Anyone been on a european contiki tour? is it worthwhile?

Question

Anyone been on a european contiki tour? is it worthwhile?

Answer 1

I took a Contiki tour on my first trip to Europe, and have traveled independently ever since.

The positives about Contiki are:

-Their tours tend to cover a lot of the most famous sights of Europe in a short time.

-Their tours are inexpensive compared to other tours of Europe.

-You don't have to worry about missing trains or arranging flights, or arriving in a city and then having to find a hotel or hostel that has space.

-It's easy to find members of the group to tour around with.

The negatives are:

-They tend to spend very little time in each place - usually 1-2 days in each city, which is not enough to really do more than just see the most famous places and that's it - and that means a lot of day-long bus rides between cities.

-They tend to use hotels that are far from city centers, so they are not convenient from the point of view of either experiencing the cities' nightlife or if you want to explore apart from the group.

-They waste a lot of time in tourist traps - overpriced mediocre restaurants with cheesy "folklore shows", or souvenir stores where they get a commission.

-If you travel independently, you would be able to set your own schedule and itinerary, to spend more time in places when you wanted, and would be able to save money compared to the Contiki tour.