I currently don’t have any travel plans (sad I know) so I thought I’d take a look back to my Contiki Tour and answer some questions I wish someone answered for me when I traveled to the states 🙂
This is more aimed at the Contiki I did and America in general. I did a High Energy Tour which basically meant I was staying in Hotels and partying it up at night time in the beautiful US of A. Continue reading
Before travelling, I’d never stayed in a hostel before!
I imagined them to all be dirty and not well looked after. I thought I had to bring my own sleeping bag or something and all my stuff would get stolen.
But I was so wrong! Hostels ended up being the best experiences, I don’t think I would have met the people I did if I just stayed in hotels the whole time.
Before I booked accommodation, I looked up reviews on every hostel I was thinking of staying at and went for ones with the best price and the best reviews. Obviously when you’re going to book a hostel, don’t expect room service every day. Just somewhere safe and clean to sleep and hang out in at the end of the night. That way – hopefully you won’t be disappointed.
I use TripAdvisor for most of my reviews
| synonyms: | cheap hotel, youth hostel, YMCA, YWCA, bed and breakfast, B&B,boarding house, guest house, pension; More |
“Hostels are so unsafe with all the weirdos you share a room with”
No matter where you are in the world, you’re always going to come across someone who may seem a bit strange to you. I always felt while I was travelling that everyone in my rooms were there for the same reason – to explore the city, make friends and have somewhere to sleep. I never came across anyone in my room that made me feel uncomfortable, and if that was the case I would have asked to move to a different room. Hostels are usually really accommodating and if you’re staying at a good one they’ll just want you to feel safe and happy! 🙂
All the hostels I stayed at I either had my own locker to put my valuables in, a chest-type-thing underneath my bed with a lock on it or some place to put stuff where I could provide my own padlock.
I’m guilty of being a bit slack with my stuff. I’d leave my phone chargers etc… in my power point all day with my I Pod plugged in. I’d leave my bag open at the end of my bed with my clothes all shoved in it. The only thing I’d lock away usually was my passport, my tablet and my hair straightener in my locker along with all my make-up (What can I say, I’d be distraught if my M.A.C got stolen!)
“Hostel beds aren’t clean – they have bed bugs!”
The hostels I stayed at, I had to make my own bed. Meaning when you rocked up they’d have a fresh set of sheets folded on top of your bed for you. It was up to you to make your own bed, which was fine as you knew the sheets had been replaced before you arrived.
I never came across bed bugs or any of that stuff. However, i’m sure if that happened (Which I’m sure it does) I’d say something to the reception. I remember in San Fran a girl had complained there were ants in her bed but she was sleeping right next to the window which was a bit unfortunate. At the end of your stay, you’re usually expected to strip your bed yourself and take your sheets down to the laundry bin/shaft where the hostel workers clean them.
“I’m a female – I don’t want to stay with males!”
So am I!
I was a bit funny about sleeping in the same room as guys so I made sure I always booked ‘female-only’ dorms. I haven’t yet come across a hostel that doesn’t give you that option.
But now that I’ve done the whole hostel-thing, I’d happily book a mixed-dorm room and save myself some money (As Female Only Dorms are usually a bit more expensive)
You also can choose how many people you want to share a room with. Most Hostels have 4, 6, 8 or 10 bedded rooms to choose from. I always chose 4 or 6 as I didn’t want lots of loud snorers, but I also found I had less of a selection of people to meet in my room by choosing the less full ones.
Some hostels also give the option of choosing your own room – but you obviously have to pay quite a bit more for this.
“Hostels are only for solo travelers”
You’d be surprised how many couples or groups of friends stay in Hostels. I met a couple of girls in LA who were friends and got the same dorm room together and I also met a couple who booked their own room instead of sharing with other people so they could share a bed and have some more privacy. It was kind of like having their own hotel room but with the advantages of meeting lots of other people and joining in on all the day trips the Hostel’s plan.
“Hostels are only for young-people”
I kind of wish that was true as I’m young and I like being around people of the same age bracket, but you end up meeting people of all different ages. I’m not going to lie, the smaller type hostels usually had people of 18 – 30 year old’s staying in them but I remember in the New York Hostel I stayed at there were ‘older’ people who were on ‘career’ breaks or were just in town for business so stayed in hostels. I remember even seeing a young boy and his dad at one of the hostels. Not that this happens very often but it can!
The majority of my time was spent with people from ages 20 – 30 years, and Party Hostels especially will have an age limit (18 or 21+ as they allow drinking wherever)
“Hostels are always a party-place”
Slightly true….but not all of them.
The Hostel I stayed at in New York they had Bar Crawls every few nights which were great as I met heaps of people that way. The Hostel I stayed at in London had a bar downstairs and dance area etc… which defiantly got used but when you’re upstairs in bed you couldn’t hear a thing. Just review the hostel you want to stay at before you book and you’ll get an idea if it’s a party one or not. If Young-Group tours leave or stay in those type of hostels it will usually end up being a party hostel. I found the places I stayed at that didn’t do bar crawls and stuff ended up being the less-memorable ones anyways.
Now hopefully I’ve convinced you to try and stay in a hostel at least once in your life time!
If you do decide to book that room sleeping in bunks with other people, than here are some important rules I really suggest you follow.
Let me know about your hostel experiences in the comments below 🙂
x
I’ve been wanting to write a blog post about these two tour companies for ages!
When I was in the stages of planning my trip around the world, I knew I wanted to do a tour across the states but I was having a hard time deciding what one. I’d heard so many different views from people but it was always the same. Friends who went on Top Deck recommended it as “the best thing ever!!” whereas Contiki go-ers loved their trip “Soooo much!!”
I decided to go on both to find out which one I enjoyed more.
I allocated myself just over a month in the USA. I wanted to start my travels on the West Coast of America in August so I could experience some of their Summer time.
I looked into Contiki Tours first. They aim their tours at people aged 18-35 years old. For their American & Canadian tours they had a selection of 34 different trips to choose from with lots of different tour dates which suited me really well.
They have 6 different types of tours that you can do around the USA & Canada.
I was tossing up between the ‘High Energy‘ and the ‘Easy Pace’ type of trip. Basically the Easy Pace is where you get to have a sleep-in most mornings and than board a plane to your next destination. It’s quicker I guess to see each city but then I felt like you wouldn’t really ‘get to know’ your Contiki group on a plane compared to the 6-8 hour bus rides you can do instead. (They sound boring but you get that much needed sleep)
In the end I chose the High Energy style tour. Which included…
Don’t worry if you don’t want to just do the States! Contiki also have tours around Europe, Asia, Latin America, Australia & New Zealand.
For the Europe trips, if you’re on a Budget they also have Camping trips where you stay in tents with 1 other person (Of the same sex) or opt to pay a bit more for a single person tent.
Top Deck has similar style trips as well which include staying in Hotels, Camping, Winter trips and Club trips to suit what you want to do.
I looked into their American trips, specifically their Road Trip USA tour that went for 28 days which started in LA and finished in New York but decided on doing a Contiki in the end.
Looking back, I’m not sure which made up my mind…the Top Deck tour went for longer and it was cheaper than the Contiki. Hmm..
What I decided for America
I embarked on a 26 day tour with Contiki called The Grand Southern – starting in Los Angeles.
I made sure to spend 5 days in Los Angeles beforehand at a hostel because once the tour starts, you leave LA immediately and won’t have any time to explore.
(I’d recommend 3 days at least in LA so you can do Theme Parks, Hollywood Sign, Bus Tour etc)
I took an Uber from my hostel to the Kyoto Hotel** the night before the Contiki started and attended a brief orientation with our tour manager and the rest of the group.
You don’t have to go to this, but it’s beneficial as you can give all your passport information and next-of-kin info to your group leader and don’t have to worry about it in the morning.
It’s fun too because you get to meet everyone that you’re going to be travelling with and then head out for some drinks etc.
** – Please note that the Kyoto Hotel is now called DoubleTree By Hilton Hotel
I’ve already written a day-by-day blog on everything I did on my Contiki which you can start to read about here.
The trip on the website promised…
I didn’t do all of these but overall everything I did do I enjoyed.
You don’t pay for anything until your tour finishes which ended up being easier otherwise your tour manager always has to chase you up for your money and then it gets confusing remembered who has and hasn’t paid for what.
At the beginning of your trip you get given a list of all the ME time activities you can do and the prices next to it so you always know from the beginning how much you’ll be spending.
I’ll say this now, if you have the money, try and sign up for as many activities as you can!
Even if it’s not really your thing, you could end up having such an awesome time because of the people you’re doing the trip with. Also, it’s no fun sitting in your hotel room while everyone else goes out on these cool adventures.
Overall, I absolutely LOVED my Contiki. Beforehand, I’d read some people say things like “For the same amount of money, I could have stayed at 4-5 star hotels and had private tours of everything”
This may be true, but Contiki is such an experience in itself. I traveled by myself for 3 months and Contiki was one of the highlights because of all the people I met, because I could sleep on the Coach all day travelling to my next destination hungover while our driver drove us, because I didn’t have to research ‘What to do’ in each state and Contiki organised it for me. So many reasons!
“The meals are crap. Everywhere. If they are included, they are crap.”
This is SO not true!! I Loved all of my meals! I can’t even remember a meal that I didn’t like. If I didn’t like something it’d probably have been because it was Seafood and I hate seafood. But they try and cater to everyone (Gluten free, vegetarian etc…) so I don’t think I even ever had a seafood meal.
“You’ll stay in the outskirts in most places, which makes it very difficult to get around”
I guess there were a couple of places that were a bit ‘out of the way’ like in Orlando we were around a grocery store, about 3 steak houses and LOTS of souvenir stores but that was it. We were only in Orlando for 1 full day anyways and we all did Universal Studios so it was probably good there weren’t any bars or clubs around! I couldn’t imagine going on a roller coaster hungover.
Most of our other hotels however were centrally located. In Memphis we could walk to the main bars, in Las Vegas the bars were IN our hotel, in Washington D.C we were right next to the Subway so we could catch that to the city center.
I guess a few weren’t close enough to just walk everywhere, but our coach always took us out at night if we had dinner or were going to some event. You’re in a group anyways so Taxi’s end up being super cheap (Even cheaper if you take an Uber) which is perfect if you’re dying to head down to the clubs.
“The whole journey is full of alcoholics, the tour manager was arranging partying and drinking nearly every night”
Whoever wrote this obviously went on some type of High Energy Trip and didn’t read that this is usually what happens on them.
If you’ve got some party places on your map of destinations, you’ll most likely be going out! However, never EVER are you forced to go out with the group if you 100% don’t want to.
In reference to one of the girls on my trip who was a bit of a physco, when we were in Las Vegas she yelled at me for drinking a big bucket of margarita in the street (by the way, this is legal and expected in Las Vegas) and whenever someone got drunk she’d tell them how irresponsible and awful they were. We were all baffled as to WHY she was even on the trip.
If you don’t drink, that’s fine, just don’t criticize other people for doing what they want to do on their trip that they’ve also looked forward to for months.
There were about 3 girls on our trip who very rarely drunk alcohol so when they came out dancing with us they’d stick to juices or sodas but still had a great time.
Our Tour Manager had been doing Contiki’s for ages so he knew the best clubs to go to and how to get us some VIP tickets which was great. I never saw him wasted off his face though. If any of us got too drunk while he was out with us, he’d make sure they got back to the hotel safely. I guess some Tour Managers get a little bit crazy, but you have to remember they’re allowed some free time too. If you’re even on a Contiki, you’ll be over 18 years of age and probably don’t need to be baby-sat on your night out.
I had 15 days in Europe before I had to head off to Croatia to start my 1 week sailing trip. I decided on doing a Top Deck tour called ‘European Express‘ NZ$ 1,494 which was for 11 days starting in London and finishing in London.
I chose this tour purely for the fact I only had a short space of time in Europe and all of the other tours Top Deck offered were longer than 15 days.
I also got to quickly see France, Germany and Amsterdam before I headed to Croatia which I was really excited to see 🙂
I guess I didn’t start my Top Deck tour off very well.
I stayed at the hostel that Top Deck recommends you stay at as the tour leaves from there. It’s called Wombats Hostel and you can read my review on it here
If you can’t be bothered reading my review, in brief, the hostel was amazing and probably the cleanest hostel I’ve ever stayed at.
But that’s not why my experience started off badly. On the very first day when I woke up at 5am to board the bus by 6am I had the flu!!
My whole body was aching, I had a temperature, I had barely slept and just wanted to curl up into a ball and be taken care of. Instead I had to board a bus to the Ferry Terminal and take the Ferry across to France with all my new Tour mates.
I probably wasn’t the most social person at the beginning of the trip either because all I wanted to do was sleep. 😦
The first thing that bothered me about the Tour was our first driver. When we got picked up from the Hostel, we were greeted by a ‘larger man’ who spoke in a thick British accent and smoked like a chimney and just seemed angry about having to even take us to the Ferry Terminal in the first place. Just the way he spoke came across grumpy and it felt like he was complaining about every little thing. I’m not sure if it was his sense of humor and maybe he was trying to be funny but all I remember thinking was ‘Oh god, please don’t let him be our driver these whole 2 weeks’
Thankfully he wasn’t our permanent driver. He dropped us off at the ferry and went back to central London on the Top Deck Coach. We were met with another driver when we arrived in France.
With my particular tour, we stayed in Hostels that had been pre-arranged. Unlike Contiki where we where partnered up with someone for the whole trip, Top Deck allowed us to choose who we’d share a room with.
Every day before our new destination, a sheet was passed around the coach with 5-6 different dorm rooms written down (Usually each with 4-6 beds) and we could write down who we wanted to room with that night.
It’s good if you get sick of someone and want to change to hang out with different people.
Also if you’re hooking up with someone on Top Deck I guess it’s a good way to stay in the same room as them as our Tour Guide didn’t actually care if Males & Females roomed together.
I roomed with 2 girls the first night – Kara & Kelly – and ended up having a blast with them the whole time on Top Deck.
The trip on the website promised:
We did however get the chance to go up to the highest point on the European continent when we were in Switzerland- the top of Jungfrau Mountain via the Jungfraubahn railway. I was keen on this as the pictures looked amazing but it was so bloody expensive I didn’t end up doing it. I think it ended up being nearly NZD$250 just to get the train and look from the top. I know to some people that’s such an amazing experience, but I was travelling for 3 months and didn’t have that kind of budget to spend on a view.
Oktoberfest was fun but as I don’t drink Beer I didn’t get that drunk. If we’d had the day in Germany I would have pre-drunk or something beforehand and had a blast but oh well. The food was amazing and the atmosphere was great so I’d defiantly do it again another year but be so much more organised. As we only had that night in Munich, we couldn’t go back the next day to do it all again.
It sucks that it seems like I wrote alot of bad things about my Top Deck tour and that could have been because I started off my trip being sick.
Obviously on my Contiki I was with my group for nearly a month so we all got to know each other really well and made great friendships.
On my Top Deck I was only on it for about 2 weeks so I didn’t make any close-close friendships (apart from with a couple of girls).
Also I did Contiki in the Summer time so Summer Weather = Happiness!
There were obviously some great moments on my Top Deck. Hanging out in Amsterdam was awesome, meeting people from lots of different countries on my trip was sweet! Drinking and dancing together in the underground bar in Switzerland was a fun time 🙂
Conclusion
Contiki was the best.
Top Deck was good but comparing the time’s I had on my Contiki – it just didn’t quite measure up.
I think even if I didn’t do my Contiki I’d still maybe have been a bit disappointed with the Top Deck Tour.
The food on Contiki was better. The activities were funner. The drinking and nights out were more crazy.
I read online that people are put-off from Contiki because it seems like such a party atmosphere. When I read negative reviews online it’s usually from someone who doesn’t like to drink, or is more of a quieter reserved person which is fine, but maybe Contiki isn’t quite for you. (Or it could bring you out of your shell like a few people on my tour!)
I drink, but even I was nervous doing the tour. I imagined waking up to shots of Vodka in my face every morning and spewing on the bus every second day.
But I was absolutely fine!!! You honestly don’t have to go out if you don’t want to. Everyone is really accepting and if you don’t want to drink, no one will force you. We had a few girls on our trip who didn’t drink but they still came out with us and had a great time.
The only problem we had was with one girl because she criticized the rest of us all the time for drinking. Even in Las Vegas she looked at me in disgust because I was drinking from a bucket. People like that just ruin it for themselves because while we all ended up having a great bond she was always excluded because she just didn’t want to accept any of our personalities and we had to always do things ‘her way’
I didn’t spend my days too hungover to appreciate America though! It wasn’t all just drinking. We’d have dinners together even if it wasn’t included on our trip, we took group photos and played games on the coach together. We had nights out bowling and did our optional activities together. We even had a few couples on the trip and they had a great time! They still joined in on our nights out but still had the opportunities to go and have private dinners together or just spend the night in their room together if they couldn’t be bothered going out. No one ever made anyone feel bad for not going out.
Breakdown
Contiki is aimed at customers who are students and young travellers between the ages of 18 and 35. They operate in North & South America, Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. They frequently put up last minute deals on certain destinations and offer major discounts to solo travellers.
Lunch is always up to you. A lot of times you eat at rest stops because you’re usually on the bus during lunch time. Some trips include 1-2 lunches.
Dinner is provided about half the time.
Some budget hotels that Contiki uses are slowly declining because past Contiki groups have partied too hard and the hotels won’t allow the company to return (We got warned beforehand at some hotels to keep it down a little bit)
Topdeck is another major international tour operator providing tours throughout, Europe, North America, Africa, Egypt, East-Asia, Latin American, Middle-East, Australia and New Zealand.
Breakfast is provided everyday and Lunch is usually up to you, most tours will include a few lunches where you stop and have a picnic.
Accommodation varies depending on destinations. They have Hostels, guest houses and bungalows with selected free hotel upgrades. They also have special stop overs such as flotilla sailing in Greece. Rooms are single sex and multi-share, usually 4-6
people per room.
If anyone has any questions about Contiki or Top Deck, let me know in the comments! I love talking about my trip 🙂
And if you’ve done one of their tours, let me know how it went, everyone has different experiences depending on the people they’re with and the things they see so it’ll be interesting to read.
ThePassportPrincess 