Land tours-which company comparable to Celebrity?

[yoshi]

So, when it comes to cruising we like Celebrity the best. We are looking at doing an inland land tour (eek! bus) in Spain/Portugal. Have any of you Celebrity people tried different land tours such as Trauk, Trafalgar or ??? I think different companies cater to different types of people and like I said we are Celebrity people, we love the food, service, the enrichment lectures, moderate activity levels (middle-aged+, college age kids).

Does anyone have experience with the European Land Tours?

[Bobocasey]

Depending on how adventurous you are you might be able to plan your own trip on our own. We found the train system makes it extremely easy to get around. We had no trouble and neither one of us spoke the language. Depends on what you want to do and where you want to go. Definitely would not chose Celebrity's land package since they are way over priced. Look around

Edited May 24, 2015 by Bobocasey

[Azulann]

So, when it comes to cruising we like Celebrity the best. We are looking at doing an inland land tour (eek! bus) in Spain/Portugal. Have any of you Celebrity people tried different land tours such as Trauk, Trafalgar or ??? I think different companies cater to different types of people and like I said we are Celebrity people, we love the food, service, the enrichment lectures, moderate activity levels (middle-aged+, college age kids).

Does anyone have experience with the European Land Tours?

 

We are doing a unique itinerary on Celebrity Constellation July 1 2016. It is a 13 day cruise of the Iberian Peninsula with two ports in Portugal and an overnight in Bilbao for an excursion to Pamplona for the "running of the bulls" and other Spanish ports. The cruise begins and ends in Barcelona.Check it out.

For a land trip that would get you to Madrid and other inland cites and areas, I would explore the countries tourism web sites. I have found many tour operators that not only do ports of call day tours but customize land tours and lodging for those who are visiting by land. I have read their reviews on Trip Advisor and also on the other travel sites.

I think you can find both a tour group with buses and everything organized for you. Or you can customize your own land vacation with a little research and the help of a travel agent that specializes in Spain and Portugal here in the US also.

Have fun researching and deciding what your family will do to see Spain and Portugal.

[nyfeds]

Hi Yoshi,

 

We have taken both Tauck and Odysseys Unlimited land tours. Five land tours with Tauck and one land tour with Odysseys. Tauck is more upscale and expensive and you do pay additional for a small group tour. Odysseys Unlimited offers an excellent touring experience with only a maximum of 24 people in the group, as opposed to Tauck's 40 people in a regular group tour.

 

We love them both, but Odysseys Unlimited gets more thumbs up from us. We toured Southwestern France with them last year and it was outstanding. We loved touring with them and hope to do so again very, very soon! I think you would be very pleased with Odysseys!

 

We are taking a land/river cruise through Spain and Portugal next May with AMA Waterways. You may want to check that out as well. Three days in Madrid, pre cruise, three days post cruise in Lisbon. We have heard the Duoro River is spectacular and feel the combo of land and river suited us really well.

 

If you have further questions feel free to email me at dgf1550@gmail.com. Put your name in the subject line so I don't delete it as spam.

Edited May 24, 2015 by nyfeds

[seabill]

You might try Grand Circle.

 

Go to their site GCT.com & check out their tours.

We traveled with them to the Costa del Sol & enjoyed the tours & pace of the trips. We stayed in one hotel & took day trips to many great cities, villages & sites.

 

Bill

[4774Papa]

We have done Vantage river cruises like China and Russia that include extensive land tours and love Vantage.

[yoshi]

Thank you all, we are researching all of these sites now. So many choices, with all of the different companies, styles, countries. It has been 30+ years since I went on a college trip to Europe. Back then all I needed was a Eurail pass and no reservations! Oh how we have changed.

[Mom-rules]

Our vote is for Insight Vacations. We've never had a bad bus tour and have booked another for this summer.

[michaelxjw]

Last June we took an Insight tour of Italy booked through AAA which we enjoyed immensely. One advantage of Insight tours is that they limit their tours to no more than 40 guests, so there is a lot of room on their tour bus which makes the tour more comfortable. Most other tour company's cram far more than 40 guests on their tour bus. We also had a fabulous tour director, Debra DeAngelo, which, as you know, makes the tour more pleasurable.

[suec12]

You might want to check out Rick Steves tours - I have not done one, but I get the impression that first of all, not big groups or crowded buses, a little slower paced, tries to connect to authentic, local food. We did several land tours long long ago and IMO they are so totally different than a Celebrity cruise. Also as others sggest, maybe a river cruise in Portugal with some pre-cruise / post cruise in Spain.

[royalcruz]

Celebrity is also our favorite cruise line, but we have done 3 land tours.

 

We have done the following:

Rome, Florence, Venice, etc. tour on Globus

Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Cordoba, Barcelona, etc on Gate 1

Jerusalem, Tiberius, Tel Aviv, etc. on Gate 1

 

Globus and Gate 1 have similar costs, tour sizes, hotel class, etc. The buses were very nice on both. Luggage handling is covered by the tour companies. We prefer Gate 1. Some of the Globus hotels were not located near anything, and we love wandering cities. The advantage of Gate 1 is that the hotels were much more centrally located and seemed a little bit nicer. They always used 3-4 star hotels where available, though not fancy ones. Both companies include daily breakfast buffet, and dinner most nights. Gate 1 includes wine with dinner, but on our tour it was hard to get a second glass. The dinners with both companies were just ok, and mostly were inside hotels, (some buffets) so that the group could be accommodated. We could have just skipped some of the dinners and found nice local restaurants, but we met nice people to dine with and didn't want to seem snobby or disrespectful to our tour guides who worked so hard to coordinate the dinners. I think there were about 40 people per tour, and the tourists were mostly middle age and up to 90, though there were adults of all ages, no children or teens on most tours. We booked flights directly through Gate 1, and they were able to get us flights that we didn't have to pay for until final payment (so cancellable) for less than I could find non-refundable flights on my own! Don't do the tour company transfers from the airport though...we did that once and we had to sit for a long time at the airport.

 

Tauk tours seem to be really nice, but for the same price we can do 2 or 3 Gate 1 tours, see the same things, and still get nice enough hotels. We don't need 5 star hotels on a tour.

 

I have to say that land tours are really exhausting but so worth the energy. :)

It's something that I can't see doing more than once every year or 2. However, it makes planning so easy, as you don't have to plan anything really. We have learned to book one extra day before the trip and after the trip to wander the cities and do some shopping. Gate 1 can arrange this so that you don't have to move rooms. In Madrid they were able to get me a rate that included breakfast for the same cost that I could have gotten on my own without breakfast. At the end of the Israel trip, our extra night didn't go so well...the hotel had no record of our booking, and they locked us out of our room. So make sure that you bring your paperwork! It all worked out in the end.

 

Some tips about touring Spain: The hotel staff don't seem to be trained too well in hospitality etiquette, so don't take it personally. Don't let your luggage out of your sight...the local gypsies will haul them away before you turn back around...this happened on our tour and on the one before ours, in hotel lobbies.