"Our tour guide was excellent"

Our tour guide was excellent. He clearly has years of experience leading tours, but said this was his first time with Explorica. This summer he led our family of six together with two other groups of teens and adults on a tour of Costa Rica. His professional yet friendly demeanor made all members of our diverse group feel welcome right away. When roads, restaurants, and recreational sites were closed because of the pandemic or weather conditions, or for other reasons, he made timely adjustments to the schedule to ensure that everyone had a delightfully educational and delicious experience. He excels in the knowledge of all things Central American, from history, geography, and culture to weather patterns, flora and fauna, and where to take the best photos. His excitement to share the beauty and wonder of each adventure with visitors makes him approach everything with joy and enthusiasm. His indefatigable commitment to teaching is evident in his welcoming of questions and his searching out things of interest to share, inspiring further independent learning and exploration. His clear and conversational style makes education highly enjoyable for both children and adults. Each day, he cheerfully leads visitors on a variety of excursions, tailoring each to the interests and abilities of diverse individuals. He is prompt and physically fit, ebullient, and unflappable even when faced with multiple setbacks. He goes out of his way to show every member of the group kindness, making travelers feel rather like cherished members of his extended family. See below for comments from our children:
“Thank you for being our tour guide on our trip to Costa Rica. I really enjoyed seeing the volcano, swimming in the hot springs, and riding the horses. Thanks also for playing ping pong with me.”
“Thank you so much for teaching us all about Costa Rica. I really enjoyed going on the crocodile safari and zip lining in the cloud forest above the canopy. But my favorite activities were horseback riding in the mountains and going to the beach. My parents might schedule another trip to Costa Rica to participate in Spanish lessons. I’d like to see you again soon."
“Thank you for the marvelous tour of Costa Rica. From hiking near a volcano to zip-lining through the rainforest, I enjoyed it all. I especially loved horseback riding and visiting the Costa Rican school. You’ve made me want to come back to Costa Rica again.”
“I loved going on the trip. My favorite parts were riding the horses and going zip-lining. I hope we go back to Costa Rica with you.”

"We are back better than ever……"

The consensus is that everyone enjoyed the trip. The tours were amazing. They exceeded our expectations. Our tour guides gave us an overload of scenery, cultural experience, and history that came to life. We had two wonderful tour guides who knew their craft, and a talented bus driver by the name of Semi who could handle a coach bus better than anyone we had ever seen. Our group has already inquired about future tours. Thank you Explorica…. thank you Tito and Joaquin, and a special shout out to Semi for making us feel safe on our tour.

"Best Tour Guide: Eric from Costa Rica!"

Eric our tour guide was amazing! He took us to hidden secrets that weren't on the list to give us that special feeling of what it is like to be in Costa Rica. He was filled with information and made my students fill at home. He purchased snacks and took care of students who didn't want to be on an optional excursion. He went over and above to accommodate not only myself and my students, but the other students and the other teacher that was teamed up with me. He made sure everyone was safe and that we made it to where we needed to be and to feel safe and didn't get annoyed by the 20 million questions I asked. I truly appreciate Explorica and World Strides because of their tour guides I continue to work with the company because of them. As usual, Eric was no different from being short of amazing, and appreciate him as our tour guide!!! I highly recommend him!

"Violated their own Terms & Conditions - still refuse to refund!"

20% 1-star reviews means you have a 1 in 5 chance of giving thousands of dollars to this company and walking away with nothing but anger and bad feelings. We are furious. Our son worked every free moment he had (aside from being an honor student, Eagle Scout, and state-competitor in athletics) to raise money for his trip to France.

In violation of their own Terms & Conditions, Explorica changed the travel dates of his trip WITHOUT NOTICE TO US by four days, which made it so he couldn't go. They then refused to budge on their "refund policy" which, at that time, only refunded 25% of our son's very hard-earned money. He was devastated. I asked for an accounting of the money they spent already, but they refused. However, no hotel or flight had yet been booked.

They told us to file a claim with travel insurance (even though it was not a covered reason--which I pointed out to the Customer Service Supervisor--but they insisted). I jumped through that hoop to no avail, as expected. The Explorica contract has a binding arbitration clause, which requires us to file in Massachusetts (we live in Washington State), pay all fees up front, etc. A massive hassle and expense, but one we are weighing. Note, also, there is an open Class Action Lawsuit against the company.

Yay for the 50% of people who have a good experience with this company, but there are far better options out there, and I highly suggest you find one of those.

Explorica taught our son "valuable life lessons" alright...lessons about corporate greed, customer service run-around tactics, deception, and dodging accountability. It is really heart-breaking coming from a company whose clients are kids.

"I love traveling with Explorica"

I love traveling with Explorica. Everything is handled professionally and the trips are well planned. I have been on 8 trips and already have my next one planned. It would not have seen so many places in the world if it was not for Explorica.

"Overall it was an amazing experience"

Overall it was an amazing experience! We had a great time! We are now worldwide travelers! Thank you Explorica!

"Ireland and Scotland - amazing trip!"

We had a fantastic trip and were so impressed with our experience with Explorica! Everything was well-organized with so much to see and experience each day. Our tour guide, Pauline, and our tour bus driver, Jimmy, were amazing, knowledgeable, and welcoming as they shared their countries' histories and cultures with us. It was truly a trip of a lifetime, and we are so thankful for the experience.

"Pros and Cons"

Over all, I feel that it was a successful, rewarding, and great field trip. Sarah Martinez, our tour guide was a good leader. She had great energy, good sense of humor, and flexible in ways to be able to accommodate school leaders and students. I loved the fact that she was multilingual and was able to understand some French and Italian, even though she wasn't fluent in other languages. However, because of that, I feel that she wasn't able to express her thoughts clearly when providing directions for the schools leaders and for the students when having to meet at specific places in cities, and or streets during the time of visiting museums . It was confusing at time because her verbal instructions weren't always clear. She did however, demonstrated effort in working hard in making sure everyone was accommodated and was having a good time throughout the trip. Another unpleasant experience was with the Air line Air France. they manage to lose one of my students luggage on a direct flight from Paris to Florence. The Airline was under staff, unorganized, and unmanaged properly. The agent took too long to take my student's claim, never accepted any of the calls when calling to claim the bag the day after. Neat less to say, after personally going to the airport, the customer service agent refused to call the airline business to speak with them and verify to see if luggage had arrived. Both, the area around the luggage belt and the inside of the agent's room were full of bags that needed to be claim, but because the airline business didn't have enough employees, they didn't even bother looking to see if specific luggage was there. I was very unsatisfied with Air France, they did not have a system in order to provide proper customer service, it was a bit Chaotic. Other than that experience, I felt like the trip was educational, inspiring, inviting, and exciting.

"Amazing Highs, but dismal lows"

The locations for our tour and the amount of places we were able to visit was incredible. Our tour guide was great and tried really hard to accommodate everyone’s wishes. Unfortunately the transportation situation was not up to expectations, and the lodging situation was terrible. Overall I would say the trip was average. I would love to do a similar trip, but probably not with Explorica.

"Thank god for Nic!!"

Call it an adventure….we didn’t have all of the hotels organized before we set out on the trip. The bus situation was a crap shoot as well. Nic was on the phone DAILY to make sure we had hotels and a bus and driver. When in Killarney, we has our hotels, bus AND driver. Heading to Dublin, Nic was trying to get hold of Explorica only to be hung up multiple times. Finally we got our hotels, I said hotels because the group was divided into two groups, each over anhour away from Dublin, each in different directions. Before we left, we HAD a hotel close to public transport. The hotel my group was in was nice, BUT THERE WAS NOTHING near it except a gas station. The bus driver decided he was done at a certain time, and those who were not going to the Irish folk dance, were taken to our hotels at 4:30pm. So we had to sit in the hotel. NOT ACCEPTABLE to my group!! But there we sat. Another night dinner that was to be provided, we weren’t sure if we’d get it, again Nic worked his magic and we were fed. We did go for a bit of a walk, but nothing to see. Wales-again Nic was making calls for a hotel and bus. England….again Nic called and was hung up in numerous times. Our hotel was nice and within walking distance from the tube. Our drivers always said they could only drive/work so many hours, I understand that, BUT when a tour like we had, involves lots of bus time, you need to figure that out so we didn’t have to either miss seeing what we were to see, or go to the hotel early. Another Explorica group, who didn’t have a bus in London joined us for the city tour. Why didn’t they have their own bus? We also missed out on going to Oxford on our way to London. The city tour was a JOKE!! Barely passed, and never stopping to see anything, except for the changing of the guards. Our city walk?! Because of bus driver driving times, we had to do that late at night with very little open.

Also, the covid testing that we had to do before we left, was an expensive one. We had to drive over an hour to get it so we could get it turned in on time. My group also was told Ireland required under age students not traveling with both parents had to have a notarized form. And had to have another proof of covid testing as well as being totally vaccinated. BUT once the group was all together, and we were visiting, I found out that NONE of the other groups had these forms to fill out, nor did they have to send in covid tests results to Explorica. One group was NOT VACCINATED nor did they do the covid tests. My point being, Explorica NEEDS to tell ALL GROUPS the EXACT INFORMATION.!!!

I have a your lined up for next year, and am requesting NIC to be our guide. After the experience we just had, I’m not sure if anyone would give Explorica a very good rating.

When I said/asked anything to my Explorica helper, every answer was, ‘with post covid travel is a bit different’. It was only different with Explorica. I’m thinking long and hard about doing a 2023 tour, Explorica will have to really make changes and make sure they have their ducks in a row . This trip while enjoyed, and with great people, was nothing but a crap shoot!!!