I arrive in Rome at 8am on the 12th. Thankfully it's a direct flight from Chicago.
I don't think the tour officially starts until dinner on Saturday evening, so hopefully I can meet up with some of you beforehand and we can do some early exploring.
I'm actually staying an extra day in Venice at the end and then flying home Sunday. Is anyone doing the same?
Hey Anna! I'm glad to see someone else on our trip to join myself, Raymond & his wife. What trip did you do previously and how was your experience? This is my first contiki trip, so I'm naturally curious what it will be like.
Has anyone read any of the postings about our trip over on the other sections of these message boards? There's some interesting stuff over there, with lots of tips & feedback.
where are you staying for your additional night in Venice? I'm looking to do the same thing....
I currently have an extra night booked at the Contiki hotel. But from what I've heard, that hotel is outside of the city, and you need to take a train into the city. I may actually try to find a hotel in the heart of the action for the final night. Of course, some of it depends on where the airport is in relationship to everything because my flight is fairly early in the morning.
I saw those reviews as well, but booked the trip anyway. I believe that any trip is only going to be as good as you make it. I have noticed that they've made some changes to the tour to account for some of the complaints. For instance, it no longer starts & ends in Rome, giving you an extra 8 hours on a bus. This allowed me to fly home from Florence, which is nice.
I agree about the optionals. I'll probably skip the majority of them and do similar things on my own, hopefully with others from the tour. For instance, I think I'd rather do a dinner with 4 or 8 friends at an authentic local restaurant than with 40 people at a tourist trap. But that's just me.
Overall, I'm very excited about the trip. I think it's going to be fantastic!
