Are Contiki Tours the best?

Question

I am going to London in Octoberto visit family but while I am over there i would like to go on a tour. I will be 18 at the time and would like to visit Paris and Rome and Venice. Are Contiki tours really the best?

Answer 1

Oh gawd yes! Yes! Yes! I've taken 2 tours with Conitki and I'm am planning my 3rd right now. I did "Simply Italy" 2 years ago - inexpensive and fabulous. Last year I did I forgot the name of the tour, but it was $1000 and went from London, Amsterdam, Rhein Valley, Munich, Hopfgarten, Venice, Lauterbunen, and end it Paris.

Now, the last trip I mentioned wasn't as great at the "Simply Italy" tour because we stayed at youth hostiles and it was 4 people to a room - with no private bath or TVs in the room. But hey! The trip was $1000!!!! And look at all the countries we got to go to! (Don't worry, the hostels were very, very clean and very, very contemporary.)

The "Simply Italy", I was actually QUITE surprised at the hotels. They weren't 5 stars, but they certainly were not the "dumps" they told us we should expect. In fact most of the hotels were quite something. There was this one place that we went to on Lake Coma called "hotel britiania" which was literally across the street from the lake! Another hotel we stayed at was called "Hotel Daina" which was on the outskirts of Sorrento - and this hotel has to be the most MAGNIFICANT hotel ever! It was multi-layers built into the side of a mountain, with a pool, and what ever layer you were on you walked out onto an increidble view of the Mediteration! (and this was condsidered at 2 star hotel makes you wonder what 5 star must be like.) Also, about this Hotel Dania, was: our freaking bathroom was bigger than my kitchen back at home in the USA!!! Don't tell anyone about this place. I don't want it so swarmed with tourists that the rate suddenly goes up.

I kept the list of hotel in case I want to go there again.

But - YES! Contiki is by far the best travel for budget travel.

One warning - and this goes for any "group tour" you go on, even if it's a luxury trip that costs $7,000 - when you are on a coach bus with 30 people from all over the world - there are some germs your immune system isn't used to, so you could get a upper respitory infection that could make you miserable. Before you leave - Make sure you take all the decongestion pills, and cough medicine you can or else in every city you'll be like me: running into the local pharmacy and pointing to my chest and hacking (my way of asking for cough medicine in Italy) So pack that, and also but something called "Airborne" it's to prevent you from getting a cold - they sell it at your local drug store. And bring "EmegenC" which are those packets of flavor you dump into bottled water to make it taste like fruit. - well it's loaded with 1000mg of Vitamin C (which really what it is supposed to be used for) which prevents you from getting sick. But make sure you are buying the brand "EmergenC" - you can get that at "Whole Foods" or any health food store.

Oh - and when taking your Contiki tour - make sure you bring a LOT of CD's. That's part of the fun and the "Contiki Culture" is everyone brings CD's and they play it on the coachbus while we are driving for 9 hours to our next destination.

Happy Travels! And who knows - maybe we might end up on the same tour!

Answer 2

Cheapest tours wud be those u "make ureself", booking hotels/hostels/pension houses on ur own,least then u know wot ure gettin into.But before all that, google & survey a lil b4 booking.Booking ureself on a budget flight wud save u time & cost too instead of spending hours in a train.Google the sites u wanna see in Paris , Rome & Venice, buy a map when ur there n explore the country.Its a self made adventure, and by the end of it, u'll remember every single detail,of how u found the place,the streets, the people..every single detail..its priceless...Have fun!