exploring other planets, NOT heavy on technical mumbo jumbo

[Empress]

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - The Characters don't stop in many places (they do), but one of the main characters is thrown into a world that she was not part of, so she sees everything with new eyes. So there is a lot of talk about alien cultures. It's not technical, it's a very accessible book. You also get some alien's perspective.

Also have a look at this book The Trouble with Humans - I haven't read it, and I'm not sure if any of the stories are about exploration, but it may be of interest to you.

Edit: There are a lot of books with exploration and discovery elements, or alien point-of-view but a book that explores multiple worlds/universes is something I would love to read as well. Subscribed.

Edit2: Check out these as well: The Ship Who Searched, Intrepid

[El]

The Sparrow and Children of God by Mary Doria Russell. If there were scientific explanations they were not terribly realistic and easy to ignore. (Sorry, it's been a bit since I read them so memory is murky now. Still, it's more about the first contact/relationship with the planet than heavy scientific information, if that helps.)

[Ceilidh]

Maybe The Lost Planet by Rachel Searles?

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Their Majesties' Bucketeers is set on an alien world (that is about the technical level of the late Victorian Age) with all aliens. But it's an interesting story, so thought I'd toss it out there.

The Last Planet in the dieing days of the Galactic Empire a lone ship of the Stellar Patrol crash lands on an alien world. This one is an interesting book because it's about the survival of the crew of the SP ship and their attempts to help a luxury liner that crashed around the same time that they did. There is a very interesting twist at the end of the book which I loved the first time I read this book.

And if you are just after the interactions between humans and aliens, I'm going to suggest that you check out the Sector General novels. Sector General is a giant hospital that cares for many different species (many of which are NOT humanoid, btw, which is something that I enjoyed.) Hospital Station is the first book. Some of the books are collections of short stories revolving around the same medical characters with different patients. Some are full length novels.

[Shanna_redwind]

Survival. This series has lots of different planets and aliens.
The Color of Distance
Midworld
Tunnel in the Sky
Exiles of Colsec
Rite of Passage
The Sparrow
Sentenced to Prism This was one of my favourites
Stardoc
Freedom's Landing
Grimspace

[Rosa]

The Book of Strange New Things

[Empress]

Alexandra wrote: "the book doesn't necessarily have to have multiple planets in it, because i know that is probably hard to find. just one planet will do lol thanks again!"

Well, I still would recommend" The Long Way to A Small Angry Planet", also ...

Remnant Population might be appropriate. It's more first contact type of story. It's not tech-heavy.
Reefsong is an adventurous novel about people adapted to aquatic life on another planet.
Ringworld - I'm almost certain I read a translation of this many years ago. I think it may somewhat fit your requirement. Unless I'm confusing the book.
Foreigner

Also you might want to check Allen Steele's books:
Coyote and Arkwright - unfortunately I'm not sure about the technical mumbo jumbo. Might want to check out a preview.

Mission of Gravity
Eden
Icerigger
When Worlds Collide series

I also think The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy might be appropriate recommendation for this topic.

Might sound weird but Heinlein Juveniles is good as well.