Hello,

I am interested in booking a tour called "Essential Europe" with the tour company Globus. Anybody who has previously done the tour and wouldn't mind sharing their experiences please do! It will be greatly appreciated

Thanks,

Sarah

My family did the tour in June 2004 and we had a wonderful time. I really like the way it was set up compared to another Globus tour we had done. With this tour you arrive in the cities midafternoon and then spend the night rather than arriving the night before and leaving the city the next day. What this enabled you to do was leave the group and do your own thing and if you missed the transprotation no big deal you knew where your hotel was.

We are booked for this Tour which begins September 4 so I am also interested in replies to your request for information.

A lot of people don't realize this, but this bulletin board has a search function. It is about the messages and to the right (FAQ SEARCH MEMBERLIST etc.)

Click on search and then you can enter some key words to find old posts about a certain tour.

I looked up the Essential Europe since the name sounded familiar. It is a shortened version and the reverse of a tour that I went on called From the Thames to the Tiber. We did the same cities but started in London and ended in Rome. Also our tour was a few days longer so we had 3 nights rather than 2 in the major cities.

I might be able to answer some basic questions about the tour since it is similar.

Debbie

We took this tour this past May and had the time of our lives! I would recommend to arrive in Rome 2 days before the start of the tour. The best thing we ever did!

Cindi

Hello Debbie or Cindi. My wife and I are considering the Brendan/Globus "From the Thames to the Tiber" tour in May 2006. I have read mixed reviews on the various hotels we will be staying at on this tour - what were they like for you? In addition, we are both nonsmokers, and my wife has asthma, so one of our concerns is getting nonsmoking hotel rooms and how smoke-free the hotel restaurants and tour bus travel on the continent is. Could you help us with your advice/opinions, please!

I answered most of the questions in another post. I forgot to mention about the hotel restaurants. I don't recall having any problems with smoke.

Here is one amazing happening. I don't like smoke and am kind of a picky eater. On our last night in Paris, we were walking down Rue Cler near the Eiffel Tower (within walking distance of hotel). . We were looking for somewhere to eat and having trouble deciding. We were standing in front of a restaurant trying to decide when the owner (?) motioned us to come in. I somehow let him know that I was concerned about smoke. He told us we could go into their back eating area and he would make it non smoking for us!

People say that the French don't like Americans and are rude but that was not our experience at all. I knew a little French (mostly forgotten from high school), so tried to communicate in that. Most people when they know that are willing to try will switch to English for you. Their English is certainly better than my French. I think the problem that some people have is when we expect them to know English and don't try at all.

One tip that I have is to make a list of common phrases in the languages where you'll be visit. Then you can say "Hello" or "Excuse me" and "where is" and point to the name in your tour guide. Usuallly they will list them in both languages. Then the person can point if nothing else and you can reply with a "thank you."

This past year, a friend and I went to Central Europe. I knew a little German (less than my French and that is not saying much) and knew there was no hope of learning the languages of Prague or Budapest etc. This method worked very well for us.

Debbie

More about hotels. When we did the Thames to the Tiber - there were three of us as we took our son. Because of that, we had triples which had three single beds.

London hotel - the room was quite small but OK. It was within walking distance of Kensington Gardens and Speakers Corner. Handy to subway.

Paris hotel - Outside our window, we could see a tiny part of the Eiffel Tower! How cool was that. Only a few blocks to the Eiffel Tower, walking distance to Rue Cler. We also walked to the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs d'Elysees but it was a bit of a trek. It was near the subway and easy to get the train (which we took on our own to Versailles). .

Lucerne hotel - Lucerne was a small town. The hotel had a gorgeous view of the lake and mountains. We walked to the downtown area. You didn't need public transportation in Lucerne.

Venice - We were not in what most people would call Venice - which is known as Old Venice. Instead we were in Mestre right outside it. The train station was across the street and we took it into Old Venice by ourselves the first night. We also used it to return the full day after the included tour and an afternoon on our own. I did some sightseeing around the hotel on my own. I've read that others thought it was a rough area. I thought it was "OK." I went to a grocery, bought perfume at a perfumerie, and bread at a bread store.

Florence - This hotel wasn't within walking distance of anything. However it was pretty cool. Our room was TWO stories. The stairs seemed like marble to us. Our bedroom area was up the stairs. Our son's bed was on the first floor. The windows must have be 12 feet tall.

Rome - Hotel was fine too. We walked to the Spanish Steps, Trevi fountain, etc. Actually we walked a lot of places in Rome and never took time to figure out the public transportation. Rome was trickier to us than the other cities since we knew no Italian.

The guide always took care of getting the room keys and giving them to us. I thought there were good places to stay.

Actually if I ever go back on my own, I might use Globus catalogs to get an idea of where to stay. When I was trying to figure it out on my own (before we decided to go for the tour), I had no idea of where would be a safe, decent, and convenient place to stay.

Debbie