All Latin America Tours from Explore!

All Latin America Explore! Tour Reviews

• Gail21 Nov, 2023

  4

  Our group of six enjoyed the trip. We were happy to see the monkeys, sloths, and different insects, but were disappointed that we only saw one toucan and one parrot. Our guide, Juan Carlos, was very knowledgeable and he, along with our great driver, Gustavo, tried very hard for find animals for us. The itinerary changed and because we did not know when we would be at different sites we could not make advanced reservations for things like parasailing or white water rafting which were listed as optional activities that we could book on our own. We found your website very frustrating since we had to enter the same information in numerous times. The hotels and buffets were okay, nothing special. We are not sure we would book with this company again.

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  Highlights of Costa Rica
• Sara24 Feb, 2020

  5

  Miguel, the tour guide on this trip, was excellent! Many years of experience in all of the countries you will visit and loads of local information to share. Explore offered the itinerary I was looking for, including Nicaragua and El Salvador. I took the north-to-south version of the trip. Guatemala was a surprise highlight for me. Antigua is a great place to start, very charming old city. I also loved Copan (really wonderful local guide there), Leon, Granada and San Juan. I didn’t really like the Costa Rica part, but that’s more personal preference. I think I would have liked other parts of CR (Monteverde, pacific coast) much more. You do get a fair bit of free time, so it helps to look ahead of time for things you want to see/do in places. Even with the optional activities for the free days, they take several hours but you still have time to explore or swim/lounge. Most dinners were group dinners, which others asked for. There are plenty of options though if you prefer to eat earlier or elsewhere. It takes a long time to serve 16 ppl. There are a couple longer travel days, and one really long day of 13H to get from Suchitoto to Leon. Pack your patience for that day. We used three different mini buses for the tour: one for Guatemala to Nicaragua border (very nice vehicle and wonderful driver), one for Nicaragua (vehicle not so great), and one for Costa Rica (very good vehicle and driver). Our group was 15, and the buses were smallish (only one empty seat) so several people get stuck each day with the two wheel well seats in the back or the cramped front seat. We rotated around to alleviate the hardship but bigger vehicles would be really nice. You’ll spend a lot of time driving. Mind the luggage limits! Hotels were mostly good, except in Granada (pool was really nice but mosquitoes in rooms despite being sprayed) and Cano Negro (I didn’t care for it, jungle garden and river means more bug bites for me, though none in rooms, but others thought setting was lovely). Pack good insect repellent!!!! More breakfasts were included than noted in trip details. They were simple but pretty good. There is a Tip Kitty of $50 USD, which I somehow missed in the pretrip notes but was grateful for. USD widely accepted but Miguel also helps to change money at borders if you have local left when switching countries. Border crossings went fine, again with Miguel’s assistance. On our trip, all border crossing fees came to about $30 USD total. Best to have smaller USD for this (e.g., you’ll pay $3-4 for Honduras three times, once for Copan, again on the way to Suchitoto because you cross back to Guatemala then back to Honduras before getting to El Sal., and finally when you transit across Honduras between Suchitoto to Leon). As the trip went on, most countries were asking about any recent travel to China. And when I left Costa Rica to fly to Panama (on my own, not part of tour), I needed to show my yellow fever card. So check entry requirements if you are adding on destinations. Overall pleased with the trip, happy with group (mostly from UK), and thought guide was exceptional. If you are comparing Central America tours, this one is super!!!

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  Central American Highlights
• Edith25 Feb, 2023

  4

  The tour leader was excellent and so was the itinerary. We didn’t like the excursion on the yacht because it was very loud although we enjoyed dancing. Didn’t love the hotel in Ste Martha which was a huge white room. We would recommend you provide water every day as it is necessary, inexpensive and would make things more comfortable. We were pickpocketed on day 1 before the tour started in the evening. I would emphasize the danger of pickpockets in your written notes. This happened between arrival and the welcome dinner. I also think the food could have been better. There were only 2 places with really good food, montmartre being one of them. It is important to have a good food experience when travelling. Many meals were disappointing and sometimes inedible. Otherwise we had a very good experience.

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  Contrasts of Colombia