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CIE Tours vs Trafalgar
Compare the travel styles, pricing, destinations and popularity of CIE Tours and Trafalgar.The Low Down
CIE Tours are specialists in guided coach tours through Britain and Ireland. With over 80 years of history the team at CIE certainly have the local ties and experience to deliver you a top notch touring experience through Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England. They have recently dipped their toes into new regions within Europe, including Iceland, Italy and Spain.CIE are relatively unknown in the Australasian market but are very popular in the rest of the world, so you're fellow travellers are likely to be from all around the world, but perhaps with more American's onboard than Antipodeans. With itineraries designed to be fully inclusive, putting your hand in your pocket for optional day trips and activities is not something you need to worry about.
Accommodation on each trips sits at the 3 to 3 1/2 star level, with breakfasts (along with many lunches and dinners) also included. There's a maximum group size of 44, but look out for selected departures on selected trips that are designed for small groups. Also keep a lookout for CIE's Last Minute Deals which run year round and offers savings of up to 15% off the normal retail price.
Over 250 coach tours around the world, and one of our clients most popular Operators, Trafalgar is part of the Travel Corporation, which includes under its umbrella the sister brands of Insight Vacations, AAT Kings, Uniworld, Contiki & Costsaver. With a worldwide presence along eith local operations in Australasia for many years, you'll enjoy the company of many nationalities aboard your coach, including those from Downunder. Sitting between Insight and Costsaver, Trafalgar pride themselves in touring innovation, introducing 'Insider Experiences' (where you get to know and dine with the locals) and travel styles to suit those that prefer smaller groups or those that prefer a more leisurely itinerary.Look out for Trafalgar's Early-payment savings where you can enjoy significant savings on your trip as well as further savings if you are a past passenger on any of the aforementioned sister brands.
Stats
No. of Trips
77
No. of Departures
1,609
Avg. Trip Length
9 Days
Avg. Price Per Day
$543
Accommodation
3.5 - 4 Star
Budget
Premium
Trip Styles
Coach Tours
No. of Trips
346
No. of Departures
7,983
Avg. Trip Length
11 Days
Avg. Price Per Day
$555
Accommodation
4 Star
Budget
Premium
In Their Own Words
We asked the travel companies themselves why you should travel with them
When you travel with CIE Tours, you will get the warmest of welcomes and all the benefits of our 87 years of experience. The itineraries are locally crafted - we set our own high standards for delivering excellent holidays with state-of-the-art luxury coaches; the best hotels; carefully chosen authentic experiences and entertainment.
Our outstanding local tour directors are ready to share their knowledge, stories, passion for their home places - they are our greatest assets. Many of our tours spend 2 nights in each location, and our flexible itineraries include a great balance of escorted and free time. We include full breakfasts, most dinners and some evening entertainment. No one has to worry about paying for optional extras on the trip. It’s all included, no hidden extras.
We know how much these trips mean to you and we want to ensure that this is a trip you will treasure forever.
We are the world’s leading and most awarded travel brand spanning all 7 continents of the globe. From the iconic to the unexpected our guests connect to the real depth of the places we go. They will break bread with the locals at our exclusive Be My Guest experiences and unlock local secrets of our Travel Directors and Local Specialists. Everything is taken care of, so they travel with true ease and get the real thing without worrying about a thing.
We consider how we can positively impact the communities we engage with. Through our JoinTrafalgar initiatives powered by TreadRight, guests don’t just leave footprints on the ground, but leave a lasting legacy for the betterment of locals and the future of their communities.
It’s 72 years of destination experience and feedback from over 5 million happy guests that fuels our innovation to continually delivery simply the best holidays.
Recent Reviews
4.6
We cannot say enough good things about our tour. PJ the coach driver was amazing. Highly recommended this tour. Dublin pub tour. Thanks ever so much for a wonderful trip, from the Canadian Gals, Dee and Denise.
I cannot say enough good things about the CIE Ireland Pub Tour July 16-22, 2025. The tour was well organized and executed, the accommodations and food were great in all the locations and the excursions were fun. The amount of bus travel time, planned excursion time and free time was well balanced. We weren't too rushed or overscheduled. But what read more stood out the most was our fabulous tour guide and driver, PJ. He really made the tour enjoyable and fun. PJ is entertaining, funny and very knowledgeable about all things Irish. He incorporated a uniquely Irish tradition of the National Hurling Finals which really immersed us in the Irish culture. PJ went above and beyond to ensure that our tour was flawless and that we all enjoyed ourselves. Hats off to CIE and PJ for a great vacation that will go down in the memory books for me. I highly recommend this tour.
If you’re looking for a great experience look no further than Global Journeys. Could not fault our experience. From the time of booking till we landed on Australian shores again,fabulous! Rachael McSorley our Travel Advisor looked after us so well. We were kept up to date evert step of the way. And CIE Classic Irish tour was all we hoped and more!
CIE are a great tourist organisation. All costs were in the price quoted , no added extras like some tourist organisations. The tour covered big and small venues, cities and towns whilst the places used for accommodation were of great value. I would recommend CIE.
Loved every minute of the trip. Sam our driver was amazing. Jaquie our guide was fabulous. Couldn't recommend them any more. Would do it again in a heartbeat. A must do trip to add to your bucket list.
4.6
I had a great trip, the hotels were all great but one. They seemed to be a 4 star . The food and choice of entertainment was amazing. Also the choice of towns was great. We covered a lot of France and points of interest in history. Our guide was the best I have had ever.
Great tour with a mix of city and safari. 0
Best of South Africa with Victoria Falls
I.L, VIC, Australia, Aug 2026
An excellent tour if you want to see more than just the wonderful National parks and safaris. We were very lucky and saw the BIG SIX and more on our Kruger safari, with St Lucia and CHOBE adding more to our list of wildlife sightings.
The cultural dinners and shows were entertaining and city and beach visits were relaxing and informative. There read more were some long driving days but we covered a lot of SA. Hotels were all top quality and TD Craig insured we were in our rooms with bags within 15 min of arrival.
Our group was small, only 11 travellers from US, UK, NZ and AU. We all became great friends and thoroughly enjoyed our travels. A big thank you to Hannah from GJ, for all her assistance with booking and follow up.
Tips…. Do the Victoria Falls extension, well worth the extra days. If you do book extra nights pre tour via Trafalgar, check directly with the hotel that they have received the booking. All the optionals were excellent. Cape Town optional - do the Peninsula trip, penguins were awesome. Not enough time in Cape Town would be great if Trafalgar added one more independent day there to the tour.
The cultural dinners and shows were entertaining and city and beach visits were relaxing and informative. There read more were some long driving days but we covered a lot of SA. Hotels were all top quality and TD Craig insured we were in our rooms with bags within 15 min of arrival.
Our group was small, only 11 travellers from US, UK, NZ and AU. We all became great friends and thoroughly enjoyed our travels. A big thank you to Hannah from GJ, for all her assistance with booking and follow up.
Tips…. Do the Victoria Falls extension, well worth the extra days. If you do book extra nights pre tour via Trafalgar, check directly with the hotel that they have received the booking. All the optionals were excellent. Cape Town optional - do the Peninsula trip, penguins were awesome. Not enough time in Cape Town would be great if Trafalgar added one more independent day there to the tour.
It was my first ever coach trip and I didn’t really know what to expect so I was open minded about it. I wasn’t disappointed, everything was very well organised. Hotels were good, chosen experiences were good value. Perhaps a little bit more could be included in the price though, I felt that optional ones heavily outweighed inclusions. Something to read more be mindful of when budgeting for the trip. One thing that left me puzzled though was constant badgering about tipping tour director and the driver. Surely Trafalgar is paying adequate salaries to their staff?
The trip is organised around drivers hours, coach drop off and parking. None of which help my experience of seeing Europe. The "sell" to buy optional experiences takes place at the slowest part of the trip when you drive all day to spend an hour of time at a location, and you realise that you spent all this money and won't see anything.
The travel read more director made a great sell, and he was great and everybody's best friend. He was just like my buddy that sells cars. A slick positive guy that everybody likes. I don't know what his kickback is on the sell, but he pulled in an additional $100 thousand on the options for the bus. If you opt out of the optional experiences, they drop you off at a random spot and need to find your way to a meeting spot. I bought the options.
The places we go are the places the bus is allowed, not really the highlights. The best parts of the trip were when I took off to do my own thing. The logistics can be difficult and that was what I thought we were paying the travel director for, not going to places where the bus can go and people stay together so they don't get lost.
The local specialists should show highlights and let us see what is there instead of holding us back and together so we don't get lost, explaining in great detail one piece of art, or a room. Because of this detail, I did not get to see all of the castle, palace, Vatican Museum, roman Colosseum, etc. Let us see all of the highlights.
Another example was, there is a path through the Roman ruins, but we don't go there to see them, instead we walk the other direction to walk in a dirty back alley, slowly so we can get picked up by the bus. I could have walked through the ruins and been back in time to catch the bus at the pace they move if I had been given an option.
I am there to see Europe, not find a convenient place for them to pick me up. The hotels are good, but away from the things you want to see when you have time in the evening. I would recommend this trip to people that want to sit on busses, get out for an hour to buy souvenirs, shop, eat and drink, and you can now say you have been there. It is not for people that actively want to see Europe. This is the 5th month long trip I have taken, and the one I saw the least and cost 3 times as much as the other trips.
The travel read more director made a great sell, and he was great and everybody's best friend. He was just like my buddy that sells cars. A slick positive guy that everybody likes. I don't know what his kickback is on the sell, but he pulled in an additional $100 thousand on the options for the bus. If you opt out of the optional experiences, they drop you off at a random spot and need to find your way to a meeting spot. I bought the options.
The places we go are the places the bus is allowed, not really the highlights. The best parts of the trip were when I took off to do my own thing. The logistics can be difficult and that was what I thought we were paying the travel director for, not going to places where the bus can go and people stay together so they don't get lost.
The local specialists should show highlights and let us see what is there instead of holding us back and together so we don't get lost, explaining in great detail one piece of art, or a room. Because of this detail, I did not get to see all of the castle, palace, Vatican Museum, roman Colosseum, etc. Let us see all of the highlights.
Another example was, there is a path through the Roman ruins, but we don't go there to see them, instead we walk the other direction to walk in a dirty back alley, slowly so we can get picked up by the bus. I could have walked through the ruins and been back in time to catch the bus at the pace they move if I had been given an option.
I am there to see Europe, not find a convenient place for them to pick me up. The hotels are good, but away from the things you want to see when you have time in the evening. I would recommend this trip to people that want to sit on busses, get out for an hour to buy souvenirs, shop, eat and drink, and you can now say you have been there. It is not for people that actively want to see Europe. This is the 5th month long trip I have taken, and the one I saw the least and cost 3 times as much as the other trips.
We travelled as an extended family of 13 and, overall, really enjoyed the tour. Days 3 and 4 involved very long hours on a bus, which made for some uncomfortable days. A few of the hotels were located away from main attractions. During our free time we often had to catch taxis to get where we wanted to go, which added extra cost and reduced the convenience. read more
A few of the included dinners at the hotels were also a little unusual, with combinations such as a pizza slice and tempura and other bits and bobs that didn't feel very authentic or particularly appealing. The included lunches - such as the sushi making and the Hida beef lunch were you cooked your own beef on individual burners - were AMAZING! We loved the tour overall. It was well organised, we saw some wonderful places, and it was a great way to experience Japan. PS Japan is extremely hot and humid in July!
A few of the included dinners at the hotels were also a little unusual, with combinations such as a pizza slice and tempura and other bits and bobs that didn't feel very authentic or particularly appealing. The included lunches - such as the sushi making and the Hida beef lunch were you cooked your own beef on individual burners - were AMAZING! We loved the tour overall. It was well organised, we saw some wonderful places, and it was a great way to experience Japan. PS Japan is extremely hot and humid in July!
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