We are going on The Popular tour in September. For those of you who have been on this tour previously, which optional excursions would you take? Which optionals would you not take? Any advice is appreciated.

Hi, zeek. I went on this tour in September 2006. You'll have a great time. The optionals we took may be different than the ones your Tour Director will offer, as I think they make their own choices from the list. But here are the ones we took and prices we paid:

Volendam & Dutch Dinner ($65 US) - includes a visit to a 350 year old working windmill (makes for great photos here), a cheese factory (yummy stuff), a wooden shoe factory, and dinner in Volendam. The restaurant we went to was called Der Koe and was really good. There was time to stroll the village before leaving and see the beautiful ships in the harbor. This optional and the Dinner/Illumination Drive we did in Paris were my two favorites.

Mount Pilatus ($52 US) - we rode the cogwheel train up the mountain. Beautiful views across the mountains, but it was cloudy below so no scenery down the mountain. Trip down the mountain was via trams. But it was enjoyable any way.

Tyrolean Folklore ($38 US) - lots of fun with dancers and yodeling.

Gondola Serenade ($40 US) - Really enjoyed this in Venice mainly to get away from all the crowds around St. Mark's and the Doge's Palace.

Roman Highlights & Dinner ($67 US) - If you want to see Trevi Fountain, this is where you'll get that opportunity plus seeing the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps and some other things on the walking tour. Dinner was just OK in my opinion.

Versailles Palace ($66 US) - Spectacular, of course, but very crowded. They were doing construction in front of the Palace, so pics in front weren't gorgeous LOL. The Hall of Mirrors is being renovated, so part of it is blocked off. But, I enjoyed it any way. I wish the fountains had been going that day, but they weren't. Maybe time in the Louvre would have been the better choice.

Dinner & Illumination Drive in Paris ($68 US) - Worth it! Dinner was great. Our TD got us dinner reservations on the Left Bank just across the Seine from Notre Dame Cathedral. She took us early so that we would have time to make an inside visit to the Cathedral and then walk across to the restaurant. After dinner, we took a drive through Paris--the City of Lights--and wound up at the Eiffel Tower. Seeing the light show put on at the Tower was a spectacular way to end our tour.. ..it was our last night and truly was magical.

We didn't get to book anything while in London because they were all booked up by the time we asked. However, we struck out on our own and had no trouble at all navigating the Tube system. We made our way to the London Eye and found a tour that went down the Thames. You can easily do things on your own in London. I wanted to see Windsor Castle, but we couldn't get on a tour.. .. ..oh well.. ..next time.

We opted not to do the theater in London nor did we go do the Monte Carlo optional. These things didn't interest us very much. Rather than going to Monte Carlo, we walked down to the beach in Nice and had a great dinner outdoors at a beachside restaurant and watched the waves coming in.. ..ahhh.. ..bliss.

One more thing.. ..while in Holland try to find Stroopwaffle Cookies. They are chewy wafer thin cookies with cinnamon and caramel in the middle and are heaven on earth LOL.

Enjoy your trip! I know you will.

Zeek,

Do you happen to be on the Popular which starts on September 30? I am asking because we are on that one.

We leave in less than 3 weeks now and are really looking forward to it.

We were scheduled to leave on the September 18 trip. However, we had to cancel due to health problems. We intend to reschedule at a later date. Please fill me in when you return.

So sorry to hear that. I will try to post a report on our trip when we get back.

We returned from our tour on October 15, and as promised, here is a brief review.

First of all, let me say that we had the time of our lives. We would never have been able to see so much in such a short period if we had tried to plan this on our own. I would absolutely do business with Globus again because they delivered just what they promised.

We had an experienced tour director who kept everything running smoothly. Although this was our first tour experience, I can’t imagine that tour directors get any better than Gert.

As has been discussed before, this is a fast-paced tour with many one night stays and lots of walking. Toward the end, I think some of the folks were starting to wear down a little. For us, the one downside was that you don’t get to spend too much time in any one place. For example, you only get a couple of hours in the Louvre when it would take days or weeks to see it all. You just get the highlights. On the other hand, we have a better idea of the places where we would like to spend more time and can plan the next trip accordingly.

We had no real complaints about any of the hotels, 13 in all. They were a mix of modern and traditional and all were clean. When it comes right down to it, you don’t spend much time there anyway, so if you’re going on a tour like this, don’t fret too much about the accommodations. We found them all more than adequate.

The included meals varied in quality. I wouldn’t call any of them bad but some were better than others. As far as the breakfasts, as long as there is some type of bread or pastry and coffee I’m happy. But I learned to stay away from the eggs, which were always runny no matter where we were, and the bacon which was consistently undercooked.

We did all of the optional excursions which were offered except the evening cruise in London because we were just too jet-lagged at the time (the first day) and had already been to Windsor Castle. Rather than trying to review each excursion, I will say that we enjoyed them all and don’t regret spending the additional money on any of them. Personally, my favorites were Mt Pilatus in Switzerland and the Tower of London. My wife especially enjoyed the Moulin Rouge and the Vollendam fishing village in Holland.

I would be glad to answer any specific questions anyone would like to post.

dallison,

Thank you for the review. We expected the short time periods and the hectic pace.. .. . but, since it is our first trip to Europe, we want a broad introduction to the continent. We, hopefully, plan to return to specific locations in future years.

I do have two questions:
1) How did you cope with the laundry situation? Were laundries available?
2) Were ATMs plentiful? How much cash do you advise carrying?

I anticipate we will also take most of the optionals. Thanks!

Zeek

Zeek,

Many of the hotels do offer laundry service. However, you can really only use that if it’s one of the few hotels where you stay two nights. If you are only staying overnight you will be leaving early in the morning and they won’t be able to get your laundry back to you in time. Also, it’s pretty expensive. As our tour director jokingly told us, just throw out your dirty clothes and buy new ones, it will probably cost less.

We got around this by washing a few things out in the sink at each of the 2 night stops. We packed a lot of things that were polyester/cotton blends so that they dried more easily. In my case, I wore each pair of pants (khakis and jeans) for three days before I surrendered them to the dirty-clothes bag. There are no irons in any of the rooms, so try rolling your clothes when you pack them. It really does reduce the wrinkles.

As for ATMs, they were easy to find just about everywhere. I think I used about 3 of them and did not experience any trouble. Before the trip, I went to my bank and got 100 pounds and 200 Euros. The exchange rate may have been a little less advantageous but for us it was worth it to be able to hit the ground with some cash in our pockets.

The pounds lasted us for our 2 days in London, in fact we were trying to spend the last of them while waiting at Waterloo station to catch the Eurostar train to Brussels. After we ran out of the 200 Euros we made our first ATM visit in Innsbruck and withdrew 100 Euros. When that got down to 20 we withdrew another 100 and so forth. So we mostly carried between 20 and 100 Euros. We used the cash for food, small souvenirs etc. For any larger purchases we used our Master Card.

Hope this answers your questions. Let me know if you have more.

When we traveled in Europe last Fall, my wife was able to wash things out in the sink at the hotels, but that didn't work for me! Laudromats are hard to find in most cities but you have to ask. We finally found one in Venice, but it depends on how you want to spend your time! It was nice to have clean clothes but could have used the time sightseeing!

The sink in the hotel room works great and you can use the hair dryer to dry the underwear.

I have questions about optional tours.

How does one pay for those? Cash to the tour guide? Charged to credit card? Paid on site (visiting the Louvre for example). .

For the first couple of optionals in London, the Globus staff at the hotel billed our credit card for the optionals we took there.

After we departed from London, the tour the director passed around a list of optionals and we checked off the ones we wanted to take. Then later in the tour he took our credit card information and our card was billed after the tour was over.

I believe he said he would accept cash at a pre-determined exchange rate also, or any combination of cash and credit card.

Keep in mind, that taking all of the optionals leaves you very little time to explore on your own or with another couple.

thanks for your help with that. Now another question.

I've never taken an escorted tour so I'm still learning -- I'm thinking it's sort of like cruising in that you have a "base price" quoted but then you have tips, optionals, etc.

Would you say to budget about $100-$150 daily to cover meals, optionals, & tips? More or less?

Want to make sure I'm realistic about what to budget for this and want to make sure I have access to hard funds (like cash) when needed.

Do you only tip the tour director & bus driver? Or are local guides tipped as well? Guides at attractions?

Based on where hotels were located, did you find it relatively easy to navigate on foot to explore or was addtional transportation necessary?

Sorry so many questions, thanks for any help you can provide!

You will tip the bus driver and tour director on the last day of the tour. Globus will provide you with suggested guidelines in the materials they send out prior to your trip. Basically it amounts to 3 to 5 USD per day. As for the local guides, if they do a particularly good job you can tip them as you see fit, usually just a couple of Euros or pounds.

As far as how much cash to budget for, I guess that depends on your spending habits. We spent the equivalent of about 75.00 USD per day for lunches, snacks, drinks, postcards and small souveniers. Also, you sometimes need a few coins for public toilets. For any larger purchases we used a credit card. ATMs are readily available, so you don't need to carry too much cash on you at any one time.

Most of the hotels on our tour weren't within easy walking distance of many points of interests. There were a couple of exceptions such as the Hotel Maximillian in Innsbruck and the Grand Hotel Europe in Lucerne. We took just about all the optionals and they occupied most of our free time, so for us, no additional transportation was needed. If you don't take the optionals and want to explore on your own, you will have to rely on trains, buses or cabs.

Hope this information helps.

On second thought, I think the guideline for tipping the TD and driver is 5 to 8 USD per day, not 3 to 5 as I previously stated.

5 to 8 dollars per person per day is too much to tip.

I agree with Max, tipping $3.00 to $5.00 per day is fine. Don't forget to tip the coach driver too.