So this summer while I was over in Europe working I decided spur of the moment to book a last minute Contiki tour. For those who don’t know what Contiki is, it’s a group travel company for 18-35 year olds. They do tours in 50 countries from 2 to 55 days.
The tour I booked was European Discovery. It is 12 days and 7 countries. Even though I was only the tour for half of it because of last minute work changes, it was with out a doubt some of the most amazing experiences I have had in my life. My accounts of the bits I wasn’t there for are from talking to others on the tour.
Tour map
We had an awesome tour manager named Tony #contikitony who is and Australian Italian, he was great at dealing with everyone and was super knowledgeable about everywhere we went, while working behind the scenes to make sure goes to plan. And a super cool driver named Chris who got us everywhere safely and never ceased to make us laugh. The team you get looking after will be one of the biggest things that go toward making your tour an unforgettable one and this is something contiki do really well. They have great tour staff and great support staff.
Tony and Chris
The tour started in London at the Royal National hotel where you all get on the bus and head for Dover. I wasn’t there for this because I joined in Munich. But the first stop on the tour was Amsterdam and by all accounts from it was an amazing time. Lots of space cakes and joints and maybe even a sex show.
I Amsterdam
The next day it was off to St. Goar and the Rhine Valley. This was a beautiful and fairly chill place with some good partying.
Dinner in St Goar
Then it was off to Munich. I got in late that night, where I met some Canadians in the lobby bar on the tour. And in typical German style we drank a lot of beer and went for a random walk. The rest of the group throughout the day had been on a pretty cool bike tour through Munich and then to the Hofbrauhaus. Then the group kind of split up some people went to Kultfabrik, which is the party area of Munich and the other went swimming in the river.
The next morning we were up bright and early and hungover to head to Austria and an afternoon of some of the most beautiful areas I have ever been to, The Tyrol region of Austria. After a 4 hour drive (with no water, MY FAIL. If you are hungover bring water on the bus you will need it) we arrived at our optional, White Water Rafting. I cannot recommend this highly enough it was amazing, the water was ice cold which instantly removed my hangover and I had a nice big drink of it which helped. We headed off 9 to a raft plus the guide on our 14km(9 mile) ride down the river. This was hard work and you work up a sweat, which makes when you jump or fall in awesome. Our Scottish guide Dave was super funny even though he was taking the piss out of me for a dumb comment. This is definitely a must do.
Ready for rafting.
So then it was off to the Swarovski Crystal Museum. This was different, I mean very strange. I think it was worth doing for the experience but if you are tight on money this one isn’t a must do. The playground is fun though. Then we were off to our hotel and off for another optional, Schnappy train. You get on a train car pulled by a truck though the mountains to a house where they make schnapps. Where you can try some and have the opportunity to buy some. The best thing about this I thought wasn’t the schnapps but the view. It was rainy but the view was spectacular. Then it was back to the hotel for some dinner and quite a few drinks.
Morning time in the Austrian Tyrol
Up early again the next morning and it was off to venice. We arrived around 1 pm and got a boat into venice proper. It was hot and humid and we were hungover. It was a hard day. Venice is a cool city and I would love to go back. But we pushed though we went on a walking tour which was nice. Our guide was a woman who lives in Venice and she knew so much about the place. After the walking tour we had a bit of free time and we all brought masks to wear that evening. Then we had a Venetian dinner which was massive, seriously there was much food. We all had to wear our masks which was very funny. After dinner we went for a walk up the bell tower in Piazza San Marco with lovely views of Venice at sunset.
Masks in Venice
Back on dry land we headed for the hotel. Half the group went bowling that night and the other half stayed at the hotel and you guessed it got drunk.
A late start today for the drive down to rome, and yep we were hungover again. We stopped for lunch at a truck stop which not many people were very enthusiastic about. But by the time we arrived at the hotel and got ready for the walking tour around rome we were feeling a bit more human.
Rome walking tour
The walking tour was awesome, Tony our guide was really knowledgeable and did well in the 40 degree heat to keep up interested and entertained and alive for a couple of hours walking around rome, he even brought us gelato. We went to the Pantheon, Spanish steps, Trevi fountain and many amazing places. The walking tour ended at dinner in a Italian restaurant, it was a good meal all be it very warm in there, but we enjoyed ourselves.
Pantheon
Then it was back to the hotel for what ended up being possibly one of the biggest night of the tour. There as this nighclub thing at the hotel and we took that place over. We drank so much. Litre jugs of cocktails are a bad idea especially when you are having drinking competitions with them. We all danced and we had a lot of fun. I think everyone was wasted even our driver Chris, who had his night off as we didn’t have a drive day the next day was out with us. It was a great night.
The next morning we all got up feeling sorry for ourselves and trying to hide from the sunlight and caught the train into the Vatican where Maddie and I proceeded to immediately lose the group but a frantic run down the wrong street and we ran into them so all was well. The Vatican is beautiful, its so ornate and there is just so much history there. To look up at the Sistine Chapel and think how did they paint that, it was incredible.
Inside the Vatican
We then went and had the best pizza I have ever had at Alices Pizza near the Vatican, and Capuchin Crypt which is these chapels covered in bones and skeletons, it was a weird and interesting place.
Then it was off to the Colosseum for a walking tour. I was so hot and we were all still hungover, some of the group went home and some stayed. It was well worth it to stay and see the Colosseum. Its so cool to see that 2000 years on we still use similar design for venues.
Colosseum
Everyone kind of split up after the Colosseum. 8 of us went to find The Knights of Malta keyhole which if you look through you see St. Peters dome down a tree line street, its beautiful. Then we went and had a great meal down in Trastavere. Back at the hotel we had a quieter night. It was a good day all in all.
The next morning I was off back to Spain for work while the rest of the group was heading up to Florence. Everyone said Florence was beautiful. The Tuscan dinner was the best meal of the whole trip & the space disco is a great night from what I have been told.
Group Photo in Florence
With Florence done it was off to Lucerne. I wasn’t with the group but I have been there before. It is a beautiful city actually Switzerland is a beautiful country in general. The group went up the cable car to Mt. Stanterhorn and got caught in a storm. it was pretty epic.
Swiss alps
Up early again it was off to paris. A Parisian dinner and night tour around Paris and that was the second last day. The morning I rejoined and everyone went up the Eiffel Tower and to a perfume making demo. Then it was a free day. We all split up and did our own thing. I went to a few museums and we went to Napoleons tomb. Then we all met up at musee dorsay to get the bus back to the hotel. But it happened to be the day Tour De France was in town so no bus for us. Our TM got us all metro cards and we went back to the hotel on the metro.
Paris Collage
Then it was time for another massive night. We had a couple of hours to kill at the hotel, and while some decided to rest we may have been pregaming with jager bombs and shotgunning beers. Then it was off to a caberet show, this was interesting to say the least we had a lot of fun. After caberet we went to this irish bar that I think exists because of contiki as there were 3 tours there that night. And boy did we party. There were many shots and many drinks and what a night we had. When we finally left the bar most went to the hotel but a couple of us carried on all night and I cant totally remember what happened that night but boy I remember it being hilarious. Minoo and the shots, Mikey and the money, Reynae and the pizza. It was a crazy night.
Us being really drunk
Up the next morning and it was a sad one, the tour was over. We said our goodbyes and half the group stayed the other half got the bus back to London. We were a sorry bunch we were all pretty tired from the night before. I saw people sleep on that bus in positions I didn’t think were possible.
Everyone sleeping on the bus
When we got to Calias to get the boat back we had a 2 hour delay but we kept ourselves entertain podcasts, buying everything in vending machines general chaos it was ok. We finally got on the ferry for the roughest boat trip across the channel. And it was back to the royal national. We said goodbye to the rest of the group that wasn’t staying there and to Tony and Chris and that was it. The few that stayed we all went out for one last hoorah, but its wasn’t the same. The tour was over, it had been 12 days with 50 new friends and one hell of a time.
I would highly recommend this trip, it is a fast one with lots of single day stops but for a good overview of Western Europe its a great trip. The accommodation on this trip is hotels which was nice, they are all usually a little bit out of town but if you are splitting a cab with a couple of others it doesn’t work out too expensive to get back after a night out. It visits some great places for culture like Rome, Venice, Florence and Paris. Some really Beautiful places like Lucerne and the Austrian Tyrol. And some great places for partying like everywhere.
Thanks for reading! Any questions or comments leave them below and I will do my best to reply.
Luke
(Photo Credits: Emma, Tony, Matt, Annabel, Reynae, Me)
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