Simply Italy with Contiki

[ValerieE]

I just took a Contiki tour to Italy in December and let me tell you it was such an amazing experience!! I totally recommend this trip to anyone who is on a budget, wants to see a lot in a short amount of time with people your age from all over the world!

I am 21 years old and this was my first time traveling with people my age in Europe I had gone to Europe a couple of times with my family but experiencing Italy with people your age is a million times better! I was going on this trip by myself so I was kind of nervous about that but the minute I met the people on the trip I totally clicked with them and I know a good number of these people are people I will keep in touch with for life! We are even planning our next contiki trip together!

The cities we visited were awesome I would have to say Venice and Rome were definitely my favorite cities. The gondola ride in Venice was so much fun and Rome had so much to see. The Vatican was breathtaking! The shopping was great too; I definitely recommend saving the shopping for Rome they have the best shopping out of all the cities we visited! We traveled at least 15 cities in the 13 days we were in Italy. We went everywhere from Florence to Lake Como to Isle of Capri to Sorrento and so much more!

The tour group I went with was so much fun there were so many different people from all over the world, there was also a huge amount or Australians on the trip which I found interesting but that’s because Contiki is huge there. Gary our tour manager was great; he was always giving us helpful information everything ranging from how to take a bus into town to what good clubs there were. He was very knowledgeable about all the history and about all this sites we were visiting. I found it very helpful having someone tell us about the city and what were seeing it made all the sights so much more interesting when we understood the stuff we were seeing...

The nightlife in Italy was a lot of fun. A lot of the people on our tour didn’t really party that much because they were tired. I on the other hand was down to go out every night. Since it was the off-season a lot of places weren’t that bumping. But partying in Rome and Venice was a lot of fun. There was always a pub or something to go to and if there wasn’t anything close by the hotels usually had a bar there.

The accommodations were pretty good most of the hotels we stayed at were nice. The only compliant I would have about the whole trip is the included meals weren’t that great. I expected to eat better food in Italy but oh well. We found a couple of good restaurants on our own.

All in all I would 100% recommend this trip and I am looking forward to my next contiki trip!
I'm thinking of going on European Discovery in June if anyone is interested. This is a 12-day trip to 8 different countries including London, Amsterdam, Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria.