"Tour guide was great"

Tour guide was great! Hotels were great. Tours were great. Amazing time!

"Lack of prep"

I felt as if Sabrina was not prepared to give our tour and attend our needs. She said she had given this tour many times before but quoted historical and landmark facts wrong on many occasions. Many of the places we toured had free entrance in the first place and the places that the tour company chose to eat at were gross, and obviously only kept running by the visitation of tour group deals.

"I’m not one for complaining"

I’m not one for complaining. But I must say this was the worst trip I have ever been on. I understand this is for young peoples tour but I have never walked so much on a tour the youth were even tired and complaining about how much they walked. There was one time that stands out in my mind. I can’t remember exactly where we were we had walked the same area over and over again. Tour guide took us down this street walked all the way to the bottom said we had 10 minutes to look around maybe shop. Really what can you see or do in 10 minutes. When we all met together again said we were going to dinner. I am not making this up. She walked us back up the same street only on the opposite side up the hill to a restaurant which be the time we got there too tired to enjoy dinner. Why go down one side on street only to go back up on opposite is beyond me. This was the same routine every day. When we were given time to shop/ site seeing it was for no more than 15 minutes at a time. It seemed like we ate spaghetti for three days in a row. And some of restaurants we did eat at were no where close to any sites we were going to visit. Also I must say the itinerary Explorica told us about were not even close to what they had us invision. Seemed Explorica made contracts with the lowest restaurants and hotels in all three countries we visited. Food was for the most part bad. At one place for dessert one example nice dinner and then we get oranges for dessert. At places we would arrive so late 10:00 at night by the time we got our luggage and rooms we would go to dinner again tired not even enjoy dinner. Seemed the tour guide was always running late for everything. Her favorite saying just a short walk. That was the joke of the day. We asked her about taking group pictures to send our families. Her response was don’t worry about it. My daughter never received one picture at any of the places we visited. Explorica insisted we send email of our families so they could be informed as to our trip. That was a let down. She was rude at one time when someone asked about their luggage being lost. Her response was _ _ _ _ happens. Also said she did not like talking about different sites we would pass especially on bus which bus was rare. Hotels were something else you guys must have gotten the cheapest ones you could find. In capri tour guide walked us up this hill said we would have 30 minutes for lunch then we follow her down another street wher she says this place i the rodeo of California then say we have 15 minutes for lunch but we would have to go back to the original place where we started as there were restaurants where she took. Again unnecessary walking. All the tour guides were in a hurry. It was rush rush rush. So happy with the tour I shouldn’t have given you a two star as some of the sites were awesome. But that was the extent of the trip. Overall Very dissatisfied with trip. I could go on and on but I don’t think it’ll do any good. No changes. Another example we were hurried to eat dinner at one restaurant as we’re going to see Flamenco dancers. They took us to a unventilated basement to watch some unprofessional dancers try to dance and we’re sitting elbow to elbow trying to look over the person sitting in front of us. It was hot and muggy not even a stage. Very unsafe It was fire hazard to say the least. Enough said. Thanks for your time

"Horrible Experience"

Horrible Experience. Customer service is horrible. Expect that every time you call they can barely understand you and they never have any answers. They need to send emails to get answers but you never get a response. Every time you call you get a new rep and have to start over. The worst part is your leader is the only person who gets to speak with the Explorica rep in charge of your trip. The only person who knows anything is your leader. Any questions you have to go through them. Our leader complained that they had a VERY difficult time reaching the rep. When our leader/teacher cancelled, Explorica expected us to go anyway. We purchased the most expensive Trip Mate insurance "cancel for any reason" policy and they refunded us $0. Extremely unorganized and no communication. I can't say enough about how frustrating the entire process has been. Don't do it.

"The "rain"in Spain was mainly after the plane-ride…"

This is was really good trip for us and I knew going into it that there might be some challenges for our family- alot of walking and my husband has some emerging limitations that became more obvious as we went through our trip. He was a trooper and did well for the most part but I was concerned that with this being a "young person's trip" for the most part and we are "young seniors" with our 2 daughters, but even I who walk alot was challenged in the beginning from jet lag, getting aclimated right away with the time change, and not enough rest. The first day in country after an overnight plane ride was the roughest and I think even the young people suffered from lack of sleep, no chance for hygiene until many hours later, and for those with health challenges, that was a considerable jolt to the system.
I would maybe recommend a slight modification to the first day and allowing a few hours to rest, take medications, eat other than airplane food and even a shower. I think even a chance to freshen up after all day prep for a plane "red eye" flight and landing 8 + hours later in a new time zone would allow for a brief respite. We counted it was about 30 hours for us since we had a shower/hygiene break! We understood the reason why to jump right into the day, but it was a very difficult transition, I dare say even for the teens in our group!
The first city Barcelona was the only time we experienced rain, albeit briefly and once more later in the trip. And as with any trip when it rains we had to adjust/get umbrellas like we had to adjust to the lag and acclimation. Well, truthfully the jet lag acclimation was worse than the rain, over which we don't have control.
The tour was fast-paced and also understandable given the target audience. Seeing several cities in 8 days gave us a nice variety of cities but admittedly there were some places we'd love to linger longer. But, that's a cue for planning a return to the places we really enjoyed! That was Cordoba for me. I could've spent 3 days there but we had about half a day. Lovely city!
Our tour guide was wonderful. She was informative, helpful, attentive and sensitive to dynamics in the group. Again, we had a unique circumstance due to health conditions for my husband and she was very helpful and considerate. Hopefully it didn't impact others' experience in the group. Again the tour gave us a nice variety of the terraine, architechure, city life and food! We were surprised at reasonable prices, food variety and tasty treats- even some familiar home chains that were "forbidden" but briefly endulged :) People were friendly and folks on the trip were nice- young people are young people-- we had a good group. The teachers were also a special breed and very helpful, even in some of the rough spots. I'd go on other trips with the teachers and guides for sure!
Thank you for all the helpful prep, information, set up and attentiveness. COVID made it difficult with planning and mindfulness during the trip but all in all it was worth it. Thank you again. Diane B>

"If I could give no stars"

If I could give no stars, I would. We were on a school trip and the flight was canceled the night before. The travel agency didn’t let us know. One of the students informed us through their flight app. We showed up at the airport the next morning and spent almost seven hours trying to rebook the flight with the agency. Ended up having to rent a car and since three hours to another city to get on another flight. Now we can’t get our refunds back from that day. This is ridiculous. We’ve been calling since June and still can’t get our refunds. Someone needs to contact us and rectify the situation. Definitely won’t be using this company again for travel.

"It was great!"

It was great!

"My 7 day trip to Washington DC"

My 7 day trip to Washington DC, Philadelphia, & New York was exceptionally wonderful!! Explorica provided our tour with a fantastic local tour guide and bus driver. From the minute we got off the plane until the we got back on the plane to go home, our days were filled with planned tours, self guided tours, wonderful meals, and very nice motel rooms. I definitely plan on going on another trip with Explorica!

"I think bottles of water should be…"

I think bottles of water should be supplied free of charge on bus during the trip. It was 104 degrees some days and we were told to either fill bottles at town squares or pay $1 for a bottle of warm water from bus driver. After spending $4000 for the trip, needing to buy water is ridiculous.

"Great Trip!"

The trip was wonderful! Stefano was our tour guide and he was funny, kept us safe, and knew what he was saying and doing. Not only that but the places we went and the things we saw really blew me away and I believe the rest of the group as well. Definitely worth the price and the time!