Has anyone been on a Contiki tour?

Contiki or similar tour company for Europe. Has anyone done this, did you like it? Is Backpacking better?

• My wife and I are intrested in taking a trip to Europe this November. We can't decide on backpacking or taking a tour. Just want to know if anyone has done the backpacking or tour and what they liked or disliked about it. Thanks!

• Answer:

  I have spent several years traveling independantly and much prefer backpacking to tours. The upside to a tour is that it takes care of all the work of travel, hotel arrangements, transportation, and where the best photograph opportunities are. With backpacking, one's plans are far more fluid and flexible allowing one to tailor their trip as it unfolds. One can never know what will become the most memorable part of a journey, and it might be that little cafe you saw and felt like spending an afternoon at. It is more difficult to back pack as you have to make your own transport and hotel arrangements which takes up time every day, especially if you haven't navigated the European rails before. That said, Europe is one of the easiest places to backpack. The vastness of the rail system allows travelers to move fairly easily to anywhere they might want to get to. There are large numbers of hostels ranging from the one's that you only sleep in because of the price to some absolute gems of hostels that are hard to tear yourself out of. So, in the end, were I to give you my opinion, I would suggest the backpacking route, along with a rail pass for transport within Europe. You won't be able to see everything, no one ever does, so make a list of your top choices. I think that creating your own journey will make the trip more special as it will become your own adventure. While I think tours are convenient, they do take some of the fun out of the collosal blunders one makes when traveling (it's either a good time or a good story, so the worst travesties on traveling often make for the best story six months after the fact). If you are planning to go for some weeks and might want to leave your travel plans somewhat open, look into a return flight from Frankfurt, it's as close to the center of Europe as you'll get, so no matter where you end up, it's a fairly straightforward trip back. However, if you have definite ideas on where you'd like to start and finish, then do that, whatever works best for you. Finally, when traveling, I always used to advise clients to plan a shorter trip than their entire trip length, give themselves spare days for the unexpected. A 6 week trip should have a 5 week planned itinerary, allowing you to spend the extra days without feeling that you're sacrificing another part of your trip. Apart from that, have fun, and use money belts.