Explorica by World Strides provided an excellent experience for my students. The tour was designed so that they got to see diverse areas of the country as well as participate in a number of culturally specific activities. Our tour director was knowledgeable, patient, accommodating, reliable, flexible, and very kind. Additionally, our hotels were very nice and worth the upgrade.

It was the absolute best trip that I have ever taken with explorica. My travelers are raving about the quality of the trip, our guide Lucia, and our city guides. This is my 21st trip that I have led with explorica and I would never trust my travelers with any other company.

The Explorica representative that I worked with was incredibly helpful. I couldn't have led this trip without her.

The London/Paris Tour was a great introduction to the highlights of London and Paris. Students were exposed to many aspects of each culture and had the time of their lives and many lifelong friendships were formed!

This trip was fabulous! We saw so many exceptional things, and for members of my group that had never before left the country, this was a great first experience into what international travel is about. Our tour director took the time to get to know us, and was great at his job. He made things flow and we all enjoyed his humor and stories. I highly recommend this company!!

I had an amazing trip to Spain on an Explorica/WorldStrides tour. I saw and did so much each day that I couldn't have without our guides - My limited Spanish wasn't an issue, everything was well planned and went smoothly. Others on the tour were nice and I made some new friends. Last year, I went to Paris with this tour company and looking for more travel with them - maybe Italy or Greece next.

The Tour Director, Danai, made our trip unforgettable.

My students, chaperones, and I had a fabulous trip to Japan. The reason it was so great is because of the tour guide we had. This is my second time traveling through Explorica, and I was lucky to have the same tour guide twice to Japan. Her name is Yayo. The kids couldn't say enough about her. She is fun and her knowledge about the history and culture of Japan is phenomenal.

The experience was great because it was so well planned out and the value was amazing. Reps are always ready to answer questions and help with what may be troubling us!

The trip was amazing! The tour guide was friendly and knowledgeable and was able to help with whatever we needed. The excursions were fun and often educational and providing a variety of experiences across multiple parts of the country. I liked that we got to experience multiple different ecosystems. The zipline, kayaking and white water rafting were favorites of the students. Some things that could have improved the trip might be to rearrange the order of activities. I think it would have been better to go to La Fortuna and Monteverde first rather than Torteguero. This is because the temperature was significantly higher in Torteguero than in the other areas. By going to the other areas first, students would have had better chance to acclimatize to the temperature in Costa Rica before going to the hottest place. As it was, several students got sunburned or experienced symptoms of heat exhaustion in Torteguero. I also would make sure that the white water rafting was done either on the way to or from Torteguero since it is in the same general direction from San Jose rather than going from San Jose to Torteguero then over to La Fortuna and Monteverde then back to San Jose and then over to Sarapiqui. I also think there should be a hotel closer to the rafting site rather than driving so far to and from San Jose to Sarapiqui all in one day. Although most students were satisfied with all the accommodations, I will mention a couple of problems. The hotel in Torteguero had several rooms without air conditioning which was the cause of heat exhaustion in at least one case. Explorica may want to request that students only be placed in rooms with air conditioning. Some students were also dissatisfied with the cleanliness of the rooms in Monteverde at the quetzal inn where they found several insects in their rooms, both live ones and dead ones. The only other issue on the trip was that one of our parent chaperones was not allowed to horseback ride due to her weight. While I understand there may be weight limits on such an activity, I feel that she was discriminated against based more on appearance than actual weight. There was at least one other in the group who was actually heavier than her and was allowed to ride since he did not look as big. I also feel like we should have been informed of any weight restrictions ahead of time and ineligible people should have been exempted from paying for those activities.