European Trip
 

I would like to know if anyone has been on any tours they could recommend for as many countries as we can get in within a 14-16 day trip. There will be four couples and we are thinking a preplanned trip might work best so all will know what and when we are doing things(Some of us have strong personalites)
We are planning this for 2007

4 couples, 2 weeks, strong personalities (I can only imagine) and &quot;<i>as many countries as we can get in</i>&quot; - OMG!

Which country(s) are you most interested in - then maybe someone can give you suggestions.

First thing, I would buy a copy each of Travel + Leisure and Conde Nast travel magazines and look at the advertisements for various tour companies.

In general, &quot;we&quot; (the &quot;veterans&quot; and &quot;regulars&quot; here) think that this is a miserably bad way to travel in Europe (tours, as many countries as possible).

Would you travel through the United States like that? With the goal of traversing as many states as possible?

Best wishes,

Rex

You not doing this to be able to say 'we've been there' to impress people, right?

This is off to a bad start.

Not many people on this board espouse organized tours, and even fewer (maybe none) have an &quot;as many countries as possible&quot; mentality. You may not get much useful information here.

I'd use the internet, and as someone mentioned, travel magazines, or a travel agent, to do some basic research on tour companies.

It's not often I say this, but march yourselves right down to a travel agent's office. With 8 people and an aggressive itinerary, I would not recommend self planning.

..Agree with Suze, if you truly want a &quot;Tuesday it must be Belgium Tour&quot; and if you value your friendship with these people see a travel agent and book a tour! If you plan it yourself limit yourself to a maximum of 4 places to stay overnight (and I would actually think 3 better for a 16 day trip). With 8 individuals it is important that everyone has input and no one takes total responsibility (ie becomes the tour director)..a receipe for disaster IMO.

I don't have any specifics, but I think if you want a group tour, that could work fine in this case. I know there are some decent companies, I think Trafalgars is one of them that some people like fine, as well as Grand Circle, CIE, and Colette. There are probably others I can't remember.

This is easy to research by going to a good travel agent, as they have those brochures and should know the cutomer satisfaction or feedback on them. A AAA auto club travel agent might be a place to stop in for that kind of thing. I know a lot of those tours companies have some Grand European itinerary thing that covers a lot of countries, you just have to check what they have. I know Trafalgar as some 15 day tours that cover about six or seven countries (eg, England, Belgium, Germany, Austria,Italy, Switzerland and France).

The &quot;middle of the road tours&quot; are Trafalger, Insight and Globus..along with many others but I would describe these as the big 3. If you do go the tour route get the brochures and carefully see what is included and what is not, which have the largest numbers of your &quot;must sees&quot;, and cross check the hotels listed. Also you will need to realize that the terms you will see may mean the bus will pass it versus visit...so read carefully and comparison shop!! This will take a number of hours and I would also get input from a GOOD travel agent.

I too have done probably as much traveling as many of you that have posted replies. However, when you have a large group of lifelong friends that would like to have some great fun together traveling, I think this is what will we need to do.
Thank you to all of you who posted suggestions without the &quot;extra comments&quot; that are of no help to anyone!

Why I think an organized tour works in this situation is it takes the pressure off any one (or more) individuals. To self-plan group travel necessarily someone (or two) will be the designated planners.

If you all get together and pick a company that fits your budgets and your itinerary wishes, seems a win-win in this case.