Communication and pricing were really good.

Pablo, our guide, was wonderful! We had the best time. Loved it all! We cannot wait for our next trip!!

Frederica was great! Very helpful and knowledgeable. I loved that when we wanted to do something she was so go with the flow and walked us there during free time. The worst part of the trip was the provided food. Especially on the overnight ferry. We left to go get our own dinner on 2 nights and breakfast once. The best breakfast was all three mornings in Greece hotels. The best dinner was the last night in Greece. One day we stopped at a gas station to get lunch and there wasn't anywhere for everyone to sit. Half of travel is experiencing the food. Other than the food, great trip.

Explorica somehow finds some of the greatest people in the service to be the tour directors of their trips. Costa Rica, in it’s own right, is an amazing country to visit, but our tour director, Clarence, and the main bus driver, Carlos, or Cho, made it extra enjoyable and memorable with their exceptional care, humorous interaction with the group members, and incredible knowledge of the areas we visited on our trip.

Our tour guide Andrea was extremely knowledgeable about all things Costa Rica, from the food, plants. Geology and lots more. The activities were amazing!

Overall it was a great trip. The highlight was most definitely the Greek islands cruise. Italy was by far too fast and none of us felt like we experienced the things we were there to see. Our time in Florence was cut short and therefore essentially a waste. The walking tours and guided tours were far too long. Explorica needs to consider integrating immersive experiences and activities rather than simply walking the city to look at them. Things like a pasta-making lesson would be far better than looking at something and walking away. Whether it was on the part of the tour director or the itinerary, the pace was far too fast. It took the cruise for everyone to finally slow down and experience the country and culture. With such big groups, perhaps it would be better to have choices or options of activities to experience.

We went to the Eiffel tower but did not go in. But it said we would visit it in the agenda. I felt lied by your company. The subway in Paris was unsafe with a group of 49. Our group was 17-18 year Olds but we were paired with people in their 70s. This made it very difficult for them to keep up and walking in Paris at night was very unsafe. We were not allowed to take photos because of the type time frames with the subway and train. We got between 5 to 6 hours asleep a night. In Paris the hotel that was booked only had 4 out 5 rooms booked. We had to wait 2 hours for them to get us 5 more rooms and we missed the tour. I am an adult and I spelt in the same bed as another adult. I was told we would have separate beds because we were adults. When we asked the tour guide to certify her directions she was snippy about it. She did not like answering the same questions again for different group leaders. She was better suited for 1 group not 4. Her attitude was poor. She was easily angered by our questions. Then she was upset over not being thanked for doing her job. She was moody and unprofessional. She gave us a long speech about how ungrateful we were. But my adults paid over $5000 for this trip. In my group I had 3 people constipated because there was no fruit served with breakfast and no vegetables served with dinner. We ate paste, meat and potatoes the whole trip for dinner. Being Americans we needed salads. Only 2 of the 6 hotels served fruit with breakfast. We were so rushed that we ate a gas stations most of the time for lunch. Therefore, we could not get fruit or salad for ourselves. I am so sick of sandwiches. I have done a tour of Itlay and never had this problem before. The tour guide was so busy keeping up with 49 she did not give us the history of the places we seen on foot or on bus. This was also different from my last tour. Our tour guide did not let us know what the plans of the day were until the present moment. Which made me feel like a child. She did not tell us what was for dinner or where we were eating until we were on the way there. We could have planned better and got a salad if we knew we were going to the hotel for dinner. It was really overwhelming obvious that the hotels were giving us the cheapest dinner possible. I was expecting better. Not all of our group was on the ticket list that was emailed to me. This caused problems from Paris to Venice. One of my adults luggage was lost. The airport did not bring it to the hotel. The tour guide did not help her get it. She gave her an English number to track it herself. Then the tour guide set up a taxi service for her to get the bag at the airport which cost her personally 150 Euros. Your company would not cover this rate. An uber may have been cheaper but was not an option. My girl scout troop saved for 7 years to pay for this by selling cookies. It was heart breaking that we did not go inside the eiffel tower. Most of them are single mother house holds and this trip cost them a lot and I am embarrassed because we were sure we were going to do that and realized that day we were not. It was heartbreaking. We worked so hard to get them there and that happened the second day. Set a bad mood for the trip. I pray you change the wording because I don't want another group to experience our heart breaks.

There were many logistical problems (bus/drivers, wrong turns/directions, no pre-planned drop off/bus parking plans, unconfirmed reservations) that impacted the amount of experiences and free time students could have. One of our hotels was completely unacceptable. Additionally, our guide provided very little background information for the sites we visited and never updated the online tour diary.

It was very easy working with the company to put this tour together for my Girl Scout troop. The girls got input on what they wanted to see and do. The staff was great to work with, responded quickly to any questions. Our guide on the trip was wonderful! We stayed in several hotels, most were good, but one had several issues, our guide tried to remedy them with the hotel but there were some beyond his control. I'd also caution about being matched with another group for your tour. Even though we communicated before traveling together, it was not always an ideal situation once our groups meeting in person. I'd work with Explorica again, but keep my trip to just my group.

Our guide and our tours! Wonderful!