European Discoverer Reviews

I stumbled upon Global Journeys' website and from start to finish Hannah at Global Journeys was great! I had a few questions with organising tours (a wish list which didn't pan out due to dates) but ended up doing the main Trafalgar tour. Thanks Hannah for your time and patience and for the info I requested been pretty much sent straight away. Hannah, ...read more I've got your email so next time I'm travelling I am gonna bombard you with all my queries, you shouldn't have been so good at your job :). The booking process was straight forward and travel documents were issued when Hannah advised so everything ran smoothly from the time I contacted Hannah until the time I received all the documents I needed. Thanks!

The Tour was great (seen some new sites and revisited the best of the cities I'd seen before on very similar Contiki tour), great value for money, with an excellent range of activities (we were blessed with the weather gods on a number of occasions which added to overall atmosphere of the tour which is rare at the time of year I travelled in - it is usually fog or low cloud in some areas). Recommendation - do the Seine Cruise at Night it is great but stay on the top deck for the best views. If the weather is great, Eagle's Nest is a great visit as is the Lucerne lake and mountain tour and do the Athens dinner even if just for the food. A great way to travel via coach with a great range of stops between sites for the all important tourist road side stop. However, though you do get over the ferry trips pretty quickly) and I recommend the 3 day cruise option (even if just for the genuine Turkish rugs in Ephesus (the prices appear high but a lot less than in Aus (but read quality!!!) and you get to walk on the rugs barefoot and please avoid the bazaar near the port - you won't have money for the rest of the trip as I found out :) The food was great on the optional dinners particularly in Athens and in Rome as well as onboard the 3 day cruise. Breakfast is of course standard in all the hotels but by halfway an Austrian/German breakfast is really something to look forward to. Again the hotel dinners are pretty good especially in Austria and Germany. A must do is the cruise and lunch at Burano (one of the islands of Venice), I have had some great lunches but seriously this was right up there. A great little restaurant on a great little island. If I was back in Venice, this I would go to revisit just for lunch and to walk it off, especially near sunset. On the option as you come back in from Burano in October you get a sunset over the island of Venice - it's pretty good. Accommodation for the best part of the tour was very good, though the Apoge in Paris is a let down and doesn't actually kick of the tour really well - having said this the accommodation thereafter improves greatly. Though Wifi in the hotels is ok just not really up to Skype home standard so pack the mobile with an international sim which I did and found it more effective.

Let downs: Amsterdam only 1 night which really only means approx 4 to 5 hours to see the city and even less if you take the last night of tour cruise and dinner (though this is great for obvious reasons). Madrid for me wasn't as interesting as I expected but I was spoilt by Barcelona on this and last time so I guess that cancels out. The showers on the ferries - you will just have to see to believe trust me on this one (though this could be a positive depending on your sense of humour). Venice and Rome, wish for more time, a full day to explore is really needed but this tour sadly doesn't give enough time but again is subjective to each person. There are quite a few optional tours really worth doing and some that can be passed by for more time to sleep in or just to explore the city you're in. Check them all out and make the call, you can add to them whilst on tour if you change your mind.

Final Recommendation - A great tour to see a very wide expanse of Europe with a fair amount of time to see the major cities to give you the information to come back and see in more detail what cities impressed the most. Days on the coach can be long (which is why I recommended WIFI on the coach to Trafalgar to pass the time only so many onboard quizzes) particulary Madrid to Barcelona effectively west to east coast. Some very great tour options, seriously do the 3 day island cruise it is worth it... and the food is pretty good in places ( the dinner in Austria is very unique, it's very hard to explain in that it is unexpected but it works but is also completely eclectic in its nature including the bathrooms.... Enough said :) You gotta see it... seriously. If you can do the tour it is worth living out of a suitcase for 4 weeks and also bring heaps of smalls (laundry is very limited due to transit times).