Quote:
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.
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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.