Things to Think About before Booking Your First Contiki Tour

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I did something I never really thought I would ever do: booked my very first Contiki trip.

Now, it’s not that I didn’t think I’d ever go on a group travel tour like this, it’s more that it hasn’t really crossed my mind to do one before. And I think that’s for a few reasons.

I’ve always been a big traveller, so have been overseas with family and friends all my life, thus nullifying the need to join a join
New Zealand is so far away, it’s trickier to just pop off on a tour
And I would have wanted to do it with someone else.

So when my friend moved to England and was booking some travel before she settled somewhere, she booked her first Contiki and the idea was planted: what if I went over to Europe and joined her? What would that look like?

And so, like anything I do, I thought about it for ages. It was running through my mind for a long time until something just clicked, and I decided that if I didn’t go and do this with her now, I’d probably not get the opportunity to a) go on Contiki with a friend and b) go on Contiki while still within the age range that you need be (18 – 35. And I’m 33 at the time of this Contiki).

I had to get a bunch of things in order first before putting down my deposit for the trip, and then I rang my travel agent and we looked at flights and suddenly it was all happening. I was booking my very first Contiki.

Things to think about before you go about booking your first Contiki tour

Before I took a deep breath and hit ‘submit’ on my deposit for Contiki, there was a lot that I thought about. Keep in mind that the Contiki tour I was doing was the European Adventurer, which is a 37-day one. That’s a biggy. If you’re planning a shorter Contiki tour (or heck a different company!), not all of the things I’m going to share will apply. But they still might be good things to think about before you go about booking your first Contiki tour.

So! Here are some of the things you might think about before hitting that ‘book’ button, knowing that they might be slightly different to mine.

Can you afford it financially?
Can you afford it, time-wise?
What are you giving up to go?
What are you gaining?
What have been your past experiences with travelling?
What’s stopping you?

Can you afford it financially?

This was a biggy for me. Regardless of which Contiki trip you book, it’s going to cost you a pretty penny. I booked the European Adventurer, so it was nearly $12,000 NZD (would have been a bit cheaper if I had booked earlier). This was a bit chunk of money, and then I needed to take into account flights (from New Zealand!) and then a few nights on either side in London, as well as the cost of things like food, transport and things to do and see while on the road.

Thankfully, Contiki has all your accommodation, main transport, and lots of meals included. But it was things like additional lunches and dinners I’d need to buy, public transport in a city, any souvenirs I wanted to buy etc.

All of it added up. So I really did have to get the spreadsheet out and do some sums. I looked at how much I was going to need for all those ‘big’ things (Contiki cost, flights, insurance, accommodation on either side) and then looked at how much I might need to fill up the free time and also have spending money. Once I worked that out, I could figure out how much money from my accounts I could use, what I could earn while I was away (more on that in a moment) and what I thought I’d earn by the end of the year.

Once I could see all the figures laid out like that, I felt more confident in that call.

But speaking of calls, I did call my mum and laid it all to her and got her opinion. She asked me a few questions (some of which I’m sharing in this blog post), and I shared where I was at financially, she helped me see that I could do it and that it wasn’t going to be a really stupid idea financially.

It’s always nice to have someone to run these big things past. Even if the Contiki tour you’re booking is a lot shorter than mine, money is money. And we need to make sure we’re making good decisions with it.

Some further questions to ask yourself

How much is this trip going to cost (roughly)?
How much will I make while I’m away?
How much do I have saved?
Have I thought about all the main ‘big’ costs?
Have I factored in any emergency or unforeseen costs?
Is this going to be a wise financial decision?
Is there anyone I can talk to to run the idea past?

Can you afford it, time-wise?

Booking your first Contiki, or heck, your 10th Contiki, means you’re going to have to find the time to do it. You might be able to afford it financially, but can you afford it from a time perspective?

Depending on the length of your Contiki tour, you might be gone for a week, or you might be going for over a month. In my case, I was going to be out of New Zealand for 6.5 weeks. I was leaving on a Tuesday and returning on a Saturday. When you have a part-time job, a few contract clients, and you run your own blogging business, that’s a lot of people to talk to to ensure that you’re making a good time call.

Here’s what I did to make sure I could afford my trip, time-wise:

Looked at the leave I had available to me from my part-time job. One of the biggest factors in me being about to take 6.5 weeks off was that I’d been working at my job for 10 years in 2024, which meant that I was eligible for 2 weeks Long Service Leave. This is like annual leave, but you get it for ‘free’ – it’s not deducted from your annual leave.

I also took 5 Annual Leave days (I could have taken more but I wanted to keep some for my summer holidays), and decided I would ‘make up’ 9 days. As I work part-time for this company, I’m able to work my 3 days per week at any time, and my boss incredibly kindly, allowed me to ‘pay for’ some of my trip in days, by working the 9 days that I’d take both prior and post the trip. I worked 4 days extra before heading away, and 5 extra days when I got back. This made up the 21 work days that I needed to take off.

I emailed my contractors. There are 2 main companies that I contract for, and the work for both of them is all online.

After sending through a plan for each one of them, they were very impressed at my organisational skills, and we decided that I’d get as much done as I could before leaving on the trip, and schedule things like social media, emails, and communications while acknowledging that there would be some things I would need to do on the road. Given that I would be taking a tablet with me, this was going to be fine, and it was me who suggested it.

I adjusted my blog coaching plan for two months. Being self-employed means that I get to make the calls. For 1:1 blog coaching, I stopped taking clients, letting any enquiries know that I wouldn’t be taking on any more clients until October.

For The Blogging Room, that was a little trickier. But my membership is so lovely and understanding, that I switched around the way we did things for 2 months, and scheduled and planned everything before I left. This meant that, while the content they were getting throughout the month was slightly different to a ‘usual’ month, they were still getting support and teaching from me while I was away, which is what they signed up for.

Now, I recognise the unique position I am in and the freedoms that my work has. If you’re working full time, you’re a student, or you have other things that need your attention, then your decisions on booking your first Contiki from a time perspective are going to be different. But it’s important to think about it.

Some further questions to ask yourself

How much leave from my job do I have?
Can I afford to take it all or part of it? Do I need to save it for anything else?
How flexible is my boss, if I need to change something up to make the Contiki work?
If I don’t have many options, what are some shorter Contiki tours I could do?
Have I spoken to everyone I need to speak to before making this commitment?
What will I have to do before I go to make sure I am leaving my place of or study well for the duration of the trip?
Are there things I could do to help fill the hole I’m leaving before I leave?
What might I need to do when I get back from my trip?

What are you giving up to go?

Like any big adventure or even small trip, it’s likely that you’re going to be giving up something to go.

For me, that was a couple of big events which I am involved with every single year. So much so, that I needed to help plan them and get them going before I headed off. I also had concert tickets for the day that the Contiki ends in London, that I would have to sell (still gutted about that!).

Those key calendar moments might be things you can’t miss. Maybe you can’t give them up. Which is totally okay. In this case, check out the rest of Contiki to see if there’s a different option for you. You might still be able to see what you want to see at either a different time of the year, or on a slightly varied version of the trip you had your eyes on.

Events and calendar moments aside, you might also be giving up some of the comforts and luxuries you have at home.

One of the things that I had to hold very lightly was the sleeping arrangements. I really hate sharing a room. I can share a room with my best friend, and my sister, and that’s about it. Anyone else and I struggle to sleep, mostly because I know that sometimes I can breathe too heavily (where my deviated septums girlies at? ✋🏻) and I don’t want to disturb the other people in the room.

I had to come to terms with the fact that I would be sharing a room for 36 nights. In a row. With other people. Most, except one, would be strangers when we first started out. Sleeping in my own room was a home comfort that I needed to let go of. As well as things like living out of a suitcase, washing underwear in the shower if I needed to … all those things that we take for granted at home … they unravel when you travel.

Which can be so so so good. See the next point.

Some further questions to ask yourself

What are some of the things that I would be sad about missing?
Do they outweigh me booking this trip?
Are there any things that I cannot miss, and is there another Contiki option?
What do I need to hold a bit more loosely going into this trip?

What are you gaining?

I’ll update this blog post if I return from my trip and this has changed, but something I was thinking about while I was booking my Contiki was ‘what am I gaining from this trip?’ (Okay, so actually my mum asked me. She asks good questions.) What is that I’m going to gain from this really long, really tiring adventure?

So many things.

I’m gaining the experiences I have along the way. The countries I’m visiting, the cities and the sites I’m seeing. The cultures I’m about to witness and learn from.
I’m gaining new friends (hopefully) from around the world, and seeing the world from a different perspective.
I’m gaining my own strength and capabilities, travelling all the way there and back. (Read: 17 hours from Auckland to Dubai, 2-hour stopover, another 9 hours to London … and reverse.)
I’m gaining time away from my normal, and shaking things up a little bit.
I’m gaining time with my friend who I won’t see again in a long while.

And there are probably more things.

Some further questions to ask yourself

What is it that I’m gaining from this trip?
What are the experiences that I’m really looking forward to?
Am I open to new things?

What have been your past experiences with travelling?

This trip was super weird for me because I am a big planner. It’s not often that I’m going overseas and I haven’t planned at least a good chunk of the time away.

When my friends and I went to Japan in 2015, yes everyone pitched in, but I was in charge of things like flights, accommodation, and transport from the airport. And while I got my travel agent to do a lot of the bookings for me, I was definitely all over it. I also did things like plan out our day, did the research into what trains we would need to catch, and where we had to be to pick up our coach to do the Mt Fuji tour … For all intents and purposes, I was overseeing the trip.

For family trips, I’m less involved, but still have a level of planning up my sleeve, like when my mum and I visited Vancouver, I planned out what we could go and see each day, and how we were going to get around. And it’s like that for most trips.

This one? I know I need to be on the plane, and then I need to meet the start of the Contiki and get on the bus … and then basically it’s unplanned from there. And it’s weird. My friend who I’m doing the Contiki with and I have a few things that we’ve planned (tickets to the Louvre in Paris, for example), but other than something here and there, we don’t really have a plan.

My past experiences with travel have been me more in control, but they’ve also been family-heavy a lot of the time. I’ve travelled with friends, yes, but more often than not, I’m travelling with family and we’re staying with extended family or friends.

Getting a tour bus for 5 weeks with complete strangers and experiencing a faster-paced style of travel is very new to me. Another reason why I want to give it a go. But I know that those past experiences are going to have an impact on my trip, I’m just yet to find out really how much.

Some further questions to ask yourself

Has my past experience with travel been mostly positive?
What things have I experienced in the past with travel that might impact this potential Contiki trip?
Are there things that I’m a bit apprehensive about due to the not-knowing, or not being in control?
If past travel experiences have been negative or a struggle, how might I navigate this trip for the positive?

What’s stopping you?

Another banger of a question from my mother when I rang her to walk through my potential option of booking my first Contiki tour. I laid out the financial situation (remember, it was a lot of money for this super long trip!), the plan for my workload, and how I thought I could make back the money by the end of the year like I never really paid for it, and the opportunity that was there. And she said:

“So, what’s stopping you?”

My biggest hesitation was the money, I think. I needed reassurance that it was a good decision despite me draining one of my accounts. I’ve always been good with money; yes I like to spend it, but I’m also conscious of what is in there, what I have as savings, backup money, an account for health if I need it … all those sorts of things.

But in the past few years, I’ve managed to save a lot with my blog coaching business bringing in more than expected (hit me up if you wanna chat!), a few contract roles … I knew, after crunching those numbers mentioned before, I could make it work.

So, what was stopping me?

Actually nothing.

At the end of the day, booking your first Contiki tour can be a bit nerve-wracking, but having a few things to think about up your sleeve might really help. You might, of course, be someone who doesn’t need to mull things over as much as I did (we’re all different, after all), but if you’re a ‘weigh all the options, pros and cons’ kinda person, then I hope this blog post has helped.

If you’ve been on Contiki (or been a part of another tour company!), I would LOVE to hear from you! Leave a comment and tell me all about it!