How was your Explore Tour Leader?

Brilliant! Totally in control, very professional, always attentive, fantastic knowledge (especially on the natural world) and with a great sense of humour. I couldn't fault him or his team who also deserve recognition of the highest order.

What tips would you give to someone else booking this tour?

Get plenty of cycling practice in before you go and understand that the roads will often be very busy. However, excellent well maintained bikes with high spec very suitable for the trip and despite the busy chaotic roads I loved it and never felt unsafe.

 

How was your Explore Tour Leader?

Brilliant. So knowledgeable and concerned for everybody's welfare. Unflappable when things went wrong. Great sense of humour at all times. Couldn't do enough to help people e.g. arranging things for people after the tour was finished. He was an expert ornithologist which was quite a plus point for me.

What tips would you give to someone else booking this tour?

Practise your biking skills. Some of the group had clearly not been on a bike for a few years and although it was classed as easy the tour did have its challenges.

Do you have anything else to add?

Try to encourage the hotels to provide a little more variety at breakfast. After 2 weeks I was getting a bit tired of variations on a curry theme. Also the bread for toasting was horribly sweet plus some indescribable "jam". Hard boiled eggs saved my life! Also tell them that westerners don't all live off cornflakes for breakfast.

How was your Explore Tour Leader?

Krishna was extremely personable, knowledgeable and helpful. He made the holiday the success that it was.

Do you have anything else to add?

The trek was the least enjoyable part of the trip as the guide did not impart any knowledge (he lacked communication skills) and the trek was uninteresting.

How was your Explore Tour Leader?

Excellent tour leader SK assisted by Vijay, bike doctor and drivers

What tips would you give to someone else booking this tour?

"Having done some 20 Explore trips, this was one of the best and well deserves the praise given by other reviewers.
BUT, the trip notes give the impression that most of the cycling would be on quiet lanes and paths.  In fact, about 40% was on roads.  Some of these roads were major roads, and even the ""backroads"" were very busy. Indian traffic is a nightmare and the only rule seems to be to blast the horn and go for it.  This could be very intimidating and frightening for anyone who is nervous about vehicles and traffic."

 

How was your Explore Tour Leader?

Nice guy, but perhaps lacking the experience to find a way to communicate his knowledge and insight to the cyclists.  Not helped by the fact that this was the first time he had run this tour........

 

What tips would you give to someone else booking this tour?

It's quite difficult to spend a lot of money there!

 

 

How was your Explore Tour Leader?

Excellent, knowledgeable, well organised and humorous.

What tips would you give to someone else booking this tour?

Fitness wise,a spin class and 10-15 mile cycle ride each week for a couple of months before going was ample. Bus used by less fit for hills. Bikes excellent,  gel covers on wide seats and small handlebar bag for essentials i.e. instamatic camera, loo tissue and hand sanitiser. Baggy knee length shorts best, but cycling shorts fine with a sarong for the temples. Strappy vest tops got disapproving looks. No need for bath towels, a cotton sarong made the best beach towel. Take a few coathangers, line and pegs and sink plug, plus plug in mosquito repellent. Too hot to want  SLR camera on my back, but definitely worth taking and keeping in accompanying bus. Water provided fitted onto bike. Line your stomach with a cholera vaccine or course of pro-biotic drinks/yoghurts before you go.

Do you have anything else to add?

The Cochi boat trip and the city tour were an anti-climax after our scenic backwaters boat trip and necessitated the only long coach and train trip on the tour (admittedly we had an usual day of rain so couldn't cycle there). We'd have preferred longer in the hills at the fantastic Vanilla County Guesthouse. The hotels' standard was good so at the homestay  the hard mattress and fan, rather than air con, meant a couple of poor nights sleep despite the warm welcome, but those that got to dress in saris seemed more enthusiastic and overall it was worth the 'real life' experience. Would suggest fewer 'group' meals for large numbers as despite pre-ordering the kitchens struggle to cope, perhaps group buffets would work better.

From the moment I left the airport at Trivandrum I knew that I was going to love Kerala and the cycling tour.  Despite being the youngest in the group by 18 years, I never felt like I didn't belong in the group and was happy to spend my holiday with a lovely group of people.  Our Indian guides were excellent and keen to give us an insight into their country and culture, and they worked very hard to ensure that the holiday ran smoothly and was enjoyable for everyone. I felt that cycling through the countryside allowed us to see a country that few other tourists will be lucky enough to experience.  It was a pleasure cycling through villages, saying hello to locals and school children, seeing beautiful beaches and backwaters, cycling in the fresher air through the tea plantations, and then doing a city sightseeing tour of Cochin by bike.  The pace of the cycling was not too fast, not too slow, and was very varied in terms of distance and terrain and no-one was pressured to cycle anything they didn't feel up to.  Yes, you do have be very aware of traffic, but so long as you are sensible, you're in no danger.  The mountain bikes were very good quality and well looked after, and it was sad saying goodbye to the bike at the end. All the locals that we met were very kind and welcoming, especially in the homestays.  If you're female and young, my only advice would be to make sure your cycling kit includes t-shirts with sleeves and longer shorts, or loose shorts for cycling so that you don't risk offending any locals.  I can't tell you my favourite bit of the trip because it was all excellent.  Explore have created an amazing and diverse itinerary.  I really didn't want to come home....

We had planned to go Cycling in Kerala months before the snow paralysed Heathrow. Horrors: we’d booked precisely the wrong day and it threatened to ruin our Christmas and New Year 2010/11. But thereafter we laid back: the Explore home team dug us out calmly and efficiently and, luckily, we were able to make the next tour in good time. Better still, the insurance payout for the delay left us quids in; thereafter it was pretty much exciting bliss. This was our fourth Explore holiday: we’d been to Madeira, Poland and Jordan, and they were all great - but this was superb. We still often travel independently, but there’s no way we could have packed in all the pleasure, richness, variety and learning we enjoyed if we’d attempted Kerala on our own. Had we tried, it would certainly have taken much longer, cost much more and deprived us of the pleasure of doing it with a great group of people and an outstanding team leader too. The bikes were excellent, but we didn’t only cycle: we had the bus and used trains, boats, and of course feet – and at one point, where the road had been washed away, the group+bikes made it seamlessly in a relay of canoes. I’d guess we covered about 800km in all, but distance is no object when there’s probably something colourful, wonderful and/or extraordinary around every other bend. Our 460-odd photos prove the point. It wasn’t quite like being on another planet: it was sometimes very strange and always exotic, but there was nothing alien about it. There were only ever negligible exceptions to the general rule: everyone there seemed infectiously smiley, and wonderfully friendly, curious, generous and welcoming. As holidays go, this was by far the most subversive: forget the return ticket. Let’s just stay in Kerala, on and on.  I seriously hesitate to mention it, because I wouldn’t want to tempt those nice people at Explore to bump up their prices – but honestly, this holiday represented superb value. And whoever planned our itinerary deserves huge credit – for great imagination and sensitivity to local custom and practice, quite apart from their understanding of what Explorers might want to do and take in. Over and above some grand tour strategy, the attention to detail was brilliant: whoever dunnit must have worked their sandals off, whatever else. They should feel as proud as others would feel grateful for what they accomplished. This was our best holiday in decades. Trust me: my critical faculties are not just intact: some would say they are grossly over-developed – so it’s all the nicer to recommend this tour without reservation. It’s stunningly good. You end up drenched in highlights, so many that it would be absurd to choose between them. All in all, it felt memorable, going on life-changing. And there was a quite unexpected bonus for me: pre-Kerala, I was a committed carnivore, I am now a devotee of spicy vegetables and fruit even more…  Huge thanks to Ali (group leader), to everyone in the group (absolutely no exceptions) and to the planners and prime movers at Explore. Thank you all so much: it was a real treat. Charles and Caroline.(CKB - end January  2011)

Wonderful homestay at Vanilla County, lovely old house, welcoming hosts. (CKB - 1st November 2010)

This was my first Explore trip andI will definatly be going on more trips with them. Cycling around the beautiful countryside, villages and mountains was a great way to see the country. It really felt like a holiday as we mainly cycled in the morning then free time in the afternoon before an evening adventure: boat trip, cultural dance show, group meal. Also so many other adventures like visiting rockpools and riding elephants. My best holiday in a long time. (24th November 2010)

This was a great holiday for anyone interested in seeing an utterly beautiful, relatively contained region of southern India from a bike, without the cycling being so hard core that you need to be super-fit. 3-4 hours of relatively easy-going cycling per day allowed plenty of time for a load of other things to be integrated into the trip. The trip includes a lovely combination of cycling and site-seeing, with great diversity of nature, culture, beaches and fun. It was also great to have the opportunity to spend some time with some locals through our homestay visits, which was definitely one of the highlights. January is a good time of year to do this trip, before things in Kerala hot up too much. I'd recommend this trip to anyone looking for an inspiring and stimulating, and still relaxing 2-weeks away. (CKB- 1st January 2010)