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Tour Diaries

Explorica’s unique online Tour Diary allows family and friends of Explorica tour participants to check in on their loved ones and follow along with their tour. This private trip log is maintained by each group’s tour director, an area resident and expert in the local customs and language. Each day, they update the Tour Diary with commentary and one or more photos of the group, so family and friends can get a first-hand account of the unique activities, authentic cuisine and incredible places their loved ones are experiencing.

Have a friend or family member currently traveling with us? Look up their Tour Diary to see how they're doing!

Sample Tour Diaries

Peruse recent Tour Diaries to get a sense for what to expect when your loved one goes on an Explorica tour.

Galápagos Island Adventure (February 16 - February 26, 2017)

Costa Rican Highlights (February 18 - February 26, 2017)

Italian Highlights (March 2 - March 11, 2017)

Germany, Switzerland & Italy (March 9 - March 18, 2017)

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Explorica US   Reviews

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Reviews 3.7.

1,769 total

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The island 🏝️ of Puerto Rico was…

The island 🏝️ of Puerto Rico was beautiful but sadly our tour guide did not do much explaining about the history, geography or sites from the island. We never knew before hand what was going to happen during the day and had to be constantly asking the tour guide in order to know. Also, she didn’t use a microphone on the bus or outside so we had to rely on others to be able to hear.

Date of experience : June 24, 2024

Our group had an amazing experience…

Our group had an amazing experience with Explorica. All the tour guides, bus drivers and restaurants were top notch and educational. The tour sites included in our package were the best and everyone enjoyed their time there. The locals were very knowledgeable and my students learned an amazing wealth of information about Ecuador and Galápagos Islands. We all agree that the tour was well organized and the pace of the trip was manageable. A shout out to our tour Director, Fernando Sanchez for an unforgettable experience. Thank you Explorica!

Date of experience : June 26, 2024

The Galapagos was fantastic and we felt…

The Galapagos was fantastic and we felt safe traveling through Ecuador and the Galapagos. Saw many amazing things. For the first time with a school trip I do feel several things should be more transparent, clear, or highlighted - the tipping was a little unclear in several areas, the sleeping arrangements between multiple schools was NOT clear. Now that I have been, I would also express louder before we left that for teenagers - the serving sizes may not be what they are used to. Maybe make sure they can find food elsewhere. All the adults felt the portions were absolutely fine. A couple of other items that were specific for our tour director. Thank you for a great Experience!

Date of experience : June 28, 2024

Great Organization

From an organizational standpoint, Explorica does very well. Everything is planned for the entire trip so there is usually never any worry about what happens daily. I say usually because even Explorica can't plan for everything, like a transit strike.

Date of experience : June 23, 2024

Great trip!

First and foremost, our guide Liza Mora was truly the best part of our trip. She made everything from day 1 special and exciting for the whole group. The driver, Randall, was also a highlight for our group. The pair made sure that we were safe, educated, and having fun throughout the experience.

Date of experience : June 17, 2024

Really appreciate how Explorica handles…

Really appreciate how Explorica handles all scheduling, booking and our itinerary for the trip. Equipped us with a local Tour Director who advocated for us the whole way, and transportation everywhere we went. Very easy to work with and plan. Our tour director, Vincent, was exceptional at keeping us organized and informed about what was next for us on our trip. He handled multiple SNAFUs with professional grace. My only complaints are regarding some of our hotels being too far from the city centers, making it time consuming to get to and from the city, and 2 of our hotels were in less than desirable neighborhoods. Food was usually very good, but at times less than expected. Lots of activities planned in our itinerary made for fast paced days and would have enjoyed more time at the various sites and museums. All-in-all a great experience.

Just finished my 5th tour with Explorica. Excellent as always!

Just finished my 5th tour with Explorica. This one, French Canada and other places in Ontario. Have also taken kids to France, Spain, and Gibraltar with Explorica. They have always been great to me, and the tours are top notch. I am an experienced / picky tour leader and they always work with me pre / on-tour to provide the best possible experience for all. Will start planning my next Explorica trip this fall.

Date of experience : June 19, 2024

Long-time group leader, easy to see a possible drop in quality I’ve come to expect

As a person who has traveled with Explorica for over 20 years, this tour of France and Germany was satisfying in many ways, however marked a distinct decline in the level of quality, in several areas, that I have come to expect. From an all-but-inedible meal on our first night in Paris, to a markedly sub-par hotel in what had been voted (this shared by our guide) as the “ugliest town in Germany”, this tour stood out in a negative way compared to most I’ve taken with the company. The hotel had mold on the ceiling in multiple rooms, holes in guest room towels, WiFi did not work for any of us, our tour guide either, for both nights. Carpets and rugs were clearly old and worn, furniture that bore the clear signs of age (water rings all over them, scratches too). Balconies in several rooms were dirty, riddled with bird excrement. Even our bus driver said the place was unacceptable. Regarding the program, we had not enough time for a few sites in Paris, and FAR too much unguided free time in several German towns. We were given over 4 hours on two occasions, even with getting lunch, shopping, and exploring, you are left with too much time afterward. One tour’s obvious dip in quality though, does not mark a trend… I will be giving them another try with a tour of Italy already in the works for a future group of my students.

Date of experience : June 27, 2024

Thank you Explorica for a wonderful experience!

Our tour director (Ruben Alonso) was absolutely amazing at his job. He was professional, but also relaxed and great at dealing with high school students. He never tired of answering kids' questions, or from chaperones either. I cannot imagine anyone doing better in that role and he made our first trip wonderful. Our entire group loved him so much. Overall, the hotels and food were very good. There were a few hotels during our 11 day tour that were less than excellent and a few food experiences I would suggest changing for future trips, but overall our experience was excellent. The monuments we were able to see and experience such as the Alhambra in Granada, the Grand Mosque in Cordoba, and the Royal Palace in Madrid were among our highlights. The stops we had and places we visited were loved by our group. I think the planning and execution of the trip was top notch. Great job by Explorica and the staff.

Date of experience : June 13, 2024

Missed the ball on this trip

I have to say that on this trip, Explorica has failed to impress. First of all, the descriptions on the itinerary were a bit deceptive. Students thought they would be visiting the Eiffel Tower when in reality it was just by a river cruise, or we were to visit the Basilica in Vatican City but the lines were extremely long that we had no time to go in. Secondly, our hotels in London, Paris, and Florence were in sketchy areas where there was drug-dealing across the street and/or homeless people, or prostitution. We are taking teenagers that don’t necessarily need to see that or be exposed to elicit activity. Furthermore, the hotels were not only in bad areas but also far from the city center. It took almost an hour to reach the center where we would be doing our excursions and that is valuable time lost. It’s like your company looks for cheap hotels, and Ibis Budget hotels are exactly that, no phone in the rooms to contact students and no peepholes for us to see who knocks on doors. Also, the last two days were so packed with activities that there wasn’t enough free time for students to go exploring or shopping. Finally, our flights, the connection times in some were too close that my students missed dinner going from Paris to Italy, or coming back home to the U.S. on an early flight that required a 3 am wake up time. I have to add that our guide, Diego, was great! He did his best to accommodate some of our needs considering Explorica had an itinerary.

Date of experience : June 25, 2024

Not great for people with allergies…

As a celiac and a student, I was mildly concerned about food options on this trip— they have been an issue before. While it’s clear the company at least made an effort to provide meals, a lot of the time, the allotted time for getting meals on your own was not sufficient for someone with an allergy to find something that they were able to eat. In addition to this, some of the preplanned dinners did not necessarily have safe options, or a fulfilling meal. I had a reaction after at least one of them. If you are considering going on a tour with this group, and have a severe allergy/dietary restriction, like celiac, particularly if you are a student, having a parent with you (either one of your own or someone you know well) is important so you are able to break off from the group if necessary. If that isn’t possible, just bring lots of protein bars (I needed one every morning, since the breakfast the hotel provided offered some options, but not necessarily enough for a full/fulfilling meal). For the tour group itself, it would be very nice if there was an option to forgo dinners in cost of the trip for people with allergies, so that an individual can make a choice of where to eat that will be safer. Alternatively, more accessible vouchers would be nice. I also had some issues with the lack of a set schedule until the day of. It made it much harder to plan for what meals I could grab quickly, and also was disappointing each day to find out how little time we had in each place compared to the amount of time in a coach. I did, however, really like our tour guide (Christina)! Ultimately, for a vacation with someone without allergies, I think this group is alright, but a little rushed. But, with allergies, it makes it a challenge.

Date of experience : June 02, 2024

28 high schoolers in Ecuador

I took a group of 28 students to Ecuador for 8 days. The hotels Explorica put us in were clean, safe and comfortable. The planned meals were healthy and of good quality food. The local tour guide Explorica hired was fantastic. We felt safe and cared for. The itinerary was great- we learned and did so much.

Date of experience : June 21, 2024

Tour guide was exceptional!!!

Tour guide was exceptional, all hotels were clean, flight problem was resolved with super efficiency, itinerary was wonderful! The only reason it was not 4 stars is because our group experienced a luggage loss and it is still not resolved. I purchased the insurance for my son, and it was for nothing since I was referred back to the airlines. As of now, 1 day back, 2 of my students do not have their luggage. There is no clear resolution as to what to do. “Did you talk to the airlines? We use their luggage tracking website?”

Amazing Italy and Greece Trip

The overall plan was awesome! We enjoyed the trip very much. Rome in essentially a day was a lot, but the rest of the pace was perfect. Our students learned a ton about Italy and Greece’s culture. From art to history and politics, there was something for everyone.

Date of experience : June 20, 2024

¡México Maravilloso!

This tour covered so much ground in 10 days! Each day brought a new adventure! It was the perfect blend of language, culture, and history!

The itinerary lacked attention to detail

The itinerary lacked attention to detail. Lafayette has been closed since 2019. Twice, the menu options given to us by our tourguide for a restaurant was not what was presented for us to eat--and I'd say it was rather disappointing, the second one having food that was honestly not very good at all. Redeye flights are fine, but expeting a full day of travel and siteseeing without checking into the hotel to rest first is unrealistic. The jazz cruise tour was a hit--but it seemed that there were other options that were not so pricey. I feel as though more attention to detail and pricing could have been made to save our group money. Having a hotel outside of the city was a waste of time and money. Not to mention that the hotel was a bit ghetto. My room didn't even have a telephone, which concerned me in case of emergencies, etc. A student tried to contact me using their phone, but couldn't, because I didn't have a phone in my room. Breakfast got better every day, but the first day, it was lacking, to say the least. I would have rather spent the extra on a hotel in-town with guaranteed quality and service, and taken advantage of public transportstion to places that were nearby or farther away. For select places, that were very far, used a bus company, instead of having a hired bus driver with our group the entire time...who was also armed, as he pointed out to me during the trip. On the other hand, both our guides, Rich (worldstrides employee) and Mickey (the local guide) were AMAZING, and I have nothing but good things to say about each! Their flexibility, kindness, attentionate guiding was wonderful.The kids appreciated the "free time" to shop and explore on their own, and the insightful knowledge from both was wonderful. I would have given Explorica 2 stars, but our guides were so good, they made up for the lack of better planning and thought to the itinerary.

Sydney and Cairns

The tour guide in Sydney was really nice. She didn’t actually talk to me until the 3rd day because the other group was so large and high maintenance. The amount if yikes we were fed by Explorica was lacking as well. Going into the trip, I expected two meals a day for the most part since that is the norm. That was not the case. The Sydney hotel was very small, had no space for clothes and the sink was essential in the shower. The Cairns hotel was much more what I am used to with WorldStrides. The food was more normal as well. Gabby was kind an very helpful. The only thing about the activities was that there was a bunch of down time. The other group let their 18 year old kids drink every night and one driver encouraged them to hit up the clubs. The legal drinking age in the US is 21.

Date of experience : June 10, 2024

Standing around in France

Spent most of our time standing around wondering what we were doing, VERY disorganized, terrible food, places we stayed at were very cheapy and trashy looking, only had about 1-2 hour per site then had to wonder what we were doing again!!!!! Cites were gorgeous and the tour guide was nice but had no idea what was going on!!!!!!!!

My group and I had the best time

My group and I had the best time! Our guide Paqui was truly the best guide I have had on any explorica trip (this was my 5th trip with the company). She went above and beyond to make the trip enjoyable, run smoothly, and keep us on track to see everything on the itinerary.

A trip went wrong

There are several mistakes that was made, first the bus from Amsterdam to Paris should be a train we wasted a day traveling to Belgium and only stayed there for an hour and a half and did not really see anything. And on top of that we made it to Paris late so we never got dinner. When we left Paris at 6:30 am we were told there would be a box breakfast that never happened. In London at the hotel we were only given ONE key to each room, so I had four students with one key until we pleaded with them to at lease give us two keys because two of the students were from another group. I also had to always call my room mate so we can meet up to hand each other the key to get in. And that is just some of the things, this was not though thru properly. And if you need more information about what went wrong just reach out to me. The tour guide Kate was great she tried to do her best in all that went wrong.

Date of experience : June 18, 2024

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