islandgurrl

Does anyone have advise or suggestions on a reputable group tour company for tours to Europe? Right now my top 2 picks are Trafalgar and Rick Steve's tours. I like Rick Steves because it is a smaller group (20-25) than Trafalgar (35-45), but Trafalgar offers more tour options. I'm looking to take a multi-country tour in Europe. Any advise would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Debs

Can you narrow down to what countries/cities you're interested in visiting? How long do you have for your trip?

FainaAgain

I did Trafalgar and Globus. Didn't like Trafalgar - had some issues with the local guide, wrote a complaint, but their reply was like "they are doing their best".

Globus was great, loved their hotel choices, locations and quality.

nytraveler

Friends of my parents swear by Tauck. Yes - it is more expensive - but the only one they've found with hotels in reasonably central locations and enjoyable meals.

jame

You might want to check out Grand European Tours (www.getours.com). I took a wonderful tour with them to Vienna, Salzburg, Prague, and Budapest. I've also had good experiences with Globus.

suze

Rick Steves would definitely be my choice. IMO you don't need a load of tour options, just *one* great one

MarthaT

Check out Adventures Abroad. They do small group tours and go to quite a few places. www.adventures-abroad.com.

crefloors

I just posted some stuff about Globus on the "You don't necessarily get what you pay for with a tour" thread.

Globus is a huge company, has been in business for years. I did one tour..1999...was pretty pleased over all. I won't re-write everything on this thread, but in case you don't check out the other one...Globus will usually catagorize the tours as "leisurely" or "fast paced". In your brochure you will see how many nights you stay at each stop. It will also tell you what you are doing each day and the sites you actually visit will be highlighted in dark print.

I think the also list options, but you do get a list with your travel documants. The brochure will tell you what your free time will be each day..that will vary with the type of tour you are taking.

My experience is with Globus, but as far as listing the itinerary and activites, most groups seem the same. So, if you read carefully and thoroughly, you should have it pretty well spelled out what you see, how many meals on what days etc.

I looked at a Rick Steves tour one time and when I found out you had to go up 100 steps to get to one of the hotels in Switzerland....well, that was a deal breaker for me!!!!! LOL

islandgurrl

Hi all, thanks for your suggestions and advise. I will definitely look into the few tour groups suggested here.

Debs, to answer your questions, the tours I've been looking into typically include Paris to Italy and some other cities/countries in between. And I'm looking at 14-16 days.

Thanks again all.

Margo_Chester

I took a Globus tour the first time we went to Italy. It was wonderful as we had a really good guide. My time was limited and dealing with trains, car rental, museum reservations, etc to do my own trip (as I normally would have) was just not an option. I let them deal with the logistics and it worked out great. There were no nasty surprises and everything that they said was included was, we also had a decent amount of free time and didn't HAVE to be with the group if we didn't want to be. One to check out with any tour is to make sure the hotels are well located - you don't want to be outside of a major city, you want to be IN the city so on your free time you can do as you please. Globus "shares" with Brendan so look into that company too.

Have fun!

annhig

Hi islandgurrl - is there some special reason you don't want to organise this yourself - apart from all of us putting you off, of course?
a multi-country tour in 14-16 days is going to involve a lot of travelling, rather than seeing/doing. If the tours you are looking at involve "paris & italy and lot of places in between" that is definitely the case.
Why not pick 2-3 places [the max, to really enjoy in that time, IMO] then let us help you plan it - there are some real experts here who are just longing to help you! [i know, cos they've helped me].
In the end, if you decide to take a tour, there's nothing lost. Good luck!

Travelnut

Our first trip was with Trafalgar and we covered a lot of ground. In-depth? nope. Fun? Oh yeah! It was a fantastic experience and whet my appetite for more, more, more. So a tour can definitely be attractive if you are hesitant, time-limited, or just want to travel with a group.