I took two back-to-back Contiki tours in the summer of 1999. The first tour was of England, Scotland and Wales, beginning in London, and lasting eleven days. The second tour continued from Wales for five days in Ireland.

General

Contiki tours are recommended for 18-35 year olds. On my tours we did have a 16 year old traveling on his own, but nearly everyone else was over 21, up to a 35 year old. Most of my fellow travelers were Australian and Canadian, though Americans had a good contingent, especially on the Ireland leg of the tour. The majority of American travelers were new college graduates on a big trip after graduation. We also had a couple of people from South Africa, one from Israel, two from China, one German, and a New Zealander. One of the best aspects of taking a Contiki tour is that one can travel “alone” but it’s easy to make friends in the group and one has the opportunity to meet a variety of people.

Since I was traveling on my own, I liked having the structure of a tour and other people in the same kind of situation. More people on my two tours did not know anyone else prior to the trip. The England-Scotland-Wales tour had a little over 20 people on it--plenty of room on the bus to stretch out but enough people for flexibility. Our group in Ireland had about 50 people so the bus was a tad more crowded, but still fun. I didn’t hang out with the same people day after day, but usually hooked up with one or two others who wanted to see the same sites that I wanted to visit.

Reservations and Administrative Details

I reserved my tour through the travel service provided by my credit card. I’m rather glad that I did this and did not have to deal with Contiki directly since my travel service had all the headaches. At the time I was living on Okinawa. I planned to fly back to the US for my high school reunion, then fly out of San Francisco to London. I had friends living in London and planned to stay with them a few days on either end of my tour before flying back to San Francisco and then to Okinawa (much cheaper to do two round trip tickets than to try to fly to London from Okinawa).

I originally signed up for a tour leaving on 16 June, but that tour was not filled and all the participants were moved to a tour beginning 19 June. Fortunately, I had left plenty of padding on my flights to spend with my friends in London so this did not affect me adversely. Anyone who also booked their flights through Contiki were fine as well. A couple of people had used frequent flyer miles or booked their flights independently and then had to pay the $75 change fee to move their flights since the tour days changed. You might get a better deal from booking your flights independently, but the tours are subject to change and Contiki will not reimburse change fees if you go that route.

I left Okinawa 10 days before my tour started. My vouchers and packet from Contiki had not arrived by the time I departed for my high school reunion. Without the vouchers, I wouldn’t be able to get on the bus in London to depart for the tour. I called my travel service and they worked everything out with Contiki, and I was faxed a copy of my vouchers to present. I would have liked to have gotten the tour description and the options beforehand, but did not. The Contiki backpack was too small and pretty much useless, so I’m glad I took my own anyway.

The Tour

The tour guide and the bus driver work exceptionally hard to make the tour fun for everyone. There’s a lot of bluster about being late for getting on the bus in the mornings or when we’re leaving a site, but they never left anyone behind.

As we rolled out from whatever hotel we stayed in, the tour guide started the “wake up song.” Ours was something sung by Robbie Williams that at first annoyed me, but it had grown on me by the end of the trip. While we got on the bus, everyone put their secret admirer note into the hat. Once we got going, Dave, our guide, would read through the notes. We played this game every day during the England-Scotland-Wales tour; everyone had a secret admirer and received a note with clues (or not) as to the identity. Some of the notes were fairly creative and it was fun to figure out our own admirers as well as those of other people on the tour. The game ended on our last night in Wales when all secret admirers were revealed.

Our tour guide usually gave us a run down on the history of the next place we were visiting that day. When we arrived at Hadrian’s Wall, everyone had a rudimentary knowledge of the Roman influence on ancient Britain, and we scrambled up to sound a gigantic Yawp (thanks, Walt) off the wall before having a picnic lunch. On another day we stopped briefly for a heather-roll in the Scottish countryside.

We played trivia every day of the England-Scotland-Wales tour, divided into teams by the side of the bus we sat on. We also played a game called 9 of Diamonds, tied into the massacre of the Scots at Culloden. The night before we arrived in Gretna Green we had Hens and Bucks parties (bachelor/bachelorette parties) at the pubs in Fort William and at Gretna Green, a blacksmith “married” two of our two group. We also had various limerick and joke contests.

(The winning limerick:
There once was a tour called Contiki
Whose tour guide was rather freaky
He's in such a rush,
Before you get on the bus,
Make sure you've taken a leak-y.)

Our tour guide and bus driver played an enormous practical joke on our group; we got them back and everyone had a lot of fun, despite the large amounts of time we spent on the bus driving between destinations. Britain also had requirements that the driver had to rest for a specified amount of time every two and a half hours so we’d usually stop somewhere to buy a snack and stretch our legs. I didn’t mind all the driving because the countryside was scenic. Most people, especially those in the bar every night, slept on the longer stretches of the trip.

The structure of tour was extremely good. We didn’t seem to spend too long a time or too little at any one place, with the exception of London. We had a driving city tour on the first day before heading off to Bath. I had already been exploring London since I had a few days in the city before the tour began, but most others did not. We spent three days in Edinburgh, two and a half in Dublin, two days in the Lake Country, and just one night and a day in 13 other places. I could have spent another hour at Warwick Castle, but we had about four hours to explore the buildings and grounds. In the cities we were pretty much on our own for the day which gave me the opportunity to see museums or sites I was particularly interested in.

Cost

My two tours cost $1600 combined, not including my flights. I was able to weasel out of paying the medical insurance since I’m in the US military and entitled to free health care at overseas bases. The tours include lodging from the night before the tour starts until the last day when the tour returns to its city of origin (in our case, London). The tour also includes breakfast every day and about half the dinners, especially on days when we’re traveling right up until dinnertime. I usually bought lunch at a bakery, which was fairly cheap, and I took most of the options that included dinner meals as well.

The options are one way to save money if you are on a budget. Many parts of the tour are included, such as admission to various sites. Some parts of the tour are optional. I took almost all the options available because I had budgeted plenty of spending money for the trip. A couple of the options included meals, such as the evening we went to Coomb Abbey for a very amusing dinner (no silverware) provided with an entertaining historical lesson about the Abbey as it moved through the Reformation. Another of the options was a “gorge scramble” in the Lake Country; I passed on the rappelling since I’d done that with the Army for free. One option consisted of admission to Kidwelly Castle in Wales, taken by most of us because there was nothing else to do before we caught the ferry for Ireland. An option I should have passed on was the boat ride across a loch in Scotland. The best option was the ghostwalk in York--terribly interesting and quite scary.

Everyone has a roommate unless they pay several hundred dollars extra. I had two different roommates, an American college student for the England part of the tour, and a South African horticulturist for the Ireland leg. I experienced no problems. A couple of women had difficulties the first night because a smoker was put in with a non-smoker, but the tour guide rearranged a few people and everyone was satisfied after that.

I also bought the T-shirt offered for each tour, which we designed ourselves, and bought the “wedding picture” of our group at Gretna Green as souvenirs. It’s also considered appropriate to tip both the driver and the tour guide at the end of the tour.

Overall

Although arranging the tour was a bit of a hassle, and since Contiki tends to move their tours around and doesn’t send out the vouchers far enough in advance, I’m glad I used my travel service. I’m fond of group tours because it lowers the overall cost for everyone on the tour and provides a structure for people like me who don’t want to wander totally on their own, as well as a variety of people with whom to wander about. The tour itself was well worth the inconveniences of arranging it: despite traveling “alone,” I had a wonderful time, I made some great friends, and I saw all the places I’d always wanted to see in the British Isles.


Recommended: Yes

Best Suited For: Singles
Tour format: Bus
Tour length: Over a Week
Tour type: Group