The Best of Europe Reviews

Travelled in August 2023. Excellent tour with friendly, experienced Tour Director and Coach Driver. A busy itinerary but with the advantage of some 2 night stays along the way. Early starts ensured arrival at various sites before the crowds and the heat of the day. Accommodation was clean, beds comfortable, included meals were great. Optional tours ...read more and local guides were excellent. Coach was always clean, large windows ensured great photo opportunities from all seats.

Booking on the optional dinners & excursions meant that "extra" highlights and surprises were sometimes included too.... views of the coast at Nice and Monte Carlo at twilight, sunset on the Eiffel Tower, viewing St Peter's Basilica from a bridge over the Tiber River at sunset, stunning views over Lucerne and surrounds while ascending Mount Stanserhorn by cable car are all memorable. A highly recommended tour.

Tour leader and bus driver were exceptional, very helpful, informative, friendly, and professional. Tour bus was also very comfortable. The only downside was the Wifi was very slow, almost unusable. It would be more enjoyable to have proper Wifi in place. The first two days in London could have been improved by organising an excursion so that everyone ...read more could get to know each other from day one. We were unaware there was no program from Cosmos in London and struggled a bit with what to do at the time. The bus which took us from Novotel London West to catch the Euro train station was in fairly bad shape and broke down just as we were about to depart the hotel. We could not be impressed.

Highlight - well organised. Driver/ Tour Director - both excellent. The following needs Improvement: Hotels - few of the hotels needed to be upgraded. Dinners - main course needs to have options (most of them served Beef & Pork). Coaches - internet access should be available (due to the time difference). People - needs proper introduction on the first ...read more day (maybe a proper dinner & mingle time) sorry to say some of them never spoke in the entire trip, which I feel a bit odd. Weather condition - attire must be informed as most of them brought summer clothes, most of the places were very cold which was unexpected. Last day dispersal - was a bit of disappointment, last stop Paris needed more days & internal tours included. Overall trip was exciting and enjoyed every part of it.

18 days doesn't seem like enough time to see all that we did - but it was so well organised that the fast pace didn't even matter! Worry free, spectacular scenery - and a great time to go. There's no way to choose a favourite spot, drive or experience as they were all spectacular. Some highlights were the Amalfi Coast, French Alps, Switzerland's Mt ...read more Titlus, Pompeii .... Coming from Australia in particular, the immense history in every town's architecture was a marvel.

We were extremely happy with our tour as we have been previously with our last 2 Cosmos tours. We loved our tour guide Iris. She was the best guide we have ever had, extremely knowledgeable, very patient in sometimes testing times, funny, helpful and generally terrific, we couldn't have asked for more. Thank you so much Iris, you really made our holiday ...read more special. We were very happy with all our accommodation. We got to see so many places, travelled a long way making our trip once in a lifetime experience. We have done and will continue to recommend Cosmos tours to others and if we decide to do another trip in the future will first look to see if Cosmos can accommodate where we would like to go. Thank you Cosmos :) The only negative comment I would make is that it was extremely expensive to do the Optional excursions, which added quite a bit extra to our trip, but after seeing how expensive it is in Europe I can understand.

As a first time solo traveler I enjoyed the trip overall as I saw some amazing places but the pace was too quick meaning we had very little time in many places, especially the 1 night stopovers. We did not see much in places like Brussels or Ulm which was disappointing. Even with the 2 night stays, we didn't have enough time as we arrived at our destination ...read more late so we really only had 1 full day there. I would certainly try for at least 2-3 days in each place. Most of the accommodation was a bit far out of the city also, so after arriving late I then had to rely on public transport if I didn't participate in the optional dinners which I thought were quite costly.

There were too many 'optional excursions' and not enough 'included excursions'. If I had done all the optional excursions it would have cost me almost as much as the tour itself! On a positive note the coach was very comfortable and our driver was careful and experienced however I do think if the coach is going into town for an evening tour they should have been able to give a lift in, so I wouldn't have to rely on public transport. The local guides were excellent and our tour guide was pleasant and informative, however I must add that the coach did leave without me one day as I lost our small group walking amongst the crowds of people, and a proper head check was not done on the coach. They only came back 15 minutes later because the 10 year old in our group noticed me missing! Certainly learnt my lesson to not put your head down for a second!

The trip was very good. The tour guide Trundi and driver John Phillippe were very helpful and keep to the time schedule so we always arrived on time as much as possible. Thanks Georgie for you help in arranging this. It all went very smoothly.

We had a ball! Although the trip was fast paced, it need to be to include all the sites and opportunities that we experienced. Fantastic driver and tour guide, they were a wonderful team who obviously liked each other and that made everything easy. Carlo was a wonderful driver with a great sense of humour, and Mihaela was beautiful, so lovely. Perhaps ...read more a couple of days on the coach were too long. Some people found it a bit of a waste, a suggestion might be to spend a couple of nights in more places, and either extend the length or skip something. I realise the trip is carefully worked out to maximise every opportunity, but we did have a couple of really long travel days. Excursions were fun. The quality of the food was disappointing, but the cultural experience on these occasions made up for this. Daytime tours were amazing, and fast track queuing was really worth it. Some of the hotels were disappointing, but overall, the standard was acceptable. We loved this tour, we will definitely tour with the company again.

I gave feedback to Cosmos too just stating some of the twin share places were a little bit too cosy for my liking...personal space lacking in two hotels in particular - Grenoble and Paris. The random person I was paired with was a really lovely though! The trip has so much to see and so many 'wow' moments with the monuments & historical sites - highlights ...read more Pompeii, Capri and Venice - caught the sun setting whilst on the boat heading out out to dinner in Venice and that was stunning. This dinner was yummy in Venice too.

I really enjoyed the tour, good experience. Tour Director was excellent and helpful, however, if possible improvements in vegetarian meals, with more varieties for Vegans so we can enjoy the meals as well. Other then that every thing was good. Highly recommend this tour to others.

A bit disappointed in the free time we had in the cities. The coach seating rotation could have been more organised. Too many long days. A little more information could have been given on each day. Overall I had a great amazing holiday. Gave me a taste of the countries I would go back to. I would thoroughly recommend Cosmos tours.

The tour was fantastic, I had an amazing journey and visited some incredible places. However, it was quite disappointing to find that there were more Optional excursions to pay for than tour inclusions. I paid an extra $896 for optional tours, sometimes there were 3 on the one day. All were good tours but could have been inclusive of the money already ...read more paid for the tour. Not enough time spent in some areas of the tour, and a little too rushed at the end of a long day driving, to be ready for dinner. ( half an hour ). Our hotel in Amsterdam was located out on the main highway, there was 1 person on our tour that did not wish to spend all evening roaming around the red light district tour. Unfortunately she had no way of getting into the city and spent the evening alone & with no dinner. Our tour guide was great, very knowledgeable and organised & ensured everyone's safety at all times. I may decide to tour with Cosmos again, but would have to consider if I would be happy to pay out extra for Optional tours.

This was our second tour during our holiday and was as good as the first. Another great bunch of people plus an excellent Tour Director, Patrizia and great driver. Our tour director had amazing knowledge plus was a very energetic and enthusiastic person who made our tour. Our tour was fairly on the go but we were happy to cover the amount of touring ...read more we did. We would be happy to, use Cosmos again and recommend to our family and friends.

Georgie you gave me great service and I was thoroughly informed along the way. The first day of our tour, the tour lady was confused and dumped us all at the train station and told us to get to Brussels by ourselves. We were separated however, on arrival in Brussels, we found each other. For the rest of the tour it was fantastic, informative, amazing ...read more and life changing. The bus driver was fantastic and most importantly our Tour Director was fantastic till my last day. Unfortunately he didn't support me in helping to get in contact with my brother when we were 3 hours late, due to him forgetting his case at the previous hotel. We were great to him and rallied around to all put in some money to help with the taxi, however, when I asked if he could contact the Paris hotel to let my brother know we would be late, he did not. I wasn't impressed with this at all and also the lateness when I asked specifically when we would arrive in Paris. Every other day we were on time. This did not hinder my tour at all, Ruben was great with having to deal with some clients who complained about how fast paced the tour was and that we should change things just for them. I then continued my holiday with family and still enjoyed my experience overseas. I will definitely recommend Global Journeys, because people are always concerned about booking online and not with a real person. Thank you for your support and help, if the feedback can be passed onto Cosmos that would be appreciated.

We enjoyed our tour overall and saw some amazing places but the pace was too quick and we had very little time in many places, especially stopovers, and very little free time. There were too many 'optional excursions' and not enough 'included excursions' so we were strongly encouraged to do all of these thereby limiting any free time and costing us ...read more almost as much as the tour itself. Where we expected to have extra time ie 2 night stays, we really didn't have much extra time as we arrived at our destination late at night with time to shower and sleep and we then really only had a full day there. Also, the accommodation was very poor. Most of the accommodation was very far out of the city. There were no four star, only three star accommodations especially in Italy. The only decent hotels we had were in Switzerland. I think this was the only place where our accommodation was close to the city and we had good hotels. On a positive note the bus was very comfortable and our driver was excellent.

Like lots of other people, this was the first time I had booked a tour using the internet. I was very impressed with the service that I received. Firstly I would like to thank Global Journeys, especially Georgina Walpole for the professional job she provided. Any of my concerns or questions were solved promptly, and now I feel that booking though the ...read more internet is safe and reliable, saving a lots of my time going to a Travel Agency. (Ed. Thanks Van, that's exactly what we are trying to do, provide more choice and flexibility). Now about the tour, it was extremely good, the driver Antony was a very good driver, calm, polite, helpful and drove very safely. My tour guide Alex had very good knowledge about all the places that we went, helping people whenever they needed. All the hotels were excellent. The only thing I didn't like much was the pace - most of the days we had to wake up early. I understand that if we didn't, we wouldn't have enough time to visit some of the very good places during the day. Overall I liked the tour very much and I'd recommend to anybody wanting to have a very good holiday in Europe. Book this tour! Thank you again!

I loved it...every aspect of my holiday went very smoothly. I am going to South America next year and will book through Global Journeys again without any hesitation. As I travelled alone for the first time there was a little bit of apprehension but it was great. Will travel solo again - in fact I preferred it. Met some really nice interesting people ...read more (fellow travellers) and our driver and tour leader, Mariella, were excellent even though some of the people were a trifle difficult at times. Having said that it didn't detract from the enjoyment of my holiday. Thank you for everything.

I had a great time touring Europe and will book a tour with Global Journeys again. Many thanks for organizing a wonderful holiday.

The tour was fast paced and that was a good thing however sometimes 'Less is More'. If we cut out a couple of minor towns we could have had a look at one or two castles from the inside instead of from about a kilometer away. Hotels varied and so did tour guides. Occasionally we were treated like sheep and spoken about in the third person in front of ...read more us. One such guide took us through St Peters in Rome. What an express ride that was, no time to stop and look at the works of art leading into the Sistine Chapel. My biggest disappointment was in Florence where we were taken to a 'leather demonstration' that consisted of a person swiping some gilding tape across a piece of leather 3 times then the group taken into the sales area where we were kept for quite some time. When I got out I made my way straight back to the Basilica where Galileo and Micheal Angelo's tombs were but the church closed at 5.00pm so I didn't even get to poke my head in. We saw the Eiffel Tower from afar but did not even get to stand under this magnificent structure. It was good to have company and the tour operator was knowledgeable but all the way along there were obvious contrasts. Instead of Moulin Rouge we went to a poorer sister, dinners that promised lots but really only stopped shy of false advertising. An example being the desert at the restaurant excursion in Lucerne and many other things that made me feel like a burger pattie on a fast food processing line.

The tour was great. My wife gave it a 12 out of 10. Not bad! We would have liked to spend more time at some of the places but there is not a lot one can do in 16 days. It was very informative, excellent company and the tour director was incredibly knowledgeable and helpful. she was ideal. The driver got us through it safely and that is a real plus.