Tour Recommnedations

Can't recommend a tour company as have never used one, perhaps others can help. The reason I am posting is that I feel that the budget is way too low and that they are planning too much. You state ten to thirteen days. You can't really count arrival day as at most by the time they get to hotel will only have a half day left. Don't count departure day at all as most flights to US leave in the AM. Then travel from one place to another takes a half day so now they only have a maximum of three days in each city. All locations are expensive for lodging alone. What does the $3000 budget include, lodging, food, transport between cities? I can't imagine a tour company being able to do all they want in the time.

Trafalgar, Globus and Cosmos are the big three. Cosmos is owned by Globus, and uses less expensive rooms. My parents first trip to Europe was on a fast moving, whirlwind trip all over Europe. They had to take a vacation when they got home as it was very tiring. London and Paris is very do-able and Florence and Rome is do-able. To go to all of these cities might take a whirlwind tour going everywhere, or two separate tours.

You are right; Rick Steves does not have one tour that goes to all these places, however, if you combine one of Rick's tours with a day or two of Gray Line Tours, it can be done. For example, look at this page from Gray Line Tours out of London. They could use the second trip on the page "The Total London Experience" (fully escorted) to see a glimpse of London in one day. (Private transfer from Heathrow airport to their London hotel is #4 on the page.) http://www.grayline.com/London/View_All Then sign up for #22 on the page, "Paris Overnight", which includes Eurostar tickets from London to Paris, they will be met at the Paris station and have a fully escorted by bus tour of Paris, then taken to a hotel for the night. The next morning they could fly to Italy to meet up with Rick Steve's "Venice, Florence and Rome in 10 Days" Tour.($3,195 + air) I agree with Gail and David, that they are trying to do too much. A better plan would be to choose which of these cities are the MOST important to them. If they have not been to Europe before and are equally attracted to all 4, I would break them up into separate trips and do one Rick Steves Trip a year. Rick Steves 7 Days In London is a great place to start. At $2,195, plus air, it is right at your stated budget. The more you try to cover several far flung destinations on a trip, the more your travel costs start adding up (additional flights, train travel, etc.).

Maryam, I mean this is the best way, but they should not even take a tour that includes that many places in 10-13 days, it will be horrilbe. Three places max for 13 days. And thats moving pretty fast. Most people wisely arrive a day before their tours start to get over jet lag, and so that they don't miss their tour start if flight is delayed or luggage is delayed. So optimistically they have 12 days. London , Rome and Paris, or Rome Florence and Paris. Globus and Trafagular are most known, they will be fast paced,and hotels WILL NOT be central which is a drag( my MIL took the Globus one in Italy and said they stayed at these huge chain hotels outside city centers so really it was hard to use any free time they had , its nicer to stay central like the RS tours do I think for a first time visit they should just choose one or two places and do it on their own plus take a few bus tours locally. Have you at least let them read the tour scrapbooks on this site ( assesss through the "tour" page, click on "tour reveiws and scrapbooks " in a box on right hand side of page. They may be happy to choose a shorter itinerary that covers only one or two places. Whichever they choose I would gift them with the RS Europe Through the Back Door book, it will REALLY help with some travel , safety and packing tips. As first time visitors it can really make a difference if they are a bit clued in.

Have them check out Globus Essentials of Europe tour - it's 11 days and goes to the four cities that they want to see. Needless to say it is a hectic tour but I have taken a similar Globus tour and I enjoyed the fast pace. I wouldn't want to do it for more than 2 weeks but 11 days is definitely doable to hit the high spots. Prices range between 2500-3100 depending on when they want to travel + airfare. It even travels from Paris to London on the Eurostar. The Cosmos tours are a bit cheaper but I wouldn't recommend them myself. The cheaper accomodations they use aren't usually near the center of the cities so you really can't do much on your own in the evenings if you want to. Our Globus hotels were usually pretty well located for that. Also must note that in addition to the tour cost, they would need some additional $$ for lunches and the dinners not included so this may put them a little over their budget. However, I doubt if they will do much better price-wise going to this many different places. If a tour is what you want, I recommend Globus tours, they gave a lot for the money. And going it alone isn't for everyone.

My husband and I have done TAUCK tours. They have small group tours. They always stay in very nice hotels and almost all your meals are included and TOP-NOTCH. We did a TAUCK tour of western Canada, four years ago. A year ago we did Greece and Turkey with TAUCK. This past June we did a two week tour of Ireland, which was spectacular. We totally recommend TAUCK.

I forgot to mention this. You could book back to back tours of France, Italy and England, if you wanted to.

Our one and only trip to Europe was with Image Tours and it covered London, Paris, Florence and Rome. (We only had 3 hours in Florence but planned ahead and got tickets to see David) I was happy with it but I have no way to compare it to other tour companies since that was the only tour we have taken. And yes, it was a fast paced trip. That was in 2010 and we are hoping to take a RS tour this year.

Maryam,
I still clearly remember my first trip to Europe over 30 years ago with 13 other 20-year-olds. A small bus tour, and we covered 5 countries (Germany, Austria, Italy, France, and Switzerland) in 3 weeks. What I remember is the many hours on the bus, and when we did arrive someplace that was really cool to explore, we were leaving the next day. Today, we'd much rather experience Europe with my feet on the ground than staring out a bus/train window. Although we plan our own trips now, I pay close attention to the amount of time moving from one location to another, whether car or train. 4-5 hours per day every 2-3 days is the max we schedule for traveling between locations (door to door). This allows for 8-10 waking hours at either end of your journey to enjoy, plus a full day or two between "travel" days. So my advice is that they should pay close attention to the ratio of time spent door to door vs. time spent to enjoy, sightsee, relax, and eat.

Try Collette. I used them several times. Great guides, well versed on places visited. They are more high end than the 3 mentioned already. They stay in nice hotels and most meals are included. I think they may offer some tours your folks may be interested in. Happy Travels!

Tauck does a great job of doing tours in Europe. We just did a two week tour in Ireland, with 24 in our group. We have also done Tauck tours in Turkey and Greece and western Canada. Tauck is a deluxe tour business. It is a highly recommended, family owned tour company, by travel agents. You can even do back to back tours with Tauck. You can do back to back tours. After you finish one tur, you can start another tour in a another country. You can look them up at Tauck Tours.com or ask your travel agent.

Maryam, To begin with, I doubt that Tauck Tours will be a possibility to visit those four cities with a budget of only $3000 per person. They tend to be on the "high end" of the tour price scale. Could you clarify if that's their total budget for the entire trip including air fares, or only their budget for a tour???? Another point of concern is their desire to visit four cities in 13 days. Does that time include their two flight days? They may only have 11 days for actual touring which allows 2.75 days per city with no allowances for travel times between them. As this is their first time travelling abroad, I would highly recommend that they read Europe Through The Back Door prior to their trip. That provides lots of information on "how" to travel in Europe. I don't know of any tour companies that offer tours for those four specific cities. For this particular Itinerary, the easiest and cheapest option would be a well planned self guided tour. It wouldn't be hard to work out the details. Unless they can increase their time, it may be necessary to skip one of the cities on their list. Of course using open jaw flights would be the best choice. Cheers!

Thanks for all the responses and suggestions. A slight change in plans: I will now be traveling with them and the itinerary has changed. I am no expert, but have a fair amount of experience traveling on my own. With a little nudging and priority setting discussion, we are now only doing Italy in thirteen days (yes, the first and last day will be travel days). So, it is now Venice, Florence, one night in Siena, and Rome. I am going to try and stick to that budget previously stated (which does inlcude the flight), but will increase it if need be. No need to be disappointed over a couple of hundred bucks more. I will most likely have other questions and suggestions along the way, so will come back and ask. I have given them both copies of ETBD, but not sure how far they have gotten into it. They gave each other money belts for xmas, which was nice, but did need a tutorial on how to use it (never in public), which gives me the impression that the book was not read. There is still time though, so no worries. Thanks again.

Maryam, It's great to hear that you're going with them. I'm sure that will be a big help in assuring a trouble-free and enjoyable trip. It's also good to hear that the Itinerary is a bit more "manageable". Have you priced open-jaw flights, inbound Venice and outbound Rome? I suspect the budgets WILL need to be increased. Flights are not getting any cheaper these day, so you'll probably be spending between $1K and $1.5K for flights. Daily expenses (including hotels) will likely be at least $100 per day, so that doesn't leave much of a "cushion". Are you planning to rent one room for all three of you in each location? Be sure that they're "up to speed" on the potentially expensive pitfalls regarding rail travel in Italy. When riding Regionale trains, tickets MUST be validated. When riding premium trains such as the Freccia fast trains, reservations are compulsory and these are specific to a particular train and departure time. Failure to observe the rules may result in fines on the spot, which start at €50 per person and increase from there. Bus tickets must also be validated (using the Bus from Florence to Siena would be the best option). Good luck with your planning!