"Overall tour was awesome - inspiring and highly valuable for all participants!."

Overall tour was great. We loved it.
Restaurant food in France was Horrible at worst, mediocre at best, service also poor.
Italian restaurants were good, service very good in Italy
Hotels were good (2.5 stars) across the board.
TOUR DIRECTOR EXCELLENT!

PS. The only negative was food at 2 restaurants in France BUT Explorica made good by offering to pay for a pizza party for all participants once we got home. Above and beyond, thank you!

"AMAZING TOUR DIRECTOR-Christian Adolph"

This tour was spectacular for one reason alone, Christian Adolph!!!! He was absolutely incredible!!! He had an amazing itinerary planned for us and then as travel always does, when changes needed to be made, he was flexible, quick, and always positive. He made sure we had the experience of a lifetime. He is extremely knowledgeable and so personable. He took care of us every step of the way and went over and above what was expected of him. We literally cried when we parted ways with him at the airport.

"This was a bad trip from start to…"

This was a bad trip from start to finish.
8 hour layover in Frankfurt. They booked it like this.
Horrible food every step of the way unless you purchased yourself. Everything rushed. Do not do the fast paced trips for sure. We were completely exhausted because everything is on this hectic schedule.

Do yourself a favor. Book the trip yourself. An Airbnb and just either walk or take a taxi etc. it’s 2023/24. We all have enough common sense to organize this ourselves. Paris is walkable and easy to navigate and so is Rome. Skip this company. They are cheap and don’t take pride in the experience.

"The tour guide was awesome and very…"

The tour guide was awesome and very accommodating and flexible when needed to be. The hotels, food and transportation were great.

"Terrible Customer Service"

I have been traveling with students since 2008 and I am so disappointed in the lack of response from Explorica. Here is an email I sent from the second hotel:

I am speaking for myself. I am never going to travel with Explorica again and I will make sure to inform other teachers about what happened on our trip and the response of indifference from Explorica. I am aware that madam Ann Laure Justeau sent an email.

It is unacceptable that two of our students didn’t get their room until 9:15 PM on the day of our arrival. I don’t know what is worse, the fact that this happened or Explorica’s response of indifference.

I have traveled with students since 2008 and I am extremely worried that Explorica has not researched the hotel Les Trois Lys ( Hôtel Restaurant Les Trois Lys) because this hotel has rooms that are not in the hotel and you need to walk around the corner into the ally to get to some of the rooms. There is no security guard or person and anyone could just walk into the hotel. We asked if we could lock the outside door (the one leading from the ally) but they said they couldn’t.

This email was sent from the second hotel. I expect a travel company to provide an organized Schedule, safe places to stay, and menus that are student-friendly.
This is why we paid what we did to have Explorica take care of This. Every time I have taken students with other companies, and there was any concern, I was used to having the company go above and beyond to remedy the issue. As one of the chaperones, I am aware of the emails that Anne-Laure sent, I am disappointed in your responses, I feel that our staff concerns were not heard or valued and our concerns of the students' comfort and safety were just not important and disregarded. The food and accommodations that we received is not acceptable for the high price that we paid.

I believe that one of the costs of these trips is that Explorica would have our itinerary planned out and organized. I understand that there was a last-minute change to our tour manager. Our first tour manager had an accident, but it is unprofessional to fill the spot with someone who had never been to any of the places we went to. Not only did we NOT get any important information at each place we visited, but the little information that was given needed to be corrected. I put the blame on Explorica and not our tour manager. This should have never happened. Our chaperones saved the trip because we had to plan and organize the day.

Bottom line, the service, sleeping accommodations, food was bad. But the lack of empathy and the response by Explorica is unacceptable. When we told them that we had two students without a room at 9:15 on the day we got in after a long day of walking. Explorica's response was that we needed to handle the room arrangements. What part of there weren't any rooms did Explorica didn't understand. whats worse, it happened again, we had to wait for rooms so we decide to go out and get to see the city but would you believe it that they didn't have a room ready at 11:30 pm. Unacceptable and this goes to the fact that Explorica should research the hotels before they send students.

I WILL NEVER travel with Explorica again due to the poor customer service and lack of empathy.

"My Explorica trip in Spain"

I liked the various places that we were able to visit as scheduled. At one of the main attractions we were informed at the last minute that tickets were not available to visit the interior of the buildings, only access to the grounds was provided. An extra attraction was added, which was okay but it made one of the other days very hectic. The time for students to explore and shop at some locations was limited. The visit included three days of traveling by bus. Two of these days we had to eat lunch at the red stops along the way, not authentic food. Dinners were not authentic or sometimes acceptable. Some were buffet style with little authentic flair and at the hotel, we stayed rather than in a restaurant. The students who had food restrictions did not have many options. Sometimes they could not eat what was served. I wanted the students to experience the language and regardless of my requests, the tour director and others spoke mainly in English.

"A Amazing trip!!!"

Beautiful trip overall.
Food is 2/10 and the worse is the welcome Paella , which is more like dough with scattered chicken pieces.
Hotels are a mixed Sevillas hotel is most-like a cheap hostal with a lot of deficiencies and complicated, poorly designed key system, already mastered in most basic hotels.
The tour is fabulous and well planned, the need of “Real travelers ib the corporative iOS necessary to correct things like tour pacing, buss ride time church and free times.

"Travel Nightmare"

We arrived to airport on 3/23 to quickly learn that the second leg of our flight was cancelled and they told us not to board without having a viable flight plan. We immediately called the 24/7Assist Line and had issues. Nobody answered our call but rather we had to wait for a call back multiple times. Once we received the call back, we were instructed to work with the Delta agent to rebook and not to leave until a confirmed re-booking was complete. The options were minimal due to our group size.
Rebooking for 3/24 included: 2 new airlines and 1 additional leg of travel with very small time frame between 1st and 2nd leg.
At check in we were told that 8 travelers did not have confirmed seats for all legs. We called Explorica 3 hours prior to the first flight departure with concerns about 8 travelers not being confirmed. They would be stand-by but we were assured that since we were group booking that people would get bumped in order for our group to stay intact.  The assistance/pressure to board happened 10 minutes before the ticketing desk closed.  We were told if we didn’t board the trip would be considered a no show and there would be no refund and we would forfeit our return itinerary.   We boarded with a very short connecting flight but had assurance from a team leader on the 24/7 Assist line that they would have the flight held and students would all have confirmed seats because we were a group booking.   The connecting flight was not held despite the assurance from the supervisor.  We ended up spending 10 hours in the Frankfort airport because the rebooked connecting that WE arranged without assistance from Explorica was cancelled.   We finally ended up in Madrid 28 hours after boarding our first flight.  Due to the booking that we weren’t comfortable with, we now had 8 travelers without their bags. The students were robbed of a comprehensive experience in Madrid due to the flight issues that Explorica failed to assist us with and created by pressuring us to travel without confirmations.
Throughout all of this we asked Explorica to update the website so parents/families would have the correct flight information. We were told that this would be done within 24 hours. This was never done.
Factors that could have improved experience:
1. Have a one person contact throughout the trip, including travel and flights. It was frustrating to always speak to someone different each time we called.
2. Flights should have been secured for our entire group by Explorica.
3. Explorica should have rebooked our initial flight. We stood with another group, a group booked with EF Tours. They learned about the cancellation at the same time that we did, but EF had already rebooked their flights for the next day. If Explorica would have addressed this immediately, there would have been room for our group on this flight as well. Unfortunately we were too late and many others rebooked before we even got started. Had this been the case, we would have only lost 1 day of our trip, instead of 2.

In our past visits to important sites in Barcelona we had plenty of time to visit, explore, take some pictures however we only had one hour in both places. We felt rushed and had too much free time afterwards. Also, we never even got a tour of the Gothic Quarters to explain the history of Barcelona. We felt everything was a shorten time frame which made us fell rushed. The local guides were good.

Post trip: Better support for families to navigate insurance claims and a more clear understanding of what the insurance covers. For example, we paid extra for tips included, however we lost 2 days of guides and transportation, along with ticket costs for the Prado and the Royal Palace. We paid extra for the Toledo excursion that we couldn't do due to our late arrival and long travel.


Pros of the experience:
1. Hotels were beyond our expectations! Awesome staff, great rooms, excellent breakfast and location of both hotels was excellent.
2. Our tour director, Ana Campos, was AMAZING! She did an excellent job to pull together a new itinerary that created a memorable experience for the entire group.

"Disappointed with experience"

Disappointed with quality of experience - will connect personally with company.

"Our Costa Rica HighLight Tour "

I would like to start off by sharing all the highs of this trip, and that begins with our tour guide and bus driver. They did an amazing job working with the chaperones and the kids throughout the entire trip and switching our times of departure if necessary.

The food experience was great! Raquel did an excellent job making sure that all kids were accommodated with their food allergies or diets. Our last dinner was amazing and provided a different palette of what we had been receiving of the daily cuisine in Costa Rica, allowing the students to have a great final dinner.

Our visits to the coffee plantation, the ziplining, the kayaking, the 1968 volcano view/hike, the crocodile safari, the beach time in Manuel Antonio and the Folklore Evening were amazing! Our third hotel (Hotel Arenas Punta Leona) allowed students to feel comfortable and impressed with the cleanliness, space and outdoor pool that it offered.

Traveling to Costa Rica we had informed the students of the heat, staying hydrated, how to dress and what to expect during our visit. Some descriptions that Explorica provided on some of the activities did not explain or prepare us for what was to come or left our group disappointed.

As we started our bike ride, there were no explanations on how to use gears on the bike in detail and there were two different sets of gears. We were driving on the main road and kids were falling into ditches. After some of the kids fell, no one's injuries/cuts/scrapes were properly cleaned or taken care of. When we arrived at our final destination, there was no place for my group to freshen up or receive water. One bottle of water per student at the beginning of the ride was not sufficient per student when the temperature was 86 degrees and it felt like 92 degrees.

Our day at the wildlife rescue center was another disappointing activity that our students were looking forward to. They had us rake some leaves and move sticks towards a fence of barbed wire and cactuses. No one was provided with any type of gloves, as the floor was extra muddy and there was animal feces on the ground. The most disappointing part was that they did not explain how the facility helps get these animals back to their natural habitat or provide us a tour of what animals they currently have in their facility. Waiting in traffic for over four hours to get to this location and missing beach time was not worth it. We all left with a sour taste from this location and wanting so much more.

As we arrived at the Manuel Antonio National Park, we did not receive a guided tour by a professional and really did not get to see any animals other than the monkeys. We needed a tour guide from the park that knew where to search and make this experience worthwhile, as many people we met throughout the tour spoke so highly of what would be seen during our visit.

In regards to the hotels, our second hotel (Chateau Arenal) left us baffled right from the start. Rooms had insects on the beds, from pictures the students had taken it seemed as if they could be ticks or bed bugs at first. As it did not turn out to be that, there were dead insects in their rooms and on the beds. None of the rooms had towels and when they were delivered, some kids found dead worms in some of their towels. The sheets, pillows and mattresses were old, dirty, disgusting and uncomfortable. Some of the rooms had a bad odor in them. The first night one of the rooms only had a sliding door as the entrance and exit towards the room and was not able to be locked throughout the entire night. With the heat in Costa Rica and the activities we were doing these days, half of our kids were welcomed to a room with no air conditioning and sometimes with just a fan that did not even work. I feel that this was due to the lack of booking a hotel in time during Holy Week, as I did not have my hotel reservation until a couple weeks prior to departure.