[Req] Travel Groups

F

FrCrilly

Registered User
Messages
98
Hi All,

I’m looking to put a list together of Travel Groups, ie a holiday operator in which people can travel with complete strangers.

I’m already aware of www.contiki.com which caters for the 18 to 35 age group. Does anyone know any others? If anyone has experience of any travel group mentioned feel free to share it.

Please note, this can be a thread for anyone to read, so feel free to mention travel groups that cater for any age group or any lifestyle.

Thanks In Advance

Edit: List Assembled By Thread So Far

www.contiki.com
www.thetraveldepartment.ie
www.travelsphere.co.uk
 
Try www.thetraveldepartment.ie - they arrange all sorts of group holidays, ranging from 3 days in London to long haul in India, China, S America etc. From time to time they have special offers on their website. All the reports from friends who have travelled with them are A1 regarding transfers, accommodation, tours and so on. They also advertise in the Irish Times, Indo and Sunday Tribune.
 
miselemeas said:
Try www.thetraveldepartment.ie - they arrange all sorts of group holidays, ranging from 3 days in London to long haul in India, China, S America etc. From time to time they have special offers on their website. All the reports from friends who have travelled with them are A1 regarding transfers, accommodation, tours and so on. They also advertise in the Irish Times, Indo and Sunday Tribune.
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Thanks for that.

EDIT: INCORRECT STATEMENT BY ME
[Just to verify that The Travel Department differs from Contiki in that it's an operator in which a pre arranged group of at least 20 have to apply to go on the tour. With Contiki, an individual or small group can apply and then everyone can be put together on the one tour.]
 
miselemeas said:
Try www.thetraveldepartment.ie - they arrange all sorts of group holidays, ranging from 3 days in London to long haul in India, China, S America etc. From time to time they have special offers on their website. All the reports from friends who have travelled with them are A1 regarding transfers, accommodation, tours and so on. They also advertise in the Irish Times, Indo and Sunday Tribune.
Click to expand...

I beg to differ. I have found them expensive and some of their tour reps are not very good. Some are but some are not. Some of their hotels are good but some are not. Some of their trips are very long with excessive time spent on the coach. I don't need this uncertainty when booking.
 
FrCrilly said:
Thanks for that.

Just to verify that The Travel Department differs from Contiki in that it's an operator in which a pre arranged group of at least 20 have to apply to go on the tour. With Contiki, an individual or small group can apply and then everyone can be put together on the one tour.
Click to expand...

The Travel Department don't deal exclusively with pre-arranged groups, individuals, couples, etc can book their tours. As BOXtheFOX said, the quality can vary from tour to tour (do a search in this forum for opinions).

Travelsphere are a UK-based company who offer tours to many countries, and include tours specifically for solo travellers.
 
gipimann said:
The Travel Department don't deal exclusively with pre-arranged groups, individuals, couples, etc can book their tours.
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Apologies. In the “About Us” section of their website, it only mentions groups of 20 or more. It doesn’t mention anything about the single traveler. You might be right, but I think their website doesn’t explain things that well.

http://www.thetraveldepartment.ie/aboutus.htm
 
I think it's pretty clear from their home page that this is the case: "Whether you are looking for a trip of a lifetime, a few days away on your own or with family or friends..."

Contiki seem to specialise in ex-US departures, so probably of limited interest to people here.
 
Leo said:
I think it's pretty clear from their home page that this is the case: "Whether you are looking for a trip of a lifetime, a few days away on your own or with family or friends..."

Contiki seem to specialise in ex-US departures, so probably of limited interest to people here.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the correction. I e-mailed them in the end to confirm and you’re quite right. Here are details of the clientele that they usually cater for

“Generally our client profiles would range from early 30’s upwards with a large portion of our clientele being of early retirement age. Senior Citizens are also a portion of this section. Our holidays are very popular amongst single travellers. On most holidays there is an average of 40 -50 people travelling this will include approx. 3 single people along with groups of friends as well as couples”.
 
Leo said:
Contiki seem to specialise in ex-US departures, so probably of limited interest to people here.
Click to expand...

FEEDBACK

I went ahead with a Contiki tour in the end, Vienna to Budapest. What I didn’t know before I got there was that I was joining an existing longer tour Berlin to Budapest via Vienna. As people on the tour had got to know each other by the time I got there, it made it that little more difficult to fit in. The tour was made up of predominately Americans and Canadians, with only 1 or 2 people from other countries (Ireland, UK, Australia, Italy). Brad and Todd did get a bit annoying at times as they constantly want to take photos. However, only a minority of them were the stereotypical loud and stupid, many of them were nice people.

While there was plenty of group activities eg a River Cruise on the Danube and a Classical music concert, there was also plenty of time allocated to do your own thing. You could easily go off by yourself and bump into people from the tour while exploring. There was drinking every night but there was no obligation to take part if you didn’t wish to. I had to share a room with a stranger on the tour but this worked out very well as people tend to be co-operative while on holiday.

The main complaint I heard from people on the longer Berlin to Budapest tour was the limited number of full days they had in a certain city, typically in arriving in a city by evening time and only having the whole of the next day to explore (definitely not long enough with Vienna). I got around this problem as I flew out to Vienna first thing in the morning and flew back from Budapest last thing in the evening, giving me 2 full days in Vienna, one day of traveling and then 2 full days in Budapest (4 nights but 5 days).

Despite any of the above complaints, I overall found it to be a very enjoyable experience and will be booking a tour again next year. The main highlight for me was when we as a group of predominately 20 somethings went to a Classical Music concert together. I couldn’t imagine being able to organize a group of Irish 20 somethings to do the same thing.
 
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