Our guide, Erika, was fantastic. She handled every situation that came up quickly and adeptly. She made everyone feel comfortable and interested. LOVED HER SO MUCH! The reason I gave the review a four instead of a five is mainly for the dinner choices-- with every dinner, it was just one dish that was an automatic selection. My group would love to have had some choice (even just two or three choices would have been great). We had a significant number of parents on our trip, and they, too, would have appreciated some choice. Also, it would have been useful to be able to group the kids for the hotel rooms before we arrived. We had our various sizes of groups set, but the beginning of arrival was always a little stressful and took way too long because we were never sure exactly what rooms/sizes of each room were going to have been allocated by the hotel. It seems like Explorica/World Strides could call ahead, get this info for the guide, and that would allow group leaders to coordinate on the bus prior to arrival. We also had some issues with buses being late, but we realize that is likely not Explorica's/World Strides' fault. I also really appreciated World Strides' support while on the trip-- we had several issues (a cancelled flight, etc.) that they were very helpful with. AGAIN-- our guide and local guides were AMAZING. We have no complaints there whatsoever. My students had a fantastic time on the trip, and we will be coordinating another trip for next summer.

The tour director Yayoi Niwa was well educated and spoke english well. All sights selected for this trip was very interesting and educational. We got to see alot of Japan while driving on the bus. I only would recommend that Explorica would communicate better with me about the rooming situation. Because I was forced to room with a stranger from another group. My group was only 4 members and we weren't with a school. My daughter was one of the members and she paid for a twin room but was placed in a triple with our other members witch wasn't too bad. But she had paid for a twin, and I felt we could have been roomed together instead of how they roomed us. Because again we weren't with any schools. My group were all college students who just planned this trip through Explorica in 2021. We should have been placed in 2 twin rooms instead or Explorica could have asked me if I wanted to upgrade to a single for additional charges not just forced to room with a complete stranger from a different state. Next I felt the booking of our flights could have been better, or once again felt Explorica could have communicated better with us to give us the option of which airport would work best for us even if there may be more charges. We live in Connecticut and there's an international airport "Bradley Intl Airport" here, instead we had to 2.5 hrs to Boston MA. Our entire flying experience was disastrous, 1st flight was canceled and I had to find us another one to make sure we didn't missed our connection flight from Houston. Then we got caught up in the flights purgatory of trying to get home. June 27th we got stuck in Tokyo an extra night because our flight was canceled. We stood in line for over 6hrs, just to get a flight out to LAX the next time. Then when got to LAX, upon arrival we told our next flight was canceled and had stand in line again for over 5hrs to get a flight out the next night. I ended up missing 2 additional days of work because we didn't get home until June 30th. And the only reason we got home then is because I had get placed on standy tickets to try and get us on a straight flight to the east coast. This was very stressful and nerve wrecking.

This is my 3rd trip with Explorica. The first two were amazing and well worth what we paid. This trip was not a quality trip. It was rush, rush, rush, we didn't get to actually go into very many sites. It seemed Explorica was trying to cut corners at our expense. For example, we took a ferry that left at midnight, but we had to rush, rush, rush to get to the port SIX hours early. We were told, this was so the driver could drive the next day. We left the hotel at 8am, had 2.5 hours of touring, being rushed around all to sit for hours at the port to accommodate the bus driver's schedule. Explorica was using our time and money to work out their bus driver issues. Also, one day, our bus driver drove a full size bus down a narrow road with a sign at the end that clearly said vehicles longer than 7m were prohibited. Long story short, hours later and a police escort, we were back on track, but had missed almost everything that was scheduled in our next destination. Incompetent bus drivers are Explorica's problem. For what we paid, we should have gotten quality bus drivers. Compared to our previous experiences, there was way too much free time and very little actual touring and learning. Our guide never one time, on the bus, as we were approaching a destination, gave us any educational information at all. She said it was illegal?? I know she can't give a tour at the actual destination, because that is competition for local guides, but I'm pretty sure it is not illegal to give background and cultural information on the bus. I have a notebook full of notes from our last Explorica tour, from our main guide and local guides as well. Also, time was constantly wasted. For example, if you know the whole group has to return back to the hotel after dinner on the subway, then it might be a good use of the three hours of free time before the dinner to go and purchase those subway tickets. Instead, the entire group had to cram over to the side in the subway and wait while the tickets were purchased. On previous trips, the guide always took care of those tasks on free time, so our time was never wasted. These are just a few examples of the way the entire trip was executed, which was very, very poorly. There were no traffic jams, or places unpredictably closed, no unforeseen circumstances that would create an issue, it was simply a terribly run tour with the same pattern everyday. As I stated at the beginning, this was our third trip with Explorica, so I do have something to compare it to. This was a very poorly executed tour and to be honest, there should be some portion of money refunded, because all the issues were squarely on the shoulder of Explorica.

This was the absolute worst trip I have ever been on and now it will take three extra days to get home. Poorly organized tour.

It was a 5-star trip if you just looked at the diversified locations we visited! I asked everyone, if there was one location that stood out the most? No one could pick any activity to be far superior than the others. We saw things from the Vietnam War (crawled in war tunnels), went to a bamboo fiber outlet and learned about the process, Architecture and dynasties from the 11th century at Angkor Wat Temples, Mekong Delta- rode in a Tuk Tuk & took a boat ride in a Saipan, dinner cruise in Bangkok, World War II-Death Museum (a student pointed out this museum made her history book come to life) for River Kwai Bridge & train ride, lacquer craft with seashells & duck shells, trip down Mekong River to see floating villages with crocodile farm, chanting monks in Bangkok temple and all the other temples & palaces! We experienced culture from the common person to royalty. It truly was a fantastic location to visit and I highly recommend this trip for everyone! It was a once in a lifetime experience.

Alex our tour director was awesome. He did a great job organizing, giving historical background information and he kept a very positive energy that the students responded to.

My experience was great because Explorica has good team support and makes me feel confident in taking students to learn about new cultures in new countries.

We had a great time overall.

The tour director made the difference. He was informative, attentive, kind, and professional. The hotels were great. Love the horses and zip lining. We truly enjoyed seeing the birds, and monkeys, and cats in the sanctuary. It was wonderful to give back. Our experience with the other school was great. We learned so much from each other. Unfortunately due to the weather we could not hike the volcano and the hot springs were effected by the rain water. Also, on our way back Newark airport was James with delays since Sunday. Exolorica when we called couldn’t not help our situation to get back home. As a result, we were forced to rent a car to resume our duties.

I have traveled with Explorica for years and they always do a great job of meeting the needs of my students. This trip was no exception. Our tour director, George, went above and beyond to make sure that our trip ran smoothly. Our upgraded hotels were in excellent locations and the food was authentically Greek.