Contiki – the Good, the Bad and the Brutally Honest

Contiki tours are such a popular way to travel for a lot of young Australians, especially when venturing to Europe. I have now been on three separate Contiki tours in Europe (2013), Mexico (2014) & Southeast Asia (2017). Whilst they are easy and fun tours, I think it’s good to know about every aspect of the tour to see if it’s right for you.

What’s a Contiki tour?

For any non-Australians/Kiwis, Contiki is a tour company that runs organised travel tours all across the world. They have tours across Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Australia and even parts of Africa. They have an age range of 18-35 and were typically known as ‘party tours’ for a long time but have dulled that reputation slightly as of late.

How does Contiki work?

You can choose from a wide range of tours in different styles. From slow paced camping to short festival trips and city stays. You get your own tour manager as well as your own bus and driver to take you on the journey. If your tour manager isn’t local then you will also get a local tour guide per region. The internal flights and transport is all included, with private buses and/or vans. A lot of the time the tours will consist of a long bus day/flight between cities, then 1-3 nights at a destination before you move onto the next.

What’s included on Contiki?

• Accommodation
• Transport during the tour
• Some meals – usually breakfast is included daily and some group lunches/dinners
• Trip manager, drive team & local guides
• Some activities (most are available for an additional cost)

Comparing Contiki inclusions in different continents:

Europe: There were some small included extras, but a lot are available for an extra cost. The tour manager explained that it is like this to keep the cost of the tour as low as possible and to ensure everyone only spends money on what they want to do. The trip up the Eiffel Tower was included because everyone wants to do that. But extras like the Moulin Rouge show or a tour through the Vatican City came at a cost.

Mexico: Most small tours were included here, including big trips such as entry to Chichen Itza and a boat party. That was a really good thing about the tour here, and there was still free time to see other sights. There were also optional extras such as snorkeling trips and swimming with Whale Sharks.

Southeast Asia: This had a mix of included sights (the most famous attractions), walking tours and then optional activities as well. For Asian standards I believe the prices of these extras were a bit high though.

What kind of traveller would suit a Contiki tour?

• Solo travellers
• First time travellers
• People with minimal time that want to see a lot
• Those who don’t like organising travel plans
• Social butterflies
• People who aren’t too sure what they want to see
• Couples – all of my trips had couples, one even had honeymooners! If you’re a social couple then it can be a great option too.

The pros and cons of Contiki tours

The good:

• If you’re a solo traveler, this is a guaranteed way to make friends
• The Contiki tour managers know their stuff, you’ll get a lot of history lessons along the way
• It fits a lot into a small amount of time. Great for someone with only a few weeks of vacation time. For example we saw 13 countries in Europe in 24 days.
• Party, party, party. Lots of fun.
• Local tour guides are super helpful with tips and advice.
• Everything is organised for you, so a lot less stress.
• They provide a lot of information & optional extras, so even less effort to research things to do.
• Generally, the groups are like minded travelers just there for a good time like you!
• Breakfast is included and some other meals (giving you a chance to try what you want as well)
• Safety. Traveling in a group and with local guides provides security.

The bad:

• It can be very rushed, in some of the biggest tourism cities in the world with so much to see, you may only get one full day there to see it all.
  • eg. in Europe we would have two nights in most cities, but it takes a whole ‘bus day’ to get there, meaning only one day to fit in so many attractions and activities.
• The optional extras can sometimes be overpriced.
  • eg. in Mexico, I paid around $100 USD for a swim with the whale sharks. I found a similar tour for $80 USD a few days later.
• If you go alone, you have to share a room with a stranger. I got lucky two times with lovely girls, and once with my own room as there was an odd number of girls. But if that’s not your thing, it costs a lot more for a private room.
• If you choose a camping tour, the campsites are far out of the cities.
• Being comfortable in a group means you don’t branch out and meet locals.
• Tips to the driver and tour manager are not included. Some are not paid much at all and rely on tips to make a living.

The brutally honest

• It’s got to be said, but being with the same group of people for a long period of time may cause some tension. You may not like some people and be essentially stuck with them but the group sizes are big enough that you do spread out and don’t have to hang out with everybody. Some groups may also be a bit clique and there may be a bit of high school style drama. This depends on your group though, and their ages help. Europe groups tend to be a lot younger than the rest of the world where the average age is 25-27.
• They take you to the extremely cliche touristy spots, meaning you don’t get much of a ‘local’ or ‘cultural’ experience and the more tourist driven, the more expensive it is.
• It’s expensive. You can definitely do it much cheaper by booking everything yourself. I paid around $3000 for the Mexican Contiki (13 days) and about $3500 for the European Winter one (24 days). That’s around $150 a day in Europe and $230 a day in Mexico, not including food and some tours. But you pay for the experience of going on a group tour. Although there are also cheaper group tours out there so….

Conclusion on Contiki

All in all, I had an absolute blast on all of my tours and thought they were 100% worth it. If you want to have a memorable trip and have the money, then go for it! These tours were the start of my love for travel and gave me the confidence to backpack solo around the world. I will forever thank Contiki for making my first solo trip so memorable.

Check out my post on how to decide where to go on a short trip to Europe. Or if you are wanting to plan your own trip instead of do an organised tour like Contiki, then I have a travel planning guide too.

Thanks for reading and as always,

Happy Travels!