WHICH ONE IS BETTER?? Traveling with family of 6 with teens! Which is the better value and how are hotels and such? Thanks for any info avail!

We've taken Globus and Trafalger tours and haven't found much difference. The Globus are a bit higher priced, and included some things that Trafalger sells as an optional extra. I heard that Insight is a bit downscale from the other two.

I'd look at the length, the routes, the cost and the activities along the way to make the decision.

Walt C

I chose Globus because, even though it's more expensive, it goes to where I want to go, hits more places that I'm interested in, and is the length that I am looking for.

Cosmos (the cheaper end of Globus) has almost identical itineraries to Globus, but is much cheaper (due to staying in less quality hotels and places that are not in the center of the city). .

If cost and hotel quality don't matter, I would go with the one that holds the most interest for the most amount of people in your group. Also, I believe most of these tours offer some sort of discount for groups of 6 or more. If it isn't posted, you can ask and I'm sure something is available.

I haven't been on Trafalgar myself, but I have heard that Trafalgar is much faster pace and sometimes the hotels aren't that great or in good locations. Depending on how much time you want to spend at each site, this could make the decision for you.

Actually Insight is more upscale than Trafalgar as they have more centrally located hotels and a little beyyer quality of meals. I have traveled with Trafalgar five times, and Insight once and booked Globus this year just to try them but they cancelled that particular tour date for lack of enough people. Unfortunately I had been planning for fifty years to some day celebrate my birthday on Bastille Day in Paris. The reason I picked Globus was because the other two did not have an itineary that would have me in Paris on that day. I also had made dinner reservations in the Eiffel Tower for that night. Then the cancellation came. Fortunately they refunded my money totally.

We took the Cosmos tour and on several occasions the Trafalger tours stayed at the same hotel as us. They paid a lot more for their tour, they did have more nights in hotels closer to the city centers, but not all. I would go with Globus over Trafalger , but I also like the Budget Cosmos tours.

ALL MUCH THE SAME IT DEPENDS ON THE TOUR GUIDE

Thjs was a fabulous tour. We really felt we had seen the treasures of Italy. Our guide Allessandra was great: witty, charming, intelligent and very informative. The driver could not have been better. Hotels were all central and excellent, with the exception of Florence ( a Sheraton Hotel too far from the city centre). . We did a lot of walking and climbing, the hill towns of Tuscany were so lovely. The Venice lagoon cruise and dinner in Burano was my favorite optional excursion because Burano is delightful with it's vibrantly painted buildings, and the seafood dinner was excellent. The Tuscan dinner was also wonderful.
The one thing I would do differently is skip out of the tour to the leather shop in Florence so I could have more time to tour the city. I also wished I had pre-booked an afternoon time to tour the Uffizzi Gallery before I left home. It would have been much cheaper than the Globus one. So in the end, I missed it. But, all considered, we saw so many beautiful places.

Make a good comparison of the "included" costs. Those optionals can add up fast. We've always found Insight was more for your money.

I just returned from Globus Tours "Best of Italy & France." Last summer I went on a tour with Insight thru England , Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and France. There is no comparison - Insight wins hands down. Globus was about money, money, money --optionals, tips, pictures. Examples: Globus had a photographer take a group picture and tried to sell it to us for 12 euros; Insight's guide took our cameras and took as many group photos as we wanted for FREE. On Globus our guide did not feel we tipped a local guide enough and sent a paper around the bus to find out why. In Paris, Insight included a nighttime cruise down the Seine, Globus did not. Altho promised in the brouchure Globus did not offer the optional tour of Versailles. Both had stops at commercial places with the only reason being to sell us something - Globus had more. Our Globus guide told us how much we should tip him and our driver several times. What really upset our Globus group were 2 optional restaurants that we really terrible. AND 3 times our bus dropped us off to tour and then told us we had to find our own way back to the hotel which was at least a mile from the site - this really upset some of the older Globus tour members. Always say something good - the Globus hotels were incredible.

[quote="traveler04"]WHICH ONE IS BETTER?? Traveling with family of 6 with teens! Which is the better value and how are hotels and such? Thanks for any info avail![/quote]

I notice a year has passed since your post-We are in the same situation,family of 6 with teens-looking at a Winter European tour with Insight,Globus or Trafalgar. Can you or anyone else give an updated answer on which ?