European Travel: Contiki, Trafalgar, or ...?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My expedited passport is on its way, so it’s time to book my first ever trip out of North America: 10-11 days hopping from London to Paris to Rome. Since I’ll be traveling alone, I’ve been looking into tour groups such as Trafalgar and Contiki. I’m usually an independent sort of person, but in the case of such a whirlwind trip, I’d rather leave the logistics of hotel-booking and transit arrangements in someone else’s hands.

Does anyone here have any first hand experience with these companies, or others? The conventional wisdom seems to be that Contiki, which caters to 18-35-year-olds, is a nonstop party, and Trafalgar caters to doddering oldsters. I’m guessing both these claims are pretty exaggerated.

As a laid-back but not-very-social 29-year old male, I’m wondering which group is more in my wheelhouse. I do enjoy the occasional night out drinking, but I don’t relate well to frat boys. I’m mature, but I don’t relate well to my parents. I’m sure with either group, I’ll be free to go off and be my nerdly self with my cool new high def video camera, but if anyone here has any anecdotal evidence as to which company might make more sense personality-wise, I’d love to hear it.

(Sigh…come to think of it, 29 is an awkward age in my everyday life as well.)

2

[QUOTE=The Shroud]
Does anyone here have any first hand experience with these companies, or others? The conventional wisdom seems to be that Contiki, which caters to 18-35-year-olds, is a nonstop party, and Trafalgar caters to doddering oldsters. I’m guessing both these claims are pretty exaggerated.
[/QUOTE]
I have no experience of Trafalgar but I did once have the misfortune to travel on a Contiki tour (USA, not Europe). I didn’t enjoy it. ‘Non-stop party’ is a pretty accurate description. Most members of the group were only interested in reaching the next night’s hotel so that they could get plastered all over again. And to have to put up with food fights at the dinner table. Pathetically juvenile! I’d recommend strongly against going with Contiki.

3

Have you had a look at expedia?

I think if you kinda like doing your own thing they aren’t such a bad boutique company to book the lot from. Certainly I know folk who’ve used them for a two or three centre European trip before and had no hassle.

4

I’m thinking on the same lines as Struan, that you’re writing off the idea of doing this (kind of) by yourself without thinking through the possibilities. Particularly if you’re the kind of person who’s keen to spend time exploring by themselves, and I know I am, the knowledge that you’ve chosen exactly what you’ll be doing makes things much more enjoyable.

Really, all you need is:

  • flight to Europe
  • hotel in each city
  • Eurostar from London to Paris
  • flight or train (possibly overnight) for Paris to Rome

(Or fly into Paris, Eurostar to London, then more options for flights to Rome)

5

I did the other direction (Rome to Paris to London) for about the same length of time (10 or 11 days, depending on how you count air travel), on my own about a year ago. I’m far from a seasoned traveler, and found that getting in and out of those cities is not difficult, nor is finding accomodation. Nor day-tours, if you want them. Plus, you’ll get to do exactly what you want, when you want, and how you want.

You may want to re-think whether you can do it without the tour groups.

6

Mr. Neville and I have planned multi-city trips like that by ourselves, and it wasn’t that hard. I’m sure there are travel agents who would be happy to help you if you want to travel on your own, but don’t want to do the bookings yourself.

It’ll probably be cheaper to do it yourself, and might even be cheaper going through a travel agent but not taking a tour.

Bear in mind that a lot of tour companies will charge you extra if you are travelling alone and don’t want to share a room with someone else- it’s called a “single supplement” fee. It’s generally a fairly sizeable percentage tacked on top of the per-person fee. Both of the companies you’re looking at do that.

7

My sister and I planned a trip through British Airways Holidays. We did five cities (London, Paris, Rome, Florence, and Venice). They provided our airfare to and from the U.S., plus transportation, hotel reservations, and transfers (for example, someone met us at the Venice train station with a taxi boat to take us to our hotel). Once we were settled in each city, we used Let’s Go guides to figure out what to see and do. There are also optional city tours.

It worked out really nicely because we had all of that logistical stuff you mentioned taken care of, but could still sightsee on our own (and often literally on our own – we spent some of our time separately, and in those cities it wasn’t a problem at all.) Depending on your budget, it might be something to look into.

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[QUOTE=GorillaMan]
I’m thinking on the same lines as Struan, that you’re writing off the idea of doing this (kind of) by yourself without thinking through the possibilities. Particularly if you’re the kind of person who’s keen to spend time exploring by themselves, and I know I am, the knowledge that you’ve chosen exactly what you’ll be doing makes things much more enjoyable.

Really, all you need is:

  • flight to Europe
  • hotel in each city
  • Eurostar from London to Paris
  • flight or train (possibly overnight) for Paris to Rome

(Or fly into Paris, Eurostar to London, then more options for flights to Rome)
[/QUOTE]

I have to agree with this. For three cities you so don’t need a tour. Especially for an independent type person.

9

Thanks for the input, folks. The trips I’m looking at cost around $2100 total in October, including airfare, ground transport, and hotels with private baths. That seems pretty cheap to me, but if I can even come close to that price, I’ll definitely consider going it alone. I’ll research some of your suggestions when I get home tonight.

10

[QUOTE=GorillaMan]
I’m thinking on the same lines as Struan, that you’re writing off the idea of doing this (kind of) by yourself without thinking through the possibilities. Particularly if you’re the kind of person who’s keen to spend time exploring by themselves, and I know I am, the knowledge that you’ve chosen exactly what you’ll be doing makes things much more enjoyable.

Really, all you need is:

  • flight to Europe
  • hotel in each city
  • Eurostar from London to Paris
  • flight or train (possibly overnight) for Paris to Rome

(Or fly into Paris, Eurostar to London, then more options for flights to Rome)
[/QUOTE]

Yet another vote for planning the trip on your own. And of GorillaMan’s list, one of the items, “hotel in each city”, is even easier than you might think. You might want to book a hotel for the first night (maybe Expedia, or I’ve had good luck with hotels.com) just because you’ll be all jet-lagged when you arrive. But for the other cities, you can just use the “big I”. There are the “information” booths/kiosks located in train stations, airports, etc. all over europe. And you can book a hotel (for that night) just by going to one. I did a whole 2 weeks in Italy, Germany, and Austria without a single room booked in advance (okay, only one place in Florence was booked in advance).

It may seem daunting, but trust me, it can be done. And your experience of the cities/countries will be that much richer for it. Here’s the deal with travelling in a tour group: yes, your itinerary is all taken care of, as well as rooms and food. But you spend 99% of your time with the tour group. That is, you have limited interaction with the locals. And this, to me, is half the experience. Going to europe just to see the sights is missing a lot of the experience.
Even travelling with a friend can be somewhat insulated. But when you’re on your own, you are much more apt to simply interact more. It may be the desk clerk at the hotel to recommend a place to eat. Or other customers at the restaurant to ask for recommendations on places to visit.

You will want to do some planning on things for you to see. And I would recommend Rick Steve’s travel books for this. You can pick and choose what you’d like to visit, and he has some great walking tours.

It’s a pretty gutsy leap to go this route - especially for your first time over there. But I think if you get past the first day or two, you’ll be fine. And your experience of Europe will be that much more memorable. You will likely not be able to “check off” as many of the “not to miss sights” that you would see on a tour. But you could hook up with the swedish flight attendants who travel with you…

Think it over. (Conversely, I’ve known people who’ve taken tours that were so whirlwind, their experience was memorable only in the bad experiences - and it really turned them off to going back).

11

See, here’s what I don’t get…with Contiki, a flight from NY to London and then from Rome to NY only adds $700 to the cost of the package ($1349 Land Only, $2037 Land + Air). Searching Expedia, the cheapest 1-way flight I can get to London is $834. $732 for Rome to NY.

I assume they’re getting some tour group discount that us mere mortals can’t get.

12

Ah, okay, seems Expedia has some cheap flights with Air India if you do a package deal.

Thanks again, folks!

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[QUOTE=The Shroud]
See, here’s what I don’t get…with Contiki, a flight from NY to London and then from Rome to NY only adds $700 to the cost of the package ($1349 Land Only, $2037 Land + Air). Searching Expedia, the cheapest 1-way flight I can get to London is $834. $732 for Rome to NY.
[/QUOTE]

Rather than looking for one-way flights, use the ‘multiple destinations’ search, putting NYC-LON as the first flight and ROM-NYC as the second. I quickly found a $742 round-trip with Delta.

14

Since Mrs C died I’ve always holidayed on my own. I’ve travelled all over Europe and I’ll go with the suggestion to use the big “I”.

I’ll further go with “do it alone” that way you see what you want to see and you’re under no pressure to hurry along

15

[QUOTE=The Shroud]
Thanks for the input, folks. The trips I’m looking at cost around $2100 total in October, including airfare, ground transport, and hotels with private baths. That seems pretty cheap to me, but if I can even come close to that price, I’ll definitely consider going it alone. I’ll research some of your suggestions when I get home tonight.
[/QUOTE]

I agree with those who say, “wing it”…just go on-line, find a few decent hostels, book in advance (easy to do on-line) and hook up with people as you go along - trust me, you will meet fun people along the way, but that way, you can go off in a different direction and not “have to” continue to travel with them.

Far more fun to go it alone. Plus, it will be a hell of a lot cheaper, and you can use those bucks for more fun things along the way.

Write us from Internet shops along the way and let us know how your trip is going - always love to hear newbies talking about their first time to Europe - you are going to have a blast!

BTW, you might (sadly) have to claim to be Canadian in some places…American’s are not exactly embraced by Europeans as wonderful citizens of the world anymore.

16

Going independent in Europe is really quite straightforward, the biggest obstacle is your own uncertainty and that soon disappears once you get started.

There are internet cafes EVERYWHERE, you can go to hostelbookers and other sites and book your next accomodation on the fly without trouble. You usually have to pay a 10% deposit via credit card.

In Italy, rail travel is cheap enough to buy tickets as and when you like, no passes required. France isn’t bad either. London to Paris, the cheapest way is probably by bus, National Express or Eurolines. Or you could fly to Amsterdam for an additional destination and take the train…

If you want a semi-independent experience, try Busabout. The flexipass rather than the loop passes might suit you. Basically it’s a hop-on, hop off bus pass for a network consisting 3 loops. You can-pre-book all your bus links and accomodation, or make up your mind as you go along, booking by internet, phone, or through the guides on the buses themselves. It’s as organised or disorganised as you like. The available routes might not suit you though, the loops only go round in one direction.

17

[QUOTE=matt]
Going independent in Europe is really quite straightforward, the biggest obstacle is your own uncertainty and that soon disappears once you get started.

[/QUOTE]

Good to hear. I think my biggest worry is the language barrier. I’ll make an effort to learn some phrases, but boy will I sound funny using them.

[QUOTE=DMark]
BTW, you might (sadly) have to claim to be Canadian in some places…American’s are not exactly embraced by Europeans as wonderful citizens of the world anymore.
[/QUOTE]

Yikes! Are we talking upturned noses, or Anti-American hate crimes here?

18

If you are travelling by train in Europe you will encounter the name “Eurostar”. This is both the name of the trains that run through the Channel Tunnel between the UK and mainland Europe and (confusingly) the name of the high-speed rail network in Italy. They are completely separate companies. So bear that in mind when you are booking tickets.

19

[QUOTE=The Shroud]

Yikes! Are we talking upturned noses, or Anti-American hate crimes here?
[/QUOTE]

I think DMark is overstating a bit. I’d be very surprised if you encountered any animosity at all. Of course, there’s always the odd arsehole, but I guess that happens anywhere. Some people find Parisians a bit on the rude side, but I’ve never had any problem with them, and if you learn a few French phrases you’ll get along just fine. I’d take care crossing roads in Rome - they drive like maniacs!

20

What straun said about Rome is not a joke, they really are mad as march hares, pedestrians are legitimate targets.

As far as the language problem goes all you need to know is how to say “beer” in the language of whichever country you’re in:)