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Anyone booking or booked packaged tour to Europe?
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 11:02 am
by agentquasar
hi guys..
planning a packaged tour to Europe specifically France/Italy/Switzerland in Jan 15 and got some itineraries from tour agencies..
i've trailed through the history of this forum and some threads on this are quite dated n most seem to prefer self-arranged tours. I don't really wanna waste time on planning my own tour. Any advice on the agencies pls and who has tried which agency to Europe and it was good? thks.. .
Re: Anyone booking or booked packaged tour to Europe?
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 11:15 am
by floppy
wickedpork wrote:hi guys..
planning a packaged tour to Europe specifically France/Italy/Switzerland in Jan 15 and got some itineraries from tour agencies..
i've trailed through the history of this forum and some threads on this are quite dated n most seem to prefer self-arranged tours. I don't really wanna waste time on planning my own tour. Any advice on the agencies pls and who has tried which agency to Europe and it was good? thks.. .
The usual suspects are generally ok:
1. Dynasty
2. Chan Bros
3. CTC
4. SA Tours
5. ASA Tours
However, actual experience may differ because of the tour guide and the travelling party involved. The bigger boys above have regular tour guides and their standard will 'more or less' be maintained. As for your travel mates for the next 10days, it depends on luck and you have limited control over them.
Re: Anyone booking or booked packaged tour to Europe?
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 11:39 am
by slmkhoo
wickedpork wrote:hi guys..
planning a packaged tour to Europe specifically France/Italy/Switzerland in Jan 15 and got some itineraries from tour agencies..
i've trailed through the history of this forum and some threads on this are quite dated n most seem to prefer self-arranged tours. I don't really wanna waste time on planning my own tour. Any advice on the agencies pls and who has tried which agency to Europe and it was good? thks.. .
I was one who did a self-arranged tour in 2012. We started out intending to book a package tour, but didn't like any of the itineraries (often too much shopping included and not the type of sightseeing we like) and didn't like the prices (nice hotels and fancy meals don't really matter to us). It did take a lot of (my) effort and time, but I reckoned that we saved some of the 'wasted' time on the tour. Do look closely at the tour itineraries before booking!
Re: Anyone booking or booked packaged tour to Europe?
Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 5:40 pm
by bb_ mom
My sis went with insight couple of months again and enjoyed herself. I personally prefer to go with local package tours. That way, you get to meet people from other countries as opposed to going with tours organized by SG tour operators.
Re: Anyone booking or booked packaged tour to Europe?
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 8:11 pm
by Blinkish
Re: Anyone booking or booked packaged tour to Europe?
Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 9:36 pm
by grownupbaby
For Italy Venice, is it worth to go for the Gondola Ride?
Also for Switzerland Lucerne, is the Jungfrau worth to go?
Thanks.
Re: Anyone booking or booked packaged tour to Europe?
Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 9:39 pm
by jetsetter
grownupbaby wrote:For Italy Venice, is it worth to go for the Gondola Ride?
Also for Switzerland Lucerne, is the Jungfrau worth to go?
Thanks.
Yes. The gondola ride is the most romantic part of the whole visit.
Re: Anyone booking or booked packaged tour to Europe?
Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 1:59 pm
by grownupbaby
thank you.
Can someone also advise price of a normal meal / fast food at:
- Italy (Rome/Pisa/Florence/Venice/Milan)
- Switzerland (Lucerne/Interlaken)
- Paris
TIA!
Re: Anyone booking or booked packaged tour to Europe?
Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 10:06 pm
by slmkhoo
jetsetter wrote:grownupbaby wrote:For Italy Venice, is it worth to go for the Gondola Ride?
Also for Switzerland Lucerne, is the Jungfrau worth to go?
Thanks.
Yes. The gondola ride is the most romantic part of the whole visit.
It's horrendously expensive, though! If the romantic experience is important, you may feel it's worth it, but if not, there is a quick and cheap way to experience a gondola ride. There are a few canal crossings which use old gondolas. The crossings only last a few minutes and cost about 1 or 0.5 euros, can't remember now. And you can cross a few times if you want to! We went with kids, and so the romance wasn't important.
Re: Anyone booking or booked packaged tour to Europe?
Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 11:11 pm
by pirated
grownupbaby wrote:thank you.
Can someone also advise price of a normal meal / fast food at:
- Italy (Rome/Pisa/Florence/Venice/Milan)
- Switzerland (Lucerne/Interlaken)
- Paris
TIA!
a 2 course meal generally is around 10 to 20 euros in a non-fancy restaurant/cafe
in France, the Romaine group is very reasonable, you can get around 10 euros for a main course + dessert or main course + drink
can't remember the price of big mac but remember it is not cheap, and one interesting thing - the cheese burger in Swiss is as big as the child's face!
in Paris, there are plenty of options from stand-only cafe to sit down restaurant (french, american, chinese)...Paul's croissant along champs elysees is 1.85 euro (same price still?), super nice, always tabao back to hotel room, further down the block near to Mercedes showroom and Marriott Hotel you would find the price-friendly Romaine.....same price in Paris as in Provence....and a sit down dinner at Laduree (across the street) is at least 40 euros for a simple 3 course/pax. one of the highlight is to see the queue for buying its macarons every evening (offer price)
reward yourself after a day of shopping at LV store one block from Laduree
there are some chinese take aways near to Concorde
over at the Lafayette @ Haussmann, the onsite cafe has reasonably priced meals too