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9 reasons why 2025 is the year to join a small group tour

Whether you’re looking forward to meeting new people or want to use up your annual leave, now is a great time to book a small group holiday. Join our expert tour leaders and make up precious lost time in 2025.

 

Get out there and meet people

Our small group tours are the perfect way to kickstart 2025. There's no time to feel lonely as you travel with like-minded people, and you’ll likely make new friends for life as you explore exotic destinations and share amazing moments. Swap campfire stories under the bright stars of the Jordan desert, or navigate the contrasting landscapes of Japan by bullet train in excellent company.

Use your extra holiday

Not had the opportunity to use up all of your annual leave, or been saving your holiday for an extra special trip? Now is the time to cash in those days and enjoy some well-deserved time off. Whether you blow it all on a lengthy two-week tour across Vietnam and Cambodia or take a couple of short breaks to Iceland’s Golden Circle or a discovery trip to Croatia, you’ll be spoilt for choice with our variety of small group adventures.

Make up for lost time

Don’t wait for tomorrow to come; play catch-up on all of the adventures you’ve missed with a small group trip in 2025. If you’ve not been able to travel as much as you usually would, now is as good a time as ever to fulfil your wanderlust. Whisk the kids away to Italy for some fun family time in the sun, recoup time with friends on a trek up Jebel Toubkal in Morocco, or make up lost miles in the saddle on a small group cycling tour along the west coast of Portugal.

Loyalty club membership - from your very first trip

Make the most of the new and improved Explore loyalty club in 2025. To show our gratitude for your ongoing support, we’ve added many extra benefits, including special offers and partner discounts. Plus, you can now start saving faster, with partner discounts available after just one trip. And if you want to travel with a group of eight friends, we’ll give you the ninth place absolutely free! With all of these great offers available, there’s never been a better time to start travelling with us.

Expert local leaders

Immerse yourself in the local culture and really get under the skin of a destination with the expert guidance of our passionate local tour leaders. From looking after all of the logistics and sharing first-hand knowledge to ensuring everyone in the group is kept safe and helping you navigate local customs and etiquette, our small group tour guides will go the extra mile to make your 2025 adventure one to remember.

You'll be fully-protected

All of our tours come with a ten days no-fee flexibility so you can book your 2025 holiday with confidence. Explore is also a Feefo Gold Trusted Service Award winner so you can rest assured that we will always do the right thing should your trip be cancelled, you need to self-isolate, or you want to swap to another tour. And although we embrace the friendliness of a small travel business, we offer the financial security of being part of a large cooperative family.

Try travelling solo

Whether you regularly explore the world alone or want to travel solo for the first time, all of our small group trips are perfect if you want to join on your own. A wide variety of solo explorers book onto our tours, and they typically make up half of the people on our trips. Travelling solo is a great way to meet new people, take on a new challenge, savour the local culture, and have the freedom to visit places that you have always wanted to see.

Sustainable travel experiences

Here at Explore, we care deeply about responsible tourism, so our trips are designed to positively affect the people and places we visit across the world. We're keen to emphasise the importance of travelling responsibly, and we are more committed than ever to our sustainability goals - we're proud to be a Certified B Corp. From eliminating single-use plastic across all of our trips and improving animal welfare to introducing more low-carbon travel options such as rail holidays and continuing our fair employment practices, we are working hard to reduce our impact.

Tick off your bucket list

Ready to fulfil your dreams and tick a few more destinations off your travel bucket list? 2025 is the perfect opportunity. If life feels too short, don’t hesitate to book the trips that you’ve always longed to do. From walking the Inca Trail in Peru or climbing Kilimanjaro to searching for the Big Five on safari in South Africa or cruising coral atolls of the Maldives, we've got all of the once-in-a-lifetime adventures to suit you.

 

Which small group adventure will you choose?

You may be convinced that 2025 is the year for your big return to travel, but where will choose to visit first? From trips exploring the desert cities of Jordan to wildlife safaris in South Africa, we've got hundreds of once-in-a-lifetime small group tours to choose from.
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