The Most In-Depth Review of Contiki I Could Muster

Last updated on 11 February 2025

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In this post, I’m going to basically give you my honest opinion and do the most in-depth review of Contiki I can muster. It was early June 2024 when I started thinking about joining my friend on the European Adventurer Contiki Tour that August. And while I umm-d and ahh-d and looked at all the pros and cons and the costs and the payoffs … I booked my spot just days before the cut-off for that particular trip.

Then in August, I set off on my way across to London from Auckland New Zealand to spend 37 days on a tour bus with a bunch of young strangers. So was it worth it?

It’s worth noting right here at the beginning a few things, a few disclaimers if you will:

1. The cut-off age for Contiki is 35, and I did this trip when I was 33. So I’m at the old end.
2. I’d never done a group tour before.
3. I probably wouldn’t have done it if my friend hadn’t already booked her spot.
4. These are just thoughts and opinions from my own experience. Yours will be and would be quite different.

So with those disclaimers out of the way, let’s get into it!

What is Contiki travel?

Contiki is a group tour company catering to travellers between the ages of 18 and 35. They have trips of all lengths from just a few days right up to 45 days, and while many of the Contiki tours you’ll see around Europe and the UK, they have tours all around the world.

What is the European Adventurer?

The European Adventurer Contiki tour is 37 days through 16 countries (more if you add them in, like a visit to the Vatican City!), which is about 5 weeks long. It’s a hostel trip, which means the majority of your accommodation is in hostels rather than hotels, and there could be 40 people on the trip. There were only 34 on my trip, plus our trip manager and our driver, bringing us to 36.

When did I do the Contiki tour?

The European Adventurer Contiki tour that I was on started on August 16th 2024 and ran until 21st September. It was the end of summer, which meant it was H.O.T hot and we sweated our way around Europe until we got to the north Balkans and into countries like Slovenia and Austria where the temperature dropped (so much at one point that we all needed to go and buy additional layers).

If I did another Contiki, I’d try to do it in a less hot season. The end of September was really good, but the start of the trip was far too hot for my liking.

My Trip and Your Trip

I mentioned in my bullet points just before that your trip will be different to mine. And there are a lot of factors to that sentence that I just want to make sure you really get into your head before you dive into this review of Contiki.

Every Contiki tour is going to be so different. Not only are the routes and lengths of the trips very different (and there are heaps – check them all out here!), but your group is going to be different to my group. Your Trip Manager will be different and your driver will be different (unless you’re lucky enough to get the same Trip Manager or driver – they were both fantastic!).

Everything other than the main itinerary will be different. The way your Trip Manager communicates with you, organises you, lets you know about changes … all of that will be different. We learnt that Contiki as a company doesn’t provide a set way of doing things for the Trip Managers, so they literally have to figure out the best way for them to do things like put everyone into rooms, book tickets for things, get in touch with restaurants or activities  – nearly everything they do is a system that they have come up with.

Which means … yours will be different. Get the point now? 🤣

However! In this review of Contiki, specifically looking at my trip and my experiences, I really hope to give you a detailed look into what it might be like for you and your own trip. Lots of things will be similar, so I hope that it helps you with your decision. A decision which, spoiler alert, I think you should go for. 😉

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Before the Contiki

The big decision

The big decision: should you book a Contiki tour? Well, good news for you, I’ve already written a blog post all about how I went about deciding to go on the Contiki in 2024. You can check that out and hopefully, it will give you some insight into some of the things that I thought about before booking it, and how I figured out if I could make it work.

Booking your Contiki

When you’ve picked which tour you’re going to be doing, it’s easy to book. You need to put down a $200 nzd deposit, and then you can make the rest of the payments in instalments, or all at once, depending on what is going to be better for you and your finances.

When you’ve confirmed your spot, you’ll log in to your My Contiki portal, where you’ll be able to update all your information, add your passport and insurance details (both of which you need to log in), and things like emergency contacts.

Closer to the time of Day One, there will be a bunch of documents that are dropped into your portal, and these will be things like any pre and post-accommodation you’ve booked with your Contiki, your full itinerary with accommodation information and a few other bits and bobs.

Around a similar time, there will be a chat that will open so you can meet your fellow travellers. We found with ours that a few people dropped in to say hello, but the majority didn’t. Remember, every group will be different, so yours might be really chat-happy or super silent.

Booking Pre and Post-Accommodation

One of the options, when you’re booking your Contiki, is to add accommodation for the night before it starts and for the night it ends. It’s at the hostel that the Contiki starts from usually, and in my case, that was London. I opted to actually book two nights before we started (I got my travel agent to organise that for me as you’ll only have the option to book one night through Contiki), and then I found my own accommodation at the end of the trip.

If you do book your own accommodation, just note that you’ll need to be at the meeting point incredibly early in the morning usually. If you have ferries to catch like we did, then we needed to be at the hostel meeting point to get checked off by Contiki that we were there, at 5am. Early.

Your Contiki might be different, but often it’s an early start so you can get on the road. Keep that in mind when you’re booking your accommodation for the night before.

Leading up to the start date

Week-of communication

Up until about a week before, your communication with Contiki is automated. You’ll get emails saying that the chat is open, that your documents are ready, that your payment needs to be done by a certain date etc.

But in the week leading up to Day One, you should get communication from your Trip Manager. How they communicate might be different from trip to trip, as I’ve mentioned, but we got an in-depth email from our Trip Manager about what to bring, what to expect, how to stay in touch, how to join the WhatsApp group, and general week-of information.

From there, you’ll be able to ask questions if you need to, though the FAQ section on Contiki is pretty good.

WhatsApp Group

I mentioned the WhatsApp group just now – that’s how we communicated as a group while we were travelling. If that’s how your Trip Manager is going to communicate with you, then you need to have downloaded WhatsApp on your phone before you leave your country.

This will make everything easier going forward, as WhatsApp needs to know what your phone number is. If you can’t get text messages overseas, then you’re not going to be able to verify your number. Download it and get it set up before you get on the plane.

I already had WhatsApp so this was an easy transition for me. We all joined the WhatsApp chat, and then I also had access to everyone’s numbers if I needed to contact them while we travelling, too.

Instructions and information

The instructions and all the information in the email that our Trip Manager sent through were detailed and super helpful. We did only get the email on the Tuesday, and it was starting on the Friday, so it was perhaps a smidge late in the piece (I was literally about to get on the plane as I got the email), but it all worked out in the end.

The Contiki Travel Group

Getting checked in

Depending on your call time you may be meeting your Trip Manager and fellow travellers as early as 5am (when we were meant to meet).

Regards of the time, you’ll congregate and then weigh your suitcase. Your suitcase for Contiki needs to be a maximum of 20kg. Your driver is going to be lugging it on and off the bus nearly every day, so it needs to be safe for them to do that. You also don’t want to be hauling it up staircases around the world.

Once your bag is weighed, you head off to your specific group’s meeting point. There were five different Contiki trips leaving at the same time when I got mine, so make sure you find the right one. You’ll then need to hand over your passport so they can log it, and they’ll double-check your insurance, too.

Meeting the group

Meeting new people is always a bit awkward. And honestly, it really was. We all semi-met in the foyer of the hostel that we were getting the coach from, and sorted of hovered about in groups as people got ticked off the list.

Then it was time to get on the coach, and we all met our Trip Manager and our driver, both of whom would be joining us for the duration of the trip. On the coach, we did play a speed-dating game, which is always a horror to do but was actually fun and you did get to meet a lot of the people on the trip.

Remember your group might not do this. It’s just one thing that our trip manager did to get us chatting a bit. I’m definitely glad we did it. Those first days were a bit awkward, a bit more hesitant, perhaps. But by the end of the trip, we were all good – in-jokes and everything.

Group dynamics

We picked up a few people at our first stop in Paris, so then the group was complete. I’ve said it multiple times already, but your group is going to be different to my group. There were 36 of us in total, and so when you’re with that many people, there are going to be instant friendships and connections, and there will be people who you are cordial to but don’t really spend a lot of time with (at least not outside of the coach).

I have to say, we were incredibly lucky with our group. Yes, there were a few tensions here and there, especially towards the end of the trip, but I think I’m okay in saying that most people got along okay with most people. Which made the trip so much easier.

By the end of the 5 weeks, there were literal tears as we said goodbye and immediate talks of a reunion. Whether that happens or not will be seen, but it was nice that we weren’t too too sick of each other by the end. (If I’m wrong, Contiki-Friends, let me know haha.)

Most of the travellers were solo travellers, with two couples and a few sets of friends. The age range was between 19 and 33 (cough me), but most of the group were early 20s; I think our average was about 24. As a group, there were about seven or eight New Zealanders, one Canadian, our driver was Polish, and the rest, including our Trip Manager, were Australian.

Sharing your space with 35 other people

While the group was excellent, it’s not a surprise that sharing your space and your life, even briefly in the grand scheme of things, is definitely different. It’s a challenge. It’s a different experience, especially when they’re strangers at the beginning of the trip.

There is lots to say and I have lots of tips about sharing your space with many many people. You can check that out here.

But I can say that it’s not as challenging as I thought it was going to be. And there are, I would think, three main points to make.

1. Sharing the coach: the coach is full for a Contiki tour. Ours thankfully, was slightly less people than a full coach, however, it was still full of strangers. People quickly discover their travel buddies and their spots on the coach.
2. Sharing your personal space: You’re going to be in hostels and hotels for your Contiki. Which means that you’re going to be in bunks a lot or at least sharing a room no matter where you go. Your ‘personal space’ ends up pretty much being your bed and that’s it.
3. Sharing your adventure: You’re hanging out with these people in your transport, in your accommodation (and breakfast!), but you’re also doing a lot of adventuring and activities with these people every single day.

💡 Check out: How to share your space with 30+ people on Contiki and still stay sane

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On the road

Trip manager and driver

There are so many Trip Managers and drivers for Contiki, and our (amazing) TM was saying that, as a TM, you might never have the same driver buddy twice. That’s how many there are.

And I’m sure they’re all lovely and great and what have you, but we loved our Trip Manager and Driver a lot. You spent every single day with them, and they really know their stuff. Our Trip Manager was so easy to talk to, ask questions to, and get recommendations and suggestions from, and was a joy to have her take us around Europe.

Our driver was just as brilliant, always patient with us when we didn’t quite follow instructions, or we were a touch late for the coach. Obviously, all the drivers for Contiki will be vetted and have to go through interview processes which will involve driving, so you know you’re in safe hands.

But our driver was so excellent and communicated with both the Trip Manager and us impeccably well, it was like we weren’t actually driving for hours on end every day. He also kept the coach really clean both inside and out and ensured we knew all our timings.

The coach

Speaking of which, the coach. Apparently, in 2024 Contiki upgraded a lot of its coaches. We actually had a Trafalgar coach, so it had both the Contiki sticker on it and the Trafalgar sticker, but it did mean the interior was great.

As well as big seats with tray tables and charging ports (granted the charging ports were incredibly slow, but they were there if you needed them in a pinch), the bus had a TV which we utilised a lot more than we probably should have (we often watched a movie that was themed on where we were going – for example on the way to Rome we watched Gladtiaor and the Lizzie McGuire movie), and also WiFi.

The WiFi, unfortunately, wasn’t great, so I would not rely on it at all. And if it did work, you just got 300 mbs per device per day, so only really enough to check your socials and send an email or two.

There are overhead spaces for small day bags (think handbag or backpack, but it’s not big enough for an aeroplane carry-on-sized bag – just a warning), and also a toilet on board (no number twos). The seats were comfy enough, though you will find yourself trying to rearrange your legs every so often.

The other transport

Depending on the Contiki you end up doing, you may need to use other transport. For the European Adventurer Contiki, we got the ferry a few times.

From England to France across the Channel, we drove the bus onto the ferry and off the other side to continue on our way. We also did that on the way back to England at the end of the trip. When we reached the south of Italy, we got an overnight ferry to Greece, and again, the coach came on the ferry.

The last set of ferries we got on was from mainland Greece down to Mykonos. While this was a vehicle ferry, too, we didn’t need the coach on the other side, so our driver dropped us off, parked the coach somewhere else, and then joined us on foot on the ferry.

We also got a barge thing across a lake in Montenegro. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The other modes of transport that we took while we were on Contiki were just around the cities. We got the metro or the train a few times, as well as the boats in Venice, taxis and Ubers, gondolas, funiculars, and a bus in Athens. While many of those were looking after ourselves, the Trip Manager always gave us instructions or pointed us in the right direction.

Contiki European Adventurer Itinerary

The countries we visited

The European Adventurer Contiki tour has been called the charcuterie board of the Contiki tours. Okay, so our Trip Manager called it that, but I think she’s right. You really do get a taste of all these different places around Europe. And while you’re not in one place for very long, you’re definitely there long enough to figure out if it’s somewhere you’d like to come back to for more exploring.

On our Contiki, the itinerary included: England, France, Monaco, Spain, Italy, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands.

We also tacked on Belgium as we drove through at the end, and also the Vatican City for those of us who wanted to visit while we were in Rome.

As you can see, that’s a lot. But we were only ever in any place on average two nights, with Mykonos in Greece being three nights, and a few places at the end with just one night. So you really do get a taste and a feel for a lot of different cultures and countries in one trip.

I think, for the length of this trip, it would have been nice to just go wild and make it slightly longer and spend a bit more time in a few places. I feel like we missed out on some places just because we were only there for one night, and we were usually arriving in the evening, staying one night, and then seeing the city in the morning before heading off again.

When you’re choosing your Contiki, just be aware that some places you really do have a very short amount of time in, due to the schedule.

The cities we visited

Similarly, the cities. We went to a lot of cities and towns, and many of them were actually stops along the way. For example, we stopped in Arles in France for lunch, Verona and Pomeii in Italy, Geneva in Switzerland, Tirana in Albania … you get the picture.

I think these stops were mostly for the sake of the driver. Legally they can only drive so many hours in the day, so we had to have lots of service stops and stops in towns and cities to ensure that he was having a break. Which was good practice. He needed breaks.

Overall, I think the different kinds of cities and towns that were stopped and stayed in were good. There were some I would love to go back to like Rome in Italy and Ljubljana in Slovenia, but then some that I don’t know that I’d bother going back to like Barcelona, Spain, and Tirana, Albania.

But having said that, we had so little time to really get to know the places that perhaps I do want to go back to those places and I just don’t know it. I’d like to go back to other parts of Spain and Albania, but not fussed about going back to those cities. I don’t think …

Overall thoughts on the big-scale itinerary

I think it was a good mix of countries and cities, actually. Again, there are spots I think we needed more time in and some spots where we could have had less time, too (while Venice was beautiful, we probably didn’t need 4 hours there in the heat).

While I enjoyed ticking another country off my list, I don’t think Spain was necessary, despite it being quite close to where the rest of the route took us, and I think those two nights could have been used better elsewhere. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy going to Spain, I just don’t think it would be a deal breaker to remove it from this particular trip. I’d rather have another night in Munich, for example.

But! Overall, a good balance of countries and cities, and you really do get that charcuterie of Europe.

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Activities on Contiki

Included meals and experiences

When you sign up for a Contiki, you also get a lot of experiences and meals included in the price.

Obviously, your price includes all accommodation and transport on the coach (it does not include your flights to and from the beginning point, or some of the transport inside the cities like additional trains or Uber etc), but you also get breakfast every single day which is included.

Included meals

Breakfast was always pretty good. In fact, most of them were very good. They were continental breakfast, and also cooked breakfasts. There were just a few that were below average but having said that, we still ate breakfast every day, so you can’t complain too much.

As well as breakfast every day, there were a handful of other included meals. In our 37-day trip, there were 13 included dinners, and one included lunch (picnic pictured above). That’s not too shabby! The rest of the dinners were either Add-Ons that you could purchase (more on that soon) or Walk About Dinners, so basically you were in charge of taking a wander and seeing what you could find for dinner.

The included meals were a mixed bag. Some were really good (like the Chateau dinner), some were average.

Included experiences

When we got on the coach in London, one of the things that our Trip Manager went through with us was all the Free Time Add-Ons that we could purchase which were in addition to the cost we’d already paid. I’ll talk about that next, but along the way, there were a lot of included experiences.

These ranged from walking tours to a visit to a French perfumery to wine tasting. You can see all the included experiences on the website for each of the trips but I will say this … some of them are overhyped. Which is hard to say, but I think they make them seem like they’re more than they are on the website.

There were some great included experiences, like a tour of the Athens Acropolis (above), and a visit to the Bobsled track in Slovenia (to name but a small few!). But some of them were very average.

When it says wine tasting at the Chateau, we got to ‘try’ one glass of red and there wasn’t enough cheese board for the two Contiki groups that were there. Many of the “walking tours” were really just the Trip Manager pointing out some interesting things here and there as she dropped us into the city to be let loose on our own … which was okay and really good to get your bearings, but in my mind, a ‘tour’ is longer, it’s more detailed, it’s more about the history or the culture than our walking tours were.

There were lots of places that she wasn’t actually allowed to be a tour guide in, like the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona and in Rome. I understand that – there are city-specific tour guides for that – but if that’s the case, then a rewording of the website is definitely needed.

A ‘walking tour of the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona‘ is not what it was – it was a drop-off at the Gothic Quarter with encouragement to go and explore it ourselves, even if there was a bit of an explanation along the way. And yes, there was a guide with stops that we could do ourselves for this example, but that needs to be outlined on the website. That’s on Contiki and not the tour guide, by the way.

So when it comes to Included Experiences, don’t get overly excited for them. Most of them are good, but just be aware they talk them up more on the website than they should and I think the descriptions need re-writing (which is one thing I did put into my feedback to Contiki).

Free Time Add-Ons

Free Time Add-Ons, however, were really cool. I mentioned earlier that when you begin the trip, you have the option to add on a bunch of different experiences.

Just note, that if you do them all, then the price really skyrockets and you’ll need to budget for it. I spent about $1600 nzd on additional activities, which I had prepared for but it was still a shock to the system/bank account.

The good thing about them though, is that they really are a range of things. There were activities for the adrenaline junkies like canyon swinging, paragliding and white water rafting, and then there were things like dinners out in Paris, the cabaret, a flamenco show (above), dinner with locals in Sarajevo …

And I will say there were only a few Free Time Add-Ons that I could have done without, and some that I think were definitely on the pricey side for what they were, most of them were pretty good.

I would just note that while some of the prices of the Free Time Add-Ons are listed on the website, most of them aren’t. You can kind of estimate what it might cost, but I found it to be way more than I was expecting, and I didn’t even do the most expensive things like paragliding, canyon swing and white water rafting. So just be aware of that. They’re not ‘hidden costs’ as such but you don’t know the exact price of them until you’re on the trip.

👉🏻 Coming soon: Are the Free Time Add Ons for the European Adventurer worth it?

Local guides

One of the things that we did a few times through the tour was have local guides join us.

These were mostly for walking tours of cities (Free Time Add-Ons, so we paid for these ones), and this was a brilliant way to get to know more about the city and even the country because they were actual locals. Having a guide who knows more details and history and even what life is like right now, is going to give you a lot more insight than if it were someone telling you about the place who doesn’t actually live there.

There was only one walking tour my friend and I didn’t actually do, so I can’t speak to that one, but the others that we did were a lot of fun. We had a local guide for a food walking tour in Venice, a guide for Pompeii, a food walking tour in Athens (the one we didn’t do), and also a guide for the war tunnels in Sarajevo and then a walking tour of the town.

💸 Comment on tipping: Europe is big on tipping, so it’s good to have some cash with you so you can tip your local guides. Just a couple of Euros is okay. More on Tipping soon.

Organised Dinners

Occasionally we’d also have a spontaneous but organised dinner. And what I mean by that is we had a Walk About Dinner scheduled in the itinerary, but the Trip Manager knew of a good spot for dinner, so we decided as a group to go there. We paid for our own meals and drinks and everything, and it wasn’t a specific item on the itinerary, we just ended up there together.

These were really fun, because we got to go to some great places (who knew I’d be eating excellent Mexican food in Croatia?), but also had the freedom to a) no go along with the group and do something else, and b) choose something that suited your budget from the menu.

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Contiki Trip Accommodation

Hostels

The European Adventurer trip with Contiki is a hostel trip, which means the majority of the accommodation is going to be a hostel. There were a few hotel nights, especially in smaller places that just don’t have hosels, and then three Special Stays, which I’ll talk about soon.

The hostels were pretty good – they were actually better than the hotels sometimes. Most of them were part of larger chains of hostels, so they were set up really well, and the vibe was very cool. I’ve only stayed in a hostel once before, and that was in Amsterdam in 2013.

Of course, not all the hostels were like these big ones and we did have a few that were a bit odd. We were often in rooms of four (two bunks), but sometimes up to six. We never had more than six girls in a room, and I think I could count on one hand the number of those bigger rooms we ended up having.

💡 Check out: Royal National in London, Generator in Paris, and Via in Amsterdam (I don’t think the latter is a chain, but it was pretty cool!).

Hotels

I mentioned that sometimes the hostels were better than the hotels, and I think that’s just because when you’re in a hotel, Contiki is trying to keep the cost really low, so you’re often in low-star hotels.

Whereas if you have a cheaper hostel, they’re still set up really well. They’re thinking about things like power outlets, and privacy, and they know that they’re going to have multiple people in a room … even if the hostel was a bit naff, it was still set up well. If you get a naff hotel, you just get a naff hotel.

In Athens, we stayed in a hotel where the shower was so small that I decided to wash my hair while I was outside the shower, leaning my hair over and into the shower, and then jumping in and rinsing it all out. That’s how small it was.

There were multiple hotels, too, where the shower head wasn’t attached to the wall, where there was only one power outlet for the whole room, or there were weird configurations of beds.

One of the hotels we stayed in had bedbugs – not in my room, thank goodness, but in one of the guys’ rooms. Thankfully, the hotel was quite good about it, and they put the guys up in a hotel down the road, free of charge.

Some of the hotels were good, though, don’t get me wrong. Just be aware that if you’re on a hostel trip and you get a hotel stay … they’re not fancy hotels. They’re low-quality ones, and you just have to take them in your stride.

Review of Contiki Special Stays

I think it’s safe to say that many of the Contiki trips you can go on will have a Special Stay. *quickly browses websites* Yeah, it looks like they’re included in a lot of trips.

Special Stays with Contiki are accommodations that are a bit out of the box or they’re Contiki-owned. For the European Adventurer, we stayed in three special stays.

1. Contiki-owned Chateau de Cruix in the Beaujolais Wine Region of France
2. Paradise Beach Resort and Club on Mykonos
3. Contiki-owned Haus Schoneck ski chalet in the Austrian Tyrol

I’ll go into more detail in another blog post, but for the most part, these were a lot of fun. We stayed at least two nights in each of the Special Stays, with three nights in Mykonos (which was a much-needed break from the go-go-go). While you still had a room with four people in it, the nature of the accommodation had a different vibe and atmosphere to the rest of the stays.

The Contiki-owned spots were run by Contiki people, and everything was set up really well. When we were at the Chateau, there was another Contiki group there, too, and Mykonos had another Contiki (possibly two?). But when we were in Austria at Haus Schoneck, we were the only group there, which was quite nice.

👉🏻 Check out: A Breakdown of Contiki’s Special Stays Accommodation

Review of Contiki accommodation overall

Overall, I think the accommodation during the Contiki trip was good. I think it helps sharing a room with people who you like and it’s quite consistent. More often than not it was me and my friend and then another pair of friends; we quickly became very used to each other and got into luggage flows and shower schedules and the like – it worked out really well. (Miss you, girls! 👋🏻)

Having the Special Stays was fun, too, and even though the sleeping arrangements were pretty much the same – either a room of two or a room of four – it was nice to do something slightly different for a night or two.

The trip as a whole

Budget

Every Contiki trip is going to be different – it varies in length, accommodation style, the places that they go to – which means, naturally, the prices really vary depending on which one you do.

The European Adventurer trip full price is $11,475 nzd, but if you’re booking a good amount of time beforehand, you can get it for as low as $9,180 nzd.

Additional Contiki costs you need to think about: 

• Flights to and from the starting point (for me that was Auckland > London)
• Accommodation for any nights before and after
• Insurance (you can’t do Contiki without it)
• Food and drinks along the way
• Free time add-ons
• Souvenirs or things you’d like to pick up along the way
• Tipping at restaurants and local guides
• Tipping the Trip Manager and Driver
• Additional transport – Ubers, taxis, bus or metro tickets etc
• Any emergency things like medicine, or extra clothes you might need to grab

I really had to crunch my numbers to make sure that I could make it work, and I still went over budget simply due to things I hadn’t anticipated being as much as they were. Yes, lots of things were cheap in Europe, but lots of things were more expensive because we were in high-tourist spots.

💡 Check out: Everything You Need to Know About the Wise Travel Card

Tipping while on Contiki

When you’re booking your Contiki, one of the things that will come up in the documents and on the website, too, is tipping. Now if you come from North America or Europe, then you’ll be super used to tipping (let me know if you tip in your country!).

But here in New Zealand and over in Australia, we don’t tip. And there are a few reasons that I don’t need to go into in this post, but only occasionally will you find a tip jar on the bench at a cafe or restaurant. On the whole, we don’t tip. 

Which means tipping culture is very strange to us, and not something that we need to think about at all. Until we go to Europe or North America.

Our Trip Manager was always encouraging us to tip, and for the most part, we did. It was only when we paid in cash though, and lots of places took cards so it wasn’t obvious how to tip using card. A good rule of thumb was 10% tip of the bill. So if you’ve paid €10, your tip would be about €1. This doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re tipping every day, or you’ve had a €40 experience, it all starts to add up.

Keep that in mind when you’re going to Europe.

Tipping the Trip Manager and Driver

The other expense that I didn’t really anticipate was tipping our Trip Manager and Driver. I knew about it, yes, as it was mentioned in the documents and on the website, how it’s good to tip your Trip Manager and Driver because they’re on a European wage too which isn’t great.

But I didn’t really anticipate how much. It’s suggested or recommended that the tip is €3 per day, each. So €3 for the Trip Manager each day of the trip, and the same for the Driver.

When you’re on a trip that’s only a week or even up to 2 weeks, then that’s doable. But when you’re on a 37 day trip … that’s €111 for each of them. This doesn’t sound like much, but times that by two and then convert that from Euros to New Zealand dollars and it ended up being around $400 nzd. And that’s a huge chunk of money I hadn’t factored in.

Of course, it’s just a recommendation and you don’t have to a) give anything at all or b) give that exact amount. Just be aware of that cost, and give what you can without crippling your finances.

I think that this tip should actually be included in the price of the Contiki trip as a whole. I don’t mind paying $400 extra when I’m already paying thousands for the trip – the point is that it’s automatically factored in and I don’t have to then realise later that I should have budgeted more money. It would be easier for us as travellers if our recommended tip was included, and that money went straight to who it needed to go to. Of course, there are probably things in that I haven’t thought about, but there’s gotta be a better way of doing it. Surely.

Pace of Contiki tours

A longer trip like this one is going to move quite quickly. We were mostly in places for either one or two nights, and only in Mykonos for three nights. This means, realistically, the most time you had to explore in a city was a full day.

Arrive in the afternoon or evening, sleep, explore for the day, sleep, and head off to the next destination in the morning.

I found that the beginning of the trip was really well-paced. It was mostly two nights everywhere we went, which meant not only could you just leave your things in the shower for the next night (haha), but you also had at least one full day to go exploring or do some wandering with a Free Time Add-On tack on there, too. There was time.

As we got to the second half of the trip, the transitions between places got faster, and this was mostly due to the size of the countries, and the distance we needed to travel between destinations. It meant that there were times when I thought we didn’t have nearly enough time in places, and that was a real shame. Of course, those places have gone on a “come back to” list, but it definitely felt too fast at the end.

Challenges of Contiki

Like any international travel with strangers, there are always going to be challenges. However! I found myself very much going with the flow, and I think I can praise my parents for that. My dad has always said “take the adventure that comes to you” and I absolutely did that.

• Flooded out in Dubrovnik? Take the adventure.
• Can’t physically get in the shower? Take the adventure.
• Randomly hanging out as a group with an elderly gentleman and his restaurant at the ports in Greece? Take the adventure.
• Temperate drop from 37 °C to 5°C? Take the adventure.
• Blizzard at the top of an Austrian alp? Take the adventure.

When you’re travelling on a tour where nearly everything is organised for you and you don’t have to think about much other than what to eat when you need to find your own dinner … you have to learn to go with the flow. There will be more challenges if you can’t go with the flow, and leave some of your routines and expectations at the door.

A few challenges that the group experiences along the way, are worth pointing out:

• Weather changes that we weren’t ready for (group trip to H&M to get warmer layers anyone? ✋🏻)
• Cancelled activities (with refunds) due to storms
• Miss the coach and need to taxi to catch up
• Items stolen while out on the town
• Cold and cough that goes through the bus
• And then a gastro bug (not everyone, thank goodness)
• Tension between fellow travellers
• Lugging suitcases up and down stairs and across cobblestones
• Broken suitcases
• A lot of time on the coach
• Fatigue

A quick note on that last one: If you’re out every night and you’re partying it up, then you’re going to crash pretty quickly. But if you’re looking after yourself and you’re watching what you’re drinking, how late you’re staying out, then you’ll be fine. You know your body. You know what you need. Make sure you actually listen to it. When it says stop, you stop.

I thought I would be a lot more tired than I was, but I’d say all but three nights (out of 36), I was in bed by 11pm, and often earlier than that. Those three nights where I was in bed later than that? One was in Paris on our first weekend and our Free Time Add-On was a cabaret that didn’t start until 10pm. The other two nights were the last two nights of the trip, and I stayed out and about longer to hang out with everyone for the final time (and yes I regretted the late nights the next day).

I think, though, all things considered, we had an incredibly smooth ride. Yes people got sick. Yes there were definitely hiccups along the way. But on the whole, considering all the things that could have gone wrong, it was pretty good.

If you’re reading this and you were on my Contiki, firstly, hi, but secondly, if you disagree, let me know! Let’s add the challenges to the list.

Final thoughts and my review of Contiki

So after 37 days, 36 nights, of travelling around Europe with strangers on the European Adventurer Contiki trip … was it worth it? Would I do another Contiki?

Absolutely.

While I was a bit nervous going into the trip, as soon as I was on the plane, on the coach, and had met everyone, it was brilliant and if I weren’t getting too old for Contiki (I was 33 when I went on the trip), then I’d absolutely think about doing another one (perhaps I have a shorter trip in my future … ? We’ll see).

Overall, Contiki was an exceptional way to:

1. See a lot of Europe and tick off places on the bucket list
2. Meet interesting people who I would have never met otherwise
3. Get out of my comfort zone
4. Settle into a new comfort zone
5. Try new things and experiences
6. Soak up life on the road
7. Learn more about myself

If you’ve been thinking about doing a long Contiki like this one, then I really encourage you to do it. Despite all the challenges (which in the grand scheme of things, weren’t that bad at all), and things that you have to let go of (routines, space, alone time), by the end of the trip, I could have kept going another week or so. I loved it.

And hopefully, you will too.

That’s a wrap on this review of Contiki!

I hope that this review of Contiki, especially the European Adventurer trip, was really helpful for you. I know that when I was booking my Contiki I was looking for in-depth content like this one to help me make my decision.

I hope that it has been detailed enough for you to get a feel for the real epic things, the things you need to think about that perhaps I didn’t, and recognise that there will be some challenges and things you’ll need to just ‘take the adventure’ for.

If you’ve been on a Contiki before, I would absolutely love to know what your experience was like. Or if you have your own review of Contiki, I’d love to see it. Please drop me a comment below or email me. Let me know!