Planning our trip
We wanted to share a little more about our trip planning. If you have travel experience this may not help much. If you are like us, basically first time international travelers, then this may be some reassurance.
There are many resources out there. We loved the Rick Steves Best of Europe book, even if you don't tour with a group like ours, there is a wealth of knowledge. Others in our group, tour veterans, ripped out the appropriate pages for the day or trip rather than hauling around the heavy over 1000 page book!
To go or not to go?
Once we seriously considered going to Europe we talked a lot about can we really afford to do this now? Both in terms or time and money. We're still working and not retired, we planned to travel more later, retirement is only 5-8 years away, it is expensive.
We decided yes, let's go. First we answered yes, we can afford it (see later). Being older ourselves (late 50's) we know friends with health issues and recently dealt with the death of a parent. Our concern was by waiting we would never actually go. We could wait until we retire but may not be healthy enough.
PS. The ironies of life, about 5 weeks before the trip Laure tore the meniscus in her knee and had surgery 3 weeks before the trip to repair it. Fortunate to make it but shows how unexpected events occur in life.
Tour group or not?
For us the answer came down to yes. With the trip completed we are glad we did. We had 2 extra days in Paris prior to the group starting. I worked a dozen evenings trying to plan 2 days. If I had to do 14 days on my own we never would have gone.
So why the group:
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So much planning done for us.
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Fear of language issues. We wanted the experience and backup of a guide.
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No desire to drive. I didn't want to drive or the hassle of planning travel between multiple cities. We would have reduced the number of cities if we drove. In Paris, it seemed there were no rules of the road! In Italy, it was not defensive driving but offense!
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Wanted company in a far off foreign country.
Selecting the tour group.
As for everyone, the internet makes it easy to find information and have too many choices. We did our research and eventually chose Rick Steves tours. Selection is always about what matches ones desires, what feels comfortable and how much you believe they will deliver as advertised. This was not the cheapest tour group. We believe they delivered and went beyond our expectations and their promises. We were attracted by:
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the smaller group size ~ the reasons Rick cites seemed to be true. We think some of the experiences were possible only because of the small group size.
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nearly all reviews we could find were 5s.
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location of hotels ~ small and in town ~ appealed to us.
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mix of tour in the morning and free time in afternoon.
Where to go?
Your first thought might be this belongs before the tour group question. If you pick the tour company first then where is limited to where they go. (Yes, if you really know where you want to go then you need a tour that goes there.)
For us we quickly narrowed the choices to the European area. No interest in Africa, South America, Southern hemisphere or far East. International yes, Europe yes. Still a lot of choices.
Get the Rick Steves catalog and start looking. Look on-line at their site. Read comments about the trips. Go to the forums there to at least read, if not ask questions.
After many evenings going round and round the engineer in the family came up with a method.
Our selection method:
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Eliminate the eastern block countries as Laure had less interest in them.
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It's a long trip by plane and it may be a while before we can go again, so nothing below 10 days.
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We are still working so there is a limit, nothing over 15 days.
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Stay local (focus on a region) or more geography? We assumed we would eventually return so pick an introduction to many areas. Fun and will identify where we would concentrate another time.
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Cross off a couple of other countries we are not interested in due to security concens or lack of knowledge.
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Have about 8 trips left to choose. We found the trip summary page and map. Printed each one and spread them on the floor. Now sort them ~ feels good to the left, not so much to the right. Repeat until we were down to Best of Europe in 14 days.
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We added 2 additional days in the beginning and one at the end to make it a 16 night trip.
Cost and paying
Sometimes we don't talk about costs and sometimes we assume it's out of our reach. If you are interested, this was cheap, but it wasn't extravegant either. Roughly:
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Rick Steves tour - about $4,200 each
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Airplane - about $1,500 each (I like certain airlines and extra leg room and willing to pay extra)
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Extra days before and after tour - $ 800
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Meals not covered by tour - guessing $ 850
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New luggage (1 carry on each) - $ 350
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Tour tickets on our own - $ 350
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clothes and travel items - $ 400
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misc. - $ 250
All in that comes to about $ 14,250.
There are areas to save if desired. Shorter tour, change airplanes, fewer fancier restaurants.
How we paid for the trip.
Since this was not planned for years we didn't save for years. Though comfortable we are not rich enough to have it all in disposable income.
Then how. Some came from disposable income during the year. Clothes and travel items from clothes budget. We didn't want to borrow. So the bulk of the money came from our retirement account. (Yes, some will think a bad idea.)
Accounts were on track to be able to retire in 3-5 years. We planned to travel after retirement so the money was to be there. If we pulled the money out now the future value and present value are close to the same given the short time frame. If we traveled at 70 then at 72 the balance is about the same, we just spent it at 60 instead. And finally, I can delay retirement a year if needed.
How did the plan turn out?
The trip is done, we are back. So how well did our planning work out.
The widespread geography was right. First time it was more fun to see a lot of places rather than one place in depth.
Small group ~ this was a great call. A number of the things done as a group would not have been possible if we were large.
Going back assumption ~ remember we assumed we would go back someday. We've got the travel bug bad (especially Laure). Now the goal is how can we get back sooner. Someday would be today if we could.
Planning on our own ~ for this trip a tour group was absolutely best. Some things like the Rully castle or mask making we can't imagine finding on our own. But, I would now do a single city or maybe 2 on my own. A week in Paris without a group would be no problem, and a lot less expensive.
Different tour group ~ probably not. We are sold on the Rick Steves approach and willing to pay a little more for it.