WorldStrides review: Trip was a nightmare to setup

I have learned a great deal from this trip and experience, although most of it has been negative and not what I would ever want to happen on a trip again. Working with WorldStrides has been one of the most frustrating and stressful aspects of trip planning that I have ever experienced. Working with WorldStrides/Explorica has been some of the most irritating customer service I have ever encountered. Throughout the setup process for this expensive trip for 15 people, I have felt ignored, belittled, dismissed, and insulted multiple times.

To provide full transparency, I am a teacher who used Explorica/WorldStrides for one of their educational trips to Spain with my students and some parents. Initially, we had a group of 15, but due to the poor management of this company, some parents pulled their children from the trip due to cost concerns. Building an international trip program at my school, this experience with WorldStrides has been a disaster. To regain the trust of parents, I have had to seek out a new company for future trips.

The lack of attention to detail from a company with as much experience and presence in the travel industry as WorldStrides is surprising. Small errors, like misspelling my name on emails, are common and indicate a "good enough" mentality. My colleague and I frequently caught mistakes that we had to bring to our rep's attention, only to be met with hostility or ignored. Asking questions yielded copy-pasted responses that did not address our concerns or complete ignorance for weeks at a time. Any issues we raised were met with hostility, reminding us of the terms and conditions we had agreed to.

One major concern was a very tight layover in Paris that almost caused our group to miss an international flight. Despite expressing our worries, our rep refused to assist us, repeatedly pointing us to the terms and conditions. Contacting customer service was unhelpful, as we were often directed to different departments or faced with a "not my problem" attitude. It took a considerable effort to ensure we would not be stranded during our return flight, with no assurances of additional costs for rebooking.

Our trip was initially scheduled for March but was moved to June. Despite our concerns about Holy Week in Spain, our rep assured us it wouldn't be an issue. However, last-minute changes were proposed in December that required more money. The options presented were for different trips unrelated to our original itinerary. Any objections were met with reminders of the terms and conditions, and additional costs were ignored.

The only positive aspect of the trip was our exceptional tour guide, Alvaro, who made our experience in Spain wonderful. Many travel methods chosen by WorldStrides seemed to prioritize cost over efficiency, resulting in lengthy bus rides when faster options were available.

In conclusion, I would strongly advise against using this company due to the frustrating experiences and disrespectful treatment that seems to be standard practice with WorldStrides.