My European Adventure

Post-Tour Questions & Answers

This page is quite big, but don't be intimidated! I scoured the message boards and asked friends what they would want to know. And the result is this page of all the questions and answers you could ever want to know about my European Adventurer trip with Contiki. All the questions were answered with the trip fresh in my mind, within a week of coming back to the United States.

General Information

Was your trip everything you wanted?

In all honesty, it absolutely was. I got to see all the things in Europe I've always wanted to see (i.e. London, Paris, Greece, Amsterdam, etc.). I had the privelige of traveling with fifty other great people, and had an awesome tour manager and bus driver for the trip. And I had the time of my life seeing all the sites, doing all the optional excursions, and going out and having a great time pretty much every single night while on the trip.

Who would you recommend Contiki and the European Adventurer tour to?

I'd recommend Contiki to anyone who is a first time visitor to any new place, wants to see all the sights, travel with fifty other fun loving people and have an incredible time. The Contiki tours will hit all the popular spots, you're tour manager should inform you of all the top sites (what's worth seeing and what's not), and the trip will give you a great overview so that the next time you visit you'll know exactly what you like and want to see again.

And I'd recommend the European Adventurer package to anyone that's: A) Going to Europe for the first time and wants to get an idea for the entire continent. B) Is traveling by themselves, with a friend, or as a couple and wants to travel with a larger group and meet new people. C) Finally, I'd recommend the European Adventurer package to anyone that wants to party and have the time of their life in Europe and do more than just see all the sights. You don't have to party if you're on the tour. But you're guaranteed a good time anytime you want to go out at the stopovers, or at the bars and clubs in town.

How much did the trip cost you in total?

My entire trip (European Adventurer package, three extra days in London, doing all the optional excursions minus paragliding, souvenirs, and spending money for the entire trip) cost me $8,000. And if you look around, that's an absolute bargain for visiting eighteen countries in Europe and traveling for a total of forty days. With the Contiki tour you get to see so much of Europe for so little because you're traveling as a group, and in my case on a "budget tour" - which I think is the way to go.

Exactly which 18 countries did you visit?

Here's the list, as close to in order as it's going to get: England, France, Monaco, Andorra, Spain, Italy, Vatican City, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Bulgaria. We stopped for at least a few nights in each spot except for Andorra, Bulgaria and Belgium which we merely drove through to get to and from our destinations.

What was the average age and male-to-female ratio in your group?

The average age was probably 22 years old. And the male-to-female ratio was 1:2, a ratio I was very happy with! It made for a great trip. And no one, not even the eighteen or twenty-eight year olds, on our tour felt out of place. Everyone got along and we all had a great time!

How many people went solo vs. with friends or as a couple?

The majority (probably 90%) of our tour were traveling solo. Their was one couple on our tour, and three or so groups of friends. But even the people that came together weren't attached at the hip, they separated and hung out with everyone else on the tour. I traveled solo on the tour, and would recommend it over traveling with friends because it makes you get out of your comfort zone, your room, and your seat on the bus and meet other people on the tour. And the friendships and people you meet along the tour are what everyone agrees is the best part of taking a Contiki tour!

And it's not akward or weird meeting or talking with anyone else on the tour, because pretty much everyone is in the same boat. Everyone wants to meet new people, and have a great time. And that makes the tour, and the friendships you develop, so much fun!

What was the most interesting thing that happened on the tour?

The most interesting thing that happened to me on the tour, was just meeting so many great and fun people from around the world. I loved spending time with and getting to know everyone on my tour! And I loved going out to the bars and/or pubs at our stopovers and meeting people from the other tour groups and having a great time with them. Contiki tours have such a fun atmosphere about them, and attract such great people, becuase everyone is there to have fun, and is doing something that dreamed or wanted to do for so long (probably their entire lives). So everyone is out there and loving it!

I really enjoyed getting close to a few girls on my tour. I spent a lot of time and got really close to Courtney, Jess and Pacho. And I really enjoyed hanging out with the guys on my tour and got really close to Ryan, Brett, Clinton, Jamie and Chris. And I really cherished those relationships and had so much fun with those people. It was great to meet so many people! And it was great to have taken the time to develop a few special and close relationships with some of the people on my tour! That's the way to go about it - meet as many people as you can, but take the time to develop a few, special relationships with the people you like on your tour.

Do you have any regrets?

The only things I regret are that the tour wasn't long enough and that I kinda ran out of money by the end. Although I was looking forward to going home by the end of the tour, I could have traveled longer and spent more time in Switzerland and Austria. And I regret running out of money, but there's not much I could have done about that. The tour ended up being more expensive than I expected, but I wouldn't change what I did or how much money I ended up spending for anything. I had such an amazing time and being able to spend freely and have a great time was a big part of what made my trip so much fun! I didn't hold back at all. And that's what I would recommend! Expect to come back and be in debt and broke, but be happy to do that - it's worth it.

What would you recommend/advise up and coming contikiers to do or see?

I would recommend and advise up and coming contikiers not to hold back, to do all the optional excursions you can afford, and do anything and everything you want to do when you're over there. Trips, especially those long and abroad ones, don't happen but once or twice in your life if your lucky. So don't hold back, don't try to scrimp and save by not doing optional excursions or doing the things you want to do. Go all out! You won't regret it when you come back broke and/or in debt!

^ Back to Top

 

The Amenities

What were your stopovers like? (i.e. Hotels, Hostels and Contiki Special Stopovers)

The European Adventurer tour that I took was considered a "Budget Tour" by Contiki. So most of the stopovers on the trip were pretty basic. We spent most of our nights at Contiki Special Stopovers which are basically entire campsites just for Contiki's many tours. At these sights, we usually stayed in cabins. The beds were basic, you usually still slept in your sleeping bag to stay warm and because most sights did not have sheets or covers on the beds. You used your own towel, they weren't provided very often along the tour. And you either used a separate shower and bathroom block (unisex most of the time), or occassionally had your own basic set-up in your room.

At the hostels, it was pretty much the same set-up except we often stayed inside what appeared to be hotel. And for the hotels, they were all pretty basic. But a few (especially the one we stayed at in Austria) had a warm bed with a duna, a television in the room, and bigger bathrooms and showers in the room. I will also say that at many accomodations we had to deal with slight incoveniences - i.e. shower heads that sprayed the entire room, bathroom doors that didn't lock, showers with very little warm water in them, rooms without clothes hangers, and overall very tiny rooms and showers. But you just learned to deal with these, and make due on the tour. If the showers were cold and everyone was sharing a bathroom, I just learned to shower at night before going to bed (to get what hot water I could) and not shave for a day or two (because shaving with cold water is never fun).

Overall there's really nothing to complain about. Just go into the tour excepting basic accomodations! No one on our tour had problem with the accomodations and most even liked the idea because it forced us all to get out of our rooms and spend more time together hanging out at night. Besides, the only time you're really in your room during the tour is to sleep at night, get ready to go out at night, or get ready in the morning.

Did you have to do any cooking or cleaning at the stopovers?

Yep, a little. At the beginning of the tour we each had to sign up for either "cooky" or "dishy" duties at one of the sites we'd be stopping at. And if you were the "cooky" for that sight, your job was to help prepare and serve food for however many nights we were at that stop. If you were a "dishy" for that sight, you helped clean up after dinner and do the dishes. Neither was a big deal, although being a "cooky" was ohh so easy, and you always got free beer or wine and hot food afterwards for helping out!

What was the Contiki included food like?

The food was good for the most part! No meals were especially amazing. At most stops the breakfast was very simple - i.e. hard-boiled eggs, toast, water down orange juice, cereal, and some fruit. But it got you through the day, let you spend some time chatting and enjoying the comapny of your tour, and helped you save money for other things on the tour. And at a few sights, the dinner was actually very good like spaghetti, barbeque or hamburgers.

How often could you do laundry on your trip?

At probably 60%-70% of the stops you could do laundry either by yourself (paying to wash and dry your clothes) or you could stuff your clothes into a bag and pay on average 10 Euro to wash a small trash can sized bag of clothes and have them dried and neatly folded before they were given back to you. The entire trip I always used the second option, and never regretted it. To me it wasn't worth saving a few euro and having to spend an hour or two doing my own laundry.

During the trip I did laundry three times in total, so about every week to week and a half. The only time it got really bad was when we had to go a little over two weeks before we were able to do laundry again, as we made our way up the Croatian Coast through Albania, Montenegro, and Croatia. It got to the point where you just sucked it up and put on your cleanest clothes for the day. So just keep in mind to pack about a week to a week and a halfs worth of outfits, and be ok with wearing a pair of jeans or shorts for a few days in a row to save the weight and space in your pack. Everyone is in the same boat, so it's not a big deal!

Do you need a sleeping bag?

Yes, you absolutely do! Everyone on my tour had to bring one except for me and a few others that flew in from Canada or the United States. We were provided sleeping bags when we arrived in London, at the Contiki Basement. You will need a sleeping bag most nights, because you either aren't provided sheets or can't keep warm in the sheets you're provided. And in a few sights, you just feel like you want to use your own sleeping bag for fear of bed bugs or mosquitos - me and several other people on my tour were bitten by both at a few sights, so you'll want to use your sleeping bag most nights.

Should I bring a shower towel and wash supplies?

Yes and yes! After looking around the Contiki forums and blogs I saw some people suggested not bringing either to save the weight and room in your pack, but this is not a good idea. We were provided wash supplies (soap and shampoo) at one sight - Contiki's beach resort on Mykonos. And at only one or two sights were we provided bath towels. The rest of the time you had to borrow someone elses or use your own. And only a few of the places that we stopped actually sold towels or wash supplies. So be sure to bring a shower towel, a wash cloth (another good idea),and enough wash supplies to get you through your trip!

Note: Also bring a shower towel that can double as a beach towel, because you probably won't want to take a separate beach towel and you won't be supplied one pretty much anywhere.

^ Back to Top

 

Optional Excursions

Which optional excursions did you do? How did you feel about them?

Before I left for the trip I tried to budget my optional excursions and planned on only doing a few of them. But once I was on the trip and it was time to sign up and pay for them I decided to do everything except for the expensive paragliding in Austria. And I'm very happy with that decision! Sure, it's true not everything was spectacular (many of the dinners were mediocre). But every optional excursion was a guaranteed good time. Every mediocre dinner, was worth it because you got to spend time with everyone on your tour and everyone that did the dinners always had the absolute best night wherever we were. If you can, definitely do all the optional dinners!

The optional excursions I could have done without were the smaller ones like the wine tastings and leather demonstration in Spain. These were all mediocre at best, and were really not worth the money - even though they didn't cost much! What's worse is that many of these wine tastings and demonstrations are really nothing but an attempt to sell you goods by local tourist shops that I'm pretty sure Contiki gets some kind of kick-back from. The leather one in Spain was the worst! They pretended as if their leather jackets and outfits had seasons, when they were really nothing but a very small and kind of sad tourist shop.

What do you recommend doing?

Besides the above, all the optional excursions I did were fantastic. If I had to pick the top five, I would recommend white water rafting and the mountain biking in Austria, the railway to the top of Jungfrau Mountain in Switzerland, the Space Disco and dinner in Florence, and finally the cabaret show in Paris. These were by far my favorite optional excursions!

But again, I would also highly recommend doing all the optional dinners if you can afford it. It's a guaranteed good time, and will help you get to know and enjoy the company of everyone on your tour!

^ Back to Top

 

Packing & Preparing

The Backpack I Used For My Trip

Did you use a backpack on the trip?

Yeah, I used a backpack for the trip and was very happy with that decision! The pack that I used was great. It could be carried with a shoulder strap, worn like a backpack, and had a detachable small backpack on it. This thing really came in handy - it was easy to carry, I used the backpack the entire trip as a day bag, and was easy to lug around the campsites, up the hills and stairs we often had to carry our things up on the trip.

What kind of suitcase/pack do you recommend?

I highly recommend getting a High Sierra Compass Travel Pack like the one I took with me on my tour. The bag isn't expensive for only $90. And you can't go wrong with a bag that features a large main -compartment, and a smaller, detachable backpack-style compartment that can be used as a day bag. If you don't get that, at least go with a larger soft-case duffel bag type that can be wheeled around, worn as a backpack, and carried with a shoulder strap. The people that had the hardest time lugging their things around were the people that brought hard-shelled suitcases on the trip. These are not easy to get up and down stairs, carry up narrow staircases, and didn't look fun to carry around at all.

What were you happy or unhappy you packed?

I think I packed pretty well for the trip. The key is just to leave yourself enough time to think everything through before you have to depart for your trip. When traveling for long periods of time abroad, don't leaving packing until the last second. Of all the things I brought, a few smaller things I was happy I packed was a ten-pack of small disposable trash bags, the 40GB portable hard-drive I brought with me, and all my toiletries in a separate toiletry bag.

The disposable trash bags really came in handy for separating wet clothes and muddy or really dirty shoes from the rest of my stuff. The hard-drive was incredible and allowed me to bring back 2,500 pictures. And the separate toiletry bag I couldn't have done without with all the separate shower blocks (often a few minutes away from the cabins/rooms) we had to deal with on the trip.

The only thing I could have packed less of were t-shirts. It is very true that you'll probably end up buying clothes along the trip - especially t-shirts. So pack a good amount of clothes for a week or a week and a half, and make sure to pack for casual days and nights out, but don't overpack. Buy clothes from the stops and shops you like along your trip. Everytime you wear them, they'll bring back happy memories of your travels and fun abroad.

The last thing I'll say about packing is to make sure to pack dress clothes that are casual but dressy and are also easily cleanable and ironable. On any Contiki trip there will be optional excursions and meals that you'll want (and sometimes have) to dress up for. And I'm surprised how many people recommend and brought really dressy clothes and full-on suits. This is not a good idea, because I don't know about youm but my really nice dress clothes need to be dry cleaned (which won't happen while you're on your trip) and wrinkle incredibly easy. And so I recommend bringing casual but dressy clothes.

You also won't need dress clothes for nights out, on my trip we never had to dress up all that much to go out and get into any clubs. Just make sure you know how to look good! And besides, you won't want to wear you'll nicest clothes for a sweaty night out at a club with 100s of other people packed into the room with you. :-)

Note: To view all of my recommendations for what to buy, pack, and take with you on your Contiki tour check out my Recommended Shopping For Contiki Travelers.

^ Back to Top

 

Handling Money

How did you handle money? Did you use your credit card, debit card, traveller cheques, or money converted back at home?

This is a great question, and a very important consideration before leaving for your trip! Before I left the U.S. I converted some U.S. Dollars for the two major currencies I was going to be using on my trip - British Pounds and Euros. I got 200 GPBs for the three days I was going to be in London, and about 400 Euro to start me off in the European union countries.

I highly recommend converting money before you leave for a few reasons: A) The biggest reasons to do this is so that you'll have local currency from the time you step off the plane so you won't have another thing to worry about. B) And because it's often much cheaper to convert money with your local bank than it is once your abroad. Most places will charge higher conversion rates and extra fees to change money once you're abroad.

Besides taking that initial money abroad, I also got a Visa Travel Money card which I could load money onto from my bank account online or over the phone and which did not charge me extra international fees. This turned out to work really well! And finally I used credit cards for major purchases - i.e. clothes shopping in Spain, pre-paid spending card money at Mykonos, etc.

What do you recommend?

I recommend doing exactly what I did! Convert a good amount of your currency to the major currencies you'll be using along your trip. This will give you cash in the local currency from the time you get into the country, and will make traveling much easier. Just make sure to keep this in a safe place in your luggage and only take out small amounts of currency out at a time. Also, get some kind of international reloadable debit/credit card that will allow you to make transactions and withdraw money with being charged international access or conversion fees. And finally bring along one or two credit or debit cards to use for major purchases, and in case you lose or have your cash or reloadable card stolen.

Note: And make sure to make copies of both sides of all the cards you're bringing with you, and keep a copy or two in your luggage so that in case your cards are lost or stolen you have the phone numbers, card numbers, and information you need to suspend the cards and alert your bank immediately. This is very important!

^ Back to Top

 

Camera & Electronics

How many pictures did you take?

To prevent utter disbelief, I must preface the number of pictures I took with the fact that I took so many because I didn't have to worry about how much memory I used because I took a 40GB portable hard drive with me. (Something I also highly recommend doing.) In total I took about 1,800 pictures and brought back a total of a little over 2,500 because I loaded the pictures off of a few other people's cameras a few times during the trip.

What do you recommend bringing?

I highly recommend bringing a high-quality camera with a large screen display on the back. I brought a Canon SD630 for the trip, and was incredibly pleased with its performance, durability, and massive screen on the back. At least once or twice a day a few of my friends from my tour and I would gather around to check out my photos on the big screen. It helped to weed out the bad ones, and share the good ones I took during the trip!

The Apacer 40GB Portable Hard Drive

I highly recommend bring a portable hard drive with you if you can. There's a good reason for this as well! You're only going to be in Europe, for that long, with those people once in your life. So bring a portable hard drive so you can go picture crazy! The one that I bought was Apacer 40GB Share Steno for about $150 US. And for that price it was so well worth the purchase. It's not the best thing I've ever used, but it did the job for cheap and worked well for me on the trip. This way you can back-up all your photos whenever you want to clear up space on your camera. And the other big reason to bring one along is so that you can grab everyone elses great photos of your trip. You won't want everyone's photos, but I guarantee there will be a few exceptional photographers on your trip that took some great photos you might have missed - or actually got some photos with you in the picture. :-)

Last but not least, I recommend bringing an iPod along with you and loading it up with your favorite music. I never had an iPod before I went on my trip, but decided I'd pick one up in the weeks leading up to my departure. And I was happy that I did once the tour was over. You'll want one for a few reasons: A) On our tour bus there was always music playing from an iPod. And the same persons iPod gets old after a while, so share your music with everyone else on the bus. And be sure to load up some good comedy routines. Everyone will love you if you get some good ones! B) The other reason you'll want one, if you're like me, is to help you get to sleep at night when you're stuck in a room with a person that snores or is up all night chatting or hanging out with someone else in your room. Your iPod will be your savior on these types of nights. Just be sure to pick up Apple's USB Power Adapter and International Travel Adapters before you leave!

Thanks for reading! If you have any other questions or comments, don't hesitate to shoot me an e-mail!

Rotating Ad