I’m thinking of going to France (particularly Paris) for vacation sometime this summer or fall. I will probably have about a week or 10 days to spend there. I’m a single 33-year-old man, so tours that cater to my demographic would be nice. I’d be open to a tour that also includes another country such as England or Italy, but I’d prefer to spend most of the time in France and not be traveling around in a bus or train half the time.
Have any Dopers done a tour like this, and how was your experience (including your experience with the tour company)? Are Contiki tours any good, or is this just an overhyped company?
In a week or ten days, you’ll have plenty to see in France without going anywhere else. Don’t be one of those people who says, “Ah yes, I’ve travelled in Europe” and it turns out they barely touched the ground of twelve countries in six days.
Also, don’t go on a tour. Go by yourself. You can see what you want to see, at your own pace, and with an Interrail ticket, it won’t be difficult. If you’re determined, find one that actually does cater to “your demographic”. When I’ve run across Contiki groups in the course of my travels, they’ve been much younger and more prone to getting drunk and making a nuisance of themselves. Of course that may be why you want a tour…
I do think a tour is unnecessary–especially if you want to avoid endless hours on a bus.
If you want to meet up with your own demographic, you could easily do it without Contiki (I’ve done it in France, and I am a 55 year old woman.)
If you have a week or 10 days, you could maybe do a Paris/London thing, visit each city and take a day trip or two. I’ve done that and it worked out fine.
Focusing on one country might be more relaxing, though. It just depends on where your interests lie: good food, scenery, history, nightlife etc.
I did a Contiki tour in spring 2008 and had an absolute blast. In fact, I met my girlfriend of two years because she was also on the tour. Also, this past weekend, two of the people I met on my tour just came and spent the weekend with me.
So I’ll go against the grain and say that the tour was definitely worth it in my case. Not only did I get to see way more than I would have seen on my own (as it included stuff that I wouldn’t necessarily have put on my itinerary but I went because it was on the tour), but I met a bunch of people that I still consider to be great friends.
Of course, I was 30 when I went on the tour and was either the oldest person or the second oldest person in the group. There were a lot of young ones but I got lucky in that there were a lot of young professionals in their late 20’s on mine. You might find yourself stuck with a bunch of 18 year old college students, you never know.
If you only have 10 days and you’re 33, don’t buy an interrail ticket - they’re most likely far more expensive (they go up after age 26 IIRC) than what you’d want to spend anyway. Actually, I think just doing Paris-London with maybe a daytrip out of each seems a nice idea - eg from Paris go to one of the palaces (Versailles, or Fontainebleau) or to Chartres, maybe; I don’t know what would be nice to go to from London - haven’t been in almost 15 years.