cwerdna

I'm contemplating going on an escorted package tour of Western Europe this year, possibly as early as end of October. At minimum, I'd like to visit Italy, France, Germany and the UK. Looking around, I'd think the trip should be at least 10 days but definitely <21 days.

I've done some international travel (mostly Asia, including 4 trips to Japan) but have never been to Europe nor booked complete tour packages before. It's been on my own or just with 1 day tours at the destination.

I was completely unfamiliar with the tour operators' names other than Globus until I found http://www.frommers.com/community/fo...-highlights/.0.

I'm 35 year-old single male and would be going solo. I've so far picked up names like Globus, Cosmos (owned by the same company as Globus, but cheaper?), Contiki, Insight and Trafalgar.

Any others I should consider or rule out due to price or age group?

I'm not looking for luxurious hotels and am more budget minded. Tours that give time too much to go shopping would be of little interest to me.

gtownguy

You've certainly covered the major players in the package tour business. Of course, there are many more, but lots of them specialize in one area or one country - like CIE Tours in Ireland. Collette Vacations is one more that you might look into.

Any package tour is going to skew toward an older demographic, and at 35, you will most likely be one of the younger (if not youngest) travelers. Of the ones you mentioned, Contiki is the only one that targets the younger traveler, up to age 35.

Insight is a little more upmarket while Globus and Trafalgar operate around the same price points. Cosmos is the less expensive Globus brand as you mentioned.

Since there are so many choices, I think speaking with a knowledgeable travel agent would be a good idea. Since they earn a commission on tour sales, I don't think you'd end up paying any additional booking fee or such.

schmare

You may also want to consider some of the small group tour operators, such as Intrepid or Imaginative Traveller.

I've used both of these companies (though not in Europe), and had a great experience. Group size will be in the 10-12 people range, rather than the 30-50 people on the bigger tours. Other differences:
- These companies use local transport rather than a chartered coach. I think this gives a more authentic feel, but it can mean longer travel days since you are not going straight from hotel to hotel.
- Accommodation can vary significantly, and is often at local guesthouses and pensions. Sometimes you'll have an amazing room, other times you'll be in a small room sharing a bath down the hall. I think both of these companies have premuim level trips which will have less variability in the accommodations.
- These trips tend to include fewer activities. The idea is that the group can split up in a city and you can choose what you want to see. Thus you are not paying for admissions to museums/sights etc. that aren't interesting to you. This works well on from a price perspective, but may not be good if you want to step back and let someone else take care of all the trip details.

I've found the online materials (trip notes, etc.) for both these companies to be quite good, so you should be able to figure out if this is the kind of travel that you'd enjoy.

keisari

You are in Seattle, right?????
Rick Steves is your local tour operator.......
check ricksteves.com and look specifically at the escorted tours. His website is very complete.
I am not a big fan of escorted tours and usually do the planning myself but I have heard his tours are great; they are more expensive but they include tons of stuff that the others charge extra. Also his groups are smaller.

Try to look at brendan tours; they are a very reputable company.
I have used them years ago for one of their "non escorted" tours of Ireland and things work out very well.

rankourabu

Forget Globus and Rick Steeves unless you want to be on a full bus with people twice your age, Contiki only if you are interested partying every night with 19yr olds.

I am 31, I have travelled with Intrepid before, and can recommend them as their style is a bit different, groups are much smaller and people are usually between 25 and 40.
Also check out gapadventures.com (tend to be younger crowd) and adventurecenter.com, the latter represents some more companies such as Imaginative Traveller (had a great time with them in Middle East), Explore and Exodus

cwerdna

LOL re: Contiki. Thanks, I'll have to look into these.

Yes. I live very close to Seattle. I'd always heard of his travel show but never had time to watch.

Normally, I'm not a big fan of escorted tours either, at least not complete packages (I've only done one day escorted tours before) but given I want to visit all these places and I've never been to Europe before and don't know all the travel logistics, I think an escorted tour would be best.

Thanks for all the suggestions and hints so far. I'm busy w/a whole bunch of stuff on my end but should have more time to look into all this after Friday.

cwerdna

To follow up on an ancient thread. If anyone cares, I did end up going on Contiki. I was at the edge of their age limit and am now beyond it (AFAIK).

I found out later that it was known as the "spew and screw" tour company. Overall, it was a good tour and I was the oldest if not close to the oldest on the tour.

Most of the folks were from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. There weren't many Americans on it. I found it interesting to meet so many folks from those countries, as I'd hardly ever met anyone from any of those three, esp. SA. Many of them tended to stay up late partying/drinking. Unfortunately, that meant that everyone was getting sick and it spread amongst the group.

We weren't allowed to drink on the bus, but some flaunted the rules anyway.

A few of the folks seemed to have some personal responsibility issues.

Some almost missed the bus on the departure from London (early in the morning), which was the beginning of the tour, because they'd been up late drinking the night before.

Another guy missed the bus, twice! Once he woke up in a hospital and he'd forgotten to bring the list of our hotels, in case we get separated from the group. The police showed him a list and luckily, he was able to remember the hotel name. He made it back to the hotel, but still missed the bus.

We were in Munich when it was snowing when the above happened. I'm guessing that he passed out somewhere and someone called the police, which is how he ended up in the hospital.

Another guy made a hilarious mistake. He'd been out drinking, came back to his room (we were in Italy) and turned on his shower and passed out. When he woke up, he said his said his room was all foggy/steamy, since he'd left the hot water running all night. He ended up using up most/all of the hot water as others on our tour complained they had no hot water for a shower, in morning.

It didn't affect me as I took a shower at night.

Anyhow, it was ok that I ducked out of the partying and drinking.

Thank you all for your help! It was interesting. I somehow didn't get sick until the last day or two of the trip. Unfortunately, I was sick for about a month. I don't really have any regrets about going though. I got to see a LOT of Europe and it'd have been really painful for me to try to plan hitting all those sites myself.