goldengrain

My husband and I have lived very frugal lives and forgone vacations. Now we are ready to retire. A year or two from now we intend to sell our home and relocate.

The thought hit us that, before we buy a new house and to avoid multiple trips across the ocean, we could just tour Europe and Asia until we tired of it.

We are inexperienced travelers, but would appreciate a self-directed vacation.

Our ideal is that we go to England, take a tour or two, peruse the place on our own and when we get tired of that, call 'our' travel agent and tell them we have decided on Italy or Switzerland or Greece or Spain next and ask if they could book a nice hotel and a good tour and advise us the best way to get there. We would like to continue doing this until we tired of it or our money ran out.

Is there an agency that is knowledgeable around the world who could assign us one friendly voice to call to ease our way and guide us through the whole experience, handle logistics, appraise us of warnings or places to avoid?

We have medical insurance that is transportable the world over.

kybourbon

There are time limits (90 days in most of Europe)on visiting countries unless you can acquire visas.

nytraveler

Just to clarify - that's not 90 days per country - that's 90 days for all of Schengen - which is most of europe except the UK. So you can certainly sees the UK then see some of europe. If you prefer you could see some of europe first, then go to UK, then back to the continet - which would increase the number of days you can spend thre - as long as you are outside Schenger for 90 days.

As for a travel agent, there are certainly agents that can do that - but to find one that is experienced enough to do a good job will take some work to identify - and may not be cheap. (Typically only $* and up hotels pay commissions - so you'll have to pay the agent for planing time.)

Also, even a good agent can't plan the next step of a trip without a reasonable amount of warning - otherwise decent hotels etc will all be full.

Cathinjoetown

Within the past year, but I don't remember which issue, Conde Nast Traveler magazine published a list of "best" independent travel agents and their specialities. You may be able to find it online. In subsequent issues, there have been letters to the editor commenting on various agents (favorably, if memory serves).

Good luck and a good agent should be able to help you through any visa issues, given enough time to handle the process.

WillTravel

Six months for the UK is helpful.
90 days for Schengen countries, but there are also a few non-Schengen countries left in Europe.
It's also possible to get permission for longer stays, even in Schengen.
Don't forget Mexico, Central America, and South America.
I wonder if a round-the-world ticket wouldn't be best in your case.

goldengrain

Thank you. I did not know of the time restriction.
I would, perhaps, enjoy an around the world trip, but can only find such things on cruises, it seems, and I would like to leave cruises for when we are older and don't like to walk a lot.

Are there any good around the world tours?

flanneruk

Consider this.

You're asking a question about tours of an audience that, by and large, just can't understand why anyone these days would let a third party add cost to, and mess up, something they can do for themselves.

And there's a good reason for that. Organised tours are fine for people unused to foreign travel, short of time, with specialised needs or interests or going somewhere seriously daunting (like North Korea). None of those apply to a retired couple, based in England, who want to see Italy. After you've got the hang of travel basics, you'll be booking your own Ryanair flights to Pisa, and trains round Italy, just like most of the regulars round here.

Building up youir confidence might take time. So you just walk down the road from the English cottage you've rented and buy a 7 days Italy's Greatest Hits package from any travel agent.

The last thing in the world you want to do is to hurl your money away on some idiot four thousand miles away who'll - even the first time you do it - already know less than you about the logistics of getting from your Little Piddlecombe on the Wold hideaway to the Ryanair flight to Treviso, and will charge you four times what you'll pay by just asking the lady in the Little Piddlecombe post office for advice.

Your idea's fine - except for your bizarre intention to create wholly unnecessary jobs for travel agents.

Sketch out your rough plan. Research it here and on the Lonely Planet Thorntree site (the geographical threads, but also the Long Haul and Gap Year threads). If you want your hand holding, buy just one organised tour.

But I'll lay odds you'll be almost instantly itching to organise your own life.

5alive

Hi, Goldengrain,
What an opportunity! Back in the 70s my grandparents did a 2-month Frommer style tour of Europe, and their postcards and stories hooked me on travel.

Don't look for a travel agent just yet. For someone who has lived a frugal life, it may be pretty hard to swallow the cost of that $300/night "good hotel" that a travel agent will want to give you.

It is valid to be concerned about not staying in an unsafe area. There are some highly experienced travelers on this board to help steer you well, especially when you are ready with specific questions.

Browse the travel section at Barnes and Noble for a great photoguide or two. Also, check out several of the Rick Steves travel videos of Europe to watch; most libraries have them.

Lodgings: To help keep costs down, consider an apartment (rentable by the week) in a few cities you're interested in, ie London, Paris, Rome. It would allow you a few days to relax and to cook for yourselves for a change. It is an approach known as "slow travel"--check out http://www.slowtrav.com/ Good luck!

nytraveler

Round the world tours would be exhorbitent.

But there are round the world air fares - but requiring you to keep moving in a single direction (that is always heading west - or east) that allow a large number of stop-offs. I had a friend do this and the air fare was less than $3000 - but it was several year ago.

ekscrunchy

I also did this, but also many years ago. You really do not need a travel agent to do this type of trip.

Here is one example of the RTW fares:



http://www.staralliance.com/en/trave...orld_fare.html

frogoutofwater

The best place to learn about and get tips on round-the-world fares is in the airline alliance section of the discussion forum, flyertalk.com. Flyertalk is full of frequent (mostly business but also leisure) travellers. The discussion forums for Star Alliance, Oneworld and Skyteam focus a lot on round-the-world tickets and the people who post on those forums have developed tools to help you price and plan your trips - and then they'll likely advise you if you ask on whether your route is valid.

suze

www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com

suze

I would prefer to take "multiple trips across the ocean" myself.

Many people do get tired after being on the road for more than a couple months. Since you have not traveled there's no way to say if you would really enjoy being gone for so long at a stretch.

My suggestion is to plan -and take- a 1 to 3 month max. trip which includes England, Switzerland, Spain and Greece. And plan it yourself in the normal fashion (using internet resources, guidebooks from the library, etc.).

If you do not want to do any research yourself, then yes you probably do need a travel agent. Look for one who *specialized* in what it is you want to do (i.e., Europe, round-the-world, or Asia).

Sue878

I would suggest getting Rick Steve's book "Europe thru the backbook" and one or more of his guidebooks for the countries you are interested in. His recommendations for hotels are usually budget hotels and in nice/safe areas of the cities and close to public transportation.

We have not stayed in any of his hotel recommendations
but we do use them for his sightseeing ideas, car rentals, tours, etc.

Sue878

Should be "Europe thru the Back Door"

suze

I agree with the guidebook suggestions. Whether goldengrain chooses to use a travel agent, do it on their own, take an organized tour, whatever... you'll want to get a bit more educated about the basics of traveling to Europe, in order to be able to make informed decisions.

sandi

You've got lots of research to do to pull this off. Can't read enough guidebooks, forums, news articles, etc. This is especially so, if you wish to travel somewhat like vagabonds, moving when you wish where, if/when the bus or train departs and the ability to obtain last-minute hotel space.

I'd suggest you first consider a "trial trip" - covering say England, France and Italy. Get an idea of what's entailed in arranging int'l flights, city/surburban areas each country of interest, means of in-country transport, lodging and food options, etc.

I personally wouldn't jump "all in" and then realize this isn't what you wanted; not having a place to return if you've sold your house.

Note: Those TA listed in Conde Nast charge a pretty penny for their services.

jkbritt

If you really want to wing it, look at renting an RV for 1 or 2 months. You can go where you please, when you please, etc. If you figure your per day costs, and park it in parks and use public transport, which I would greatly suggest, the price is not too bad. If you go in the winter or shoulder seasons, the cost is 110 to 150 per day. If you shop around, you might find for less. Be willing to dicker. Most RV's are diesel and straight shift, fyi. Fuel will be cheaper. Rent one for UK, then rent another for Europe. Steering wheel is on different sides.