azzure

Hi - I am considering purchasing a 14 day "on your own" trip from Costco travel, for my sister and myself. The package includes hotels, transportation between cities by train, and some sightseeing. The hotels are very good and centrally located in each city. The itinerary is as follows:

London - 3 nights
Paris - 3 nights
Venice - 2 nights
Florence - 2 nights
Rome - 3 nights.

The cost is about $2500 per person. I have already been to all of these places, but my sister has never been anywhere in Europe except the UK. I will essentially be her "tour guide"! Could I/should I put together a similar itinerary on my own? This looks pretty good to me, and relieves me of the problem of nailing down all those hotel reservations and train tickets. Thanks for your thoughts.

nytraveler

Well you know your sister best - but to me this is too much traveling between places versus time on the ground actually seeing/doing something. Not bad for someone who has already seem places in depth and wants to catch up on a few new things - but frustrating for someone who wants to et to know a place and see a significant number of sights.

And it's easy enough to see if you can do it yourself. Pick 2 of the hotels and see the best price you can get for them - that will tell you how much you're paying Costco to make the arrangements.

travelhorizons

Costco Travel is essentially your TA bundling a bunch of products into a pre-paid package that you assemble on their website. My question is this:

Would you rather pre-pay for a package with cancellation and change fees ... or book the individual components with just a credit card guarantee, flexible cancellation policies, and pay when you check-out.

It's a question of whether you want to go for the convenience factor with the consequence being a loss of flexibility. There may be a cost savings involved, but you can't tell unless you price out all the components individually.

janisj

I'd cut two locations and do it myself. This is a very aggressive itinerary by train for a first timer.

Morning arrival in London. Day one mostly a lagged fog. Two more days in London.

Train to Paris w/ 2.5 days in the city.

Train to Venice arriving in the evening. One day in Venice.

Train to Florence. Most of 2 days in Florence

Train to Rome. Most of 2 days free in Rome. Last day is lost to packing and getting to the airport.

I personally wouldn't do that to my sister . . .

LSky

I wouldn't do that to me either but it depends upon you and your sister.

Is she really only interested in the highlights? As in, "oh here's a photo of me and sis by the Eiffel, here's another of us by ..."

What are the hotels? Are they really a good deal? You can check easily enough.

charnees

And where are those hotels? In the city center or on the outskirts?

azzure

Just wanted to add that the Paris-Venice leg is by overnight (sleeper) train...so we should have two full days(and nights)in Venice.

Hotels are all 4-star and very centrally located. Without exception, their TripAdvisor reviews are outstanding.

Michael

If the price is right for you, and you think that your sister would enjoy it, go for it. But $2500 is per person, which comes out to less than $200 per day. Is that a good deal when the cost is doubled for two?

janisj

OK -- overnight train means this difference:

Instead of >>Train to Venice arriving in the evening. One day in Venice.<<

• Overnight and possibly sleepless night train to Venice arriving in the morning. Two days in Venice.

Otherwise it is still an awful lot of If this is Tuesday . . .

alanRow

$2500 seems a lot especially as it doesn't seem to include airfares.

denisea

Depends on whether you think it's more important to your sister to have been to all these places OR if she would enjoy truly getting to know only a few of them. I also think it's too much travel and not enough time to actually spend enjoying the cities. I think many are disappointed when they feel they didn't get to really explore the city at all. I love the places on the itinerary. I would do London and Paris, and possibly one more, if you really want to. London is easy to get into and take the chunnel over to Paris. I could be totally happy with just London & Paris.

AlessandraZoe

I almost always recommend "slow" travel--we now try to stay 5 days or more per city. But I'm looking at your potential trip very differently.

Let me see if I've read the tea leaves correctly. You have the lifetime travel advantage, right? And this would be a chance for your sister to share some of the experiences you have had, correct?

You know the time it would take for you to make all these arrangements, plus the weight of how much time to spend in each place is an additional burden.

If you just go for this trip, the big arrangements and decisions are done, plus if some hotel is not the best, it's not really "your" fault. You've already checked out location and TA rating.

There remains a burden, but it's a good one. You know where to go and what to see each day, and you actually do want to share those things with your sister.

IF the above is correct, all I'd do is lay it out on the table for your sister and say: "It's up to you--if you're game to do all this, so am I." And I would go.

azzure

Thank you, Alessandra. You put words to my thoughts.

carolyn

Absolutely! And what your sister loves, you can both go back to and see in depth. To my mind, that's what tours for younger people are for.

Kswl2

Does that price include airfare?

azzure

Does not include airfare. I've just been checking the hotels, though, and they run roughly $350 per night. For thirteen nights, that's over $4500 already. I've no idea what the train tickets cost, but it looks like the package is fairly priced.

Kswl2

I didn't think so, at that rate people would be storming Costco to buy the tours just for the transportation and lodging and chucking the sightseeing. Still, if it works for you logistically it's a good price.

cathies

All of those train trips are easily organised yourself. Don't forget you can always come here for help. Hotels can be booked directly and $350 per night seems excessive compared to what lots of us spend for quite nice hotels. Our brief experience of a hotel was that the hotels were set up to deal with bus tour groups and we were shuffled in and out like cows which I didn't like.

Do you mind if I ask how old you both are? Good luck with your decision.

AlessandraZoe

Azzure, I am assuming that having been to all these places you know the ins and outs of doing this all yourself.

My reaction? That cost figure doesn't seem off to me for 14 days. You more or less implied that these accomodations were not Motel 6 on Highway 6 type, and once one added in all the transportation between cities plus your implied extras, that number seemed very much on target.

Having been in the position of planning two separate European trips where my sister, and then my sister and my parents were involved, I know that even the sweetest family family really understands all the investigation that goes behind the scenes in trip planning, and that undercurrent can take the joy out of any trip.

AlessandraZoe

...sorry--meant to say "NOT even the sweetest family MEMBER"
and did not make it clear that in many ways, I just wish I could have passed off the trip planning onto a package or travel agent when it came to my sister/parents' trip.

They are all good natured people, but tend to analyze things to death, and I just knew they were thinking, "Why did she choose A when she could have chosen B or C?"