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I kicked around Australia for a month a while back. Had a blast running amok on my own (even got to drive from Port Douglas (favorite stop, Melbourne was my favorite city) to Brisbane, woot for driving on the other side of the road). I took the Ghan out to Alice Springs at one point though and hooked up with a contiki tour for that part until I hopped off on my own to Darwin. I really had a lot of fun with the tour. They hit up a lot of places but still gave you time to do exploring on your own, fed you fairly well and did plenty of things that gave you excuses to bond with the rest of the people on the tour. We slept out under the stars at one point. The guides were fun and listened and the age group was right for me. Lots of walking, which I enjoy. And it got me into a lot of places without the hassle of me having to drive out to them or figure out how to get tickets etc. The only downside was you shared a room with three other people but for the week I was part of the tour it wasn't a big deal and meant I always had someone to hang out with. By the end I was ready to cut loose on my own again but I'm an introvert so five days constantly surrounded by people was just the right amount of time without being too much. Haven't been on a contiki tour since but from that one, I'd recommend them. Cheap way to get around, they make sure you get to see a lot, the buses are clean, the people are on the roughly college age give or take. I've heard some shady rumors since then as well but the one I went on at least was above board and very suitable for a single girl traveling alone.

ive been looking into europe tours but australia is on my list someday too so its good to know that their aus tours are so cool!! sleeping under the stars sounds so great, wow

this runs counter to some of the things ive heard of them which is reassuring, ive heard they move too quickly for you to really get much time in at the stops and some mixed things about the food. how were the hotels they put you up in? and would you say you got your money's worth with what they planned? ive heard a lot of people say that you can plan one of their trips yourself and stay in better accommodations then what they put you in for around the same price

ngl, its done on a college budget so its cheap. The food was fine but nothing five star (I did get to eat both grub and kangaroo so there's that). You eat at a lot of pubs and such(which I enjoyed). The hotels were, meh, figure somewhere about a decent Sleep Inn. There was wi-fi and AC on the buses which were newer and we never stayed anywhere that looked or felt dirty or second rate. They'd usually take us to a site, let us go on the tour than give us some time to ramble around and shop or get pictures or whatever so I never felt rushed or like I didn't get time to do things I'd wanted to do. Granted a LOT of Australia was hiking for me, especially around Alice Springs and Uluru so it would have been kind of hard to hustle us. In Europe where things are closer, it might be different. You can absolutely get better food and hotels if you're doing it on your own, I did the entire rest of my trip. But for me the main selling point of a tour is that they take care of all of that for you and you just show up and let them drive you around. The area around Alice Springs had a lot of places I wanted to visit but it would have taken a lot of routing for me to get to all of them on my own and eaten up a lot of my time. The tour took care of all of that for me and threw in some friendly company and interesting stories from our guides. Not to mention it took me to some places I wouldn't have thought to go on my own. It really depends on what you want to get out of a tour and how comfortable you are kicking around countries on your own. Contiki is a cheap tour, college level budget but the one I was on was still clean, friendly and they knew what they were doing and, for me, covered a lot of territory without me feeling rushed about it.

One thing I really appreciated was that you could just take a piece of the tour instead of committing to the whole thing. Like for me, Alice Springs was the extent of my tour with them but they were actually going on from there with most of the rest of the people to other places next. I just hopped on for what I wanted and then hopped off when I wanted to go back to kicking around on my own. Granted, take all of this with the understanding that not every tour is going to be like my tour so its very possible that its luck of the draw. But yes, for what I paid and what I expected I did feel like I got my money's worth.

Now if you're doing Japan - Japan Deluxe Tours is the best I've ever been on and I could never recommend them as highly as they deserve. That is top notch, first class all the way treatment.

Europe I'm sorry but I can't really help on tours with. I've had friends go over and backpack it on their own or in groups but I don't know anyone that's been on an organized tour over there. It always sounds like so much fun when my friends talk about the places they've visited though. Any countries you're specifically interested in? Maybe some people on here might be from those areas and be able to give you tips.

thats all really good to know..!! thank you! i heard some horror stories from people, but those might have been old or out of the norm.

id be going with my boyfriend and we're looking at a few! i really like the look of the simply italy tour and some of the italy/greece ones, since ive been on another school trip awhile back and id really like to go back there in particular, but my boyfriend's never really traveled so he's looking at the more generalized ones, european whirl in particular. part of the appeal of contiki when i was looking at them is that the general trips would give him a bigger experience while also letting me go to places ive never been before, but without actually doing the legwork ourselves, since neither of us have really fully planned a vacation before, so then we might be able to plan another trip to wherever we liked for a more narrowed down experience... the pacing of them does worry me, especially the faster/higher energy ones he seems to be looking at, but im glad to hear that they schedule in at least a bit of time to kick around!!

ive heard some things about contiki having a bit of a reputation as a booze cruise sort of trip too, which is a bit concerning since thats not really what im into, but it doesnt sound like that was how it was with your group.

japan is definitely on my list someday so i'll keep japan deluxe tours in mind! thank you, you've been super helpful!!

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