Overall, my students and I had a great time and I believe most of them would say it was "epic." That being said, I have some serious concerns that make me question whether I would work with your company again. But let me start with the good: Our tour director, Ana Rosa Campos, was great! She was very pleasant, knowledgeable and helpful with all of our group's needs. She took care of every detail and the kids loved her. Our time spent in the cities we visited was mostly awesome. The students enjoyed the free time and the tours we took with the local guides were great. The quality of the guide definitely determined how much fun was had. The guides who were more engaging with the personal stories of the history in the places we saw definitely engaged us more than the guides who kept more to facts and dates. We appreciated the use of the whisper headsets enabling us to hear the guide when not right next to them. Our bus driver, Miguel, was top notch. So professional, so personable. He kept us safe and helped us to remain flexible while on tour. The not so good: While in Seville, there was another larger Explorica group staying in our hotel. This group of students were wild in the hotel, the chaperones were inattentive (and likely drunk, judging by how many hours they spent at the bar while the students ran amok). However, the issue I found most disturbing was directly observing their male Explorica Tour Director supply wine to girls who were clearly not 18, saying "Your parents will probably kill me." I have many issues with this. If I'm a parent, trusting a company to keep my child safe across the world, I would be FURIOUS to find out that someone with such lax ethical character is placed in charge of the safety of my student. It was very clear from his behavior with his group that he is much more concerned with being their buddy than being a director (which in my opinion has an obligation to ensure that their group is both safe and respectful of the other residents in the hotel, among other things). One of the moms in my group is now seriously reconsidering allowing her middle schooler to go to Costa Rica with an Explorica tour. My second issue was the food. I understand keeping costs low by having groups eat dinner at the hotels we stay in. However, my group did not enjoy the quality of the food at 2 of the 4 hotels we stayed at and we felt like the authenticity of our experience was cheapened by this. Moroccan Excursion: Literally the worst experience of the trip, by far. I was looking forward to this excursion, as were many of my group. However, after what we experienced, it is obviously not a place that should ever have been offered as an excursion, and I fully believe the company knew that. The local people were clearly not pleased at our presence, at one point turning hostile (wherein a seemingly hidden security guard turned up to redirect the hostility). My group was led to a carpet shop where we were treated to an entertaining presentation that I thought was meant to be educational. What it was in reality was terrorism. At the conclusion of the "educational" portion, rugs were forced into the hands of students and teachers, and then we were swiftly separated from one another and subjected to high pressure sales pitches which seriously left us feeling TERRORIZED. I had a salesman who refused to let me leave and join my group, in my face telling me he needs my money, while one of my 16 year old students was forced into buying a rug she did not want and could not afford without being able to speak with her mom on the phone and in tears (we were told to not use our phones while in Morocco). Thankfully our tour director, Ana, stepped in and helped to advocate for this child to get her money back but the situation was nothing short of terrorism. As we tried to make our escape, with great difficulty, as the sales staff were not interested in letting us leave, more merchants from the street came up into our faces forcing more wares at us while we turned around in confusion and fear. It is at this point that one of my moms pointed out the man who earlier had made threatening motions to my group and the security detail who apparently were secretly following us (presumably because the city was known to be unsafe for tourists). At this point, we simply wanted to leave. Many of us feeling fear for our safety. We were unable to catch the ferry back for a few more hours, however, leaving us feeling stranded and completely spent. It is my opinion and the opinion of the adults in my group that this excursion was an unsafe and foolish option that the company should have known better than to offer. It darkened the end of an otherwise mostly pleasant tour and send us home with a very negative experience lingering in our minds. I hope you will seriously reconsider this offering in the future.

The trip was well organized and we saw a lot. The food was good, but don't expect to actually have time to eat lunch! Neuschwanstein castle was amazing. Definitely going to visit it again.

Customer Service is non-existent. From the very earliest point of planning the trip with the Sales Rep to the very last hotel stay in Paris, the customer is treated as a nuisance. Hotels were extremely cheap, uncomfortable & unaccommodating. Bathrooms had mildew in them & there was zero air circulation at all. Breakfasts provided by the hotels were fine. Dinners provided by Explorica-approved restaurants were skimpy, cheap & (on at least one occasion) gross. Finally, the tour bus that we were trapped in for four days smelled like something had died in it. I could only guess that it was a dead rodent. We did get to see many amazing sights and locations. However, due to poor planning, there was minimal time to spend at each destination. We had several days where we spent more time hiking to public transportation depots than we spent at museums or monuments. Also, we had several days with no time to stop for getting a lunch. That made for 16-18 hour days with no rest due to uncomfortable hotels, little food due to lack of time for lunch & demanding physical exertion due to the necessary trek to public transportation. I have traveled with a few tour companies. I have traveled several times with Explorica. This was the worst travel experience that I have EVER had. I will not travel with Worldstrides/Explorica again. I will tell every person I know that they should not use your company.

The absolutely exhausting part of the trip was being combined in 45 people group and have only one tour director. It was an nightmare, he had to navigate this huge group getting on public buses and trains where the locals were as well. It took for ever to get from hotels to dinners and back and it was a huge chaos. There should have been another tour director and the group should have been divided in 2 groups. Also, the hotels were so far away from the city and again we wasted so much time on getting to places. The way our flight to Spain was booked, we lost the entire day in Barcelona because we arrived so late and couldn't do much that day. Absolutely a deal breaker. The tour director was doing his best to accommodate us but he was overwhelmed with so many people at once. Not the right thing to do. We did enjoy the touring of the sights and venues and the local tour guides were very nice and knowledgable. Too much time spent on the bus though and the flamenco show should have had a dinner right there and not going back to the hotel at 9 pm where everybody was starving already, very bad planning.

Better hope you don't need a refund. I hate leaving bad reviews, but after months of no resolution, I'm kind of at my wits end with Explorica. Initially, they pulled an extra $987 out of my checking account that they were not authorized to do. I did get that money back. Then there was an adjustment to our group size and we were supposed to receive $263 back. They said that they tried to put the money back into our checking account, but that the debit card number was declined. Instead of calling or emailing to get an updated card number, they said they mailed the check to my 14 yr. old son, but we never received it. They cancelled that check, and issued another that we never received. It's been four months, and many phone conversations, all ending with, "This is just how the system works." Well, the system doesn't work. The trip itself had additional issues, low-budget accommodations and flights at all hours of the night, but it's the complete incompetence of the finance department that I can't ignore. If you are a teacher or parent considering using Explorica, I would strongly suggest that you find another trip provider. This has been a very, very frustrating experience.

The best parts of this trip are the natural beauty, archeological sites, and knowledgeable guides. The worst part is the hotel rooms in Athens. Thankfully, we didn’t spend much time in the hotel rooms as we were out and about with the tour director. Our tour director Theo was incredibly attentive and personable; he made special effort to connect with each person. We had a great time!

Our guide geo was like a father. Our driver Wally was like an uncle. They took their time to really connect with the kids. Their lunch at Ellie’s house was an experience like no other, it really showed the travelers how our humanity is so beautiful and how we are so different, but our similarities bring us together. The Bri Bri indigenous tour was amazing. I cannot believe that we got such an intimate experience of a culture and people that lived so simply. I think it helped the travelers really see their works from a different point of view. Puerto viejo was incredible, really everything was perfect!

Overall, there was a lack of clear and concise communication both before and during the tour. Additionally, the majority of the trip was spent navigating both public and private transportation to get from place to place due to the selected hotels being as far as possible from the points of interest. The overall feel was that the company spent as little as possible on the experience to maximize the companies profit, which was confirmed with the tour directors commentary throughout the trip. Specific issues with this tour included not being given time for lunches, bathroom breaks or water refills. "Short" walks from hotels to public transportation being over 30 minutes long. Bugs in Paris hotel rooms. No air conditioning in any hotels. Company failed to arrange dinner each evening and gave a 10 euro stipend, not enough for a meal. Tour Director was generally not with the group, making navigating an unknown city in a non-English speaking country difficult when also managing a group of 20 students. No getting to know you activities to introduce smaller groups combined on the tour. Tour director annoyed and embarrassed by Americans throughout the trip. This tour was so riddled with issues that I contacted Explorica during the tour asking how to file a formal complaint with the company.

My trip was supposed to be combined with my sister's group, and up until the last minute, it was not, so that added a bunch of issues throughout the trip. There were a few restaurants that should have never been used. Our tour director was meh. I would love to go into more details if I thought someone would actually read and/or change things for the future, but I don't feel like spending the energy to do that unless that's true.

We had a great trip with Explorica. Our consultant was always available for questions, and Erika, our tour director, was phenomenal at accommodating our group's needs.