European Horizon

First of all, fast paced trip, your in each country for a night and a half a day the next day for the most part. The tour group i happened to be in was very party oriented which was fine with me. I wouldn't say the trip was very "touristy". We did do some sight seeing but I chose this trip to get a taste of every country we went to and it did just that. From enjoying the red light district in Amsterdam and clubbing in Munich, to white water rafting in Austria and shopping in Paris. This tour did very well. The hostels and hotels are exactly what i thought they were going to be and i was fine with it.

European Horizon was amazing. Saw some beautiful sights, met some Incredible people, ate fantastic food! The staff was so fun and made sure we had the best time in the short period of time we had. Paragliding in Austria is a MUST!!! As the boat cruise in Amsterdam...really all the optionals were great! Seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time as you enter central Paris is breath taking, Switzerland is pure beauty, Venice amazing as you would expect. Great shopping areas in Munich. Dont Forget the chocolate, anywhere you see it buy some! Specially in Switzerland. Highly recommend this trip. You spend a lot of time on the Bus but it helps to get to know your new friends better and have some rest after fun and very late nights! Would do it again in a heart beat. I endend with incredible new experiences, some crazy pictures and life long friends! Thanks Jamie & Jon! Thanks Contiki!

I had the most amazing time on Contiki! This was my first solo trip in Europe and it couldn't have been better! :D Every single experience in every city we had the chance to do was so awesome; from white water rafting in Austria to Amsterdam and the bike tour/hofbrauhaus in Munchen. Make sure you do every me time option, I did and I am so glad. It's a very fast paced tour, and you barely get sleep, but who doesn't like partying till the early hours of the morning every night?! You will definitely have memories for life. On the last night of the tour in Paris, the taxi driver took a group of us to the wrong hotel, so we were walking around the streets at 3am. At the time I was annoyed, but looking on it now, that's something I'll remember. You become close to your tour group and they become your family. We had the best tour team - I'm talking about you Scotty and Gaz! I can't recommend this tour enough, and I can't wait to go on my next Contiki!

Wow, think my head's still spinning from this EPIC trip. If you want to see the best of Europe in the shortest time but still feel like you've experienced it- this is the tour for you. 7 countries in 10 days! Each day a new city, with amazing scenery, culture and night life. We had an amazing tour manger (Jac) and driver (Jamie)- these guys we're gold and knew their stuff, felt very safe in their hands! Some of the highlights have to be, paragliding in Austria, dressing up in Dirndl (authetic german dress) and hitting the beer hall, the gondola ride in Venice and the cabart in Paris. I went on my own and made 49 friends for life. As it's such a whirlwind tour we all got so close and still talk daily! EPIC trip, EPIC people and EPIC places.

Where to begin? The trip was intense from start to finish. You do as much as possible with the small amount of time given. Great for anyone looking for a taste of europe. If you want a restful relaxing trip. Don't book this one haha. Accommodation? Was good. I've never stayed in hostels so i was expecting the worst but these were really nice. Usually 4 person rooms with private bathrooms some with shared and a couple twin share rooms. Not a lot of space but all pretty cozy and tidy. There were 2 places during our trip that we could do washing one in Austria and the second in switzerland. Travel time? Tour manager? Well you spend alot of the time on the bus so be prepared. Some bus rides are 6 hours long. You do stop at service stations along the way (not the usual kind we have in australia) which are huge and have fresh food. The food is amazing by the way. Our tour guide was awesome. So knowledgeable about every place we went to. We had a wake up song (hated that song by the end of the trip lol) that would play about a half an hour before we reached our destination so that our tour guide ashley could give us an introduction to our destination and a bit of a history lesson as well. Our bus driver was also amazing. Felt safe on the road at all times. He could park like a boss and fit the bus through impossible gaps without a scrape! Optionals? I found out are not so much optional. There isn't anything you can really do while the optionals are running. I did do all of the optionals except for the train up the mountain in switzerland. I enjoyed every single optional i did and would have loved to do the train but didn't budget for it before i went on the trip. I recommend putting money aside to do all the optionals because you miss out on so much with your tour group if you don't. People/other travellers? Were awesome met some great people and now we share some great memories. Even though it was only a short trip it felt like we spent much more time together. Other tips? Hmm? always have change for the toilets. You have to pay to use most public bathrooms but all are really tidy and clean so it's worth it. Other thing to note is if you're looking for some downtime during this trip you won't find any. The great thing about this trip is that you don't miss out on anything but you will sacrafice sleep for it :) Overall? I would do it all again!

Had the best time on this tour, I couldn't of asked for anything else! Its a very full on contiki and you are always doing something and always on the go. So if you are keen to fit in as much as you can in as little time as possible, then this is the tour for you! My tour manager was absolutely amazing and totally went above and beyond then what we expected, she always made sure we had an amazing time. I met so many awesome people and we all had fun partying and exploring all the different countries together. I did all the optionals, which I think made it so much fun. You are on the coach a bit when you are going from country to country (but trust me this isn't a bad thing, as you use this time to catch up on sleep and get some energy for the next country) I travelled solo and instantly made sooo many friends, so weather you are going solo or with friends you will fit right in! I highly recommend this tour to everyone, just be prepared for the craziest time of your life. Cant wait to do another contiki :D

I had the best time and met some amazing people. Great way to get a quick look at Europe. Accommodation was reasonable, you don't spend much time there anyway, your always out and about. The nightlife was so much fun. Most memorable was Venice and Switzerland. Would definitely recommend it to anyone who was thinking of doing it.

Aside from being on the bus so much, this was a great tour. Perfectly planned events and excursion in each country. I even went paragliding in the Austrian Alps. I ended up falling in love with Germany (something I never expected) and realized that after my second time in Paris, I'm not a huge fan of France. Italy was incredible. Austria and Switzerland were everything you could imagine them to be. And Amsterdam was great, so beautiful and the people were lovely.,..even in the Red Light district. I highly recommend this tour.

First off I would like to say that my opinions are my own and I'm sure many people would disagree with some of my views. However to those that are interested, here is my completely honest review of this tour. 1. Your coach is most likely not going to have phone charging facilities or wifi as advertised. This isn't that important but I feel like contiki shouldn't have falsely advertised this or at least mentioned the wifi is both slow and not free. I know no one comes to Europe to be on their phones but it was very misleading. 2. Almost every place you go you will be taken to a shop under the guise of learning about some of the items that come from their country, but really they obviously have some deal with the shop and want you to buy stuff. It's a bit unfair when we could have spent our time doing other things but are instead forced to go to shops where you just feel manipulated. 3. Expect not to have any time to yourself, I know most people who do this tour do it because it's fast but you will literally arrive at a place and 15 minutes have to be somewhere, it can be extremely stressful. 4. My trip manager and driver did an excellent job but at the end of the tour I couldn't believe they told everyone how much to tip them! I know contiki probably tells them how much to ask for but I thought it was ridiculously cheeky, and many others agreed. The actual tour was super fun though, I can see how if you had a good group it would have been amazing fun. Unfortunately a lot of my group were cliquey/not very friendly but that has nothing to do with contiki, I can only say that this tour, and perhaps most contiki tours are likely to attract a lot of Australian bogans. The special stopovers and on site team were great, and the hotel in Paris was really nice too. The included meals are standard, not amazing but they fill you up which is what you need. The me time optionals are all great too. I would recommend this tour for someone short on time but just expect to get the hard sell in the shops and also if you don't want to do some of the me time optionsls they will pressure you a bit.

European Horizon was VERY fast, but I couldn't have asked for a better experience. I met so many amazing people from all around the world, and I am already planning on visiting some in the next few months. If you only have about 2 weeks to explore Europe, definitely do the Horizon. Explore London for a day and Explore Paris for an extra day and do the Horizon. The staff was great and excursions were amazing too! Definitely- whitewater raft in Austria, Paraglide and then take a bike ride of the town! Hands down one of the best days! Ton of fun, you can sleep when you come home :)

This trip was a lot of fun. It was a short trip but you get to see a lot in the countries. I do wish, I did a longer tour but for the price, it was pretty good.

Awesome way to meet people. would do another trip, however less party encouraging is needed. It was still amazing and would do it again but only because of the people i have met. During the tour i was more than a bit disappointed at times but overall i was won over!

This was my first contiki trip, and I had the worst tour manager. Camera got stolen, I reported it to her. When I tried to file insurance claim when I got back, she denied knowing anything about it. Ridiculous. trip was abysmal, felt like I was back in high school again. Too much drama on the bus made the trip irritating (long bus rides!) Spent too much time on the bus due to traffic, so by the time we got to the location, it was already to late to do much...never doing a short contiki trip again. This probably contributed to the cranky nature of 99% of us. Would focus on the more expensive ones instead, that'd weed out the childish folks, hopefully.

Best thing ever ! You will have such a good time, my favortie was Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Didn't expect to have those as my three places but if you want to explore Europe in such an amazing way for not that much money or time, this is the trip for you !

First of all, Contiki really just blew my mind. Our tour had 44 amazing people, all of whom, I will never forget. I went into this experience with no expectations and was actually a bit anxious about how it would all go. The tour proved that there was no reason for that! We visited 7 countries in 10 days (plus one day on each end for travel) and it was a whirlwind, that's for sure. We saw the sights, made awesome friends, and lucked out with a kickass tour manager (Richie!) and bus driver (Max!). We partied hard almost every night, but there were also people who weren't as into the party scene too - so if that wasn't your thing, it was not a big deal at all. The best part about the trip was that there were groups of friends that formed quickly, but if you wanted to join one or sit down at a meal with someone new, everyone was always so welcoming. There was not any drama and everyone got along great. In fact, now we have lots of places to go and visit (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, LA!) and see our new friends. The accommodations were not a surprise and my advice is to read about where you will be staying prior to taking this trip. We stayed in some hotels, some hostels, a campground and some "Contiki houses" specifically geared toward Contiki touring groups. On our tour, the nicest place we stayed was in Paris, France. The hotel was modern and had modern amenities useful to everyone that came through. However, the most fun were probably the Contiki houses because we had authentic meals prepared for us, the bars were always open if you wanted to take advantage of them and it gave the group (as well as other groups) great bonding time. My personal favorite city that we visited was probably Venice, but I wish we got more time to explore. If I had to change one thing about our trip, it would be that we would get more time in each place to really get to know the culture and surroundings. Given the nature of this particular tour, I understand why this option was not available. However, if (and when!) I do Contiki again, I will likely pick a tour where we will stay in one place for longer and really be able to enjoy everything the country has to offer. One last bit of advice, do as many optionals as you can afford! They are all worthwhile and amazing! Especially Jungfrau mountain, the Cabaret in Paris and the farewell dinner also in Paris. I wish that I did not do the walking tour in Venice (to me it was not worth the 90 mins it took to do when I could have been exploring on my own in the 4 hours we were allowed there!) but that would be the only one I didn't love to the fullest. I would recommend Contiki to everyone and hope my group in particular can all do another one together some day!!! Please message me if you have any questions or concerns, I'll be happy to answer anything! Good luck in your journey!!!

So much fun the fast pace of the tour kept everyone on their toes everyone bonded so quickly! Good way to see everything real quick!!! Loved it!!

Had the time of my life and met some great new friends! Had so much fun and would do it again and again and again! I got to see so much in such a short period of time . Was a great taster of Europe and I now know where i'd love to visit next!!! I would definately recommend this tour!

Get ready for a very FAST 10 days, but if you want to save money & time, everything is worth it!! Recommend every optional excursion (I did them all) but my favs were: Booze cruise in Amsterdam (best way to get know everyone right from the start) Beer Hall in Munich (go out in Colt Fabric,best nightlife) Paragliding in Austria (breathtaking) Gondola Ride in Venice (buy some sparkling wine & sit back & enjoy the beautiful architecture) Farewell Dinner in Paris (now have a love for escargot - snails!) I didn't expect to meet people from all over the world! Now love Australians & Canadians, and our tour guide, Angus, was so knowledgeable/THE BEST! :)

This was one hell of a trip! Such a whirlwind, I can hardly believe all of the incredible things I got to experience. If you're looking for a way to sample a variety of what Europe has to offer, but don't have 2 months to take off from life, this is the perfect trip. They aren't kidding when they say "high energy" though, so I hope you plan on sleeping when you're dead! But it was absolutely worth it. Would do this trip again in a heart beat. So well organized too! I was surprised and impressed with how smooth it all went down, in regards to the travel, accommodations, meals, and excursions - I was never left waiting around which was shocking travelling with 39 other people! All in all, an amazing and exciting adventure. And felt 100% safe as a female travelling by herself.

Had the most AMAZING time on Contiki European Horizons!!!! Went far ebove my expectations. Made some fantastic new friends, partied hard and took sooo many photos. Jon and Tony were so awesome. I had the time of my life and I LOVE CONTIKI!!!! Will never forget this trip, was beyond amazing and I reccomend anyone to do it! My favorite place was either Switzerland or Paris <3