Just returned from a Cosmos tour
 

I just returned from the 3-week tour, "The British Isles in Depth". If anyone is contemplating taking this tour, I'd be happy to answer your questions and give my opinions.

Could you give us a quick overview, please? <BR>

I would very much like to hear the details of your tour.

<BR>Diane : <BR> <BR> <BR>Can you describe me the "Cosmos" service quality? <BR> <BR>There's a good deal for the price or are " To good to be truth ".

The "British Isles in Depth" is a good name for the tour, as we "did" parts of England, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales in three weeks (exhaustive, but educational and fun). This was my first tour, although my husband and I have been to several European countries and the British Isles by way of rail passes and driving. I decided to join a friend who has never traveled outside the country, and although we went to a lot of places I had been before, I enjoyed seeing them again and got a good refresher course in British history (our tour guide did a magnificent job). <BR> <BR>We decided on Cosmos because we could save $800 each over a Globus tour. I had also checked other tours and found Cosmos to be the best moneywise, plus it went to areas that interested us. We knew that the hotels wouldn't always be in the center of town, but that didn't bother us, as we weren't interested in "doing the town" at night. <BR> <BR>On the whole, the hotels were pretty good, although most of the rooms were very small. We each had a 29-inch bag plus a carry-on, and it was sometimes a challenge to find room for everyting, but we managed. We had several very nice rooms, and these were in newer hotels (Novotel, a Quality Inn, and two Jury's). One of the best hotels was in Belfast, another in Killarney. Our meals were pretty good too, although I got very tired of boiled potatoes, and started craving rice. <BR> <BR>We said before the trip that we weren't going to pay for more than a couple of the extra excursions, most of which occurred on the nights that dinner wasn't provided in the hotel. However, we changed our minds because everything sounded like so much fun plus we wanted to socialize with our tourmates. We weren't disappointed because the meals were always good and usually there was really good entertainment after dinner. Maybe some people would find the Scottish and Irish folk singing and dancing hokey, but we loved it. <BR> <BR>I don't know if I'd go on any more tours of such length, but I'm glad I went and wasn't disappointed with Cosmos.

For years my wife and I did all our travel arrangements and planning. We covered most of Europe, with other trips to Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Beijing and a few other places. When we got ready to explore South America we decided, with serious reservations, to go by tour for the first time. On our travel agent's advice, we selected Globus, Cosmos' sister company. It exceeded our expectations, was great value and very well organized. Since we have toured with Globus to Morocco and to Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. Each tour was excellent. We recommend highly Globus for such tours.