Cosmos Tour Focus on Italy and Paris
 

Hi, it will be my first time to travel Europe. I am planning on taking cosmos tour that focus on Italy and Paris tour. What do you think about that tour? Any comments to those who had it before? I am on my late 30s female single. I will be traveling with my brother.

Before you start planning to take a tour, read this thread about how to do it yourself:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-to-europe.cfm

Think about your personal interests. What do you really want to see? Have you dreamed of going to Florence for the Art or romantic Venice, the Louvre in Paris?

Then look carefully at the tour. See if it is allowing time to see the things on your dream list.

How much travel time? For example would you be on a bus from Italy to Paris? If so, I would absolutely never do that. Most tours are by bus, and they take longer than trains, especially in Italy.

Where are the hotels located, etc?

Since you are traveling with your Brother, strongly consider planning your own trip, one that is tailored to your interests. Italy is one of the easiest countries to do yourself and Paris is an easy city to navigate.

Is it this one?

http://www.cosmos.com/tour/focus-on-italy-paris/

If so, I'd RUN the other way. There are a couple of two night stays - but even then you only have one day in the cities.

It may 'focus' on Paris and Italy -- but also throes in London, Belgium and Germany. You won't see much but Europe passing by through the coach window.

oops -- that should be throws (but you'd be in throes of disappointment ;) )

At your age, you gain tremendous leverage by learning to do this on your own. Start small and progress later on to more complex itineraries requiring making risk/benefit/cost trade-offs and hedging and options to protect yourself from the consequences of disruptive events. After a few trips, you wonder why you even thought of using someone else's trip. There are a few itineraries such as visiting remote islands, bike/hike trips requiring luggage/bike transportation, etc requiring a tour. Your trip is not this kind of specialized trip.

Many people twice your age brag about being experienced travelers, but often they have only taken cruises or in group tours all their life and they have not gained any experience planning an independent trip.

In my experience having to take a few group tours due to my association with a special interest group, the differences between an independent trip and an escorted trip is this.

Independent trip: a lot of pre-work before, which is actually the building up of excitement, then relaxed trip matching you exact needs.

Escorted trip: little time spent on planning before, but hectic rush-rush itineraries at places you care for and too much time at places you don't care for once the trip starts.

Group tours advertises cost advantage. Except for high-end products like Tauck tours, the tours accomplish this by having you stay at out of town convention type hotel where you are basically stuck. Only people who had someone else arrange hotel selections would stay in such places. As an independent traveler, you seek out conveniently located accommodations paying no more than those out-of-town convention hotels. These kind of in-town places are often too small and don't care to become group tour hotels.

For the first trip, you need quite a bit of lead time, especially a trip during high and peak seasons. For a peak season, I plan no later than 9 months ahead and no later than 6 months ahead for high season. For may next trip to Italy, I planned 10 months ahead , yet I still found one of my coveted inn to be already booked up.

In my opinion, prioritized list of destination forms the objective of the trip. I don't make any non-refundable booking, such as air, discounted train ticket, unless I have made sure following three ducks are in a row.

1. Air connection - usually open-jaw. Are there acceptable flights? Departure/arrival time for both end, and layover time acceptable? (Many people realized they booked super short layover at problem airport like CDG. Think about this before you hit "buy" button). Of course, if you booked connected tickets in one reservation, the airline is responsible for taking you to the final destination, eventually. However, I don't like the flight missed to be the last one of the day.

2. Accommodation - are there accommodations acceptable to you at destinations on the actual days you will be visiting? Many cities host conventions, special events, and you will be competing for overpriced scarce rooms on these days.

3. In Europe connections - are there ways to connect your destinations acceptable to you? Many first timers "assume" they can zip from one city to another by train, plane, or driving, in just a few hours only to realize it takes most of the day to get to the destination. Many people "assume" they can cheaply drive a rental to other countries, but have a sticker shock when they actually go to the booking site and realize a drop-off fee that more than double the cost of rentals. I just talked to a young couple who was planning a driving trip connecting France to Italy. When I told them months ahead that they would be paying a fortune taking a French rental car and dropping if off in Italy. They thought it was ok - it was ok because they did not look at the rental quote. Just two weeks before the trip when they finally realized the price tag, they had to scramble to shorten the car rental to end in France and booked a budget flight to Italy.

If the tour you are contemplating is the one listed above you should RUN in the opposite direction.

In 2 weeks you can see some of Italy and also Paris - but not 7 other places. You would be spending very long days sitting on a bus with limited time for actual sightseeing.

In reading tour brochures there are three major things to look for:

Where are the hotels located (many are at the end of hell and gone and you spend forever just getting from the hotels to the sights; also they are often far from any number of restaurants)

What things are included and what are "optional" - which can drive up the cost of the tour significantly

what is really included? A "view" means looking at something out of the window as the bus drives by; a "stop" means a 5 minute photo op out front; only a "visit" means you go inside, and even then your time may be very limited so you see only part of the sight

Also tours are usually vey early starts - they have to be to get to so many places in so few days. Are you happy with 7 am wake-up calls and being paced and on the bus by 8 am.

Also, don't be swayed by travel agents who try and tempt you with tour operators who run 'small groups'. The groups may be small but the prices are astronomical. One such operator has a tour they call 'Jewels of the Amalfi Coast' or some such hyperbole. The hotel they use is very plush but....it's in Sorrento and you have to make your own way to the Amalfi Coast. Oh, they do herd everyone on a mini van for a quick trip up and down the 133 but the rest of the time you have to figure out how to get there (and they call this 'time at leisure').
For this you pay over $5000 USD for eight nights.
Caveat Emptor!