Thailand Cultural, religious historic sites Trips

This was a lovely, well-paced overview of Thailand with a great mix of historical and religious sites, shopping and experiences in/with nature. We were expecting the weather in January to be oppressively hot and humid but it was pleasant and in fact it was surprisingly cold at night when at the Homestay and in the Raft hotel. Thailand is an incredibly cheap country and dinners including drinks cost between 100-300 baht pp. To fully enjoy this trip you need to expect to climb lots of steps but it is well worth the effort. We were fortunate to have a fun group and a fantastic tour guide in Wit. Would highly recommend.

Laos was lovely, still not touristy and quite laid back. Luang Prabang is quite charming. There was a good range of places to see and enjoyable boat trips, especially the day on the Mekong, many waterfalls and lush scenery in the North. Very friendly people although not much English spoken and you have to be prepared for some slow and haphazard service in restaurants. Food was generally tasty. The accomodation was very good at times especially compared to many Explore tours although sometimes you didn't have enough time to enjoy the facilities on offer. The roads are generally in a basic state so there were some long days of travel. The tour leader, Tra and our first local guide, AK were excellent. I had been to Cambodia before and would recommend it. The various temples on the Angkor Wat site are excellent. This time I had a tummy bug so wasn't able to enjoy it as much. It would be great if Explore return to offering a two week trip to Cambodia, which is what I did before and started to offer a two week trip to Laos. It can be nice to have the option to see places in a bit more depth.

The trip was great and our tour leader Woody made it an unforgettable experience. Very varied itinerary, good mix of temples, ruins, culture, wildlife and nature, history, contact to locals, markets and food. Only the optional Thai cooking course was not offered in Chang Mai which was a pity, it would be good if that could be integrated into the tour.

The tour leader was excellent. He made a change to the planned itinerary when we were on the River Kwai and, I believe, much improved our experience. We visited the site of the Bridge on the River Kwai one day and Hellfire Pass on the next day. They were enthralling and it was good to feel rested when we visited each site. I also loved the two half days I spent relaxing at the floating hotel on the Rive Kwai - that suited me much better than a full day with nothing planned. We were very lucky with our guide who was consistently friendly, informative and fun to be with. He went out of his way to help us all access places that we were interested in

Great tour. Our leader had to change our itinerary due to Christmas. This meant that we went to Hellfire pass the following morning as opposed to a full rest day. This was an improvement as the original itinerary of everything on the one day would have been too much. It also meant that we enjoyed a second trip on the river to get to the dock - much better

This is an excellent tour, covering a lot of ground at a moderate, but completely manageable pace. Highlights are those out of the major cities, though Chiang Mai itself is also an interesting place, much more relaxed and less crowded than Bangkok.