Questions about our tours
Before you book:
You are responsible for organising your own travel (including visas if necessary) to and from the start and end of the trip. You are also responsible for organising your own travel insurance (having travel insurance is a requirement of the trip). Apart from that, everything else is included.
There are many different offers and packages available for Sicily – all with different combinations of half-board/full-board and what is and is not included. As a result, choosing a trip can be very confusing, and choosing a non-inclusive package can easily end up far more expensive than the inclusive option.
Yes, we are fully compliant with requirements of the Trading Standards Authority for travel operators and your trip payment is protected by the International Passenger Protection scheme. For full details on this scheme, please see here.
Once you’ve booked a place on an Esplora tour, we ask that you hold off booking your flights until we have confirmed the tour as a Guaranteed Departure. We aim to do this as soon as we have sufficient bookings to run the tour (minimum 6 persons), and at the latest four months before the departure date.
Once a tour has been designated a Guaranteed Departure, we will not cancel it except in the case of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances beyond our control. Full details of our cancellation policy are set out in our [Terms & Conditions].
We know that many of our guests — particularly those travelling from the US, Australia, and other long-haul destinations — need to plan flights well in advance, and we do our best to confirm departures as early as possible. If you have a particular concern about flight booking timelines, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’ll let you know how bookings are looking for your tour.
Every Esplora tour needs a minimum of 6 travellers to become a Guaranteed Departure (see above). If a tour hasn’t reached that number by the four-month confirmation point, we’ll get in touch with everyone booked on it to talk through the options.
You can either move to a different departure of the same tour, or to a different tour entirely, at no extra cost, or receive a full refund of everything you’ve paid so far. If you’d rather keep your booking with us, we’re also happy to talk about ways to make that worth your while, such as a credit toward a future tour.
This is a rare situation — most of our tours reach Guaranteed Departure well before the four-month mark — but we’d rather be upfront about what happens on the occasions it doesn’t.
By all means send us an email telling us the dates you would like to travel and the latest date you would need a decision and we will place you on the reserve list. We do occasionally get cancellations so you could well be lucky.
Especially with the current frequent changes in government rules and foregin office advice regarding foreign travel, we completely understand if you would like to postpone your departure. If you would like to switch, we will be more than happy to move your booking to a different departure (subject to availability) any time up to 75 days before the departure of your original booking.
If there are no alternative departures for your tour showing in our calendar, we will be happy to move your booking, either to the following year or otherwise to a different tour.
But if you are feeling uncomfortable with your future tour departure and would like to postpone, do get in touch with us and we will do our best to accommodate your preferences.
Yes, absolutely. Single travellers are very welcome and are accommodated in a “double for single use” room. On some popular tours the number of single passengers may be limited but we will tell you if there are no more single places left on the tour you want to book.
To confirm your booking we ask for a deposit of 20% of the tour price, payable within 7 days of your booking being confirmed. The remaining balance is due at least 75 days before your departure date. If you book within 75 days of departure, the full tour price is payable at the time of booking.
If you need to cancel, charges apply depending on how far ahead of departure you cancel: more than 75 days before, 15% of the tour price; 75–57 days before, 25%; 56–43 days before, 50%; 42–28 days before, 75%; and less than 28 days before, no refund is given. If your reason for cancelling is covered by your travel insurance, you may be able to reclaim these charges — full details are in our Terms and Conditions.
We mainly take payment by bank transfer (customers in the US, Canada or Australia may find it cheaper to pay via an online broker — just ask us for suggestions). UK and EU customers can also pay by personal credit card, debit card, or cheque drawn on a UK bank. Customers outside the UK/EU can pay by debit or credit card, with a 3.5% fee for this method. We’re not able to accept payment from business or company cards, and any payment made within 75 days of travel must be by bank transfer.
Yes. If you’re travelling as a family or group of friends, get in touch and we can put together a bespoke, tailor-made itinerary to suit you — whether that’s a family reunion, a get-together of old friends, or anything in between.
Yes — many of our guests like to arrive a day or two early, stay on afterwards, or add a personal touch such as a private guide or an extra transfer. We’re happy to arrange this for you through our concierge service, drawing on our trusted network of suppliers across the Mediterranean. There’s a modest arrangement fee plus the cost of the service itself, and everything is confirmed with you in advance so there are no surprises.
Very likely, yes. If a tour you like the look of doesn’t currently have dates that suit you, get in touch and let us know — we’ll tell you about upcoming departures as soon as they’re confirmed, or you’re welcome to check back on our tour pages, which we update as new dates are added.
This varies quite a bit from tour to tour, depending on the destination and itinerary — some days involve several hours of walking on uneven or hilly terrain, while other tours are gentler, with shorter walks and more time spent travelling by coach or car. Take a look at the itinerary on the specific tour page for a feel for the daily pace, or get in touch and we can advise whether a particular tour is a good match for your fitness level.
Insurance, health & doucuments
Yes, we ask that all our guests have adequate travel insurance in place to cover them for the dates of their travels. Esplora Ltd do not sell travel insurance themselves but can offer suggestions of suitable companies for our UK guests. For our other guests, you may well be able to get a better deal locally.
As travel insurance is specific to the country you are resident in, you would purchase this in your home country. There are many levels of cover for travel insurance, but the most important thing is that it should include emergency illness cover (eg hospitalisation) and repatriation if necessary.
Almost certainly it will include cover for trip curtailment/interruption due to cancelled flights etc, but you may want to check this. Ideally, it should also cover trip cancellation due to being unable to travel due to illness.
Cover for lost luggage, lost personal items, flight delays, etc is nice to have but is of minor importance compared to the above.
Additionally, you may want to include cover for “cancellation for no reason” – this would be if you decide (for whatever reason) not to go ahead with your trip. This would cover you if – for example – you decided not to travel due to the illness of a close family member not connected with your travel plans. This level of cover is more expensive but will buy you complete peace of mind.
Many people have travel insurance included as part of their credit card plan. However, very frequently, this level of cover turns out to be less than ideal and insufficient for the purposes of international travel. If you are intending to use your credit card travel insurance, make sure that it does include all the cover you require.
By all means send us an email telling us the dates you would like to travel and the latest date you would need a decision and we will place you on the reserve list. We do occasionally get cancellations so you could well be lucky.
Further travel health advice can be found on
https://travelhealthpro.org.uk/countries
You can visit this page:
www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice
Since the UK left the EU, clients travelling to Europe must have passports issued less than 10 years before the date they enter the destination country and valid for at least 3 months after the day they plan to leave.
Getting there
You make your own way to the airport (usually this will be Catania airport for our Sicily trips) to be met at a pre-arranged rendezvous. (This is timed to coincide with flight arrivals). At the end of the tour, we will take you back to the airport, from whence you travel.
If you choose to arrive in Sicily before the tour start date, we can recommend suitable hotels close to the airport from which we can pick you up at the start of the tour.
We ask that our guests limit their luggage to one suitcase or holdall and one piece of hand luggage (for example a light day sack). We will assist with luggage in the hotels but we do ask that your suitcase is light enough for your to be able to carry or trolley short distances yourself and to keep the weight of your suitcase below fifteen kilos if at all possible. We do not travel in the cold time of year so it is unlikely that you will need to bring bulky coats or jackets.
Transfers from the main airport of arrival to the first night’s hotel on the first day of the tour are included in the price of your tour. Similarly, at the end of the tour we include transfers from your hotel to the main airport of departure.
If you have booked an extension stay with us at the first or last night’s hotel, we will also include the transfer in the price you have paid.
However, if you have booked a hotel extension yourself — either directly with the hotel or via a third party — we would not normally cover the transfer cost to and from this hotel. Similarly, transfer costs to and from other extension hotels at the start or end of your holiday are not covered by Esplora Travel.
As long as you’re arriving at the tour’s main airport on the official start day, your transfer to the first hotel is included whatever time your flight lands. If you’re flying into a different airport, or arriving on a different day, please let us know in advance so we can advise — as above, transfers outside of the main arrival airport and start/end dates aren’t included as standard, but we’re always happy to help you plan the best way to join the group.
What to expect on tour:
It is difficult to pin down a typical Esplora traveller! Sociable and convivial, they might have an interest in perhaps, gastronomy, mediterranean history or culture, art and architecture, or literature.
We choose our hotels very carefully and stay in comfortable 3 or 4 star hotels. In choosing our hotels, we look for somewhere characteristic and convenient – especially to minimise the distances we have to travel – but which is clean and quiet.
We travel with our luggage between hotels and sites in a comfortable, air-conditioned minibus. In the cities and on site we prefer to walk. Some of the sites (and Palermo) can be quite extensive so you should be fit enough to walk around them.
Food in Sicily is abundant and of extremely high quality. We go out of our way to let you taste the large variety and the very best. In Sicily, though, you will only be served food made from ingredients in season.
The tour leader will usually arrange the menu with the restaurant in advance to ensure a good balance of dishes is sampled throughout the tour.
Breakfast is taken in the hotel, lunch is usually a tasty picnic, while for supper we really treat ourselves with the local delicacies and wines.
Yes, absolutely. Single travellers are very welcome and are accommodated in a “double for single use” room. On some popular tours the number of single passengers may be limited but we will tell you if there are no more single places left on the tour you want to book.
Yes — we keep our tours small and personal. Most departures need a minimum of around 6 travellers to become a Guaranteed Departure, and we cap group sizes at a maximum of 14, so the experience stays intimate and our guides can give everyone proper attention. If a tour doesn’t reach that number, here’s what happens next.
Yes, all of our tours are guided in English throughout.
Our tours are led by expert, passionate local guides who live in the destination and know it intimately — bringing its history, culture and hidden corners to life in a way you won’t get from a generic guidebook tour.