I went on a Contiki tour with 2 good friends when I was 21 as my first tour of Europe. Wouldn’t do it again but had one of the best times of my life. This is a conflicting statement however I will explain why.

The thing with a Contiki tour is you basically have 24-48 hours in each city so you have to rush and be very selective of what you see and pretty much remain drunk/hungover the entire time (by choice sure but I dare you to try to remain sober). I’m the sort of traveller who prefers to take my time in cities and go off grid so to speak and not stick to a time limit but if you haven’t been overseas before or will be traveling alone for the first time then a Contiki really is ideal for you. You will be on a bus with around 50 people, usually mostly female as they do feel more comfortable in a group with a bus driver and a tour guide.   The tour guide for our tour was one wild woman. The tour I was on included most meals as well. It was called European Contrasts and is now around $4000. Below is the travel route I went on.

29 Contiki Tour- European Contrasts

The numbers on the map above shows how many nights we stayed in each stop so as you can see it is a pretty quick stopover each time. However my friends and I were staying in Europe for a few months longer after, so it provided us with a great taste of what we would want to come back and explore further, and how to travel around in each city. The tour guides have it down to a fine art of suggestions and tips of getting everything you want done, we received a map of the city and a train lines map at each destination on arrival to not confuse us. There was 2 overnight boat cruises. The best thing about the trip to me aside from the great people I met was on the bus to each new location our tour guide Sara would give us a full hard core history lesson about the city for a couple hours then went into different things to do and maybe some hidden treasures and then simple words or catch phrases that may be needed in that country.

I will have to go into more detail in my next post of what I did in each city as this would then become a novel however it is worth mentioning that I was able to do some things that without being on this trip at 21 years of age and being the first time I traveled longer then 2 weeks it pushed me to try new things I may not have been able to do. For example; Trying escagot and frog legs in Paris, white water rafting in Austria, Para Sailing in Greece, hiking up a mountain in the Swiss Alps, a Mozart and Strauss concert in Austria and so many more.

The last day of Contiki was full of tears and goodbyes,and by tears I mean weeping like a child as we all really quickly fell into feeling like a family.  It has been 4 years since that tour and I am still in contact with some of the people I met and caught up with them through travels at some point.

I will forever hold onto those amazing memories and would recommend a Contiki to anyone. For me, I think I have had all the Contiki I need as it really got me ready to head out there on my own, my body is still recovering from the alcohol damage.

Contiki in Paris – Champagne by the Eiffel Tower