Explore holiday company?

[Chicklet]

Anyone have any direct experience or hearsay from chums of a holiday company called Explore?

Interested to hear if the travellers are mostly 22 or 72 year old hairy hippies who don't want to wash for three weeks or if the groups might be a little more mixed and therefore suitable for clean little red haired girls.

thankyouverymuch

[jivecat]

Anyone have any direct experience or hearsay from chums of a holiday company called Explore?

Interested to hear if the travellers are mostly 22 or 72 year old hairy hippies who don't want to wash for three weeks or if the groups might be a little more mixed and therefore suitable for clean little red haired girls.

thankyouverymuch

They organise a wide range of "tame adventure" holidays, mainly long haul. I have a friend who went on the Atlas traverse holiday in Morocco. She was a thirty-something single teacher at the time, with probably a moderate attitude to washing. I think she enjoyed it, the food was good.

As with all those holidays the group can make it or break it for you. It's probably best to be open-minded about the people you are going to meet and keep your fingers crossed. I don't think Explore will attract 20-somethings, it's too expensive. I think the bulk of their clientele with be professional 30/40/50 somethings, child-free and with plenty of cash. Other people I know, or have heard of, using Explore would fit that profile. The real unwashed hippies will be too poor to buy that kind of holiday and are in any case spending 6 months doing solo walking in the High Andes.

If you phone up Explore and ask searching questions you might get them to tell you a bit about who has booked onto the holiday you are interested in, if you're lucky.

[Jan in Notts]

Hi one of my friends is off on wednesday on Explore's "Taj, Tigers and Palaces" tour. She and her husband are late 30's and in the medical profession. The interesting thing is that they are taking their two sons aged 6 and 5 with them!! She has holidayed with Explore pre-kids so I am looking forward to hearing about the different experience. If you are interested I can pm you with her feedback when she returns. She has just emailed me the intinerary and it looks wonderful.

[Toasti]

I've been on 3 Explore holidays and I highly recommend them. The first one in my mid-twenties - I spent 5 weeks in Thailand on the Hilltribe Trek and Islands in the Sun combination. I also went to Venezuela about 5 years ago (in my early thirties), and Sweden last year.

On all trips the organisation was superb and there was a good variety of transport / sightseeing / activities. It's so well organised you fit more in than if you organised the trip yourself. The accommodation is basic but more than adequate.

It's true that the group makes a difference to the trip - in Thailand I couldn't have had a better time if I'd have hand-picked the other 15 people myself. On the other trips the people were nice enough, but not the same as Thailand. It's just luck I guess, but the advantage is that by the time you get to know people if they're really annoying it's nearly time to go home.

On all trips there was a pretty even mix of couples and singles which worked well, and there's a lower age limit of about 16 on all trips with special family adventures for people with younger kids. They pair you up to share a room with someone same sex and similar age which has been fine for me, but I've noticed that more recently the brochures have offered single occupancy at a supplement.

I'm looking to book something myself for later this year, now you've got me started where are those brochures?...

[Toasti]

Oh, and by the way, my standards of personal hygiene are impeccable