My husband and I are planning to go to France in late May/early June. We want to go on an escorted tour and I need some recommendations/opinions of travel companies.

I've been looking into this too; my husband and I are also planning on France in late May/early June. This will be our first time to France, and right now we are thinking of going with Trafalgar and then staying on longer on our own. Based on conversations with the travel agent this was my take:<BR>Contiki - targets 18-35 yr olds (while technically we fall in that group, other posts I've read make me think it's more for the drinking/partying crowd and set up well for people to hook up together, not really a scene for married folk)<BR>Globus - sometimes will cancel a tour with short notice<BR>Cosmos, Collette, Maupintour, Travcoa -good for the grandparents, and much more expensive<BR>Abercrombie and Kent - extremely expensive, ultra luxury<BR>Insight - fairly equivalent to Trafalgar<BR>Rick Steves - has a great website (www.ricksteves.com) and a coworker enjoyed her trip with his group, but it was more expensive than Trafalgar<BR><BR>If anyone knows differently about Trafalgar, PLEASE let me know as I have not yet put a deposit down.

Tauck has wonderful tours in the U.S., and I imagine are the same in Europe. Maybe a little expensive, but probably worth it.

Hammie,<BR><BR>I have been on two tours with Globus - one to Italy and the other Paris and Provence. The age group ranged from people in their 20's to in the 80's. In my opinion I would not do a tour that only stops for 1 or 2 nights in a town, because you are so tired that you forget where you've been. On my Paris and Provence tour with Globus it was 3 nights each city and was wonderful. I would certainly do that type of tour with Globus again.<BR><BR>Good luck!!!

I went with Globus to France for two weeks, 2 years ago. It was a wonderful trip. I was 29 at the time and, as I remember, about half to a little more than half of the tour group was 50-60 years and up. About 25% were in the 30-40 range and the rest were either 40-50 or younger than 30. It was a great mix of people and I made many friends, of all ages. Our tour director and bus driver were both wonderful people... lots of fun to be around. We stayed two nights in Paris, Blois and Nice, and single nights in Caen, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Lyon, Reims, and the last night in Paris. I like to move around and see all I can... so I enjoyed the pace of the tour. Actually, we didn't leave as early in the mornings as I would have if I were on my own. You had to have your luggage out the door and ready to load on the bus before breakfast, but that was really no problem. <BR><BR>The included dinners at the hotels weren't spectacular, but the meals out on the extra excursions were very nice. Breakfasts were very good, I thought. <BR><BR>Good luck in the planning. You will enjoy your trip, I'm sure.

Message: I have taken an escorted tour with Trafalgar and was unhappy with it. To be fair, though, I know other people who have been pleased with that company. <BR><BR>However, since my Trafalgar tour, I have taken 2 tours with Globus and have enjoyed them. They are reasonably priced with well-educated and helpful tour directors, and the accommodations are good.<BR><BR>Another point regarding Globus is that they have several different types of tours. I have found that their &quot;At Leisure&quot; tours are of a slightly higher caliber than the others. The hotels are also better situated and the included dinners are usually at a good local restaurant rather than in the hotel. And there is usually a bit of free time at each locale so that you can personalize your tour, to a degree.<BR><BR>I have taken the Spectacular Spain tour, which was not an &quot;AT Leisure&quot; tour, and Italy at Leisure. I have also planned a trip to France with Globus for this April. For this trip I have combined two separate tours. The first is Normandy, Brittany, and Chateaux Country, which will lead into Paris and the Provence (an &quot;At Leisure&quot; Tour). <BR><BR>By the way, Globus is pretty flexible about customizing certain aspects of their tours. For example, combining more than one tour and giving credit for overlapping days, or adding days to the beginning or end of a tour.<BR><BR>I am sure that there are many fine tour companies out there, but I have found that Globus offers very good value. Tauck and Abercrombie are much more expensive. And, I noticed that one of the above posts stated that Cosmos is more expensive than Cosmos. In fact, it is the other way around. Cosmos is the budget sister company to Globus. Also, regarding the ages of fellow tour mates, I have found them to be mixed. On both tours I have taken with Globus there have been twenty something singles, families, mother-daughter pairs, and couples mostly in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s.<BR><BR>Globus also has a website that you can visit for further information. The address is www.globusandcosmos.com .<BR><BR>I hope this has been of some help to you. If you have any further questions, please let me know.<BR><BR>And whichever company you choose.....Enjoy!!! <BR><BR>

Hello All,<BR><BR>Regarding the thread of tour operators; I've used Trafalgar for years for my clients and everything was fine until 2002, when apparently the company is starting to fall apart, which is a shame. Globus is the &quot;lesser cousin&quot; of Trafalgar, and I have no experience booking them, so I will defer to the others who have posted here, but with the warning as they are an &quot;arm&quot; of Trafalgar, and if they are having trouble....<BR><BR>Tauck...top drawer, with rates to match; that said, I've NEVER had a client come back with anything negative to say about them. This may fall under the category of &quot;you get what you pay for&quot;. It all depends on your style of travel and your budget.<BR><BR>Regards,<BR><BR>Melodie

We took a Trafalgar tour to Italy a couple of months ago in November. We were not unhappy with them at all and will travel with them again when we want an escorted tour. The guide and driver were great and the pace of the tour was perfect for us. <BR><BR>The bulletin board at the Trafalgar website is planning a tour to France in the middle of April, 2003 with a number of discounts and bonuses being given for those who go on this tour. Go to http://www.ttusa.trafalgartours.com/index.html and click on Bulletin Board Special Tour. If you or anyone else is interested, the contact person is Caitie and her email is [email protected]. I know she’d be happy to answer any questions. (We're planning on going if we can get the time off.)<BR><BR>Have a great time no matter which company you end up traveling with!

You may want to check out Insight Vacations. They have a nice selection of tours of France.<BR><BR>www.insightvacations.com<BR><BR>

Hi Theresa, I'd be happy to help you - I was in a similar predicment to you being a late 20-soemthing but not wantiong to do a 'party tour' with Contiki. I did the Trafalgar 'Best of France' tour in September 2001 &amp; combined that with 10 days on my own in Paris afterwards &amp; had a fantastic time (despite there being only 2 other people under 40!) The itinerary may have changed since then but the highlights for me were the stay at the chateau in Dordogne, the visit to St Emilion &amp; the optional tours to St Paul de Vence &amp; funicular up the Pyrenees. If you have any specific questions let me know...