I noticed there were no reviews on the Ultimate European so thought I would add some information just because I know how many questions I had when i was preparing to go on that trip.

Firstly....

* Yes it is a LONG tour.

* YES, contiki kind of is just about drinking and partying. But on this tour you learn to average it out otherwise you crash and burn after a few weeks.

On the first day of tour our Tour Manager (TM) told us there were typically 4 types of people that go on Contiki tours:

1) The people who are only on tour to see the sights.
2) The people who are only on tour to go shopping.
3) The people who are only on tour to go partying.
4) The people who are all-rounders and are on tour to do it all, to get a wide variety of everything it has to offer.

It was so true. As soon as he said that I knew i would be a 4 regardless of how much partying i wanted to do.

Contiki is what you make of it. You dont *have* to do the optionals, they are there as optional excursions. Likewise you dont *have* to party everyday. Its all up to you.

I wanted to do the 46 day tour for a few reasons:

1) I figured i would get to see a lot more of europe this way then if i did a shorter tour -> and yes you do.

2) I figured i would have more time to spend in each place, as opposed to a shorter tour where you would probably be rushed -> again, yep this turned out to be true as well.

3) Hope i dont offend anyone here, but i also figured the UE tour would be less likely to be taken up with 18 yo teeny boppers due to the length and the increased price. Im 25, and i just didnt want to deal with high school *****ing, and gossiping and whinging. Because lets face it, you are going to be stuck with these people 24-7. Again, Im so glad i chose the UE because the ppl were fantastic. The avg age was 24. (ive heard horror stories from ppl my age on purely 18-20 yo tours who just really hated it).

OK, so .. the actual tour...

Yes you will spend a long time on the bus. In between each place, the average bus ride was about 7 hours. A couple of days we were on the bus for 11 hours!! Bring one of those travel neck pillows. You will need it. Also an iPod, and a book. You get stops usually every 2 or 3 hours. Make sure you pee then!!

On the day you arrive at most destinations you probably wont go out and see the town, you will most likely stay at the campsite and drink/party/sleep. Each campsite has its own bar, and its normally a lot cheaper to drink at the campsite bars then out in town. Having said that though, none of the campsites were too far out of town, so you can always catch a taxi in (usually quite cheap when there is a group of you) or catch public transport. So if you are like me and you figured that having 2 days in the itinerary at a place meant you would get to spend 2 days in that place - no you dont, always count one day as being discarded due to travel time.

HOWEVER, you will always have at least 1 full day of free time in each place. Do with it as you will. Some people rushed around sightseeing and getting everything in. Some people just shopped or chilled out or whatever. I did a mix of both, and do not feel like i missed out on anything.

The accommodation ranged from fantastic to pretty average. There were a few sweatboxes in france/barcelona/italy. However, cmon, You are in a foreign country. How much time are you *really* going to spend in your cabin? Not bloody much, only when you are sleeping, handwashing and getting ready. For the first 2 weeks, you are generally in cabins. As you get to greece and then through eastern europe you stay at some pretty swanky hotels.

The breakfasts ... Oh dear god. After week 4 you will learn to either hate passionately or love unequivocaly ham and cheese and bread. The first couple weeks the brekkie is pretty good. But after a while when all you get for brekkie is ham and cheese and bread, you start to feel like you can never eat those three products again. However, having said that. I personally didnt mind it too much. Its all fresh, and tasty, and you can even be cheeky and maybe pack a ham and cheese sambo away for a snack on the bus or a light lunch.

The optionals ... I did pretty much all of the optionals and loved most of them. The only two i thought were pretty average was the florence dinner, and the vienna dinner. All the rest were great.:

- The Parisian cabaret and dinner were fantastic. Great opportunity to get to know your tour.
- The flamenco dancing i didnt go to. I heard it was average.
- You Have to do the gondola ride.
- The florence dinner was so bad. I cook better italian food.
- Space was a good night out for most people - but please please, ladies keep a careful eye on your drinks. I was unfortunate to have my drink spiked with some very unfortunate consequences.
- The guided tours were very informative, but make sure you stay close to the guides otherwise you might not hear them. bear in mind you dont need to do these tours, you could go along and explore yourself, but you probably wouldnt know what you were looking at, or the history behind it.
- DO NOT miss George's boat. I think everyone on our tour rated this day as the best day on tour.
- Make sure you do some watersports in Corfu, its expensive but fun fun fun.
- The dinner and greek dancing was a lot of fun, and the food was great, the dancers were stunning.

Mykonos or Egypt:
I did the Mykonos option and loved it. I knew that by halfway through my tour i would need a littl R&R from 3 weeks of constant partying. The contiki resort was great. So much to do. The staff are all so helpful and friendly. After 7 days I wanted to leave to get on with the tour and to see my friends who had gone off to egypt. But at the same time, i didnt want to leave because it was nice relaxing and tanning by the pool or the beach all day. There are loads of things to do in Mykonos. Hit Cavo Paradiso at night, they usually have some great DJ's headlining. Also make sure to go to Paradise beach. Beach parties are on from 4pm everyday in summer. Its fantastic. Also make sure you go into town, good food, good shopping, friendly locals.

In Mykonos you also get the chance to meet lots of other people, some on contiki tours, some just staying at the contiki resort. I made some brilliant friends here. OH And if you get offered the dinner package optional. DO IT. The food at this resort is the best food Ever. I can not tell you how fat you will get from the fantastic included breakfasts (all buffet and delicious) as well as the dinner package, and just lying around drinking cocktails and tanning and reading.

Anyways, back to the optionals:
- Turkish dinner and belly dancing was So Good. I have never seen more gorgeous women move so stunningly. Shakira eat your heart out. There were 3 female belly dancers doing solo performances, and although one looked and danced like she just came fom a strip club, the other two took my breath away.
- I didnt do the concert, but the people who did enjoyed it, ltos of ppl didnt do it though. That one is really dependant on whether classical music is your thing.
- The schnapps museum is so well worth the 5 euro.
- The viennese dinner was pretty crap.
- The beerhall was so much fun. However you go to another beerhall afterwards - a very famous one called the hoffbrau house so you dont really have to do this optional.
- The white water rafting was fun, but not an adrenalin thrill. Im a very sporty, outgoing chick. And to get my thrills on this i had to do some crazy stunts like insisting we paddle faster, and bouncing up and down and doing backflips into the icy cold water. However, most people who were not sporty or thrill seekers in the least had a great time on it.
- The austrian mountain bike tour was good, the scenery was amazing. However we had a massive night the night before having arrived at the contiki campsite and deciding to work our way through all the different schnapps on the list (so so good and so so cheap). So most of us were extremely hung over and wished we had stayed in bed. BUT the scenery was spectacular, the BBQ was yummy, and you get to keep the bikes for the rest of the day, and you definitely need the bikes to get around.
This is Not an optional, just a fun thing to do - definitely go to the trout farm. For 7 euro you get rods, and bait, you catch your own trout, and they fillet and cook it and serve it up to you with salads and spuds. So Good. Also its worth doing the ski lifts up the mountain, because the view is breathtaking.
- I didnt do the paraponting because i had decided to organise a group of us to go sky diving in switzerland (more on that later). But the ppl that did it said it was well worth it.
- Crystal museum was so trippy, it was cool.
- I didnt do jungfrau mountain train because i sky dived over the swiss alps instead -> i should point out here that contiki in no way recommends nor helps you with anything for the sky diving if you had maybe considered doing it. I had to organise this all myself. I guess its a liability thing. The skydiving was amazing, btw Ppl who did the jungfrau said it was good.
- Wine tasting in rhine valley was crap, and i *love* a good wine. Nothing compared to the wines back home from margaret river, or swan valley, or barossa valley.
- Canal bike tour in amsterdam - dont waste your money or time, go exploring yourself. You arent actually on a bike, you're on one of those paddle floaty things in the canals.
- Evening cancal cruise was good, but only because it was our last night on contiki. I did not take notice of any of the scenery, as was too busy talking and snapping photos with my mates.
- Dinner at the sea palace was delicious. Yummy yummy. Plus its your last night on tour.

Packing .... I went in summer. Dont be stupid like most of us aussies on tour were. European summer is way hotter than aussie summer. Although i think it didnt help that every place we got to, the reps or the locals would be saying 'oh wow, so unfortunate for you, it is the highest recorded temperature in history today'. hahaha. Europe was haing a heat wave when i did my UE (july 8th to aug 23rd). Southern europe is hot. Just bring one or two pairs of light shorts, or mini skirts, and mix n match them with a few light tops. Pack Light !!!

For most of the cathedrals, esp in italy, you will need to cover your shoulders.

You will need jumpers for northern europe, it gets chilly.

However, you can buy all this stuff while travelling.

Definitely bring a few nice outfits as you will go out a lot.

Definitely bring a pair of comfy pants that become your bus pants, because you have long rides, and you want to be comfy. You might want to also bring a jumper on board with you each day cuz the a/c on the bus can get cold.

Definitely do not forget to pack the following: Sleeping mask, ear plugs, clothes line, Nappysan (You will Need something to get out hard core stains, cuz normal wash powder doesnt cut it. I brought nappysan and had to start telling ppl they couldnt bloody have some because i was running out from everyone else using it and needed it for myself), mosquito spray.

AND. I can not stress this point enough -> You Will Get Sick. Every person on our tour got the contiki cough at least once. I didnt remember what my voice sounded like for the entire 46 days. I got a cold off someone straight away, and my constant drinking, and never getting more than 4 hours sleep just kept me kinda sick. (Oh btw the drinking and lack of sleep was through my own crazy actions). Yes you can buy antibiotics from pharmacies all through europe. They dont care about prescriptions, and its soooo much cheaper than back home. And you can still drink on the amoxcillan too :P

In summary i will say that i thoroughly enjoyed my tour. BUT its all about your attitude. If you know you are a picky eater, or you know you are short tempered, or you know you will get fed up with seeing the same people 24-7 for 46 days, then maybe consider a shorter tour. I am the most easy going person in the world, and by the last day there were 1 - 3 people i might have punched in the face. But at the same time, i still had fond memories of certain events with those ppl, and if they bug you, just go away. Nobody likes a whinger.

I loved every aspect of this trip. From the long bus rides, to the ham and cheese breakfasts. You will see so much, you will learn a lot about yourself, and you will become so close with quite a few people. We constantly met people on other tours, so dont think you are stuck with the ppl on your tour only. But every person i spoke to on other tours said that sometimes they felt a bit rushed. On the UE, sure you might not get to spend as much time in each place as you really want to, but thats not the reason you chose contiki. Lets face it, you chose contiki as a crash course to europe, not as a means of exploring in-depth the culture and history of certain countries.

I hope you find this helpful. If you would like further advice aboout anything, or want to ask some questions, or even to abuse my point of view, please feel free to email me privately

Cheers
Leah
(Perth, australia - currently living in london for the next 2 years)

great review leah -- very helpful!!

Thanks so much leah,great review- good to hear about it from someone who went and obviously had a great time.
Thanks again

Your reveiw has been so helpful! Thank you for taking the time to write it out. Did you take a sleeping bag or did you just buy one when you got to London?

How much spending money would you recommend?

Thanks!!

Thank you for advice
i have just booked my ticketfor april 22nd 2007 i am going on my own and i am 29 and getting very exicited and allso a bit scared

helen

Hi Leah great review and a good insight to what i have to encounter in the future sept 2007. Would this be a good time to travel as in weather and the sky diving who and how did u organise this excursion i hope my experience will be as satisfying as yours was. Hope London is good to ya chio Natasha

wow thanks for the great review! contiki should pay you for that review!

Hi There....Im ash from perth Australia....i need some big advice on what i should budget in aussie dollars??? Doing to UE mid next year 2009 . . .all up how much did you end up spending overall . . .and how much do i budget for a day is 100euro enough of should i budget more??? Please help help help


Great Travelogue btw

Thanks

Smahley xox

wow after reading this review i'm torn like i think most people are btwn the UE or the EC tour . . .

i know that i can get quite short tempered but you do cover more ground on this tour . . . mm decisions decisions . . . thanks for the review though i throughly enjoyed it!

Hey Leah,

This information is great. Thanks Heaps. Will i need to take a blanket or sleeping bag with me? or not? Also how much spending money do you recomand? Im doing the tour in August that way, i also go through Germany the same time as Oktoberfest.

Cheers Meg

Great review, do you have pics we can see