We had a fantastic trip. Our rooms, plans, and food were great. We had a group of 20 people and we could not sit together on the way to Hawaii. We need to have seats near our group members.

There is not enough room for me to fully explain every single thing that was wrong with this trip and tour company. Needless to say, I will never recommend, use or provide positive feedback about them. I had numerous discussions, email correspondence, etc., leading up to this trip, but was still highly disappointed with what we ended up with. An extensive email with pictures were submitted to our Explorica/World Strides tour representative: 1. Hotel was absolutely horrible. Pictures were submitted. 2. Food = GROSS! The only thing I would eat was the fresh fruit and water. 3. Towels = GROSS! 4. Bed caved in the middle - nothing could be done because they were sold out. 5. Major communication issues between the company, tour guide and bus drivers with entering itinerary locations - having to totally skip venues due to time constraints.

We did a tour of London, Paris, Provence, Barcelona and Madrid. Our tour director, Alvaro, was amazing! Europe, much like the US, is struggling to get people back to work after Covid. There bus and restaurant cancellations at the last minute, but Explorica and Alvaro worked hard to find other buses and restaurants. We stayed on schedule, saw everything as promised, and more! They worked so hard. Alvaro was great at helping us plan our free time to ensure we could fit in anything extra that we wanted to. It was a trip to remember, all for good!

Our Tour Director did a fantastic time of helping us explore Sydney, the Outback, and Brisbane. She kept us busy, well fed, and content with our itinerary and added features. She exceeded our expectations in every way. Our pre-trip planning with Explorica was also excellent. Our only difficulties were with the airlines.

Good Points: Tour Director had a great attitude. Positive, Friendly, cordial, accommodating, Red eye flight was a huge plus for our trip Entry day into Boston was great! Duck boat tour and guide was awesome! Walking tour through Central Park was good Knowledge of sites lacking, read from phone… Needs some improvement: Extensive wait times at meals (1 1/2 hrs) Multiple Extensive wait times for bus (1 hr, 50 min., 30 mins.) Extensive walks to meet the bus (1 1/4 miles) Poor AC in last restaurant (Unos Pizza) Did not travel to Chinatown or Little Italy due to lack of time and scheduling. Tour Director needs to be a little more assertive with groups to arrive at meet times on time. One of our travelers updated her room (Katelyn Wolfe along with her brother) but it was not reflected in our tour directors housing notes and did not receive her upgraded room. Daily Itinerary with times would be helpful Overall communication & organization could improve. Summary: My group had a good time seeing the sites and overall enjoyed themselves on the tour to Boston and New York. The sites, especially for the first time for many of my travelers, were fantastic. Unfortunately, the execution, facilitation and navigation, and communication, was during the tour was lacking.

We never got our airline confirmation code to check in at airport, our first hotel was infested with coach roaches, our first meal had bugs in the salt and pepper shaker and the food was not edible, and the disney world tickets where messed up.

The tour director was completely unhelpful and rude the entire trip. He did not know how to move a group of 40 people through a city that is that size and constantly left people behind 50 to 60 yards behind the front of the group at stoplights. I had over a dozen minors that keep getting caught and were terrified because of this. He was unhelpful with my chaperones and with any type of local direction when we visited places. He also would not share hardly any of the main itinerary during the trip, sometimes it felt like he didn't even know what we were doing half the time during the day. Absolutely no research in advance about where he was taking his group. Hotels were 35 to 45 minutes away from the main attractions, wasting an hour and a half of travel time each day. We had problems at every hotel, requiring me to move students from dirty rooms or rooms missing beds. It got so bad I found out that towards the end of the trip they stopped telling me about the issues because they were so tired and just slept on the floor or on a couch with no blankets or pillows. Restaurants were also 30 to 45 minutes away from where we were, wasting another hour and a half of travel each day. These should have been located at the locations of where we were visiting to save time, but it feels like somebody just grabbed a random name off a desk that would accommodate 40 people and didn't take into account how we were going to get there. Fish and chips were scheduled to us 3 days in a row, and the kids wanted to skip the third one that they paid for so that we could stay where we were, so we did. Two of the paid dinners were at the hotel which I have never even heard of any tour group doing before. Taking over 20 teenagers on a Subway in London and Paris was the most nerve-racking thing I've ever done as a teacher. Our group personally stopped three pickpockets trying to steal from us, while a third actually stole the tour directors phone. One of the ones we caught had their hand in one of my students pouches, where his passport was. We had to hold up the bus and confront the thief to get the phone back from him, which terrified my students even more. Several times during the trip, my students saw EF tours going by with giant smiles on their face. They would get on and off charters everywhere they went and look like they were having a wonderful time. My students asked me why we weren't doing that, and after experiencing what I did with explorica I'm asking myself that as well. In order for me to stay with explorica major changes are going to have to be done and many of them will be non-negotiable. We didn't even get our luggage tags and prepackaged info on time before we left on the airplane. Floor planning and a terrible tour director nearly ruined this entire trip.

This was my first trip with Explorica though I had traveled with another company before. I feel that Explorica did a great job in spite of dealing with lots of complications due to Covid. They provided regular communication about the progress of the trip details and were always friendly and helpful when I had questions. The quality of the hotels and restaurants were better than those I had experienced with another company and the tour directors, who had to fill in at the last minute because of Covid, were AMAZING! So helpful, kind, and knowledgeable. I would definitely take another tour with Explorica!

This was one the best tours we have ever been on. It was relaxed and not stressed at all. I feel we got to see everything we needed and had plenty of time to take photos of the cities and relax. The Tour guide, Silvia Felici, did a great job of keeping tours organized and rooms available. She is extremely pleasant to work with and laughs a lot. The bus driver, Sasha, was also very helpful and professional. He was a great driver and was able to load the bus and drive through the checkpoints without a flaw. The hotels all were really nice and in a good location to explore the area or go to the beach. This tour was exactly how I envisioned it to be for my students. It had a little bit of everything: education, relaxation, local flavor, and fun. The only negative was losing a bag on the flight home. Even with that this trip has been the most memorable trip I have ever been on. Who knew Slovenia was going to be so beautiful and possibly a place I would want to live.

Awesome trip. We saw so much history and met so many interesting people. I got out of my comfort zone kayaking, snorkeling, biking and swimming.