A few weeks ago, Contiki Holidays put up a message on Facebook that “you can literally save hundreds of dollars going with Contiki over doing it on your own” and that backpacking was “so 1997.” Amused, I tweeted how that wasn’t right since independent budget travel is always cheaper. Contiki tweeted otherwise.
Whether or not you believe backpacking is “so 1997,” (it’s not) it doesn’t change the fact that Contiki is NOT cheaper than independent travel, and I found it completely disingenuous they even tried to make that point (twice!). The Contiki tweeter pointed out that they get group rates, and can therefore get better deals. I don’t think so. I’ve been on tours before. I like tours. They have their moments and can be especially good for first time travelers who want to go places but are scared to do it by themselves. But even the best companies are never cheaper than solo travel. This is because these companies have to pay for guides, buses, insurance, and administrative costs.
But the reality is in the numbers. For example, let’s look at one of Contiki’s “budget” European tours. I called Contiki to make sure all my information was correct. And it should be noted that their operator said the rules by which the budget tours operate are the same as the others. The difference between budget tours and other tour classes is simply accommodation standards.
European Horizon Tour (12 day tour)- Contiki calls this a 12 day tour for $1415 or $117 per day. The tour includes 10 nights accommodation (3 to 4 people per room), 9 breakfasts and 6 dinners. However, Day 1 is the day you fly to Europe and the last day is a transfer to the airport, making this really a 10 day trip at $141 dollars per day. Now, let’s assume your average budget meal in Europe is €8 euros, which adds another $145 dollars onto your trip (10 lunches, 3 breakfasts). Moreover, no entrance fees to any attractions are included. Most people spend about €20 per day ($280) on attraction entrance fees. Additionally, the average cost of a flight to Europe right now is $600. Adding the numbers up, the total cost of this trip is now $2,440 dollars without counting alcohol, any optional activities, or anything more than a budget meal. So for 10 days you are really spending $244 dollars per day not $117.
Contrast this with doing it on your own. For ten days of travel, you get numbers that look like this: Flight= $600, Meals = $280 (€20 euros for 10 days), Sightseeing = $280 (€20 per day), Transportation= $250 (local train travel), Accommodation = $420 (4 bed dorm, shared bath at €30 per night) bringing your total to $1,830. Note: For accommodation, I used Amsterdam prices. This tour goes to many places, but Amsterdam is one of the most expensive cities in Europe, thereby making sure I am not accused of trying to “lowball” estimates for literary effect.
That is a $600 dollar difference, not including the fact that most hostels include breakfast (lowering cost), you can Couchsurf (lowering cost), or make your own meals (lowering cost). Even if backpacking is so 1997, you clearly can’t save hundreds of dollars by going on Contiki.
What do you get for your costs? Well, in my opinion, nothing I want. I’ve never taken a Contiki tour. I’ve thought about it many times but I’ve never been able to justify the cost and pace of being shuffled through Europe quickly just so I can party more. Geared to 18-35 year olds looking for a good time, tours on Contiki tours tend to be filled with parties, young people, and alcohol. Most of the travelers on these tours have just a few weeks in Europe and are there to have fun before going back to work. Friends of mine have gone on Contiki, and they all come back with the same story: it was fun, they met a lot of people, and they partied hard.
I generally avoid tours because I don’t like spending one day here and one day there. And Contiki is that type of tour company. Now, I’m not here to blast Contiki. Contiki travel works for many people, and they have a clearly defined audience (of which I am not apart of). However, I found it disingenuous of them to state they are cheaper than doing it on your own. Because they aren’t. In fact, no tour company is- they all have administrative costs to cover that you don’t.
I am a huge fan of Gap Adventures as well as Intrepid Tours. Both of these companies take the planning out of travel for you while giving you an environment as structured as you want. You can go on highly structured tours or tours where you get days and days to yourself to do what you want. The people on these tours are looking for a good time, but they aren’t looking for a booze-filled time. However, even while these tours tend to be cheap, they are still not cheaper than independent travel.
There are many good tour companies out there. Every company, including Contiki, has a certain audience and is right for certain types of travelers. But don’t be under the impression that tours are cheaper, and don’t buy into the sales pitch that they are.
Excellent post Matt. I can’t believe Contiki tried to say they were cheaper… it’s great to see you work out the numbers to prove otherwise. What is more confusing… what’s with the ‘backpacking is so 1997′ comment? What does that even mean? I would have thought that independent travel was on the rise, not the other way around.
Tours like Contiki scare me! My take on that type of travel is that you could stay in your own hometown and get raging drunk every night for a fraction of the cost of the plane ticket etc.
I have however traveled with Gap & Intrepid, both were good companies. I would argue though that depending on the country (& your travel style) a tour CAN be cheaper if you’re traveling solo. I did one of their last-minute departures in Morocco that was 20% off, and it would have been much more expensive on my own since many parts of Morocco you have to hire transportation etc. Now if I’d only gone to major cities or had 3 friends with me it would have been cheaper sans-tour. Cheers!
I’ve been on a Contiki tour. It was my first tour, and as Kirsty commented on my blog at the time, a bit of a “drunken shagfest” (which was true).
I enjoyed it, and like you said, I met friends and will hopefully be staying with them when I go to Australia next year. But it was amazing looking at the photos, they originally started as pictures of scenery/touristy (Collusium, Arc De Triomphe etc.), but as the trip went on the pictures became more and more me + random contiki tourer + beer. In fact, in my write up, the pic that summed up the trip was a group picture – http://bit.ly/8GdJl/. I think that says more about the tour (good or bad!) than Europe.
I CAN imagine times where Contiki would be cheaper. I think Oktoberfest would be VERY difficult to do for under the £229 they have quoted on their website (assuming you’re in London, which I am
). Whether you’d like 5 (or 3 going on what you said) days in Oktoberfest is another matter! And I suspect why it could be cheaper is that a lot of these tour companies buy up all available bed space early on!
Contiki. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Did it open up a love of travelling? Yes (it was my first time abroad). Would I do another one? No, as I’ve now learnt the world isn’t that much of a scary place
good post!
i’m a travel agent and a youth travel specialist so work with a lot of tour companies that offer options to the would-be-backpacker crowd (contiki, topdeck, busabout, on the go etc). i think the main benefit of conitiki is that it gives a bit of security blanket that you definitely don’t get with couch surfing and booking your own hostels, low cost carriers etc. i personally love the random chaos that comes along with being a couchsurfer but even i have pondered doing some of the regional tours that contiki has like the turkish delight tour.
as far as cost comparing, if you’re a hardcore budget traveler then you’ll always find a way to beat the cost of a tour…but most people i book on tours wouldn’t sleep on floors, couches and massive dorm-style hostels. for them, tours are a great savings over booking 2 or 3 star hotels.
I would never even consider taking a tour such as Contiki, as group travel has been a total nightmare on the few short occasions I have participated due to logistics and the idea of being trapped with people I may not like at all. Being rushed through Delphi is antithetical to the nature of a spiritual experience, and you feel a like herded cattle. As a result, I have always traveled independently by one means or another–though, as you rightly mention in another piece, ending up as an appetizer for a lion on a Safari has its drawbacks.
Nonetheless, I know a woman who took a Contiki tour before she met me and it changed her life, not having been exposed to any other travel before. When we dated I showed her the advantages of slow travel, and she actually saw and experienced Rome, Paris, etc. in depth while immersing herself in the time and culture on its own terms. But her tour experience with Continki had served its purpose and she remains friends with some of those with whom she “partied” across Europe, “doing” it in a few weeks (the notion of “doing” a country seems so imperialistic to me, and is the opposite of responsible travel, as the money does not return to the local community).
But, chacun à son goût!
As someone who runs group tours (and they are the antithesis of Contiki Tours), I can tell you that you can always do better traveling on your own. However, there are lots of travelers who don’t want to do it alone. My travelers come with me because they want to see Italy with an art expert, and they don’t want the hassle of making all of their own arrangements. On my trips they get both concierge and guide in one. Again, though, I’m not in the Contiki price range at all.
That said, one of my favorite travel memoirs is written by someone who used to run these kinds of tours and lived to tell… check out Rule No. 5: No Sex on the Bus by Brian Thacker. It is hilarious, hysterical, and just downright fun… and it may make you think twice about large group, budget travel.
I just want to say that I agree with everyone here: Tour groups provide a great way for first time travelers to experience the road with some kind of “security blanket.” While many people will just up and go do it, for some people they want to dip their toe into the pool before jumping in and tour groups are great for that.
My first trip to Costa Rica was with Gap Adventures and it set me out on the path I am on now. Even a tour like Contiki can set people down the travel path. But the post isn’t about the value of tour groups, it’s about the price and as people have said, they aren’t cheaper.
I feel companies like Contiki are for lazy travelers (what an oxymoron, huh?). If you don’t feel like putting forth the effort into planning your own trip, you might as well pay someone else a pretty penny to do the legwork for you. Backpacking isn’t so 1997. The fact is, some people (mainly Americans) lead an increasingly sedentary lifestyle as time marches on, and companies like Contiki complement that lifestyle.
I also agree with everything in the article and comments…depending on the country. I used to be a travel agent for the student market, so am very familiar with quite a few of the budget tour operators. I didn’t enjoy selling them because that is not how I prefer to travel. I am typically the type that refuses to go on tours, but when I went to Africa I did an overland camping tour from Capetown to Victoria Falls with Nomad (www.nomadtours.co.za/) and am incredibly thrilled that I did. I would not have been comfortable traveling solo and I would not have been able to go to many of the locations that I did. Contiki works for first time travelers that like to party, but if you are actually interested in learning about the culture and truly experience another country, you won’t get that.
It can be incredibly beneficial to travel with a tour operator in certain destinations, but I would still advice you to research who you are going with. Make sure your tour operator is locally owned and operated. They provide a better experience because they are more familiar with where you are going and they give back much more to the local communities. I just heard about two siblings booking an independent tour through GAP to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. They were told by GAP that they would have a guide and a porter to themselves. Turns out, when they got to their meeting point before departure it was with a locally owned operator who had 4 other people booked to go with them, even though they made sure to ask before they go that it would be a true GAP representative. Then they found out that the other people that climbed with them paid $400 less per person because they booked directly through the local operator.
Tours are not a bad thing. There is a lot to be said to be with a local that knows the in’s and out’s of where you are and has a great reputation with the locals everywhere you will be going.
I’m going on a Contiki tour in Australia in a couple of months. Given my choice, I would probably do the independent travel thing but I was invited by a friend who is in the military and likes to do Contiki tours because he often only finds out at the last minute that his 30 day leave has been approved thus no time for planning.
I intend to travel independently to NZ, Thailand, and maybe Japan after the Contiki tour is over.
Even if Contiki is a bit expensive and not self-guided, I’m looking forward to the trip.
Actually, when traveling from Japan, tours with hotels included can be a very good deal. For shorter trips my wife and I generally try to find a tour package with hotels, breakfast and airport pickup and drop off. Prices are typically marginally more than the airfare alone.
Perhaps it is because Japanese travelers tend to spend a lot at hotel stores and purchase up-sell tours, but I was surprised when I first discovered the great value Japanese tours offer.
They are definitely much cheaper than buying the airfare and accommodation separately. The real benefit is that you get high quality hotels for hostel prices. I have only seen these deals from Japan though.
personally I like travelling on my own..but we have just started group tours ourselves to offer experiential travel and though these are just weekend tours, Im beginning to enjoy the experience, not just to travel with a group but to be a tour guide too and partake what we have got out of our experiences
Great article Matt. I am usually one for independent travel – believing it to be cheaper, a better way to learn about the country, and culture and frankly more fun (who wants to be stuff with a group of people you’re not really gelling with for a week!) But, last year my husband and I took a 2-week tour with Intrepid through China, and it was wonderful. A great introduction to China. Our guide, Jack, detailed the history, culture, customs, politics of the country while allowing us to partake in some independent travel. Although, our group became such good friends that we usually all hung out together.
So, now I’m much more of a believer in group tours (with certain companies…I don’t think I could ever travel with Contiki), but still prefer to do things the independent way.
Your statement is correct that tour is not cheaper than independent travel. But since your post title is ‘Would you Contiki?’, I think you will find various answers. As for some people, cheapest option might not be what they are looking for. I can see the example from my own family. My mom is in her 60s and she can’t speak other languages than Thai and just a little bit of Chinese. Group tour is a way for her to travel to other countries like in Europe or Australia.
Would I consider Contiki? No.. Because part of the fun for me in traveling is the planning part. Why pay someone else to enjoy that part of the travel planning when I can do it myself. But I also understand that other people might not have time or resources to do the same.
Wow – haha, you b!tch slapped their smug remark with numbers. It was like watching that scene in Good Will Hunting. So good.
Agree with you whole heartedly, cheaper to backpack and do it yourself. You’re saving money, have more freedom, won’t have to deal with some doucher who’s getting all alpha male all over any1 looking at his “girl”. Get rid of the security blankets, grab your nuts (or ovaries) and book the trip yourself people. You learn valuable lessons by doing so.
Funny Matt – I did the same figures back in the 80’s and they came back exactly the same about 1/3 more expensive for the tour. I like Contiki though – never been on one but we got an excellent free tour guide in Pompeii – we got lost going there (I dont think the train station marked Pompeii was the right one!) – we ended up coming into the site from the back end walking thru deserted Roman streets it was like a set – I expected a bloke in a toga to come around the corner. Instead we found the hung over contiki group who couldn’t be bothered with this excellent guide. We started following them around cause he was really good. We tried to be subtle initially but everyone else dropped off . In the end we ended up tipping him and he asked us if we were part of the group – we admitted not – he wasn’t surprised the Contiki ones never cared about the history.
I love to drink – but I don’t udnerstand why I’d spend all that time and money just to be too hung over to appreciate Pompeii!
I myself have been on 3 contiki tours. I agree that they are not cheaper than solo travel, but the tours I did were well worth the cost. They are great for beginner travelers and excellent for laid back trips where you don’t have to plan a thing because it is all laid out for you. They are also great for traveling to places where travel from point A to B is generally more difficult. Also the Europe tours are great for getting a basic over view of a place to see if you like it and would then want to come back and spend more time in that particular place.
Hello
I spent a year backpacking in Europe, and have done about 10 Contiki tours as well. I like both forms of travel for different reasons. In life there is a value on time and when backpacking you spend a lot of time organizing travel, accommodation, food etc.
One big flaw in your calculation is the cost of transportation. $250 is way too low. Just to get from London to Paris or London to Amsterdam is $150 round trip by train.
I still believe backpacking is cheaper but the margin is closer than your calculation.
Glad to see the mention of GAP and Intrepid, the only two tour companies that seem to charge fair prices for their tours and keep the number of travelers down to a small size. I’ve seen tours that charge many thousands of dollars for, say, 2 weeks in Mongolia, when a comparable Intrepid trip would cost under a thousand.
When I was working full time in the states, I found Intrepid to be a great way to travel for 2 or 3 weeks in a style similar to what I would do on my own — with the advantage of them handling all the logistics beforehand. Since time was so precious, it was great to not waste time waiting for buses and stuff like that. I always had a good experience with them, and it was a wonderful way to learn how to travel in Asia.
“Would You Contiki?”
Well I did, but I don’t think it is something I would ever do again.
Matt you make a lot of good points here, with the optional extras only (which sometimes you really aren’t given a choice of whether to go on or not) in the end it added up to be much more expensive than the advertised price.
And like you mentioned we did not get to see a lot of the major attractions at all around Europe, or at least not for long a couple of hours in the main cities was all we had.
Thanks for the great article.
First, I have never actually went on a Contiki tour. But I did sit in on a single day tour with Contiki once. The tour was of Vienna, a city which I happen to know inside and out.
The tour guide was some very young girl (from Australia?). She was friendly enough to let me sit on the tour along with the regular tour group. I think it was one of those germany/austria/switzerland tours. I met the group in a rather run down bar next to their hotel which happened to be in one of the more seedy areas of Vienna. Pity too, because Vienna has so many quaint areas where hotels are inexpensive, and very affordable heurigers to eat at, that would have really shown these people a bit of the Austrian culture. But instead they took them to a seedy bar that had zip culture.
So this young tour guide chattered on as the bus drove around the ring in the center of Vienna. I was astonished as she pointed out sights and gave descriptions of them that were totally wrong. I think she mislabeled the parliament buildings and gave Vienna a completely new history on the creation of the ring strasse. In summary, she didn’t know much at all about Vienna. But the people on the tour had absolutely no idea.
Even if they can get bulk rates for hotels and such, are they really the kind you would want to stay in? And what is the point of a bus tour if they are feeding you false information? I suppose it is only good for the wheels to get you there. I would rather go on my own, find small but quaint hotels, nice little cafes to eat for cheap, and a good guide book. It would definitely be cheaper and more fun.
So disappointed… I was expecting a post on sailing the Pacific on a balsa-wood raft…
I’ve done Contiki twice. First time was European Magic and then Italian Espresso.
Contiki really does cater to a certain group of people. Is it cheaper than backpacking or solo trips 100% of the time, no. However it can be.
Would I do it again? Probably not. When I first a Contiki tour I never traveled before, was going alone and was so shy everything scared the crap out of me. I thought it was the greatest thing at the time, but looking back 3.5 years later the only thing I could remember of Paris was that I peed on top of the Eiffel tower.
The second time I just used it a lazy way of finding travel arrangements, and did my own thing the rest of the time.
My first OS trip was a Contiki tour, 37 days of madness, that cost me over $5300(AUD) that still didn’t include alot of the activities and the accommodation standard was often much lower then you would find at cheap hostels!!! Now having studied tourism and done the whole packaging tours thing i’ve learnt that travelling independently is certainly much cheaper in most cases. I think one of the big downfalls price wise with large tours is above and beyond the daily cost breakdown, what doesn’t get factored in is the fact that the accommodation is often so far away from anything, getting transport particularly taxis back is half your days spending budget. So you either take the plunge go out for the night and taxi back or stay in and drink yourself silly on overpriced drinks that you are going to pay for anyway bcos the next best option is too far away. Not only that, the optional excursions seem to be great value but then you realise after talking to people who did it independently you could of got it much cheaper with room to negotiate.
I don’t think these tour operators should be advertising themselves as the cheapest most budget conscious option as they often do. They should be advertising exactly what they are, a budget option if you want the whole thing organised for you and don’t want to deal with the finer details of independent travel.
Hey Matt,
I agree with pretty much all of the above comments.
My boyfriend and I went on a 2 week Contiki tour of the East Coast of Australia a couple of months ago. I have to say we found the whole experience brilliant. We got to stay in lovely accomodation most of the time (mainly a resort called Daydream Island – incredible) That we could no way have afforded if we had been booknig all of our accomodation separately. We met some fantastic people – one of which, we are going to stay with, in Auckland, in a few weeks. Our tour guide was fantastic and knew the East Coast like the back of his hand and everything ran like clockwork without us having to put any thought into times or excursions. In my opnion – we couldn’t have ‘done the east coast’ cheaper ourselves as we dont have credit cards to hire cars with, my bf is not a fan of ‘jumping into cars with strangers’ and buying a car was not an option for us.I agree Contiki’s are best for first time travellers, solo travellers or ‘party people’, however I fit somewhere in the middle of these and I still had a blast. Would I do it again? Well, me and my boyfriend have a 6 day tour of the North Island and Bay Of Islands booked in two and a half weeks and I cant wait
I am glad I stumbled upon this page. I was almost set on booking a tour to Thailand, laos and cambodia with contiki. I had looked into GAP and Itrepid also but the dates and itinerary with Contiki fit my needs better. But I do not want to be stuck with people only interested in drinking and partying for 14 days. Will look into GAP and Intrepid more and try to book my trip with them. I love travelling and doing all my homework on my own and have travelled with a friend or two. Not confident yet to travel solo and wanted to start off with a tour comapany. Thanks Matt.