Hi,
Has anyone been on a breakaway tour? I and my wife are looking at doing the european focus in 2007 and don't know much about it. Any information would be great and appreciated.

Also what is the accomodation like on the tour. I have looked some up on the net and have only seen some bad reviews. All i need to know is if they are clean and centrally located.

Amsterdam - ibis schiphol
Rhineland - Europa
Munich - Holiday Inn south
Venice - San Giuliano
Rome - Ergife palace
Florence - Best western select
Lucerne - Weinhof
Paris - Novotel porte d'italie

boab, hi, and welcome to the board. Not sure what is meant by a breakaway tour, but that is not surprising, different tours are known by different names and descriptions, according to the expressions used in your part of the World. ie someone looking at the Trafalgar site in Australia will see a different website from someone in the US. I did a search on 'breakaway' from Aus and found nothing!

Generally First class tours use more centrally located hotels, and the costsaver tours use hotels which are out of town, the accommodation is comparable, but centrally located costs more for the same standard.

I never take too much notice of hotel review sites, as it is all in the eye of the beholder, and someone who has found the hotel not up to their particular expectations, is more likely to post than one who was satisfied. On the occasions that I have looked at review for a hotel, prior to staying there, I have often though that I must be staying in a different hotel from that reviewed.

As far as I am aware, Trafalgar provides adequate, good clean accommodation (we certainly have had no cause for complaint so far, though we have only done first class tours). In actual fact, you will probably see very little of your hotel room, as there is so much to do and so little time. For a one night stop it doesn't really matter whether your hotel is in or out of town - by the time you have arrived, settled in, and freshened up, it will be time for dinner. I might add here I am of an age where the most sensible thing to do after dinner is retire for the night. If you are young enough to feel the need to party on after dinner, then a taxi into town will probably be more economical than booking a first class tour with its more conveniently situated hotels.

For a 2 night stopover of course, being in a conveniently centrally located hotel is good, but I would think being out of town would not present too much of a problem, there will generally be a shuttle bus or public transport available.

I might be totally wrong about all this, I am sure someone who knows more about these things than I do will soon post some good advice!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Steve H,

steveH,

Absolutely agree re hotels - as long as they are clean and tidy, I am fine with them. Trafalgar on the whole uses great hotels (maybe one or two exceptions which make for interesting stays)and I am there to explore the city and soak up the atmosphere - not spend too much time in a hotel room.
Go with the flow and enjoy the tour!!

quote:

Originally posted by steveH:
boab, hi, and welcome to the board. Not sure what is meant by a breakaway tour, but that is not surprising, different tours are known by different names and descriptions, according to the expressions used in your part of the World. ie someone looking at the Trafalgar site in Australia will see a different website from someone in the US. I did a search on 'breakaway' from Aus and found nothing!

Steve,

"Breakaway" are TTs for 21 - 37 yr olds.

http://trafalgartours.com.au/AUS/Brochures

Thanks Dimpz - my fault entirely, I don't read children's books anymore! However, now I am a grandpa, I might have to learn again. In my defence, I did type in 'breakaway' in the tour search box and got zero results.

.....& here was me thinking you were Peter Pan

Seriously, I find the tour search box not always a lot of help.

Hello boab,

My daughter did this tour two years ago, she had a wonderful time, she said that not all the hotels were centrally located but they were clean and comfortable, she only did about half the optionals because she enjoyed wandering around the towns on her own with a couple of the other people from the tour.

Thanks all, i have paid my deposit to go next year on the breakaway (21-38 yo) and can't wait. As there is not much info in the brochures about this tour I think I will take heaps of photos and write a couple of reviews. I have also included to return to my homeland Scotland. So it should be a fantastic trip and I get to take my family.

Whereabouts in Scotland are you from?

""Breakaway" are TTs for 21 - 37 yr olds."

Actually, it's for 21 to 38 year olds but I'm not sure whether that extra year matters much!

When I search "breakaway", I get 67 pages of postings but that's on this website. If you're on the TT website, it doesn't come up under search for a tour but you can see it in the brochure section. Boab, use the search function on this website and you'll get all kinds of information on breakaway tours.

Boab-What month are you going on the Breakway Ultimate? My fiance who will by then be my husband and I are going on the Aug 29th 2007 tour.
Courtney

Hi, I stayed at the Ibis Schipol in 2003.. it is out of Amsterdam near Schipol Airport - from memory it was clean and quiet and offered a shuttle to and from the airport.. I was already in Amsterdam after some time in France and I do remember the taxi from the hotel in town out to the Ibis was about 35euros..it was a flat fee which they charged to go from the city to the airport (and as the hotel is basically next door I got charged that).. not sure about public transport...

quote:

Originally posted by Folly32a:
Hi, I stayed at the Ibis Schipol in 2003.. it is out of Amsterdam near Schipol Airport - from memory it was clean and quiet and offered a shuttle to and from the airport.. I was already in Amsterdam after some time in France and I do remember the taxi from the hotel in town out to the Ibis was about 35euros..it was a flat fee which they charged to go from the city to the airport (and as the hotel is basically next door I got charged that).. not sure about public transport...

You could probably get the train from the airport into town (after getting the shuttle bus to the airport or wherever). I think thats what a few of us did when we stayed there - mind you, that was about 11years ago!

cheers,
ClareS

Hi all

I'm a 30 year old South African, who's never had the fortunate experience of putting my foot out of our (albeit beautiful) country. Having decided it's time to see, first hand, the places I've only read about and that my imagination has glamourised, I've been trying to find out about alternative tours.

While I'm extremely independant and would probably prefer hiring a car and touring on my own, this thought currently scares me no end. Simple things like never having been in a position of getting onto a bus (except for school where teachers supervise accordingly), never having seen an "underground" much less bought a ticket and/or got onto one (we do not have an established public transport system whatsoever), and silly things such as not knowing how to put petrol into my own car (fellow South Africans might sympathise with this) have made me think that a bus tour might be the better option first time round. Hey, all I know about "hailing a taxi" is what I've seen in the movies! Just imagine my face when I finally land in London!

So, just to familiarise myself with the way things are done elsewhere and to give me an indication of which places I'd really like to explore, TT has come "Highly Recommended"!!

But, this does not resolve my question of which tour...

The choices (as I see them)... Breakaway (ie 21 - 38 age bracket) vs First Class (yes, my friends will think I sound snobbish but I really, really appreciate a good, extremely comfortable bed! ) Not to mention the balancing act of places to see vs timelines.

So, I have to think about this in terms of who I am...
I do enjoy socialising and the night life, however I'm not an extreme party animal (the type that will prefer that younger tour.. yes, you know the one I'm referring to ). But, I would love to experience the night life culture (and a good bottle of local red wine). I'm also extremely interested in History and Culture. While I enjoy older company I would prefer to also have the potential of people on tour who will be up to experiencing some of the night life (rather than doing all of that on my own for a month), not that I think older people won't, I"m just unsure of the type of people that select TT. Cashflow is always important, but I'm concerned as to the postings I've read re "roommates". I'm shy, and have also read some posts re "travelling single" which concern me.

Apologies for the long post, but I believe one needs to understand the circumstances before one can comment. So my exact questions are:

Recommendations please:
a) Attempt it "going alone" vs TT?
b) If TT, Breakaway vs First Class? Has anyone been on both variations? If so, relating experiences, differences, pros, cons, etc. will be greatly appreciated.
c) Thoughts on "room sharing"?
d) Will a 30+ day tour be too long first time? Or would a 20-odd day be better to really "take things in"?
e) If I end up doing "first class", what is the chance of other people being willing to do some of the "night life" with me?
f) Will I end up baby sitting someone else's kid(s) all holiday? I love children, but don't want to be stuck with someone else's the entire time, simply 'cause I'm the singleton when it comes to rotation.
g) Lastly, what happens if I oversleep? (as mcuh as I would HATE to inconvenience anyone else, I'm NOT a morning person! )

Apologies again for the looooooong post, but suggestions would be really welcome! Thanks y'all

A

ps. Destination: I'd love to do more traditional aspects of Europe initially. Figured I can do UK alone later (since it's English speaking, and they drive on the same side of the road as us ) although the TT UK tours look awesome! But that's for next year...

quote:

Recommendations please:
a) Attempt it "going alone" vs TT?

TT, without a question, especially if you're unfamiliar with overseas travel and the way things are done in other countries.

quote:

b) If TT, Breakaway vs First Class? Has anyone been on both variations? If so, relating experiences, differences, pros, cons, etc. will be greatly appreciated.

Can't help you with that one, I'm afraid, other than to say that TT's FC tours are excellent. I would NOT go on a CostSaver, personally.

quote:

c) Thoughts on "room sharing"?

Avoid like the plague! You hear too many "horror stories". Pay the single supplement - it's worth it for the peace of mind.

quote:

d) Will a 30+ day tour be too long first time? Or would a 20-odd day be better to really "take things in"?

It would be too long for me at any time. Tours are damned hard work - I'm shattered after a 2 week tour.

quote:

e) If I end up doing "first class", what is the chance of other people being willing to do some of the "night life" with me?

Pretty good, in my experience.

quote:

f) Will I end up baby sitting someone else's kid(s) all holiday? I love children, but don't want to be stuck with someone else's the entire time, simply 'cause I'm the singleton when it comes to rotation.

If anyone tries to pull that stunt, tell them where to get off. It is NOT your responsibility to act as a babysitter to anyone else's children. Luckily, children are comparatively rare on coach tours, especialy if you avoid school holidays.

quote:

g) Lastly, what happens if I oversleep? (as mcuh as I would HATE to inconvenience anyone else, I'm NOT a morning person! )

Simply answer - you don't oversleep, or else everyone else on the coach will hate you forever. Don't rely on getting an alarm call; take at LEAST two alarm clocks (I use a travel alarm clock and my mobile phone) and set 1 for 10 minutes after the other, and leave at least one out of reach of the bed so you have to get up to switch it off. Being late is the "cardinal sin" on a coach tour. You just don't do it, it's as simple as that.