebrations! I cannot imagine having missed out on this most significant part of our trip. We dressed up and had our faces painted so that we could join in to the maximum. Everyone was jovial and kind hearted and good spirited. The visit to the cemetary to see the relatives celebrating was a highlight and certainly sheds a new light on death. Apart from this, the trip involved seeing many of the Mayan ruins through Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, all so different and each offering its own special attraction. The wildlife we saw around these ruins and along the river cruise was certainly unexpected and a real bonus. Take binnoculars!! Luis, our guide, was very knowledgeable and passionate about his country and the history, cultures and traditions and we felt we learned a lot about each of the three countries involved. There was a lot of travelling involved and most long days were interspersed with stopping off at sites to visit, but there were a couple of days when it seemed as if we were just going from A to B. Take lots of good books!! We were only a group of eight, so were able to spread out on the minibusses but space was tight for leg room in the Mexican minibus and it would have been a very uncomfortable ride if we had had to sit more closely together. The drivers were all very safe. The hotels were mainly good, standard accommodation, clean and comfortable and some exceeded our expectations, especially the one in Guatemala. However, one was below standard and this was the one in Palenque, The Hotel Villas Kin- Ha. The rooms were dirty and tired and the food wasn't great. It was also a way from the centre of town making it difficult to eat elsewhere. There did seem to be better rooms on offer, but we were given the older ones at the back of the hotel. We didn't do the extension and were sorry not to see Chichen Itza but we felt that many of the other Mayan Ruins we did see had lots to offer and were less crowded and more remote. Alll in all, a great holiday!

Sometimes it felt of beeing on an 18 to 30 ish journey not a classic one I used to book. Maybe I did not read the small print close enough but in the end it was fine and also the nice people in our group made the journey easier and very pleasant at some times especially in the first part of the trip and as well Christian as our leader.