I wasted a lot of money on my Winter Wanderer trip and feel obliged to inform others of this disappointing experience.

Basically, you will spend a vast majority of your time on an over-heated bus. Spare-time is minimum and it really is a shame to have travelled all that way to only see so little.

The meals organised by Contiki are DISGUSTING. Europe is renown for its cuisine- you won't experience this on the contiki itinerary...my first meal, after just arriving in Paris, was a slice of cold ham and MacDonald-type fries. Typically, most meals were an undercooked, slushy stew..

BTW, don't be pressured into the extras- the Moulin Rouge is the biggest waste of money ever...it's basically $300 to watch a bunch of uncoordinated strippers...the girls could not dance, at all- it was just all saggy breasts and wobbly butts...I'm sure this sounds great to a fair few perverts, but for $300, their breasts weren't that good!

Furthermore, having to keep to someone else's schedule is exhausting and robs you of exploring a city further...

I don't feel as if I've been to Europe at all- it felt like I was on a boring school excursion! Here I was, in Europe, having dreamed of such a trip for a looooong time, and I just wished the time away-it was so insanely boring.

You honestly spend 70% of your time on a bus...the rest of the time is spent drinking. Not exploring, not having fun, but sitting on your backside in a boring little pub of the tour guide's choice, drinking alcohol and talking to a bunch of other Australians (a majority of members on my trip and others were Australians)- no local interaction.

Don't waste your money. Even if you have to limit the number of countries you see, you will see more than if you had gone on the winter wanderer.

Each to their own. If you didn't expect all of those things, then you clearly didn't do enough research before going on the tour.

1. Over-heated bus. It's European winter. Unless you want to die of the flu, I think you'd rather have the heater on. And considering the amount of movement and drinking you may be doing, it's not good for your body to be sitting in a freezing cold bus after a night on the booze.

2. You are on a budget tour of Europe, even if it is Time-Out. They are at least providing food, but did you really expect five-star cuisine? I mean, really? Most of the meals I've had on Contiki were rubbish as well, but I kind of expected it. You get what you pay for. I look at the experience of having dinner and some wine with 50 new friends and having a great time, as opposed to worrying about how bad the food is.

3. No one ever pressures you into the extras. It's at your own discretion. I did half of mine.

4. Honestly though, did you not do any research? Of course you're going to spend a lot of time on the bus. You're paying 4k to visit, what, 10 countries? Did you think you were going to fly business class to each of them?

5. And you're clearly a little socially retarded. Never on my trips have I felt obligated to go only to the places my tour guide suggested. Yeah, they try and push you into pubs and clubs that Contiki clearly have some sort of investment in, but you're an adult ffs. Make your own decisions. No one is forcing you to stick around. In Amsterdam for example, the guide kept encouraging everyone to go to The Grasshopper. I know how bad the weed is there and I know how rude the staff are. So while our group was there, we went off searching for bars and coffeeshops off the beaten path. It's called initiative.

You speak like as if you're FORCED into drinking and FORCED into doing the extras and FORCED into going where the guide says. The dinners are all OPTIONALS. And the bars? They are pretty much places that the guide knows a group of 40+ tourists won't have any issues in. You could always have gone off on your own.

You seem to not have the guts or own sense of social interaction to move out on your own and initiate your own "local interaction".

I have such fond memories of my times in Europe because I use a bit of initiative to realise when and how I should do my own thing away from the group. I have fond memories or EVERY city, because we often did our own thing. On our last night in Paris, we had a crappy dinner at a tourist trap restaurant, but I've got some of the best memories from there. After that, the group all went to a bar outside of Paris near the campsite we were staying at. But myself, my mates and a few other guys on the tour decided to head into Paris for the night and see the city of lights.

It's a budget tour for people on a budget. If doing your own thing, drinking socially with new friends and having an open mind aren't your thing, then do a Top Deck tour.

Is the food really that bad? are there options at least?

I think also, you may have had the wrong attitude going in, calabreseboy is right when he said that you don't have to do what the tour guide recommends. There recommendations are for those who want to stay inside their comfort zone etc.

No you will not normally get options for dinner, however i was pleasently suprised with the food. no, it is not incredible but it was better than i expected after what everyone said. just go in expecting something that your mum or friend would cook you for dinner, not a 5 star restaurant.

i think anyone who complains about bus times hasnt done their research and thats their own decision/mistake. theres no more to say on this. just look at a map of europe or read your tour info... or google distance times... and you will understand that this is a coach trip. the bus days i thought were awesome as you didnt just get to see the cities, you saw the little towns and different houses etc too.

it is pretty much a high school trip. you will feel like you are in high school while on the trip. but thats what it is... it is a tour.

and dont feel pressured to drink if you dont want to. remember every night your reason for going on the trip and you will feel fantastic sightseeing on 8 hours sleep while others barely take in the city after 2 hours sleep!

Let me just say, you sound like you must be a DELIGHT to travel with. After reading your review, I'm positive that you did the best you could to enjoy your vacation and it must all be Contiki's fault.

My guess, is you probably had one or two things go wrong early in the trip, and you probably took that attitude over into everything else that you did. The good news is, it's most likely universal, and I'm sure noone on your tour has anything good to say about you either.

I remember one guy on our tour who didn't like beer, but he decided to pay for the Munich Beer Hall option anyway. When we got there, he was so annoyed that he didn't get a free coke (because everyone got a free litre of beer), that he got angry at the tour manager and wanted a refund and the remaining optionals for the tour.

What a tool.

HAHAHA...free coke lol. We asked a waiter for shots at the hoffbrau (after about 4/5 steins each) and she just yelled 'NOOO! Beer or Lemonade only!' So we asked another waiter and got shots lol..