Escorted Tours Companies
 

I'm considering taking an escorted tour to Europe next spring. I've been looking into Globus, Trafalgar, Collette, and Insight. I would greatly appreciate some feedback about these four and which seems to be the best for the money. Thanks

Savannah-I have friends that go on Insight all the time. They love it & always go with them. The hotels are supposed to be well-located. Wish I could help more. Good luck

Savannah,

When we planned a trip to Middle East a couple of years ago I got the brochures from several companies including three or so of one you mentioned an made matrix of various topics for comparison purposes. Brochure info also made it possible to compare hotels (expecially locations). Was kind of fun to do this as it heightened anticipation of the trip. Also, checked with fellow travelers on board. Settled on Globus and was quite pleased with our experience. Sorry that I can not offer you commentary on the other three companies as we didn't experience them. Study them and look for common items where you can make comparisons and then develop some type of index as to value. Have fun!
Dick

My wife and I toured Ireland and Scotland with Insight Vacations in June 2002. This was our first time on a guided tour and had a wonderful time. The drivers were very good and safe. The buses were clean and comfortable.The tour director was quite knowledgeable and provided a great historical context to every place we went. I can't say enough about Insight Vacations. We wouldn't hesitate to use them again. In fact I am just now starting to look into a European tour with them next spring.

I have recently been researching this subject as well. I like rsnyders idea but perhaps I am not that observant to really see a significant difference in most of the tours. I think it is important to know what is included, and when they say "visit" or "see" and things of that nature. I also understand to research the hotels and where they are located is important. I have also been looking at Gate1. So far I think Globus and Insight seem to have the best reviews from people who have used them recently. I think also to pay attention to the level of leisure. Some are more hetic then others. It is exciting just looking at the brochures.

When comparing, also try to avoid an itinerary that has lots of 1-nt stays. These can be very tiring.

Though sometimes you might have one or two 1-nt stays, anything much more than that is a definite no-no - my personal feeling.

While on the subject I see that some web sites, "affordabletours.com and several others offer discounts on Globus. Travel agents do not. I wonder why this is so?

savannah,

I have been on both Globus and Trafalgar a couple of times - both were fine and would rate Trafalgar a notch above based on their tour guides. While both are just fine, you do get what you pay for: hotels/motels on the outskirts of town, simple food (most not part of the tour price) and lots of add-ons if you want to see more; e.g. you go to Bristol, England and if you want to see the famous Bristol suspension bridge at night it will cost you extra.
When we traveled to Venice we were located at a hotel far away from the actual islands - they bused us in, took a ferry to the main island and we had to be back by 5pm to get back to our hotel.
..and so on.
Now if you can afford it, try Tauck - finally took their tour. Not cheap but the locations and the 5 star hotels plus almost all meals, entertainment and service was super and part of the total price.
I found that when ever I took Glo or Tra I had waiting for me when I got home another $1,000 or so in additional expenses...not so with Tauck.

either way it will be fun.
good luck.

Like many others I've used insight and had a great trip. I've considered Globus and Trafalgar but will probably stick with Insight. My guess is that all are OK. Go with the one that offers the stops you want.

They are all good companies and you would have a good time on any of them.

Globus and Collette are set up to have more optionals. So your tour may end up costing more.

Trafalgar is great, but tends to cover a lot of ground in one day.

Read the brochures and check out what is included. The advice on "see" versus "Visit" is important. Add up the meals. Are all the included meals group meals? Do you really want to eat with everyone all the time?

So pick your favorite itinerary and book it with confidence. No matter which one you take you'll get a company that is reliable and offers a good tour.

Notice that many tours start on the day you leave home, so that is not really a day you are on the tour, just a travel day and the same way with the final day......so a 12 day tour is really just a 10 day tour...look for companies that has day one as your first day when you join the tour group......ex..Tauck

The reason Tauck starts their itinerary "in-country" as Day 1 is because they price is for Land Only. The Air is an additional charge.

Most of the other companies listed have prices that are air inclusive so start the day you depart on your trip and day you return. Should you wish to use freq.flyer miles or book your own air, these companies do have an "air allowance" reduction.

For what it's worth, we took a Maupintour of Egypt a few years back, and it was excellent. EVERYTHING was including, from tips to admissions to food to bottled water, and the guide was fantastic. We never had to pay for anything extra except alchohol and shopping. You might want to check them out as well.

Glad you enjoyed your Egypt trip. We will be doing the Maupintour trip in April. Wish it could be a little earlier because of heat but it wasn't possible. This will be my third Maupintour trip and I find them to be a wonderful company to travel with. Unfortunately, as of two weeks ago there were only a total of 4 signed up and they need 8 to go. Hopefully, some more will sign on.

If you can afford it, take a Tauck trip. THE BEST!

We have done several Smithsonian Journeys. They are great! $$? yes! http://smithsonianjourneys.org/start.asp

When picking a company for a tour of Italy, I decided I would use the location of the hotel in Venice as an important factor. This is because several years ago I took a Globus tour that stopped in Venice but housed us in Mestre on the mainland.
Only Tauck and even more expensive companies stayed in Venice proper.
So check out those locations. You do get what you pay for.

I would just like to point out for everyone that is comparing Globus and Trafalgar to Tauck that you are not comparing the same things. Globus and Trafalgar are first-class tour companies while Tauck is a premier tour company. They are not even in the same market.

Another vote for Tauck. We have taken three of its tours in Europe and will take more.

I took a Trafalgar tour once, and decided: never again! Unlike Globus, Trafalgar leaves everything up to a local tour company, and if there is a problem, it's not solveable by Trafalgar headquarters.

Diann, once I called Globus and asked if they can match aff.tours' price. They said no, as aff. tours is a tour agency which cuts their commissions, this is how they are able to give us discount. True or not, this is what I was told.

I have only travelled with Insight and would recommend them because being centrally located was very important to us. For example in Venice we stayed on Venice Island. The tour was definitely not perfect (average tour guide, occasional average hotel or not centrally located) however for the most part, we did not have to do those very expensive optional extras because we were so close to the action. If you do a cheap tour, you will be further out. Ultimately if you are a person who always does all the optional extras then go with the cheaper tour, but if you prefer more independent travel go with Insight or equiv.

My first trip to Europe was with Globus. It was very good, and I really enjoyed myself. On our tour we were two and three nights each place except Florence. That was the only one nighter and I'm glad. I would NOT do any of those tours that are constantly one night here, one night there. Our tour was quite "relaxed" by comparison with a lot of them. We actually would have had a LOT of free time if we hadn't purchased some of the extras. I think it was about 400.00 for the extra tours we took. It was good, because you could kind of suit yourself on how you wanted to do things. There was one young single guy and after our morning tour he was gone all the time out on his own. Most of the included city tours were in the morning and then the optionals or free time was in the afternoons and evenings.

I know this wasn't one of your choices, but I have to recommend Overseas Adventure Travel ( www.oattravel.com ) as a really nice alternative to the more traditional tours. They have small groups and interesting itineraries. I usually travel on my own, but OAT is a nice option for a quite decent price.

Another great option is Untours ( www.untours.com ) but that's for staying in one or two locations; it's lovely, but not if you're trying to cover a lot of area.

We are going Globus to Italy and Greece in less than two weeks. I have looked at all of the hotels online and read reviews of them..most of them are pretty new... and I am impressed..will provide feedback when we return...We are going to Greece on an overnight ferry, which I had envisioned to be just that..however, when I looked it up online I found that it's more like a cruise ship, with a casino, restaurants etc...It took me many hours to organize the information in a way that I was comfortable with..that is..each day what optional trips were offered and at what cost, where we would be and what we would be doing on our own. I'm glad I did because now I am very familiar with the itinerary...I typed it up and gave each of our kids the info...

mscarls, our Rick Steves' tour hotel in Venice was a hop, skip, and jump from the Rialto Bridge. Of course, we didn't get the cushy treatment that you get with Tauck, et al, but you get a lot closer to the people. That's one of Rick's strong points...staying away from the four- and five-star hotels.

I also have taken an OAT tour and highly recommend then. I dislike large groups and the feeling of being herded cattle. There were seventeen people on our tour. This is the norm. I would take a tour with them in a heartbeat.

I have taken several OAT tours and they have been very good. If you are considering an OAT trip one thing I've found is that the office you call for information and reservations is pretty disorganized and the operators not as well informed as they should be.
I also have taken a Globus tour and the trip was OK--the guide was terrible, downright rude to clients.

Does anyone have experience with small tour companies that specialize in Italy?

The tour director on the Globus Tour I took, was just fabulous. She was like a "mother hen", very knowledgeable, and knew how to be friendly without being familiar. Our driver was just amazing, he could thread that bus through the eye of a needle.

Granted, Globus has many tour directors and I'm sure some's better than others. We had to leave our hotel in Rome at 4:00 a.m., and our director was up and waiting in the lobby to see us all off even though she was picking up a tour that afternoon and backtracking our route. We stopped at another hotel to pick up another group on the way to the airport and their director was no where in site. Didn't mean he didn't do a good tour, but just not that "extra touch".

If I had a bad director, I would have written or faxed the main office in Lugano and complained about him/her.