Booking an Explorer round trip: payment, cancellation and cashback
Explorer is a Dusseldorf tour operator that sells guided and self-drive round trips, rail trips, group tours, rental cars and camper holidays to destinations in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas and the South Seas. Nothing is shipped, so what matters is how booking, payment and cancellation work. The site is in German, and the details below come from its help page and its terms for tour operators.
Booking and payment
You can pay by credit card (Visa or Mastercard) or by invoice and bank transfer. Visa and Mastercard payments carry no extra fee from the operator, while paying with American Express adds a surcharge of 3 percent. When you book, a deposit of 35 percent of the trip price falls due at once, and the remaining balance is due four weeks before departure.
Before you pay anything on a package trip, you are entitled to receive an insurance certificate that names the company protecting your money. Your travel documents arrive by email about 14 days before departure.
Getting to the airport
On all trips that include a flight, second class rail travel to and from the airport inside Germany is already in the price. Basel (EuroAirport) and Salzburg count as part of that area. Pick a connection with some buffer, because you are responsible for reaching the airport on time.
Cancelling and changing a booking
You can withdraw from a trip at any time before it starts, but the operator is then entitled to compensation that grows as departure gets closer. The flat rates in the terms are 35 percent of the total price up to day 42 before departure, 40 percent up to day 30, 50 percent up to day 22, 60 percent up to day 15, 70 percent up to day 8, 80 percent up to day 4, and 90 percent from day 3 or if you do not show up. You may prove that the operator's actual costs were lower.
Changes are limited too. From day 30 before departure, a change is only possible by cancelling and rebooking under the cancellation terms, unless it causes only minor costs. Changes of destination or number of people also work only that way. If you cannot travel, you can ask for a third person to take your place until the trip begins.
| At a glance | Explorer |
|---|---|
| Type | Tour operator, no physical shipping |
| Payment | Visa, Mastercard, invoice or bank transfer |
| Deposit | Due at booking, balance 4 weeks before departure |
| Travel documents | By email about 14 days before departure |
| Contact | Phone, WhatsApp or email, weekdays 9:00 to 18:00 |
Help before and during the trip
The team answers by phone Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 18:00, on request also outside these hours and on Saturdays, and via WhatsApp or email at [email protected]. During a trip there is a separate emergency number and email address in the help section. For visas, Explorer points to the service Visum Centrale. Flight times, check-in and luggage rules are on the website of the airline you booked.
Using cashback
Open the Explorer page at daily cashback, where the current rate ($5.61) is shown together with the offers we list. Press the shop button, then book as usual. In your free account the cashback first shows as open and becomes confirmed after the trip has been reported by the operator. If you cancel, the cashback for that booking is deducted again.
Tips
- Read the cancellation scale before you pay the deposit. After day 42 it only goes up.
- An insurance for trip cancellation is recommended in the terms and is not included in the price unless stated.
- Book in one go in the same browser session, so the click on the shop button is not replaced by another site.
As of October 2026