20 Day Getaway

Coach Tour: Noun (kch tr)
A group of 50+ people (seniors) crammed into a bus for hours on end with a mind numbing commentary of things and places you're not really interested in. Getting off the bus only to be ushered around by a lady in an 80's inspired suit dress with a large umbrella (and/or pole with colourful tassel). Many museums and more historical commentary.

BORING!
That's pretty much what I thought of coach tours before I worked for a travel agent and had to sell them. Somehow I've also managed to sell the idea to myself as well and I am totally ok with this now.
How about you don't have enough time to figure out what you want to do in places you've never been to. What do you do? Wing it and see how you go roaming aimlessly around a foreign land? No thanks. I'm a little too paranoid and more importantly I'd rather be spending my time at checking out the lovely items on sale or eating the delicious food. I'd also rather not have to worry about how terrible my hostel will be. Or how much it's going to cost me once I'm over there. Have it all booked and paid for ahead of time and better yet, I'd like a chauffeur too please.
One of the reasons we chose a tour was so at the very least we can blame someone for making decisions that weren't ours. Like the food and accommodation haha!
No really, I'm looking forward to seeing the quality of noms and bedding. We didn't have a huge amount of money to spare so we needed a budget friendly tour that gave us enough bang for our buck.

On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again.

So why Topdeck?
Everyone's heard of Contiki. Synonymous with 18yr olds partying on down til the wee hours. Although I'm well aware this isn't entirely true and it really depends on the group going on the tour I'd still prefer something with the best of both worlds. Spend the night doing my own thaaang or catching a party when I can be bothered to put on full face makeup. Remembering also that we need to get on a bus at some ungodly hour, possibly even before midday. A hangover is not on my to do list. So we scoured both Contiki and Topdeck and this was our result.

This particular tour we chose as a group... and as a group I mean the two girls in the group chose the tour and the boys agreed. We had a time frame of about 3 weeks on tour so we don't get cabin fever and want to murder our tourmates.

• 20 days = 3 weeks (just about) Check

We wanted to spend a reasonable amount of time in each place. Overnight stops are really a waste of time in my mind. Ideally I'd love to spend a a week to 5 days in each place... Oh if only I had endless time and money..

• Most stops are 2 nights. Check

 Affordability, cos we're stingy bums. Booking this enough in advance gave us a 5% discount for early bird saving. Having the 4 of us together gave us a group discount of another 5%. Having all of our food included in the tour was a big bonus too. I don't want to limit the amount of pretties I can bring back because it cost me 7Euro for a bottle of water.

• 10% discount. almost all breakfast and lunches included. Most dinner. Check

Most importantly it was going to all the right places at the right time. We made sure we chose a trip with guaranteed departures. All too often as a travel agent a tour will be cancelled because there aren't enough people booked in. Topdeck (and Contiki) offer tours which are guaranteed to go even if it's just you and the trip leader on the bus.

• No escape. definitely going. Check.

Well that's pretty much it as to the why. As I said before though it really did come down to all the pieces fitting into place. there were plenty of other tours that would have been amazing. Some that travelled through Spain, others that went down to Greece or Croatia. After making a big list of pros and cons we went with the one that most suits our needs right now. It wasn't an overnight decision. It actually took us quite a long time thinking about all the places we really wanted to go and the ones that would be a good bonus.

If you're ever thinking of going to Europe, especially if you've never travelled before I recommend a tour. make sure though that it's the right one for you. Not just where you're going but also who you're going with.
You don't want to be herded about with the elderly and the shoulder pad wearing umbrella lady.