Best tours

Old Sep 22nd, 2015, 03:55 AM
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Best tours

Can anyone recommend a tour company who spends more than one night in each city? We would like to do France Germany Austria Switzerlandin under 18 days. How do you feel this compares to doing a tour in each country and make our own way between tours?
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Old Sep 22nd, 2015, 04:21 AM
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Sorry, but there is no way you can see all four countries in 18 days. Especially not if you want to spend "more than one night in each city".

Any tour company that made such a promise would be a liar.

Ok. You can pick one city in each country and see that city. But I wouldn't call that "doing" or seeing a country.

What cities do you want to visit? Paris? Berlin? Wien? I wouldn't go to a big city in Switzerland, but I'm sure there has to be one with something interesting to see. Personally, if I went to Switzerland I'd go to the mountains, but only if the weather was nice.

Don't forget travel time between cities. Even if it's a short distance you still have to pack, check out, travel, check in and unpack.

When you say "doing a tour in each country", are you talking about daytours or multidaytours? You'd have the problem of trying to make those tours fit into your travel schedule. Arriving in one city on a Tuesday to find that the most interesting daytrip only goes on Mondays isn't much fun. Of course, if there are a lot of people in your group or you have lots of money it's possible to hire a private guide for a day.
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Old Sep 22nd, 2015, 04:33 AM
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There are companies that provide packages - versus tours - that allow you to pick the number of nights in each city and which hotel you want (based on price differences). Gate 1 offers this and that may be some others. They can arrange flights, transfers, hotels and the infamous 1/2 day city tour - then you are on your own - but you can buy a variety of walking or bus tours in each city.

But you still have the problem if trying to do 4 countries in 18 days. You can do 4 cities and see something - but not 4 whole countries.

This will probably not be more expensive than a regular tour - but will cost more than planning your own trip.
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Old Sep 22nd, 2015, 08:05 AM
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Here's a tour to three of your countries with mostly two night stays in under 18 days, but forget trying to cover four.

https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/ger...itzerland-tour
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Old Sep 22nd, 2015, 08:58 AM
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Note that the Steves tour has some - but not all 2 night stops. Also this is a tour for active people, requiring hill climbing and you are expected to handle your own luggage, including carrying up several flights of stairs in modest hotels. (This is typical for Rick Steves tours.)
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Old Sep 22nd, 2015, 09:30 AM
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You could have a tour that did that, it isn't impossible. Four countries with two nights each is only eight nights, and even with the travel time between them, it certainly can be done in 16 days (tours usually count two days on the end in their description -- in fact, a 20-21 day tour would more likely be 18 days on the ground). It would probably just be one major city per country, that's all. Given that is only 8 nights, you could also easy done 1-2 more days more country maybe going somewhere else or in a couple of them, going between them by land.

HEre's one that does all but France in 14 days, you'd have to add France on your own. http://www.goaheadtours.com/wwr/germ...erland-austria That tour actually isn't that bad for what you want to do -- 2 nights Lucerne, 1 night Innsbruck, 2 nights Salzburg, 2 nights Munich, 3 nights Vienna. They have a Budapest extension but not France, but there might be something like that for the other direction. But most likely, you'd have to fly from Vienna to say Paris on your own and then just add a few days in Paris for the France part.

I think a lot of those grand European tours tend to cover Rome, London and Paris, and not the areas you want, so ones for Germany, Switzerland and Austria aren't that unusual, adding on France may be.

FOr that kind of thing, a good travel agent in tours might be the best resource, actually. Otherwise, consider the Rick Steves or GoAhead and maybe do France some other time.

This company also has a couple with those 3 countries, not including France http://www.gate1travel.com/central-europe-travel/

Like this one that includes more Germany but not Vienna http://www.gate1travel.com/central-e...ddechat16.aspx

Frankly, I think the Goahead one is better.
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