Hi everyone

Has anyone been on either The Popular, Old World Classics or Continental Introduction tours lately? Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I've been on The Popular several years ago but looking at the current iten. it's still the same. Anyway, it was a very long trip 17 days and very fast pace. We were at a new hotel every night, got to pack and unpack everyday. Not much free time on each city. But we covered a lot of distance and saw a lot, been to places I wouldn't able to do it on my own easily. It was a good introduction to Europe and give you indea on each city. Then you can decide which city you want to come back to explore on your own. We were exhausted by the end of the trip and need some time off to recover.

Have just come back from Old World classic. It was awesome. But I think any less days would be a bit short and fast-passed, any more would be getting really tiring. All the towns we stayed at were great, except for Naples which I didn't like at all. I would recommend you just make a decision based on which places you think you would most like to see. Everything is so different so home (although I am from New Zealand I'm sure it's really different to anywhere!). . We loved it all, although the German towns were probably the least friendly especially Cologne. The Italian outings were great, really fun with live music. All the little places were quaint and out of this world, with little cobblestoned streets winding around the place. took way too many photos. Assissi was our favourite. But Rome, Venice, Paris - all awesome! You will not regret it one bit. Just try to get the tour that best suits you. And make sure you take a half-full attitude - we had a great time but a couple of people on our tour winged at things noone could control like weather or crashes on the motorway! If you don't expect absolute perfection you will be utterly amazed at how perfect your holiday is! Happy hunting!

Thanks for that Kiwi,

Do you get much free time on this tour "Old World Classics"? We are really interested in Florence and wonder if we could give the leather demo a miss and have a look at a couple of things ourselves, do you think this is feasible?

Well, not much free time I'm sad to say. A lot of the trip is actually the bus part, because of the scenery and the fact that you have to travel about 400km most days. Personally I enjoyed the scenery. But unless you stay 2 nights you don't have a lot of time to do a lot on your own. Florence was very pretty. as most of the towns were. However you will firstly have a local guide to the Academy of fine arts. See David and some other statues up close. Was very interesting. Then the guide takes you on a walk through to the town square (every town has one!), and shows off the cathedral etc from the outside, and maybe the inside if the lines aren't too long. Once again very interesting inside. This took about an hour. The visit to the leather place can be skipped if you are very sneaky, but your director will certainly steer you that way. We were a small group and only spent about 10 minutes in there. We then had about 2 hours to browse the town before being taken off to our hotel. However, I must add that there was a huge pileup on the motorway and we were delayed by about 2 hours, so we may well have had more time if that hadn't happened. Our director seemed to pick 2 hours as a good time though, as she said there will be some who only want 1/2 an hour and some who want a whole day. You could choose to stay longer and get a taxi to the hotel, or even stay out and not have the provided dinner (which I don't think was memorable). . We walked to the old bridge there, which my husband particularly wanted to see as it's been covered with shops selling gold for hundreds of years. Don't know the spelling, but Pont de Veccio is how it sounds. They also sold great icecream for 5Euros a couple of streets back from the square. To tell you the truth Florence doesn't stand out in my memory, it was just another beautiful interesting town! Each was different, and all worth seeing, but I just can't remember anything special about it - if you know what I mean. If you arrived early enough I think it would be really worth while staying on and getting a taxi back to the hotel if you are particularly wanting to see Florence. Otherwise assume you will have about 2 hours free time.

We didn't go on the same tours that you mentioned, but our time in Florence was similar. We only had one night there and it was not in an area handy for public transportation.

When we had the couple of hours at the leather shop, we hoofed it over to the Bargello and toured it instead. It is a sculpture museum.

There is another famous art museum in Florence and we might have been able to see it instead. However it might be one of those places that is hard to get into because of the crowds.

In any case, you can certainly go off on your own during the time at the leather shop. We stayed for the demonstration but, in retrospect, could have skipped that too. Just find out in advance from your tour guide where and when to meet.

I bought a purse in a stand in front of the leather shop and really like it.

Debbie