looking for names of tour companies based in europe
 

Hi everyone, we are planning a week stay in Germany next year but I would like to find some tour companies based in Germany or Austria in order to book a tour of Italy and perhaps France while we are there. We are from Canada and cant find anything from here that lets us use a european start city. All I can find is tours strting in Canda. I want to start the tour from Munich or Vienna and need to know how to book a tour from here. HeLp anyone????

No idea: but can I make a suggestion?

There presumably are tours of Italy starting from German-speaking countries - but they'll inevitably be designed for German speakers, on account of any British or Irish person wanting a tour of Italy is going to to start in Britain or Ireland.

Don't you want a tour of Italy, aimed at English speakers, starting in Italy? If so, the travel industry jargon for what you want is "inbound tour". Google it and Italy, and you'll find a number of organisers. You then just need a cheapo flight from Munich/Vienna to the Italian start point.

So you would like to take a tour of portions of Italy or France and have that tour begin in Munich or Vienna? Sounds a little odd. Why not begin your tour of those countries in those countries?

You might search through Fodors website by country, type in key words "tour" "italy" "france" in the search function above, Rick Steves has tours that begin in those countries, I am sure there are literally 100's, if not 1000's, of various tour companies in those two countries. Just do some key word searching on this site and on Google.

I know it might sound silly but my husband has family in germany so we will spend a week there and then would like to see Italy and/or some france. I thought a bus tour might be better than driving and that is what I am looking for. We dont want to start in the UK. We are flying direct to Germany and will travel out from there. Do you sugest we fly to Paris or Venice from Munich and just do our own thing once there? Thanks

Can't you book a land only tour with one of the tour companies you've looked at? Many tour companies do this.

You might like to check out this British comapny, you could join them in Italy or France: www.pageandmoy.co.uk

You could look at Intrepid, my sister did a tour in Italy with them and did her own flights and tacked on one or two other countries independently, so the tour was just part of her trip.

Explore is another UK based company that I think you could join once in Europe. I agree with Flanner, be careful you don't pick a tour starting in German with 100% German speakers, you could end up feeling a bit isolated.

Kay

If you are fine with German language, I suppose there are inexpensive coach tours starting in Germany for the local German people. I see that sort of things here in Switzerland. For that your German family can be of help. If not, as suggested above, you arrive in Italy on your own and join a local inbound/incoming tours.

I have 2 Canadian friends who will fly into Prague on 24th Dec one their own and join a Trafalgar Tours in Prague for a 2 week tour of Prague - Budapest - Vienna.

> Do you sugest we fly to Paris or Venice from Munich and just do our own thing once there?

That's quite possible too. Actually most people on this forum prefer that. it may also depend on how much time you got for thet Italy travel.

You can easily book a lando nly tour from a Canadian, American or British company.

what you do is

1) go visit relatives in germany
2) take train or plan to start of tour
3) join tour there
4) book open jaws flights (into Germany and out of the city that the tour ends in)

Frankly, I would just organize it all myself since I'm allergic to tours - but if you want to do this - this is the way. Tours originating in Germany with a German company would be in German, so unles you're completely fluent, perhaps a problem.