Jim_Calantropio

My brother and I, and our wives are planning our first trip out of the country, to Italy. We are hoping to spend about 14 days hitting the usual important spots, with hopes of spending a couple of days in Tuscany with some free time. We have looked into several tour companies. My question is whether anyone out there has had experience with Cosmos tours, and what that experience was like. Their prices seem much lower than some others, and makes me wonder why. We are fairly active people without a need for luxury accommodations.

Robert2533

It's a bus tour company and gets only marginal reviews on some websites, a little better on others, but I guess it's fine if you're into doing such tours.

LoveItaly

What areas or cities do you desire to visit in Italy, Jim?
A lot of first time visitors like to go to Venice, Florence and Rome. Is that your thought? If so it is usually suggested that one fly into Venice and home from Rome as Venice airline depatures are usually quite early in the morning. Flying into one destination and flying home from another airport is called Multi-City and usually cost the same or just a tad more than flying into and out of the same airport. One does not have to backtrack if they book the Mutli-City flight which saves precious travel time plus money.

You ask about Cosmos Tours. I don't know. It has seemed to me that the people that I have known that have booked tours do not have the wonderful experience that independent travellers have. One is up early in the morning, sometimes one is staying at hotels that are far from the historical centers, one is on the tour timetable rather than their own. Most here on Fodor's do not book through tour companies.

Although you do not say exactly where you want to visit IF you are interested in Venice, Florence and Rome with a few days in the countryside of Tuscany you can reach all the three cities via trains with ease. For the countryside of Tuscany a rental car is best but you can sure visit Siena, Lucca as daytrips from Florence without renting a car.

Anyway, I have no knowledge about the Cosmo Tours but just throwing out a thought for your consideration. If you wish to travel independently you will sure get a lot of good advice here on Fodor's. Best regards.

azzure

Cosmos tours are the budget division of Globus, I believe. The trouble with the "economy" tour groups is that your accommodations are likely to be on the outskirts of the places you want to visit. If a tour is what you want, there are better companies out there unless budget is the major consideration.

worldinabag

Hi

"It has seemed to me that the people that I have known that have booked tours do not have the wonderful experience that independent travellers have." Well I can't say I agree with that statement. We have travelled independently, used tours and also cruises. We have had wonderful, unique experiences on each and there are pluses and minuses for whatever mode you use.

We have undertaken two Cosmos tours - one in Greece and the other in Spain. I highly recommend the Cosmos brand. The hotels are generally 3 star establishments but quite adequate. Yes, one of the minuses is the location of hotels. They are not always central - this how they keep costs low. But having to take public transport or taxis (you can share these with others to keep costs down) is a minor issue. My only complaint was the food at times was unappealing. Others didn't seem to mind it and I'm not a fussy eater so maybe I can put it down to travel fatigue. Yes the schedule can be hectic but you do get sufficient free time to do your own thing.

crefloors

I took a tour my first trip to Europe, it was Globus, so a bit more upscale than Cosmos. If you check your itinerary carefully it will tell you what is included, what optional tours there are that our may or may not want to participate in. I know on the tour I took, if one didn't take the optional tours, there actually was quite a bit of free time every day. Some days we took the option, other days not.

I have since gone back to Europe on my own, but I really enjoyed my first trip.

adrienne

If you can afford a better tour then take a better tour. I've taken one Globus tour and was disappointed with the tour guide, food, and lodging locations.

You didn't specify which Globus tour you're interested in but their tours of Italy start at $1,500 per person for a week plus air fare and optional tours that are not included in the basic price. You can see Italy much cheaper on your own.

With some planning for independent travel, you'll see more of Italy and see the things you want to see at your pace and will have a much better experience. There's a lot of time on the bus and a lot of time hanging around and waiting on bus tours as you will have 40 to 50 people in your group.

If you want some depth to your visit to Italy, you can hire local guides or sign up (or just show up) for walking tours of sights.

lavandula

I did do a Cosmos tour (yes, 20 years ago, so I feel I hardly have a right to respond here). But at the time I enjoyed it, and it did what I needed. I joined the tour in Brussels (instead of London) and left in Paris. I had free time both before and afterwards so did a little solo travelling. Some of the activities which were planned were ones you had to pay extra for, and if you didn't feel like participating, you didn't have to and could have some free time. I guess that's how they keep the costs down. I didn't feel the need to try to get into the centre of towns, usually did laundry or wrote a postcard - or just rested. Accommodations were a real mix. We did stay on the outskirts of Paris, but the metro was accessible. And it did show you the main things you'd want to see if you weren't confident to see them on your own or if time was limited. Plus you do meet nice people. I had a good time and I'd recommend them again, but for the fact that it was such a long time ago.

Lavandula

walkabout

I have taken several Cosmos tours, and greatly enjoyed most of them.I met a lot of interesting people, and saw and did a lot more than I would have if I had been traveling solo. However,the only Cosmos trip I didn't think was a good value was my 2-week Italy tour.

The biggest problem with the Italy tour was that way too much time was spent on the bus. Often, by the time we actually got into the city, it was almost dinner time. There was little time to actually explore the city, particularly because of the hotel locations.

Cosmos is a coach tour and I strongly suggest you take a look at your itinerary and calculate the driving distances between cities. For example, one day we drove from Venice to Perugia, a distance of over 250 miles (over 400 km). With a lunch stop, bathroom stops, and a brief "photo stop" in Assisi, it took us over 8 hours.

Which leads me to my second complaint about that trip: most of the hotels were way out in the boonies.

I travel a lot independently and have no reservations about using public transportation in a foreign country. However, in Venice, for example, we were more than an hour outside of Venice by bus, and there was nothing of interest nearby. Who wants to go to "Venice" and be an hour-and-a- half away from the canals?

It was the same way in Rome. I had to take a bus and a train to get into central Rome, and the connections were not great. Of course, I could have taken cabs, but I didn't want to spend 20 or 30 euros each way just to get to and from the city centers--that totally negates any savings of staying outside the city. For an extra 40-60 euros a day I could have stayed at a nice hotel in the city centers. I suggest you take a look at the hotels Cosmos has booked, and then check the reviews on tripadvisor.com to get an idea of their quality and distance from the city centers.

I also felt the trip should have been open jaw, i.e., flying into Rome and out of Venice, instead of flying into Rome, traveling north to Venice, and then doubling back to Rome. Appalling waste of time on the bus that would have been better spent sightseeing or wandering around on my own.

Also check how much sightseeing is included in the tour price. With other Cosmos tours, a lot was included. In Italy, though, almost everything was offered as an "optional tour," meaning you had to pay extra for it.

I had had such good experiences with previous Cosmos tours that I failed to do my homework on the Italy tour. I didn't properly scrutinize the itinerary and I didn't check out the hotels. Afterwards, when I calculated all of the additional costs, the inconvenience of the hotel locations, and the long days spent on the bus, I could have upgraded to a first-class tour with centrally located hotels, fewer one-night stands, and more included sightseeing for only about $200 more.

The reasons outlined above are why the Italy Cosmos tours are so much cheaper than those of other companies. On other Cosmos trips, the benefits far outweighed the drawbacks. For Italy though, the cheap price was a false economy.

If you decide to take Cosmos or any other tour, please check www.affordabletours.com or www.cheapertravel.com. You can get several escorted tours from Cosmos, Globus, and other companies for 5%-10% less than the prices listed in the brochures. Good luck!

Reese22

My Mom and I are getting ready to leave on our first trip to Europe.
We originally thought we would be taking an tour with Insight Vacations, but we ended up booking with Globus.
I know Cosmos is the budget brand for Globus, just like Trafalgar is the budget brand for Insight.
We didn't want the budget brand because we wanted our hotels to be more central, they didn't have to be deluxe, but central was important and more is included with the sightseeing!
We are doing a multi-country tour & flying open jaw and the idea is to get a taste and see where we want to come back to. How we like an escorted tour will determine if we would do it again or next time go independent.

xyz123

This discussion goes on all the time here. There are pluses and minuses for all tours. First, everybody is correct. Cosmos is indeed the budget division of Globus. Globus is considered first class and tends, for whatever it is worth, to attract mostly North Americans. Cosmos tours attyracts a more international crowd if that matters. Cosmos hotels, as noted, do tend to stay on the outskirts of the big burghs but almost always are accesible by local transportation. Globus hotels are somewhat better although during high season in Italy (and other European cities) can also not be completely centrally located. (BTW just for accuracy reasons for the last post, Insight is the deluxe version of Trafalgar and Trafalgar is on the same level as Globus but attracts a more international crowd than Globus; Trafalgar has a budget division called Costsavers on the same level as Cosmos).

How does a tour operate? On a travel day (where yu're traveling say 200 km or thereabouts) you'll be up early, told to leave your bags outside your room at 7 AM, breakfast and on the coach by 8. Italy is not known for its breakfasts and especially on Cosmos most breakfasts will be very skimpy. The coaches stop every 2 hours or so; usually in Italy at an Autogrill on the Autobahn or Motorway or Autostrada for nature calls, and coffee. Sometimes you might stop in a small village for a bit of sightseeing. Lunch is either at an Autogrill or again some burghh on the way. Another comfort stop midway in the afternoon and arrival in your next hnotel around 1700. You get your room assignment and they deliver your bag. In small towns, dinner is usually included. Dinners are a problem for tour companies. Some people are very fussy eaters and have very limited palates. Others want to sample local cuisine. Usually dinners are bland but of course as the quality of the tour goes up, so too does the quality of the dinner.

Now if you've arrived in a big city, say Rome, dinner is not included. Instead they will usually offer an optional tour which might be something like Rome at night (tought to do in the summer) or a trip to Trevi Fountain followed by a dinner in a restaurant of far higher qualityh than the hotel dinners on the road. No problem with transport. You're on your own bus with your tour group. Touristy? Absoluely. In some cases, if you don't want to do th eoptional tour, the tour guide will arrange for the coach to drop you in town and might also set it up to take you back. Not always but sometimes.

In a big city the next day you will have a tour of the big city with a local guide. Some admissions will be inclouded. Tour groups get priority for the Vatican Museum, for example. If on your own, you wait and wait for all the tour groups to go in. Usually it's a morning tour an d they leave you in a central location for lunch and then you have the option todo your own thing and be told where the coach will pick you up, do an optional tour, or go back to the hotel. No pressure, it's up to you. Back at the hotel, again in a really large city there may be another optional dinner type thing or you might have to fend for yourself with dinner. The itinerary makes it clear.

Now this web site denigrates tours for the most part and some of the complaints are valid, some are nonsense but beauty is in the eys of the beholder. No hassles about finding your hotel in a strange new sityh and where to park the rental car or trudge with your luggage from the train station. You get door to door service and no worry about your one big bag. They deliver it to your room. Food as noted is hit or miss when included. Optional tours can be fun. They are the standard touristy things you see all sorts of brochures about in hotels when travelling independently. But here you're on your coach with your tourmates (I assume that's a good thing) and get door to door transport. Are they touristy? Of course they are and you might prefer to do some research and find your own restaurant and take a cab or public transport.

Shopping rip offs? Yes. Inevitably in Venice, theyu take you for a glass blowing exhibition at Murano which is a sales pitch (red is more expensive and they explain why). Are you under any obligation to buy or even to listen? No. I usually slip out. In Florence they stop at a leather factory but again you're under no obligation. Does the TD get a piece of the action. Yes but that's the way it is. In Lucerne, they take you tyo a watch factory but tha's Switzerland and not Italy.

Lunches as noted are either at rest stops on the motorway (you'll learn to hate Autogrills) or in some sall town on the itinerary where the TD might recommend good places to eat (or like I do you might go looking for McDonald's; some towns have them some don't). Rest stops on the coach every couple of hours.

The only other caveat I might give you. Watch out for the language on the brochure. It might say see such and such a church. You know what that means? It means as you whiz by at 100km/hr on the motorway, the TD will say look to your right and see such and such Church. Pass the cityh of Bologna means just that. No stop. OTOH if the itinerary say we visit such and such Church, that's usually included. If it says why not visit such and such, it means that's optional and you pay extra.

Obviously there's much more flexibility in doing it independently. Nobody can question that. Is it tough dragging your weary bones out of bed at 0600 every morning to shower, pack and carry out the official wake up p[rocedure, yes, but then again if travelling independnetly do most people sleep till 9 AM and start out at 10? Is there unlimited time for shopping. No, but there's enough. Does it cost extra for the optionals? Yes but you're under no obligation. Are the hotels clean? Yes, they're almost never dives. Are they located far from the action? On Cosmos almost certainly, perhaps on Trafalgar or Globus, but no on Insight. Is this a problem? Depends if you want to sample local transportation. Some people, if a day of going here there and everywhere like a quiet night to themselves, watching television (most hotel rooms have cable television and usually at least one English language station but if you're American, it's very often the BBC World service). Do the hotels have wifi? Sometimes. One of the great things I have is an invention called a sling box. If I can get a wifi connection on my little notebook compuer, I can literally watch every station off my cble system back home (why go to Europe to do that) or a DVD or just download my pictures.

So to sum up, there are pluses and minuses. They can be good value, tours that is, but there are variables you have no control over such as weather, how good the TD is (most are very good but there are rotten apples in every orchard), your travelmates (I've met some wonderful people from all over the world and thanks to e-mail and such I can still communicate with them) but you can't control the weather when travelling independntly either, now can you.

So that's it. The good, the bad, the ugly. Now you can have a clearer mind of just what to expect.

kybourbon

>>>Tour groups get priority for the Vatican Museum, for example. If on your own, you wait and wait for all the tour groups to go in.<<<

I think that info is a bit out of date and tour groups were only allowed in first for one year (2008?). You can book entrance tickets yourself online with the Vatican and avoid waiting in lines.

http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/z-In...nfo_Orari.html

P_M

I've taken 3 Cosmos tours and the one I liked the least was the tour of Italy. Most hotels were ridiculously far from the city. The hotel labeled as "Florence area" was about an hour's train ride away from Florence. Another bad thing about Cosmos is they don't include much for the price so most city tours are an optional extra, which of course will cost you extra $$.

I took the Italy trip in 2002 so it's possible things have changed since then. I should also state that I did enjoy the Cosmos tour of Russia and their Scandinavia tour wasn't bad either. But unless things have drastically improved I do not recommend their tour of Italy. Italy is so easily doable on your own I think that would be best.

crefloors

I think there were 43 or 45 people on our tour. Youngest 13, traveling with her parents. They were from Australia and the mom worked for Globus and was on the tour to get a feel for things. She was going to be a tour director for Europe.

There was also a couple from New Zealand, newlyweds, and I believe the rest were from the US. Most people in their 40's and 50's, and a few older. It was a good group but my brother and I didn't hang around much with them. My older brother and SIL made some great friends and they still "talk".

There was one guy, in his 30's, traveling by himself and he gave our tour director fits. He was always disappearing. I'm not sure why he was on the tour, he was really independent, so maybe the price was right or he didn't want to be totally solo.

TravMimi

I have taken a few Cosmos tours, and have really enjoyed them. I like their itineraries, and of course the price. Of all the companies I've used I find Cosmos has the best collection of fellow travelers - very diverse and fun. As far as bus travel, if one is going from Venice to Rome there is transportation involved even if traveling independently. Though I prefer train, bus does have it's pros, like it's waiting at the hotel door and you don't get surprised with some "VERY odd" fellow travelers. Early starts are great for me. I also like the luggage handling. It's also nice to have a tour director around for questions and help if needed.

Once in a city you are free to go off on you own, just let the tour director know you tend to wander independently, AND be at the bus when it leaves an area!!

The food: One reason I like Cosmos is the food on most tours is hotel food (bad wedding reception). I like to eat at places I find during my wanderings and am glad I didn't really pay for hotel food I have no intention of eating.

Hotels: Yes they are very often out of the city centers. Research them well online (tripadvisor.com). I'm not in the hotel enough to worry about luxury but Cosmos hotels have always been clean and safe. Most hotels Cosmos uses are on or very near public transportation.

If you are taking an organized tour because you don't like to do research and planning, it's a big mistake. To pick the perfect tour, you must do lots of internet research and planning.

If you plan well and know what to expect, I'm sure you'll have a great time.

walkabout

crefloors, I had to chuckle at your post. I travel alone and usually disappear on tours, too. One morning on a trip to Scandinavia I got a call from the tour director. She said nobody had seen me for a couple of days and some of the tour participants were concerned about my well-being. After that, I made sure to notify her when I wasn't going to be joining the group. I wasn't trying to be discourteous--I just thought that as long as i was on the bus when we headed to our next destination, it didn't matter whether I stayed with the group while in town.

On another tour I had some members ask me, somewhat indignantly, why I was taking the tour since I rarely ate with the group and kept going off on my own.

It was around that time that I realized I may as well travel independently, which I have done almost exclusively since then.

TravMimi

walkabout - I had to chuckle at your post! Sounds like a few of my tours. Before I realized I should inform the director that I was a "wanderer" I arrived late back at the hotel. The director was glad to see me, and said people were worried a bit about me. I thought it was pretty comforting that traveling solo I had people concerned about me. It could have come in very handy had something happened to me. After that I also let fellow travelers know I was a wanderer, and that it had nothing to do with not wanting to be with them, if fact I often mentioned things I had planned and took others with me (sort of as a mini guide) Some of my best travel experiences have been on organized tours.

Jim_Calantropio

Thanks to all of you for your responses. They were truly informative and helpful. It sounds to me like we should either go with a little more upscale tour than Cosmos, or plan a trip independently. I can only imagine that planning a 2 week tour in a foreign country on your own is a challenge, but I will look into it. Thanks again.

marlib1951

I am not an expert but... We went to Italy with a package from www.go-today.com It seemed reasonably priced.
They are kinda in between the independent and escorted. We booked hotel, overseas flight and trains. We did a few days in Rome and a few in Venice. We extended the time, you can add days onto the package. Anyway, you are on your own but the arrangements have been taken care of for you. Example there is a 9 day tour for 1049 (base price), international flight, 3 nights hotel in Rome, Florence, Venice. I don't work for go-today,BTW! The rooms were dated but clean, safe area.

HappyTrvlr

Jim, planning a trip to Italy is not difficult with the internet to book hotels, flights, and tickets to museums.
Most of the posters on Fodros do it themselves and will offer you advice and help. I think you'll have a much better experience if you book it yourself.You can add guided tours in the cities if you want.