hi i wasnt sure where to post this...

I live in Canberra, Australia and am goin on a Nz tour on 7 dec.

I fully paid and booked everything ages ago, it was near the end of August. The only documentation I have is a receipt from my travel agent saying i've paid, and the only details i have form contiki is the original brochure.

My agent told me that contiki dont send out any doc until 2 to 4 weeks before the start date and that they would let me know when the received it and i would then go an collect it.

What i want to know is that I think this is a load of $%^&. Anyone I know that has been on any organised tour has all the relevant paperwork long before 2 weeks before the tour. I want to be organised and have everything in order before it gets that close.

Is this time frame correct (from contiki's point of view) , or is my travel agent not doing the right thing by me?

Has anyone else encountered this? (That booked through a travel agent)

Thanks for any replies

This is correct. Docs are only sent out just prior to the tour. You should receive them from as early as 5 wks to as little as 2 wks before your tour start date.

- Vic

yeah thats correct. Once you get the contiki docs there isn't that much you can do with them anyway, so even if you get them the week before leaving, you'll still be prepared.

try not to stress too much, contiki have been doing this for a long time

hey,

im 4 weeks out from my tour and still havent received my documents. Last tour it was about 3 weeks before the tour when i got the documents. Dont stress, they will arrive

Yeah i agree - it does suck. This issue is that contiki can technically cancel a tour up to 4 -6 week before departure due to lack of numbers etc so if they sent out all the documents before this date and then cancelled that wouldn't be good. mine have been sitting at my travel agents for 2 weeks coz i haven't been able to get there to pick them up. have fun on your tour!

To give you an idea, I'm leaving on the Grand Explorer on the 28th of October and I got my Contiki docs on the 29th of September. I also booked through a travel agent. I would have liked it earlier, but I thought the amount of time was good. Less time for me to misplace anything, but still plenty of time for any corrections to be made if necessary (fortunately none were required).

Hi Emily

I had the same questions that you did, why wouldn't you get documents once you pay for your trip? But I kind of understand that Contiki need time to confirm numbers and book places and all that.

I am happy to say that I got my documents pack exactly 4 weeks before the date of departure, which I think is plenty of time to get everythin else you need to do organised.

Good luck with your trip!

I booked vacations with cruises and with Disney and they both didn't send documents until around 4-6 weeks before the trip.

I'm currently in the process of booking 3 consecutive contiki tours, and leave Aus end of April for my first tour May 8, next May 19 and final June 9. Does this mean that I wont receive a whole heap of documents as I will be away??

I have heard that they can email you the things you will need. I would think you would only just miss out on getting the June documents, or get them the day before you go.

If you have a chat with your booking person I'm sure they could work something out for you.

I'm a little jealous that you are doing three tours!

When you book, you can specify your departure date; that way they make sure to send you all your documents before you leave the country.