Other Options...

[rlk]

O

I forgot to add the quote.

 

[rlk]

Wondering if anyone has any experience with youth / teen group travel? My DS 15 is interested in doing a group trip this summer. Our older DS did a service/cultural immersion trip with a Canadian organization pre-pandemic, but they have since ceased operations for a variety of reasons. We have looked at Travel For Teens but it is hard to find much info online. All reviews are glowing, which makes me a little nervous Obviously our first priority is safety, and supervision is critical - we are not looking for a party experience. Any advice appreciated!

One of my sons really enjoyed the teen tour he took to Iceland and Greece with West Coast Connections. He went with three other friends and they were the only boys in their group.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Well, let me know if you have any specific questions. I'll try to answer!

Sayhello

Will to--thanks!

 

[AddictedtoTravel]

I have a credit on British Airways that I must use by next year. I'm thinking of taking a solo trip and can't decide where and if there's a group (Classic Journeys, Abercrombie & Kent, Wild Women Expeditions...) that works well for a solo traveler. Any suggestions?

 

[sayhello]

I have a credit on British Airways that I must use by next year. I'm thinking of taking a solo trip and can't decide where and if there's a group (Classic Journeys, Abercrombie & Kent, Wild Women Expeditions...) that works well for a solo traveler. Any suggestions?

I've only traveled with 2 other adventure travel companies besides ABD, and that's Backroads and Classic Journeys. I did both trips as a solo traveler. The Backroads trips was several years ago, but was wonderful. They actually have trips that are designated as "Couples, Friends & Solos" trips. They have greatly expanded their scope of trips in recent years. I did a Walking/Hiking tour of Nova Scotia, and really enjoyed it. I haven't traveled with them since I started doing ABDs, mostly because, until recently, most of their trips were only like 5 or 6 days, and I like longer trips. I think they're doing some longer itineraries now. I'm definitely reconsidering traveling with them again.

I also took a trip with Classic Journeys this past October. It was a "small group", Adults Only departure. It was also a really good trip. I definitely enjoyed the small group part (there were 11 of us and 2 Guides), and it was a really good itinerary. The Guides were very good (although not quite Adventure Guide caliber).

I would recommend either for a solo trip. Let me know if you have any questions about solo traveling!

Sayhello

 

[aggiedog]

I have a family member who does Classic Journeys as a solo regularly and really likes them. We've done one trip together with CJ and they do run a really nice trip but it was just her, me and my dh. The will run a trip even with minimal participants, so our Morocco journey ended up being a private tour when the other few pulled out due to Covid concerns.

I have another good friend who does Road Scholar as a solo a lot, and the RS trips I've been on usually have several solo travelers, all women. It is not luxury travel (more mid level), but very well run. I will say the people I've met on my RS trips have been some of my favorite parts of the trip, which is saying something. I'm a total introvert and have no need to make friends while traveling. LOL

 

[AddictedtoTravel]

Thank you aggiedog and sayhello! Morocco is at the top of the list for the moment. I too like the smaller group size potentially, but also don't want it too small . The Classic Journeys Morocco is short, 8 nights. Intrepid has a trip that's 15 days and is a "Premium" level trip. They go to all of the places on my list. Anyone have any experience with them?

 

[Caldisney]

Thank you aggiedog and sayhello! Morocco is at the top of the list for the moment. I too like the smaller group size potentially, but also don't want it too small . The Classic Journeys Morocco is short, 8 nights. Intrepid has a trip that's 15 days and is a "Premium" level trip. They go to all of the places on my list. Anyone have any experience with them?

I had great experiences on Intrepid’s 15 day Best of Morocco trip and their Cuba trip for US citizens. On both trips, we covered a lot of ground with knowledgable and friendly local tour leaders and small groups-12 total in Morocco and 7 in Cuba. Both trips had a comfortable mix of solo travelers, friend groups, and couples. Currently trying to settle on my next destination!

 

[Grifdog22]

Anyone ever travel with Contiki?

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Anyone ever travel with Contiki?

My sister did 2 Contiki trips a few, ahem, decades ago. Not sure what they are now, but back then they were for 18-35 year olds. She really enjoyed both trips, but I don't think they were luxury.

 

[wdhinn89]

Thinking of going to England, Scotland & Wales for my 35th anniversary with my husband and 2 adult children, we used Tauck when we went to Italy and absolutely loved the tour, hotels, group size etc. Unfortunately, they only offer a 14 day tour and my husband and kids want to keep it to a 10 day tour, can anyone recommend a tour company that is very comparable to Tauck?

 

[Candycane83]

So I did ABD Southern California adventure this summer and am currently on the Tauck Bridges Costa Rica tour. I would say I loved the guides in our ABD tour, they did really make it special with Disney touches but maybe more so because it was a Disneyland tour? They were very personable and the kids on the tour followed them around like ducklings. I also loved the fact they took so many pictures! The tours did have quite a bit of free time though which I guess is understandable in the theme park. For Tauck bridges, we’re at day 6 and I feel the tour director and local guide are great too, very knowledgeable! They added so many stories and facts on local culture, process of farming, scientific facts on the animals and plants. It’s great to hear and definitely very educational for the kids. Mine does fall asleep in the bus though so not very helpful in my case haha! Also loved the fact that all meals are included, gratuity are all included and there isn’t much free time! If there is free time, they make a lot of suggestions on what we can do. I feel that this way, I don’t need to make additional plans of where to eat, what extra activities to do. If there is free time, it is very minimal, just enough to rest and relax. Oh and I did love Tortuguero, which is not on the ABD Costa Rica itinerary. It is more rural and remote but it’s such a great experience especially for animal lovers!

All in all, I would probably book with Tauck and ABD again depending on the itinerary they offer. They’re both great in their own way.

 

[wdhinn89]

Thinking of going to England, Scotland & Wales for my 35th anniversary with my husband and 2 adult children, we used Tauck when we went to Italy and absolutely loved the tour, hotels, group size etc. Unfortunately, they only offer a 14 day tour and my husband and kids want to keep it to a 10 day tour, can anyone recommend a tour company that is very comparable to Tauck?

Boosting this post to the top for suggestions. Has anyone traveled with Trafalgar? Opinions?

 

[Grifdog22]

So I did ABD Southern California adventure this summer and am currently on the Tauck Bridges Costa Rica tour. I would say I loved the guides in our ABD tour, they did really make it special with Disney touches but maybe more so because it was a Disneyland tour? They were very personable and the kids on the tour followed them around like ducklings. I also loved the fact they took so many pictures! The tours did have quite a bit of free time though which I guess is understandable in the theme park. For Tauck bridges, we’re at day 6 and I feel the tour director and local guide are great too, very knowledgeable! They added so many stories and facts on local culture, process of farming, scientific facts on the animals and plants. It’s great to hear and definitely very educational for the kids. Mine does fall asleep in the bus though so not very helpful in my case haha! Also loved the fact that all meals are included, gratuity are all included and there isn’t much free time! If there is free time, they make a lot of suggestions on what we can do. I feel that this way, I don’t need to make additional plans of where to eat, what extra activities to do. If there is free time, it is very minimal, just enough to rest and relax. Oh and I did love Tortuguero, which is not on the ABD Costa Rica itinerary. It is more rural and remote but it’s such a great experience especially for animal lovers!

All in all, I would probably book with Tauck and ABD again depending on the itinerary they offer. They’re both great in their own way.

We took our first Tauck trip the Essence of South America for two weeks in mid march. We've done many ABDs. I was very surprised and pleased with Tauck. No dynamic pricing - everyone pays the same. Tauck allows cancellation for any reason and the trip insurance is $350/pp with far better coverage than ABD. None of the legal release/hold harmless/indemnify crap of ABD. The hotels were fabulous - I was worried on our pre-night that there was an error and I was going to be charged the rack rate of $1400 for a suite at the copacabana hotel on the beach at Rio. Two balconies with tables and chairs (heavy wooden pocket sliding doors!) . A kitchen, a massive living room, bedroom, three walk in closets and a bathroom bigger than my work office. It was the least fancy of the hotels we were in, where the service made us feel like royalty. It was, however, a much older tour crowd with some pretty entitled people. The activities were, like Candycane83 mentions, very good with suggestions and assistance for down time if you wanted to do something. There were also a lot of choices in the activities. I would/will travel with Tauck again.

 

[IzzyBella]

Hello, this forum has been such a resource for me that I wanted to share our recent experience traveling to the Azores with Thomson Family Adventures. For comparison, we have taken three ABDs and this trip was our first with Thomson. I’m not going to do a full trip report, but I will try to provide our general impressions. I’m not sure if our experiences were how Thomson operates on all of its trips, or if they were specific to the Azores trip.

The Azores trip is labeled as an active adventure. The pre-trip information specified that participants should be able to walk at least 5 miles daily. We found that we didn’t necessarily walk 5 miles daily, but we did walk a lot as well as doing other activities. Our group consisted of 4 families from across the US for a total of 13 people – 5 kids, 7 parents, and 1 very mobile grandparent. Everyone got along fabulously. By the second day, the kids were sitting together at most meals and on the bus.

We had two guides, who were both from the Azores. They both work for travel companies within the Azores and Thomson partners with them to guide their trips. This worked out well for us as several of our activities were with their travel company and they knew the activities well and the other tour operators.

Our meals were generally very good. Unlike ABD, they were all provided, and wine was included with almost all the lunches and dinners. I think the only meals without wine were the boxed meals provided on travel days. Meals were mostly served family style, with a few opportunities to order off the menu, but I believe everyone found something to eat. My husband and daughter don’t eat seafood, which I shared with Thomson before we left, and the guides and restaurants always had a non-seafood entrée for them.

We had several travel delays on our trip and a couple of days of bad weather, which are obviously out of Thomson’s control, but did lead to several adjustments to the itinerary. The guides handled everything professionally, and communicated well about what was happening, letting us know when they were working on alternatives. We had one flight cancelled from 9AM and rebooked to midnight that night, which meant we were on the wrong island for an entire day. The guides worked with Thomson and their travel partners to find us place for lunch, dinner, and an afternoon activity, and then adjusted the following day’s schedule so we could sleep in a bit and then hit the highlights that we had missed the prior day along with the highlights from that day.

I know several people enjoy Tinkerbell’s luggage service on ABD, so I will share that we were responsible for moving our own luggage around. We stayed at three hotels and flew to a different island and back again, so there was a fair amount of moving. The hotels in the Azores are not like US resorts, but they were nice. They each had a bar, and a nice restaurant, and were well situated and clean. I thought the beds and pillows were average (I love a great bed, so that was my own personal disappointment).

I almost don’t want to mention this because I haven’t fully decided how I feel about it yet, but here goes. One of the dads on our trip broke his leg when we were canyoning (jumping off a 20 foot ledge into the water). The guides knew it was a shallower landing and said everyone had to bend their knees when entering the water. Part of me questions why we were doing it if was potentially dangerous. To be fair, this was one of the substitute activities, so I’m not sure if Thomson vetted it, but it happened. One of the guides accompanied him to the hospital and he rejoined the group later that evening, on crutches. I have a ton of respect for this man – he did not complain even once, even though he missed out on several activities and was struggling for the first day or two until he got used to the crutches. The guides also generally called him a cab to/from restaurants when the rest of us were walking and one of the guides always went with him.

All in all, we had a fabulous trip. Several of the kids were crying on the last day and a few parents got teary-eyed, too. We already have ABD Greece scheduled for next year, but we will definitely be looking at Thompson options going forward. We really enjoyed the smaller group size, and I believe it was less expensive when you consider we only spent about $100 (outside of guide tips) on ice cream, soda, and souvenirs. If you have any questions, please ask.

 

[sayhello]

Hello, this forum has been such a resource for me that I wanted to share our recent experience traveling to the Azores with Thomson Family Adventures. For comparison, we have taken three ABDs and this trip was our first with Thomson. I’m not going to do a full trip report, but I will try to provide our general impressions. I’m not sure if our experiences were how Thomson operates on all of its trips, or if they were specific to the Azores trip.

The Azores trip is labeled as an active adventure. The pre-trip information specified that participants should be able to walk at least 5 miles daily. We found that we didn’t necessarily walk 5 miles daily, but we did walk a lot as well as doing other activities. Our group consisted of 4 families from across the US for a total of 13 people – 5 kids, 7 parents, and 1 very mobile grandparent. Everyone got along fabulously. By the second day, the kids were sitting together at most meals and on the bus.

We had two guides, who were both from the Azores. They both work for travel companies within the Azores and Thomson partners with them to guide their trips. This worked out well for us as several of our activities were with their travel company and they knew the activities well and the other tour operators.

Our meals were generally very good. Unlike ABD, they were all provided, and wine was included with almost all the lunches and dinners. I think the only meals without wine were the boxed meals provided on travel days. Meals were mostly served family style, with a few opportunities to order off the menu, but I believe everyone found something to eat. My husband and daughter don’t eat seafood, which I shared with Thomson before we left, and the guides and restaurants always had a non-seafood entrée for them.

We had several travel delays on our trip and a couple of days of bad weather, which are obviously out of Thomson’s control, but did lead to several adjustments to the itinerary. The guides handled everything professionally, and communicated well about what was happening, letting us know when they were working on alternatives. We had one flight cancelled from 9AM and rebooked to midnight that night, which meant we were on the wrong island for an entire day. The guides worked with Thomson and their travel partners to find us place for lunch, dinner, and an afternoon activity, and then adjusted the following day’s schedule so we could sleep in a bit and then hit the highlights that we had missed the prior day along with the highlights from that day.

I know several people enjoy Tinkerbell’s luggage service on ABD, so I will share that we were responsible for moving our own luggage around. We stayed at three hotels and flew to a different island and back again, so there was a fair amount of moving. The hotels in the Azores are not like US resorts, but they were nice. They each had a bar, and a nice restaurant, and were well situated and clean. I thought the beds and pillows were average (I love a great bed, so that was my own personal disappointment).

I almost don’t want to mention this because I haven’t fully decided how I feel about it yet, but here goes. One of the dads on our trip broke his leg when we were canyoning (jumping off a 20 foot ledge into the water). The guides knew it was a shallower landing and said everyone had to bend their knees when entering the water. Part of me questions why we were doing it if was potentially dangerous. To be fair, this was one of the substitute activities, so I’m not sure if Thomson vetted it, but it happened. One of the guides accompanied him to the hospital and he rejoined the group later that evening, on crutches. I have a ton of respect for this man – he did not complain even once, even though he missed out on several activities and was struggling for the first day or two until he got used to the crutches. The guides also generally called him a cab to/from restaurants when the rest of us were walking and one of the guides always went with him.

All in all, we had a fabulous trip. Several of the kids were crying on the last day and a few parents got teary-eyed, too. We already have ABD Greece scheduled for next year, but we will definitely be looking at Thompson options going forward. We really enjoyed the smaller group size, and I believe it was less expensive when you consider we only spent about $100 (outside of guide tips) on ice cream, soda, and souvenirs. If you have any questions, please ask.

Thanks for sharing! It sounds great, but it still pisses me off that Thomson do not allow solo travelers.

Sayhello

 

[laceltris3]

A couple of weeks ago we got back from our Tauck Bridges Family Fun Along the Siene river cruise. We were there the week of the many riots, but were thankfully not impacted. I won't do a full report, but this was our 5th trip with TB and our first river cruise with them. The ship was lovely and the trip wasn't totally sold out (there were a few open rooms on the lowest deck), I really appreciated the smaller ship. We had approximately 80 total, so when everyone went to the same place we were accommodated on 2 buses. We were usually divided up into groups of 4 (same groups for the whole trip) but in a couple places we only had 3 local guides, but even then the groups were pretty small. There were 4 Tauck guides (well really the tour director and 3 guides) on the trip.

We are a family of 5 so on ABD had booked one of the few double/triple connecting rooms. Tauck has suites that sleep up to 4 (but tbh, the pull out would only work for 2 pre-adolescents, otherwise I'd call it a single). We booked a suite on the top deck (me and the 3 kids) and put my husband in a room on the lowest deck where there is no single supplement. We ended up sleeping 3/2, but it was cheaper to book it 4/1. The suite on Tauck was MUCH bigger than the triple on AMA. So much room they left the pull out bed out all the time and we still had plenty of room. I thought it would bother me, but it was fine. Paying for 2 suites was not in the cards, so we feel ok about our price/inconvenience balance.

Tauck didn't have as many options as ABD. In Paris you could choose a walking tour or a bike ride along the river (which went from the ship to the Eiffel Tower and my husband and older son loved it), and at Versailles, where I don't think anyone chose the bike ride in the gardens over the palace tour, but I never felt like it was lacking. Highlights included the pre-open visit to the Louvre and seeing the Mona Lisa with no crowds and the pre-open visit to Monet's gardens and Giverny. I remembered how I wanted to die doing the hike up to Durnstein on the Danube, but the "hike" up to Richard the Lionheart's fortress in Les Andelys was nothing compared to that!

I think the food and service were definitely equal to ABD/Ama, and they did a great job taking care of my son's food allergies. All of the local guides we had were really of exceptional quality. The tour director was a Tauck employee and was Parisian, and hosted the most amazing trivia nights with prizes. I really can't recommend the TB river cruises enough.

 

[RSM]

We did 2 trips with Thompson before the pandemic. One to Japan and one to Vietnam and Cambodia. For the Vietnam and Cambodia trip there was supposed to be another family on this trip, but they had to cancel. Thompson ran the trip with just my family (3 of us). So, it turned out to be a private trip. We found them to be great to work with as well. They are a small, family owned company that was really impacted by the pandemic. I'm glad to see that they seem to be recovering.

 

[BluesTraveler]

We are home from our Backroads biking trip in Scotland. This was our 3rd Backroads trip. We absolutely loved it. It was 6 days/5 nights, and we tacked on an additional 2 nights at the beginning and one at the end. It started and ended in Edinburgh, and went through the Scottish Highlands.

I think the Venn diagram overlap of people who want an ABD style trip and a Backroads trip might be small, but I'll give a quick run down. We biked about 50 miles/day, and I would characterize the biking as strenuous. I smartly got an e-bike, because even though I consider myself in good shape, there's no way I could have done some of those hills. Our group was 13 people, and we had 3 guides. (This was not a family trip, although Backroads has lots of those.). There was always the option to opt out of an afternoon ride if you wanted to spend time doing something else. Hotels were great and food was AMAZING. Truly top notch. Alcohol was included several nights, but not all. The trip included a Scotch whisky tasting, a Highlands games demonstration, and an evening lecture from a bagpipe player/maker (all were super fun).

We love these trips and are already planning our next one. What you don't really get is the opportunity to do the tours of castles/historical sites or poke around the little towns, because the biking does take most of the day. (We did have lunch in Drummond Castle one day.). If those things are important to you, you would either plan not to bike in the afternoon and do those on your own, or do a different style trip. I'm happy to answer any questions about Backroads.

 

[SirDuff]

We are home from our Backroads biking trip in Scotland. This was our 3rd Backroads trip. We absolutely loved it. It was 6 days/5 nights, and we tacked on an additional 2 nights at the beginning and one at the end. It started and ended in Edinburgh, and went through the Scottish Highlands.

I think the Venn diagram overlap of people who want an ABD style trip and a Backroads trip might be small, but I'll give a quick run down. We biked about 50 miles/day, and I would characterize the biking as strenuous. I smartly got an e-bike, because even though I consider myself in good shape, there's no way I could have done some of those hills. Our group was 13 people, and we had 3 guides. (This was not a family trip, although Backroads has lots of those.). There was always the option to opt out of an afternoon ride if you wanted to spend time doing something else. Hotels were great and food was AMAZING. Truly top notch. Alcohol was included several nights, but not all. The trip included a Scotch whisky tasting, a Highlands games demonstration, and an evening lecture from a bagpipe player/maker (all were super fun).

We love these trips and are already planning our next one. What you don't really get is the opportunity to do the tours of castles/historical sites or poke around the little towns, because the biking does take most of the day. (We did have lunch in Drummond Castle one day.). If those things are important to you, you would either plan not to bike in the afternoon and do those on your own, or do a different style trip. I'm happy to answer any questions about Backroads.

I’ve not done the Scotland trip, but I’ve done a few Backgrounds (biking as well as hiking). Your synopsis is very similar to how I’d describe my trips. Once I know what continent I’ll be living on, I‘m hoping to plan a trip in 2024.