Expat Explore Travel Avis 140

Scenic Europe was a wonderful trip. The tour guide made everything fun(even long bus rides). The other travelers were fun too. There were families, friend groups and solo individuals on the trip. Switzerland was incredible. Absolutely my favorite part of the trip. I wish we’d had another day there. The day was jam packed already but we squeezed in Paragliding!
I highly recommend Scenic Europe and Expat.

My first trip to South America was a resounding success, with memorable experiences that exceeded expectations. Through this journey, I gained insight into the vibrant South American culture, delighted in authentic culinary delights, and refined my palate with exceptional wines. Kudos to Zema Lopes for curating a wonderful itinerary that balanced guided experiences with leisure time. Can’t wait to see his other planned trips for the future!
Thank you Expat Explore Travel for this wonderful adventure!

We joined the 8-day European Vistas tour and had an incredible experience with our tour guide, Emma Oszvald, and driver, Sam. Emma was exceptionally professional, knowledgeable about every destination, and brought a great sense of humor and warmth to the journey. Sam was not only helpful and accommodating but also patient and ensured a smooth and safe ride throughout the trip. We highly recommend this tour to anyone looking to explore multiple countries in a short time frame.

The tour was well planned, covered a lot of ground and delivered what it promised. Our tour guide, Marysol, was outstanding. She was a walking encyclopedia of Spain and Portugal and seemed to know everything. In addition, she was upbeat, cheerful, and got along with everyone. She was happy and unrattled in every circumstance. I would definitely go on tour with her again.

We travelled on the Expat Explore's 'Balkan Explorer', sixteen day trip in July and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a very full on tour from early morning to late evenings, so you need to be fit and active, as there is a lot of walking on the tours, but for us was well worth it for the amazing cities and countries we visited and the experiences we had in ten countries in such a short period of time.

Our Tour Guide Will was fantastic, very knowledgeable, great fun and incredibly patient, quietly sorting out any issues that occurred! Safety is also so important and we had a careful, patient driver, Panos, throughout the tour, who also helped with border clearances.

We did have 36 people on the tour, which was the first time we have travelled with such a large tour group, and it did have its challenges, especially when arriving at a small hotel with 36 people checking in and, on a couple of occasions, only one lift available. However for the great value cost of the tour, it was a small inconvenience. The hotels we stayed in were very comfortable, always included breakfast and were always conveniently close to the Old Towns in the major cities, and in Lake Ohrid we had lovely views over the lake.

There were many included activities, meals and tours, as well as optional tours. We participated in everything and booked all the optional tours on offer. The Dinner Cruise in Budapest on the Danube was a big highlight (as we had our own cruise boat for our group), as were our included tours at Lake Ohrid in North Macedonia, Plitvice Lakes in Croatia and the beautiful city of Ljubljana in Slovinia. In Greece there was an optional food tour we loved and we really enjoyed the Tour of the Acropolis as well as a Greek Night which was great fun. The Albanian Night in Tirana is a must do, we all loved it! There were too many activities to name them all!

We learned so much about the Balkans and its history that we could never have done travelling on our own. We visited many beautiful historical cities, such as the Old Towns of Kotor in Montenegro and Dubrovnik in Croatia, as well as the stunning monasteries built into the hills in Meteora and the ruins at Delphi. So many good memories! Thank you Expat Explore, Will and Panos.

Gr8 guide in Erin and super bussie in John from Romania, whole trip superb.

The guide and driver were excellent—professional, friendly, and knowledgeable. However, the condition and amenities of the bus were very disappointing. Several features did not work properly. For instance, once a seat was reclined, it couldn’t be returned to the upright position. There was no Wi-Fi.

The most serious issue was the onboard restroom. At one point, it became unusable due to overflowing and an inability to flush. Because we were stuck in traffic and unable to stop, people continued using it, which made the situation worse. We were informed that there were only a few places to empty the waste, but incredibly, this was never done over the course of 26 days—even with a full group of passengers. The resulting odor was unbearable and extremely unsanitary.

Some of the optional excursions were not worth the cost. One example was the "Highlights of Barcelona" tour. The guide led us around just a few city blocks, and during the tour, we came across a man removing waste from a sewer. While several members of our group were visibly nauseated, the guide continued chatting with the man and insisted on taking us down the alley where he was working. At that point, we left the tour. It was a very disappointing experience and definitely not worth the extra money.

Overall, while the staff tried their best, the poor condition of the bus and the quality of some excursions made this a frustrating and uncomfortable trip.

Great way to see Great Britian. Group was great. Pauline the tour guide was fantastic, Very knowledgeable and helpful.

The itinerary was good. The Hotels were comfortable. The service in the restaurant in Warsaw was very slow and some of our tour group left before main course. Our tour guide Rogan did his best to hurry things up. It ruined the night after the concert. You should review your rules on people with contagious conditions eg. someone with a bad cough caused several people on bus to be infected with illness. The tour guide should be instructed to implement mask wearing for people who have a continuous bad cough. We can recommend Rogan as an informative and entertaining tour guide. He was very patient and helpful.

What made my trip great was the itinerary, my friendly travel companions I met & Eoin, a fabulous knowledgeable host

We had an awesome guide and leader in Rachelle. Very informative, great at keeping the tour group on time and functioning. Both bus drivers (this was actually two tours sold combined, Scenic Europe and Taste of Eastern Europe) but we had Rachelle for both tours) were brilliant drivers and got the bus through some tricky situations with we passengers always feeling safe.

This was my first Expat trip, I shortly after did the Balkan Explorer one, which I would also highly recommend. These tours don't quite has the social interaction aspect as your Intro Travel, Intrepid, G Adv style ones do, granted they have smaller groups/buses etc. But these being coach tours attract more older travelers and more couples and family/friend groups. So less solo travelers. But there are still a few and some younger adult demographic as well.

For me the social aspect is why I would spend more money doing a tour, rather than catch trains etc all the time by myself. I do these tours sort of to have a break but also to share experiences. So I'd probably do one of the rivals I mentioned if the tours were around the same price, but I did enjoy these Expat ones.

The hotels were mostly fine. The breakfast staff at the starting point hotel (Mercure Munich which we returned to twice more on the tour) were rude and told people off for making a roll when they had flights to catch and couldn't sit down to eat, or in my case filling up a 200ml water bottle in the very place I was told to by a different staff member when I asked the bar if they could on my first stay. Training is needed there with customer service, the last impression you have of a hotel is the breakfast when leaving. This is not the time to try and enforce rules that exist only in your own head.

The itinerary could have been better. The Scenic Europe tour could have ended/started in Salzburg for example rather than going to Munich three times. It's an easy direct quick train to Munich airport for the off chance someone still books return flights with one airline. Returning to Munich mid tour that so much time is already spent at on day 1, is overkill. More time in Nuremberg is also needed as that is a surprise destination (huge castle, medieval old town, rivers, parks, shopping). I also stayed on the Balkan tour in central Budapest which was so much better than the Western suburbs hotel location this tour used. Way easier to just walk out the door and see stuff.

Some of the restaurants used weren't the best, such as the waiter in Interlaken who made fun of everyone's food allergies. Most people on both tours would have preferred less sit down meals, more street food type experiences too

But overall, Expat is a fun travel experience, it's safe, it is informative, the share a room thing is done well. Not so much a fan of the seat rotation thing on the bus. Surely just a schedule for the front seats and any other popular ones would fulfill the same objective.

The guide was wonderful. I had some health issues and she was very conscientious and concerned about me. My 2 granddaughters and my daughter-in-law were my guests for this trip and the guide made sure we were all enjoying ourselves. This was my 4th trip with Expat and I have been impressed each time.

This is our 2nd Expat tour and as expected, the tour was amazing!!!! We had so much fun with Gustavo as our tour guide and Mario as our driver. We did all the optional excursions. Lots of walking but mostly fun with all the people we’ve met on the tour. I don’t think we can be able to visit all the city we visited if we did not join the tour. My favorite place we visited was OBIDOS and PORTO, they are so pretty and picturesque. All picture we took looks like a postcard❤️

We went to Japan with Expat Explore and absolutely loved the dynamics, diversity, choices of hotels and transportation, experiences and our group of travellers who become like our family! So much learning, tasting and experiencing! So many great memories and friends for life time.

We had Roma as Tour Guide! She is simply the best!! Matteo as our Coach Driver was also wonderful, driving us safely everywhere. My only dislike was time spent in Palermo. Would have preferred more time in Syracuse or Agrigento. Sicily and Southern Italy is definitely one of my favourite destinations.❤️

We had a great time with this tour highlights of every place we visited are stunning,good food and an experienced of a lifetime. Highly recommended.

We enjoyed everything about our tour! Our Tour leader Laura was amazing! When we take Tours with Expat in the future, I genuinely hope that we have one with Laura! She was knowledgeable, personable, friendly, and just a joy! We also met some friends that we kept in touch after the tour. I was referred by a friend who has taken Tours with Expat before and we were blown away!

Best tour guide Luke, professional, fun and organised. We had a great group of people and enjoyed the sights and sounds of UK and Ireland. The tour was fast paced but always fun and interesting.

The tour itself was great, but thd tour leader knew his stuff,Primož was spot on with honesty, knowledge and handling situations

Erin the tour guide is absolutely amazing. Her communication skills are very professional and effective. She plays the “Wake up song by The Vamps” to let everyone know before a service/comfort stop. Therefore everyone is ready to get off of the bus and use the facility. She was able to assist with our need use a taxi instead of walking due to our mobility issues that developed during our journey. She honestly loves what she does and creates a “family” setting with 40 random strangers.
John the driver was incredibly skilled at maneuvering the vast bus into tight spaces so we could be as close as possible. Loaded and unloaded luggage with a smile. Extremely professional, capable and friendly. We felt very comfortable with his experienced and safe driving skills.
While sometimes the timelines felt a little tight. We were able to see many countries over 12 days. This was a new way for us to travel. Enjoyed the convenience of having someone else arrange transportation, hotel accommodations and many of the food options. It is like getting the sampler platter of multiple countries. Unfortunately, we had envisioned a more traditional German beer hall experience than what we had. While Expat is not the provider for the food, the service in Germany was not up to standard. In Paris, the restaurant was trying to accommodate three bus tours at one time in one room. therefore it was understaffed and overwhelming.
Overall, we are thrilled that we decided to try a different way of traveling and now know that there are a lot of steps and a lot of walking involved. Free time gives you the option to sit at a café or wander off by yourself for a predetermined amount of time.
The company as a whole does an amazing job of communication and assistance whenever needed.
Alan and Deanna from Indiana