Hi,

I have just booked to go on the Amsterdam to Barcelona trip departing on September 1^st 2006.

I am interested in hearing from anyone who has completed this tour in the past and has any advice to give.

More importantly I would like to hear from anyone who is going to be on this trip.

I look forward to hearing from you all.


Martin

HEY!

My partner and I just booked that tour. I'm so excited! The only sucky part is that it's SO FAR AWAY from now!!! I don't know if I'll survive the anticipation!

I'm even surprised to see someone else registered now who's going on that tour. I thought I'd be the only over-eager traveller.

So have you ever been to Europe before? And do you have plans before/after the tour?

CHEERS!
jackie

Hey Guys,
I just had my tour changed to this one, so glad to see others getting in touch.  Makes the trip seem so much more real! 

This is my first overseas/Europe trip, & I am SO excited.  It's going to be a long 4 months, LOL.

I'm travelling solo; arriving in Amsterdam on 30th & staying an extra day in Barcelona.  Anyone else doing similar? 

Jackie, where in Canada are you?  I'm in Vancouver...

Caio,
Angie

Hey Guys,
I just had my tour changed to this one, so glad to see others getting in touch.  Makes the trip seem so much more real! 

This is my first overseas/Europe trip, & I am SO excited.  It's going to be a long 4 months, LOL.

I'm travelling solo; arriving in Amsterdam on 30th & staying an extra day in Barcelona.  Anyone else doing similar? 

Jackie, where in Canada are you?  I'm in Vancouver...

Caio,
Angie

Hi Jackie,

To be honest I was a bit suprised to not to see more messages up here. My travel agent told me the tour only had about 6 places left. But I guess it still is a few months to go

This is my 3rd trip to Europe, but the last two times, I spent most of my time in Italy, so this will be something totally different.

I will be getting in a day before the tour and spending an extra day at the end. I would like to have spent more time in Europe, but couldnt get anymore time away form work.
 
What about yourself? Are you doing anyhting before or after the tour?

Martin

I am travelling around after the tour. My partner Dave and I arrive a few days early, on the 29th, and are staying in Amsterdam, and we don't fly out of London until the 28th. So we're planning to stay in Barcelona a bit, maybe go to San Sebastian, then back into France a bit (hopefully Lyon) and then on to Italy for about a week, travel around there. Then we have to some how get back up to London, which I've heard isn't difficult, but I'm still a little nervous. I'm actually nervous about the whole thing. Never been to Europe before and I usually have all my accommodations and transportation planned out before I travel anywhere! But I'm excited. Indeed, it will be a LONG summer.

Angie, I'm on the other side of the continent, in Toronto.

CHEERS!
jackie

Jackie-that's such a great sounding trip!  I'm sure it'll turn out fabulous :-)

Toronto, eh?  Do we have the saddest hockey teams right now or what?!

What made you both pick Contiki?  When I told my travel agent I was first-timer to Europe & wanted to meet people & have a laid-back but full tour, she said "gotta do Contiki, most fun & best organized!".  I've spent a few hours already reading others reviews & suggestions - so helpful.  And not one bad thing said about a tour or the other travellers, that's amazing.

Martin - Australia is my next big travel plan, hope you'll let me ask a few ?'s...

102 days & counting!
Angie

Hi Angie,

I was just thinking before about how long it is until the trip. I was thinking in months not days but thanks for working that out. It really isnt that long to go.  

Why I picked Contiki - I have a few friends who have done contiki tours in the past and everyone said it was great. I havent heard a bad report, so it was an easy choice

Although I have travelled to Europe twice before, I didnt travel very much once I got there. I stayed mainly in Italy with family, with a short trip to London and about 2 days in a town somewhere in France. This time  I wanted to see as much as possible in the time I had available and do the whole "tourist" thing. This trip covers a few things that I really want to see and skips Italy.

What about yourself, why did you pick this tour?

Feel free to ask any questions you want about Australia, but to be honest,  I havent really travelled around Australia much at all, but still more than happy to fill you on what I do know.

Im sure the 2 of you will find you way around without any problems. It probably isnt a bad idea to have a bit of flexibility in your itenerary after the trip, that way if you want to spend more time in one place or another you can do that.

What are you planning to do in Italy?

Travel around Europe isnt that hard. I know it is easer than trying to get around in Australia. The only warning I have for Italy (and this may just be my experience) if you ask the locals a questoin and they dont know the awnser they just make stuff up. I ended up getting on the wrong train or walking in the opposite direction to where I wanted to go a few times.
But you will probably be a little more organised than I was.

Martin

Hey Martin,
Thanks for not laughing when I numbered the days!  Don't know why, but "days" sounds closer than "months", lol.  I'm lucky, got a very busy summer so time will fly. 

I picked this particular tour for the same reason as you:  want to see as much as I could in the days I have to work with.  We'll see lots of tourist places, but still get some time to wander & hang with locals as well as other nationalities on our tour.  Eastern Europe would be my next solo trip, couple years after Australia.  I want to save Italy for a trip with someone special.  Just need to figure out how to pay for all these trips, besides buying lotto tickets, lol.

Where in Australia are you from?  Have you seen much of the Great Barrier Reef?  I've always loved the ocean; just want to learn to snorkel better before I go. 

Have a good one,
Angie

AHH!!! 3 more months!! why is it taking so long?! I have a very busy summer ahead as well, but it is still going by so slowly! All the spare time i have (and even time that isn't spare, but stolen) I spend reading tips and travel guides and making myself excited. I know if I am to survive the next few months I need to stop this obsessing and leave it for the month before I leave but I can't.

I am now wondering if instead of travelling on our own in Italy, maybe Dave and I should sign up for the Simply Italy tour, which departs Rome on Sept 15 and would fit perfectly into our plans, especially since it ends in Rome on the 26th, and we fly from Rome to London on the 27th to then return to Canada on the 28th. It would give us just enough time to visit Lyon in France -- Dave (and I by association) is a major food lover and so cannot travel to France without a stop in it's culinary capital! -- on the way, and the whole itineray is just too coincidentally perfect for me to not consider it. Thing is, we had really wanted to travel on our own, which is why we were doing a short Contiki tour in the first place, and also this added tour would push us a little beyond our budget. But it would be so nice to have to hotel and travelling all planned out for us since I've been stressing over what route to take, and whether the Eurail is worth it (looks like probably not!), and whether to book hotels in advance or just explore for the best rates when we get there..... I just don't know!!! All this reading up on Contiki has almost made me regret not booking a longer tour (ALMOST... I am really excited about the Amsterdam to Barcelona itinerary!), but then I've never done a Contiki before, and I am not a HUGE partier or drinker so I'm not 100% sure it will be my cup of tea. I'm sure I'll have a blast, and don't mind partying hard, I just don't know if I wouldn't rather do my own thing as well.

It's funny; while Contiki sounds fantastic and I haven't heard one bad thing about it at all, I work as a tour guide here in Canada with a company that does tours to Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, New York, Boston, etc. with international students that are staying in Toronto to learn English, and so I am actually a little skeptical about organized tours in general, since I know the ins and outs of how they work. But the students on my tours always have a blast, and Contiki is so reputable that I can only imagine that it must be top-notch.

I'm sure whatever I end up doing, it will be the trip of a lifetime, but I can't help but stress over the many decisions that have to be made because "what if....?"! Dave and I even debated at the travel agent's office for about 10 minutes whether we wanted a window or aisle seat on the plane! (I like windows, but he convinced me that aisle was the way to go since we'll be flying over water most of the way anyway, and it is a long flight).

Anyway, sorry for the long ramble. My friends are kinda sick of listening to me stress over this, and I don't like to sound like I'm gloating (of all the things to be stressed about!). Just had to come and vent to people who can relate!

CHEERS!
jaxx

You sound a bit stressed. You are aware that holidays are meant to be fun!! : ) One of the things I am really looking forward to on this trip is not needing to make too many decisions for myself.

My opinion,  for what its worth is that you probably need to be careful looking at the tour from the inside out. If you work as a tour guide, you are probably thinking about the tour from the work that goes into it. You wont need to do any of that stuff, you just have to sit back and enjoy the ride in this case.

I dont think that your attitude to partying or drinking will be an issue.  But I will ask you (and anyone else that reads these posts) from the outset that you are mindful of the hangovers I will  be nursing on most days.

Having traveled around Italy a bit  before if I had to do it again I would be taking the tour option. Unless either you or Dave speak Italian and have a good understanding of the customs, it might be a lower stress way to see more stuff in a shorter time frame. As for the budget, you might need to consider what costs are covered by the tour and which ones arent, and think if it would be any cheaper to do it on your own. My attitude to the budget on this trip is that it is probably going to be the only time I ever do a tour like this, so I dont care what I spend. I did consider the options of putting a similar trip together on my own and not do the group tour thing. but when I looked at it, it was all too hard. I will probably travel around Europe again, but this time I want to get a quick look at a lot of stuff then decide where I want to spend more time on the next trip.

Anyway, I hope you dont stay too stressed for too long on this. Like I said holidays are supposed to be fun.

Ah, Martin, I know you're right! This IS supposed to be fun--well, actually, I tend to stress out and worry about EVERYTHING and in a way that is part of the fun for me. How weird do I sound now? haha!

As for the touring v. backpacking, the reason I am skeptical of tour companies is not because of the work involved for the guide. I know that the people on my tours always have a good time and that they just sit back and enjoy. It's more a matter of value, where I know that often with tour companies you pay a lot of money for activities and services that on the surface look lustrous and fabulous and well worth it, but in reality they are not really up to the standard they appear to be. In the tourist industry, it's all about the appearances. But that would probably be much the case if I were travelling on my own as a tourist too!

As a minor example: tour companies develop relationships with certain businesses over years of doing the same routes again and again. They don't always try out EVERY restaurant or bar or club or attraction; sometimes, they try one or two, are satisfied (i.e. comfortable with the relationship) with one, and stick to it. It means that on every tour, everybody goes to the same places, and with a big company like Contiki (or in my company's case, smaller companies often use the same places because they come to cater to tour companies), the places get so often used by big tour groups that they begin to lose their local feel and instead become infested with tour groups, and learn how to cater specifically to these groups (usually less local music/food/culture and more things the tourists are used to) but still try to maintain that authentic APPEARANCE. We would be none the wiser, because it's where we were taken or what was recommended on tour.

Does that make sense or am I just babbling?

I would really like to have the experience of travelling around Europe, and Italy in particular, on my own, but we've been sort of planning it (not really, 'cause it's so far away, but we keep changing our itinerary!) and you are right, it is just so much more work! But then, that is all part of the experience. We don't speak ANY Italian though, so you raise a good point. I know Dave and I are going to end up debating this until the Simply Italy date we would need is sold out (if it isn't already!) so it's probably entirely pointless, but again, planning and worrying and changing our minds are all part of the fun. (?!)

Thanks for your reply though! Gave me more to think about. And an excuse to ramble on some more....

If you're going to warn people that you're going to have massive hangovers every morning, I better warn people that I have chronic verbal diarhea!

CHEERS!

I should add that I am not trying to bash Contiki because I am really excited about the tour. A company that gets as much positive feedback as Contiki does (literally have not heard one bad thing!) I am sure they do a way-above-par tour. I just can't help but be a bit skeptical!

I should post on the advice board to people about whether travelling on your own in Italy is a better (or comprable) experience to doing a tour. Some have done both, y'know?

CHEERS!

Hey All,
OK, there's a ton of info there...so bear with me if I ramble aimlessly.

I'm totally with Martin on a couple things: 
Please, sit back & enjoy the tour Jackie!  I usually plan a lot in advance too (so you know that this doesn't come naturally to me), but I've already found this past year...if you plan too much or read too much ahead of time, it creates either additional stresses or information overload.  Now, finding a good balance between being prepared & going with the flow is eluding me a little sometimes, LOL.

Second, the drinking/chatting...no worries!  I'm high energy & chatty to start with, but add any sugar/booze, & look out!  (for chattiness, dancing ANYWHERE, and general zippiness).  I don't seem to get typical hangovers - so I promise Martin, I'll try not to be too cheery too early for ya.  Just tell me to put on my iPod & shut up :-)  

And Jackie:
I too am trying not to talk about the trip too much with most friends as they are clearly...envious, shall we say?!  (and that doesn't include those who can't for the life of them understand why I'd go on my own!)  So feel free to ramble on here as much as you want!  

BTW, I did a quick check on my big suitcase's size.  Darn thing is one inch too wide & deep - do you think I can pull that off?  Others have said that as long as it's underweight, it'll be okay...thoughts?

69 days to go!!!
Angie