40th Birthday Trip to Europe

Oh no! The big 4-0! Did you know that 40 is the new 30? Good for you! Celebrate it in style! European style!

If you're a group, I'd say at least look into the option of an organized tour. That way it keeps you on an organized schedule and may even be more cost effective.

If you go it on your own, consider who has what skills and strengths and delegate accordingly. This will take a little more planning and time than simply taking an organized tour.

These Boards here at RS can be most helpful in pulling it all together. Take full advantage of them. There always is someone who has been there and done that and can help point you in the right direction.

Have a wonderful time!

Safe Travels,

F/A

How many in your group? Did you have common interests or do some want this and some that? I'd encourage you to try to set up your own. I did it for a staff trip for our school. It wasn't that hard. Especially if you are "doing" the UK, Britrail passes and the Oyster card make being together, but able to do different things esay!

I have had the oportunity of traveling to several destinations with my group of family and friends which have totaled as much as 25. I have never used a structured tour group. I have the firm belief of not following the pack. Why be told when, and where I will go. However, they can be some drawbacks. Make sure you get along with those who you will be going with. I do a lot of planning. I purchase a few guide books, each with a different perspective on the same destination. I develop a daily itinerary of what interests my immediate family and offer it to the group. The group can follow or go to different sights on their own. I take the Metro at each destination to get around. I get lost at times but it's a hell of a lot of fun. I make it a point to interact with the locals. Whereever I went, English even if limited was spoken. If some members of my group go on their own we make plans to meet for dinner and share wonderful stories of our different adventures.

If you're adventuresome, and 40 (and besides you've done it), you surely are the best judge of this.

My suggestion would be to rent a house or apartment for all for one week in the middle of your trip, where you will all rendezvous, swap stories, have a blast, and then split up again to finish your trip.

You can offer help the newbies to plan their legs of their trips if you like.

This will be a rich experience for everyone, much more so (imho) than any tour. And it avoids some of the problems of traveling from place to place with a larger group of adventuresome adults, presumably with different priorities and preferences and needs.

I did exactly this for my 40th birthday and a memorable time was had by all.

How fun! Why? Because I'm doing the same thing this summer for my 40th! I could not find anyone to go with me so I plan to enjoy the best of both worlds: I will arrive in London to explore this great city on my own and I will join the Rick Steves tour three days later so I will meet some new friends to celebrate my birthday. I don't mind solo travel, but I did not want to sing Happy Birthday to myself!

The good thing about being with a tour is you will get to enjoy yourself. If everyone else relies on you to "deliver" their good time, it won't be fun. Believe me, I've been there - they might as well be on a tour and I might as well be getting paid.

My advice, divvy up the pretrip planning. Have coffees or dinner together when each person reports back on what they found interesting and worth seeing. Let the group form a concensus about the best sites and how much time to allow at each destination.

If they don't seem willing to do their share of the planning, take a guided tour. It becomes unbearable when they complain about the itenerary they weren't willing to help with ("Why are we going to another museum?").

If they happily get involved in planning and researching, don't do a tour. You'll have a much better time creating your own trip.

How many are going? Neighbors took a group of relatives to Ireland a few years ago and hired a van to take them all the places they wanted to see. I think when you organize a group you may be able to get some special group rates. A friend who teachers art in a local high school organizes a trip each spring to Europe for a group of High School students and he gets to go for free. He picks where he wants to go and then present it to his students. If he gets enough interest a 2nd chaperone gets to go for free also. Just a thought. Maybe you could talk to your local travel agency to see if they could help you in planning a group trip of the things you all want to see. The other suggestions you got all seem good. Everyone has different interest, and it would be fun to do you own things and meet up for dinner each night.

I agree with the advice given by Corrina. Your friends may behave differently on a trip, particularly if this is their first time to Europe - you never know how people will react, how tired they will be, etc. Plus, if you are sharing rooms, you may be pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised at how long it takes everyone to get ready to go out each day! If you plan your own trip, I think the bottom line is to involve everyone in planning, agree on a rough schedule, and include free time where everyone can do their own thing.

Where in Europe will you 'Gals' be heading to?

Have you traveled together before??
I am European, and have many times brought American friends over, and have organized everything from A-Z myself - no sweat!
But -the big surprise was, that travel brings out the best AND the worst in people - I was flabbergasted to find out that dear friends I thought I knew very well, didn't travel well at all, and turned out to be a great challenge!
In those instances I WISHED I had taken them along on an organized tour . .
For some Americans, Europe can be very overwhelming the first time.

It is VERY important to know, how many of you - and what is your itinerary.

I would consider a compromise:
organized day-trips to big cities/destinations,
but do-it-yourself in between :-))

Good luck, happy planning and send us some more info,
I am a tour guide myself, would love to help you further!

My best friend and I went to Europe the year we turned 40, last year. We did do the tour thing (Globus). It was good in that my friend takes FOREVER to get ready - so the tour kept her on track/time. The bad thing was that we always had to watch the clock. We couldn't linger anywhere. Another bad thing was they took you to places where they could only serve large groups, so the food was bad and it was obvious that the guides got kick-backs. A group thing is nice in that everything is planned out for you and taken care of. If you do a tour - check out the smaller ones like Ricks's.

The coolest thing we did was paraglide over the Swiss Alps (not on our tour, we ditched the tour for the day).

I will gladly give you more info if you would like. mcgracy@gmail.com