Holiday in Europe - tour or self guided

C

Cherry Pro

We're planning a 4 week European holiday next year with 2 of our young adult children (19 and 21). Tossing between doing a 18 / 21 night tour where you visit 10 + countries in 3 weeks or mapping out our own itinerary, taking things easy and doing 5 or so countries at a leisurely pace. It's our first trip over and know hubby will want to stop and stare and read and photograph every church, monument and whatever else but for me, if you've seen 3 cathedrals you've seem them all !

Would appreciate insights from SSers who have used any of the formal tours out of London / Paris /Rome and also from those who have done a more relaxed holiday.

Thanks
 
We did a more relaxed holiday, six nights in London, five nights in Paris, four nights in Rome, two in Florence, two in Venice, one in Como, one in Milan, total of three weeks.

We loved being able to roam around and see what we wanted to see at our own pace.
 
I'm with Wylie - I prefer to travel at my own pace instead of sticking to the rigid itinerary of a tour. Admittedly I haven't traveled extensively with kids - or with more than one other person.

It's pretty easy to travel around Europe - plenty of trains, buses and cheap flights.

Cheers

Jamie
 
Fixed or Variable?

Hiya CherryPro

I have done both....

My opinion: do fewer countries but more in depth and more leisurely....Europe is not that big you know...plus let your kids pick some places they really want to see ...

Plus you can never know who is in that tour group...the last time there were 2 Aussie "bogan" girls who occupied the whole length of the tour bus at the back and used to snore pretty loudly as they bed down to catch up on lost sleep from having to get up so early ...i kid you not:eek:
 
My only experience of this sort of thing was my first visit to Australia (as a Brit) back in 1986. I signed up for three short tours, Sydney+Canberra, Cairns-Townsville and Alice Springs-Ayers Rock+Kings Canyon, with two or three days between each tour to do my own thing and unwind a bit. Worked well for me. I guess it's a personal thing, but I would find 21 consecutive days of "baggage in the hall by 0700 ladies and gentlemen" anything but a holiday

The other thing about some coach tours is their understandable desire to pack a lot in so we had at the National Gallery, Canberra, "this is the finest collection of art works in Australia. Back on the coach in 20 minutes please" ... Ought to go back but have yet to do so. On the plus side all the tours had took had superb guides who pointed out a lot of things I'd have missed on my own.
 
You are going to find it incredibly hard to find any tour which would be suitable for both yourselves and the kids. Your interests are probably very different, and the people that you're going to be on the tour with are going to relate to one of the age groups only. If you're comfortable with them the kids won't be.

Travel independently but give them some freedom as well.

I'm presuming you have a great relationship with your kids to even contemplate doing a trip like that.
 
We did similar with our (then 11 & 12 yo) kids a couple of years ago. I'd organise accom though airbnb, hire a car & make up my own tour. Generally speaking the airbnb hosts will be more than happy to offer you great local knowledge. That has the flexibility for you & the kids to do different things & meet up for lunch.
 
I've done tours and relaxing holidays in Europe (not with any kids though). Tours can be great if you really want to see as much as possible in a small time frame but if you want to take it easy and have more of a holiday then do it yourself.
 
Do it yourself. We're planning a 3 months trip to Europe for next year and I did briefly look at some of the tours available. I would say they are borderline OK if you are going on your own but with two or more people, you get far better value for money and will see a lot more if you plan it yourself. What they don't tell you with most of the "see 15 countries in 20 days" type tours is that a very big portion of this time will be spent in the bus. I like the website www.rome2rio.com as it gives a good indication of travel times and methods between different cities.
 
but I would find 21 consecutive days of "baggage in the hall by 0700 ladies and gentlemen" anything but a holiday
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I reckon I would end up leaving the tour on about Day 3.

We did similar with our (then 11 & 12 yo) kids a couple of years ago. I'd organise accom though airbnb, hire a car & make up my own tour. Generally speaking the airbnb hosts will be more than happy to offer you great local knowledge.
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That's exactly what we're doing in December with kids only a year older.

We've booked an apartment in Rome for a week, one in Venice for 5 nights, Barcelona for 10 nights (over Christmas) and Vienna for 5 nights.

We'll travel out from those cities - probably by train - and see other stuff.
 
Thanks all, some great insights with everyone suggestion 'do it our own way'. Since we have the time, we will explore that. Thanks for the tips with the websites, Cimbom and Keith. I caught up with Travelbug and she suggested the same.

Depreciator - your December trip seems like it's really well planned.

Geoff - I'd like to think we get along well with our children, it will definitely be interesting as we plan and incorporate what each of us would like to do. Our 23 year old has decided that he does not want to travel with us.
 
Depreciator - your December trip seems like it's really well planned.
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Not really. I'm not much of a planner. I like to stay in places for long enough to feel comfortable and get on nodding terms with local shopkeepers and stuff like that.
I like apartments with proper kitchens because I like cooking and it's handy to be able to prepare your own food when travelling. Eating out 3 meals a day can get wearing.
I like Rome and I know the kids will, too. It's a great city. A week in Rome is a good length of time in that city.
Venice is great, too. And 5 days there in the off season is about right.
We've never been to Barcelona, so 10 days there seems like a good plan - we'll go to Bilbao, too, overnight during the stay.
Then 5 days in Vienna is plenty.
 
Cherry Pro said:
it will definitely be interesting as we plan and incorporate what each of us would like to do. Our 23 year old has decided that he does not want to travel with us.
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Perhaps you could send Mr 23 on a short Contiki tour? (Warning- I met MrsGeoffW on a 2 week Contiki tour). He would have fun- party central- and that would leave you to visit the art museums and cathedrals ;-)
 
Last trip to Europe we did both. Started with France then joined a most enjoyable organised tour of Italy, followed by touring a number of other countries by ourselves using the train network.
Oddly enough the accompanying teen daughter enjoyed the organised tour more than traveling with just us. I suppose she enjoyed the interaction with fellow travelers.
 
We did an Insight tour for our honeymoon. 19 days around Europe. We then followed up with another 16 days just on our own.

We really enjoyed the tour, we saw a lot that we'd never see on our own. We also choose a tour appropriate to our age and tastes (which could be a problem with a family with teenagers). By the end of it we were keeping to ourselves outside of the planned activities.

The second half on our own was also extremely relaxing, more time to focus on us. We didn't see anywhere near as much, but we did spend more time on a few things more important to us. Overall I think the mixture worked of both quite well for us at the time.

The main downside of any trip around Europe (either on a tour or individually) is that you'll spend a lot of time travelling. During the tour we often had a day in a town followed by a day of travel with a few short stops. It can get pretty intense, but you do see a lot. Sitting in a bus for 6 hours it's ideal but the guides are very good at making the best of it.

My parents did something similar with my sisters around Europe, but I think they had a point where they were on separate tours. Mrs Bear and I also went on a cruise with my parents. We spent a bit of time with them (mostly around the dinner table), but the shour tours very, very different (zip lining & white water rafting vs bus tours to a lookout).

Overall I'd say I much prefer a cruise to a tour bus. Most of the travel is done over night and you get to make more of the days.
 
I haven't read all the replies but I would recommend that less is more - don't try to cram too many places in a short time and do it yourselves at your own pace. Personally, I can't bear the mere thought of doing an organised tour. If I like a certain little village, I'll damn well stay there a few extra hours or even days if I please! Europe is easy - not like it's deepest, darkest Africa.
 
I'm about to start a tertiary course so I want to take it easy and have a real holiday. We are going to go on a river cruise - no daily packing and unpacking, someone else can make all the bookings. We will take it more slowly next time and book everything ourselves when we have more time to do so. I couldn't stand the 19 cities in 21 days bus tours either. The cruise is four countries in 15 days.
 
Hubby, me and then 15yo son did a 19 day Trafalgar tour across 9 European countries for xmas in 2009.

I really enjoyed it - our tour guide was fantastic and we saw so much more than we would have otherwise. I was very restricted in the amount of time I could take off work, so this was perfect for us. While we saw lots of Europe in a short time I did feel like I had seen a lot of it from a bus window. Having said that, our time was absolutely maximised - we didnt wait at any major tourist attractions - we were straight in. We didn't have to worry about carting luggage around which was great.

We had about 45 people on the bus - with a good mix of families, singles and couples. There were probably about 10 teenagers who all got on very well.
The average age of the adults was around 40 - 45. There was a mix of nationalities - mostly Aussies and South Africans, but also a mix of people from different Asian countries. No one was annoying (except possibly my husband ;) )

I'm planning another European holiday next year. I'm looking at something like this tour - as it has some longer stops in places and you dont travel as far. Also goes to places I haven't been. www.albatrosstours.com.au/european-summer-tours/italian-grande

We are going to combine that with some independent travel through France.

One thing I didn't like about the 9 country tours - most itineraries are similar - you spend days travelling across Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany and to be honest its not worth it. Most of your time is spent in the bus. They would be better cutting that part of the tour and adding time somewhere else...or adding some days on and doing those countries properly.
 
Rome is an amazing city probably the best place i been, we arrived and booked guided tours for the colloseum & vatican at darkrome.com they gather small groups of 10 the vatican tour is a must if you visit rome it includes breakfeast that will make you go wow.
 
First thing I thought of was National Lampoons European Vacation.

I have done both though the tour was a contiki in my 20's so more drinking than sight seeing. Regardless I would never do a tour of any country, they suck. Hope off bus, look around, hope back on bus, go to westerner restaurant, go to westerner hotel (last 2 are more in reference to Asia)

Plan your own if you have the time, its just a lot of effort to research but very rewarding in the end.
 
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