I just got married on August 14th and my wife and I have booked the Globus Tour "essential Europe". .

We are leaving on September 13th.

I have a few questions for anyone who has been on this trip.

1) What did you think of the pace? Being our honeymoon we were looking for a leisurely pace and discovered after we booked the trip it was a tad more lively than that. The question we have, is just how lively?

2) How was the leg room on the bus? Both of us are tall (Lisa is 5' 9" and I am 6' 4") and Lisa who went on an Insight Vacations tour (Country Roads of Southern Italy and Sicily) was commenting on how much leg room was on the bus. The thing is though, we are wondering if the Globus tour busses are similar and if we can expect the same leg room.

3) Were there any couples on their honeymoon when you went and did they receive anything above what the tour would normally offer. (Hey what can I say, one only gets one honeymoon, we want to be spoiled. )

4) What are the optional tours like? Did you go on any of them? What are good ones to go on/avoid?

5) How much free time can we expect to go off and explore on our own?

6) How many hours can we expect to be on the bus per day and when do the days get started (how early will we have to be up)?

Thank you in advance for answering. We really appreciate it.

Shine on!

I'm wondering if maybe I asked too many questions.

If anyone has anything to offer on even one or two of them that would be appreciated. Especially question(s) #1 and #2.

I haven't done that tour, but I did do the Continental Introduction tour. The leg room on the coach is okay. I know we had one gentleman who was about 6'7 and was fine.

We ran into a group that was on the Essential Europe tour in Lucurne and shared an optional trip (Lake Lucurene Cruise) with them. The pace is quick, but the idea behind both of these tours is to get a feel for the areas you might like to go back to. We saw all the important stuff, and still had time for shopping and eating. Let me know if you have any questions, since my trip covered the same cities!

Lori
kybsbfan@aol.com

Thank you so much!

We appreciate the reply and the invitation to contact you if we had any more questions, that's great.

I was beginning to think the newbie asked too many questions with all these views and no replies.

Everyone knows me on this site as I have done quite a bit of posting and asking questions.. .. .. .. .. .. ..People on the site are great ( [b]although right now it seems like the board is not working)[/b] I am going on my first Glous trip tomorrow and will be abroad just over 3 weeks, and I have done alot of research and talk with many people and emailed back and forth for months!!!

I can only tell you this from what I have researched, when you are on the tour, and lets say the whole bus is going to a specific site for the morning, then the afternoon is your leisure, you do not have to go to the site if you do not wish, you can just tell the TD that today you are taking some time for yourselfs. BUT, then do you really want to miss seeing the sites. It sounds like it is well balanced and you will have free time to yourselfs. You can even just go to the local suprmarket, get some wine, cheese and bread and have a romantic dinner on your terrace of your hotel room - speaking of which - make sure you pack a few candles

Fortuna Buona

we went on the tour in june 2004 it is not relaxing.. .. .. .. ..but there is plenty of time to be on your own.. .. .. ..just don't do the optionals.. . sit on the right side of the bus more leg room because of bathroom . .. .. ..be as close to the front as possible when you start out because you more 2 seats back each day,,,,,,

hi me again.. .. ..had to take son to football pratice..so sent without checking sorry for typo,move is the correct word..back to your questions.. ..since this was my second glosbus tour in 3 years.. ..I have their system down pretty well..about honeymooning couples it would have to be up to your guide they basically run the tour in other words they pick the resturants for the included meals and the optional tours, dinners etc.. ..so you would have to tell them and they would pass it on to the resturant help.
Here are some heads up for you.. ..hotels have very small rooms.
Rome.. ..you will probably see the pope his audicance is on wed. take the dinner optional if it goes to trevi fountain and spanish steps.
Florence.. ..miss the included dinner eat dinner in the square and just spend the evening strolling this beautiful city.
Venice.. .. ..before leaving st. marc's give the tour guide your "whispers" and leave the tour . ..stay in the church this way you do not have to wait in line to go back in.. .. .(groups always get prority entrance) then pay I think it was 3e
to go up on the 2nd floor great view of the square..small museum.. .. ..then go to the bell tour 6-7e the view of Venice is breath taking from the top.Then stroll venice on your own and take a private gondola ride it is anywhere from 60-80e depending on how long and what you negotiate..but well worth being on your own.. .
Lucerne.. ..take the whole day off..it will be Sunday and not many stores are open but walk the city..be ready for sticker shock..italy is much less expensive.
Paris.. ..take an illumination tour you must see the city at night, if it is offered do the Moulin Rouge I have gone when it has been offer on tours and this time it was well worth it.. ..we had excellent seats.
London.. . might want to wait tell you arrive to pick optionals, your guide leaves you here and you are on your own.. .. . big globus office in hilton. Lion King theatre is beautiful dinner is ummy.. .. ..seats great.. .
Thames dinner and river tour great see big ben from the water.. ..beautiful sunset.

Don't feel bad about missing included dinners, they are not much so don't rush back to make a meal.

Essssential Europe was much less rushed then my first tour with Globus which was London to Athens, The reason being on this tour you arrive in the cities in the afternoon giving you an evening, our other tour you arrived the evening before, then got up the next morning to tour the city and then left in the afternoon leaving less time or opportunity to leave the group.

Have a wonderful time. Both times I have gone with globus it has been in June (celebrating graduation from 8th grade) average age is about 40-50
we will be taking globus again when our last child graduates in 2 years.

We went on the From the Thames to the Tiber tour in June. After reading your route for Essential Europe, my question of how the bus gets back to the English Channel was answered. Your tour seems to be the reverse of ours.

2) Leg room. There is more room than in an airplane. My husband and I had plenty of room but we are not as tall as you. However, out of curiousity, I asked a tall/big man on our bus what he thought about the seats. He thought it was a bit tight. There is an adjustment on your seat where it can move towards the aisle a little bit and that might help a little. I didn't notice it until I saw someone use it. I think you'll be OK though.

Our group moved in a counterclockwise direction - if we were on the left, we moved back and if we were on the right, we moved forward. This seems to vary from tour to tour.

3) There weren't any honeymooners in our group. One couple that we talked to had been on a Globus tour on their honeymoon - but that was a previous trip. We were traveling in June/July and that draws more families. I asked our tour guide about it and he said that the average age of a Globus tourist is 56 and that you seldom see any children in the spring and fall. However the summers draw a lot of families. Our group was about half families and half couples.


4) By and large, we did not do the optional tours. Instead we did things on our own. You might prefer to do that sometimes too so that you'd have more free time and more time alone. We did boat rides on the Thames, the Seine, and Lake Lucerne on our own. We only did two optionals (both in Rome) - but I think we were the exception rather than the rule.

5) Your free time depends a lot on how many optionals you take. If you take every optional, you won't have a whole lot of free time. But of course, you don't have to take them all.

6) When you get your tour booklet, there will be a little map that shows your cities and also tells how far the distances are. Our longest travel day was 406 miles/650 kilometers. I didn't think the bus time was bad. They usually stopped every few hours. The stop was usually a rest area/restaurant/convenient mart type spot.

The travel days are usually pretty early. It seems like we usually had to have our luggage out by 6:15 to leave at maybe 8 AM? However since there is such a time change from here to there, it is all relative.

Debbie

WOW!

Thanks for the great responses everyone. These are very helpful.

We took the tour a month ago. There were two couples on their honeymoon with us (29 was the total number in the group). . Expect the first couple of days to do a lot of walking. After that, the tour settles down to a much more leisurely pace. We thought (our opinion) that we had enough time to explore on our own if we chose to do so. Just the fact you don't have the worries of transportation, meals, luggage handling, etc. is a big plus.

[quote="mike"]We took the tour a month ago. There were two couples on their honeymoon with us (29 was the total number in the group). .[/quote]

Do you know if they were given rooms with one bed as opposed to 2 doubles? In other words, not given "special treatment" per se, but certain allowances being made for them especially in room allocation etc.?

If you haven't asked for and paid for "extras" don't expect them. The TD is there to do a job, but may mention on faxes to hotels that you are on honeymoon. Worst they can do to you is have the entertainment sing for you at one of the optional dinners.

LOL!

No thanks, I don't even like "Happy Birthday" sung to me.

If we can pay a little extra to get our rooms with a queen size bed, so be it. $$$ isn't so much the issue with us and because of that, the extras don't have to be free, I am just wanting to ensure changes CAN be made.

TD's have absolutely no control over the allocation of hotel rooms. That is down to the hotel management. As you have already paid for your trip, you may find it difficult to add on extras at this stage.

Talk with your TD when the tour begins and more than likely they will be able to EASILY accomadate your request for a Queen size bed instead of Double beds. You see almost every tour books the rooms with double beds to accomadate the varied needs of the tour group and that leaves a fair amount of rooms with a Queen size bed unbooked/empty and believe me the Hotel will be happy to give You a room with a Queen therefore freeing up a Double room for a non tour guest (hope this makes sense lol). . On our last tour the ones who paid the "Single Supplement" were given rooms with Queen Beds in order to save/use the Double bed rooms for others, so they (Hotel & Tour) should/will have No Problem putting the 2 of you in a room they have been putting just 1 person in and at NO extra cost too. Just Ask and I think things will work out great for you. Have FUN you Lucky dude