Contiki Tours

[bluejays]

Hey everyone,

I'm heading to Europe next month and will be looking to book through Contiki for a 3 week stay solo. I'm almost 30 and this will be first time for a longer period in Europe, so I was just looking to see if anyone's done the Contiki before? I like to party, so that aspect is great (though we're staying in hotels, so I'm not sure if that will happen a lot)? Also, just a quick question - do the hotels have laundary services where I can do a load a day or two?

Looking forward to some good stories.

[worth]

Why don't you just go there on your own and stay in hostels and go and see what you want? I will likely be doing that later this fall.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by worth

Why don't you just go there on your own and stay in hostels and go and see what you want? I will likely be doing that later this fall.

Probably because hanging out with the same group of 25-35 year olds is a blast and people don't always like travelling alone?

[Jbo]

I did a Contiki last year while I was in Europe, and went on the Greece/Turket trip.

I loved it, made some great friends and my tour guide was awesome. It was run very well. You have options on the type of tour you can do. (Hostels, hotels, camping) so if you do the hotel route you should be able to get some laundry in.

The routine is usually wake up, travel, get to location, see some sites, get some free time, party your face off, and repeat.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

I did a Contiki cruise of Greece and Turkey. Really good fun. We got the all you could drink package for the ship and partied quite a bit. People were really friendly. Probably a little over 1/3 Canadian, a little over 1/3 Aussie and some Americans. Night life on the cruise ship would have been dead with the Contiki portion of the cruise.

[bubbsy]

my wife did a contiki tour (of europe) after college on her own. I think it was a very good/important trip for her, and most importantly, she absolutely loved it.

Get out there quick. Seeing as your hitting 30, you may be hitting the latter stage at which contiki would be fun.

[Papi34]

Contiki is amazing, I just did 2 Europe in may and Thailand in June. Your age is not a factor but just be prepared to be hammed for the duration of your trip. Alot of it depends on the group you are with obviously but its pretty much the norm that if you go on Contiki, you are pretty down to earth and fun.

It is really well put together and allows you to maximize your time in Europe. For me personally we were up at 7am at the latest every morning on our way to see sights then at night its team dinners and party. Most everything is optional except traveling to different places.

I highly recommend Contiki, you will have a blast

[Huntingwhale]

I am thinking about doing a Contiki trip next year. I want to go on the southern Asia tour which goes through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. Glad to see people are recommending it.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by bubbsy

Get out there quick. Seeing as your hitting 30, you may be hitting the latter stage at which contiki would be fun.

I disagree with this. In fact, in my experience, the older people on the tour have as much or more fun than the younger because they tend to be more established and have money to spend, rather than using up their savings just to book the tour and having nothing left over for spending money.


I've done three different Contiki tours in my time and had a great time on all of them.

For me, I need to warm up to a social situation. I'm not the type of person who can just strike up a conversation with a bunch of total strangers. Doing a tour worked for me because everyone is in the same sort of situation and it helps break the ice. In the first couple of days of the tour, they do some forced interactions on the bus to help you get to know the other people, and gauge who you're likely to be socially compatible with.

Some people want to see as much as possible, others want to drink as much as possible. I'd say that most people are a mix of the two. I found that I often hung out with one group of people during the day to do the sightseeing, and a different group at night when we went out.

In Europe, the hotel tours tend to attract an older group (25+) than the camping tours because they are more expensive. This is good because you tend to avoid a lot of the "high school" behaviour that can happen with a younger group.


For laundry, the hotels likely won't have a laundry in them (although they may offer a laundry service that is very expensive), but many of the hotels will be relatively close to a laundromat. The tour manager will usually mention which cities are the best for doing a couple of loads. Often, they're the same city where the tour manager does his laundry.

When packing, keep in mind that they're very strict as to the weight limits for your bags at the start of the tour, but if you buy stuff along the way, they won't keep weighing you. The Contiki weight limit is about the same as an airline weight limit, so you should be good. Also, follow the #1 rule of packing for a trip: Figure out what you need to take, then take half of that.


For money, Europe isn't cheap (but the dollar is doing pretty well against the Euro right now, so it's a good time to go). Make sure you have money to spend (beer is a lot cheaper than hard liquor in most places, and if you want a rum and Coke, they'll charge you separately for the rum and the Coke).

When you get the tour information package, it will have a list of "optional" excursions that aren't included in the price of the tour. If you can, I would budget on doing all of them, then, if you change your mind later, you'll have some extra cash in your pocket. That's a lot easier than not budgeting to go on any of the optionals only to have everyone else do them and you get left alone at the hotel.

The thing that causes the most stress on the tours is when people think that because they bought a package tour, that the costs are all taken care of. They get a couple of days into the trip and realize that they're running out of money a lot quicker than anticipated and don't enjoy themselves as much.


With regards to partying, it will definitely happen. Every night, someone will be going out on the town. The lyric from the song Home for a Rest, "I've been gone for a month, I've been drunk since I left", has been pretty much the motto of every tour I've done.

My last Contiki tour (which because of my age, was my last Contiki tour) was in Australia. One day, we were hanging out by the hotel pool at about 5:00 and one of the guys asked me if I was going out that night. I said that I was probably going to take it easy that night and not drink too much. Then, I looked down at the beer in my hand and did the quick math in my head and said that it was only my sixth beer that day, so I was obviously taking it easy.

[bluejays]

Thanks for the advice guys. Given it's the hotel stay tour and I'll be gone for 3 weeks, why would you guys pack light? I'm thinking the more clothes I have, the less stinky I'll be?

[worth]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Probably because hanging out with the same group of 25-35 year olds is a blast and people don't always like travelling alone?

I get what your saying. I never really had a problem meeting tons of people in hostels whenever I have traveled to hang out with. Maybe I will consider a tour like this next year.

[killer_carlson]

Contiki is for people who are on vacation and want to see the world. Pack as much in during a short period of time.

Backpacking is for people who want to travel. Spending more time allows you to get a great sense of people and culture.

Both are fun and both have their place.

Hit the gym hard on upper body for contiki. Hit the gym hard on cardio for backpacking because you walk much more than you would think.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by fleury

Thanks for the advice guys. Given it's the hotel stay tour and I'll be gone for 3 weeks, why would you guys pack light? I'm thinking the more clothes I have, the less stinky I'll be?

The more you carry, the more you'll have to carry.

They don't stay in hotels with bellhops, and the hotels in Europe typically have old/small/slow elevators. Your choice is either to stand and wait for the elevator with the other 50 people on your trip, or grab your bag and hike up the stairs.

There's a trade-off between the convenience of not having to do laundry versus the convenience of not having to carry a 50 pound suitcase up 6 flights of stairs.

It's advice I didn't listen to, but usually regretted by the end of the trip.

[bspec]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Probably because hanging out with the same group of 25-35 year olds is a blast and people don't always like travelling alone?

Decided against going with a tour like Contiki and travelled on our own, and it was still a blast. There were only two of us and we went for 6 weeks this past May with everything planned on our own. People who do this won't have ANY trouble meeting new people at the hostels (we met a ton of amazing people). I think you'd actually meet more people than doing a tour and staying with the same group at each location (for a short period of time too).

You'll have a great time on Contiki, fleury, and it's a great introduction to touring around Europe, but people shouldn't be afraid or put off by planning the trip themselves. It's more than worth it.

P.S. Be sure to bring medication for coughing and sore throats, this is a common thing on tours!

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by bspec

P.S. Be sure to bring medication for coughing and sore throats, this is a common thing on tours!

That and the gonorrhea.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by worth

Why don't you just go there on your own and stay in hostels and go and see what you want? I will likely be doing that later this fall.

I've done both ways of traveling, the hostel thing, and the contiki tour. Both have things I really liked...both also offer things that are an inconvenience.

Hosteling I think is better if you are going on a longer trip. If you only have a couple of weeks than the tour starts becoming a more attractive option.

For the Contiki ...you are sort of limited into what you can see as you have to go where the tour goes, and coach travel in my opinion is not a great way to get around Europe. The train system, and public transit options there are so much better than what we have here in North America.

The tour I did really didn't stay anywhere long enough to see if the hotels had laundry service or not. I remember that we did get to stay in some decent hotels on the tour though and it can be hard to go to Europe and get decent hotels during the summer because tour companies do tend to book them up.

I had fun on the tour I did though. It was a party, and there were enough single girls on the tour to keep things interesting.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by getbak

With regards to partying, it will definitely happen. Every night, someone will be going out on the town. The lyric from the song Home for a Rest, "I've been gone for a month, I've been drunk since I left", has been pretty much the motto of every tour I've done.

Truer words have never been posted on this board.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by bspec

P.S. Be sure to bring medication for coughing and sore throats, this is a common thing on tours!

The dreaded Contiki cough.

I have no idea if it actually does anything, but I brought this stuff, took the maximum dosage and didn't get sick: http://webbernaturals.com/caen/products/3693/cold-a-tak



I don't know if you've chosen the tour you're going to do yet, but if you have a full three weeks and want to see a lot of different places, this is the one I did: http://www.contiki.com/destinations/...an-inspiration

I would highly recommend it. I don't know if it still is, but when I went, it was the only one of their tours that went to Berlin (great city). They advertise it as a 21 day tour, but it's actually 19 days on the road (for some reason, they include the travel to and from Canada in the count).

It goes to 9 cities besides London, with two nights in each city. This is important because most of their tours only stop for one night in a couple of cities. Two nights in each city means that your long travel days are broken up. Plus, you'll have a full day to sightsee around each city.

[troutman]

Contiki, meh. Aussies from the Contiki bus told Aeneas and I to "keep it down" at the German campground. Rookies.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by getbak

The dreaded Contiki cough.

I have no idea if it actually does anything, but I brought this stuff, took the maximum dosage and didn't get sick: http://webbernaturals.com/caen/products/3693/cold-a-tak



I don't know if you've chosen the tour you're going to do yet, but if you have a full three weeks and want to see a lot of different places, this is the one I did: http://www.contiki.com/destinations/...an-inspiration

I would highly recommend it. I don't know if it still is, but when I went, it was the only one of their tours that went to Berlin (great city). They advertise it as a 21 day tour, but it's actually 19 days on the road (for some reason, they include the travel to and from Canada in the count).

It goes to 9 cities besides London, with two nights in each city. This is important because most of their tours only stop for one night in a couple of cities. Two nights in each city means that your long travel days are broken up. Plus, you'll have a full day to sightsee around each city.

Thanks a lot guys! I was looking specifically at the Impressions tour and the Vista tour. Leaning toward the Impressions simply because it's inclusion of Spain over Prague, but we'll see in the morning when I book it.