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
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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.