Europe Tour Companies

Great experiences, quality hotels and outstanding tour guide and driver

Spectacular experience with brilliant tour director

I can't say enough wonderful things about our Contiki trip manager, Rianna, who truly deserves the title of Tour Guide of the Year! Her empathy, kindness, and dedication to our group were evident every single day. She has this unique ability to connect with each person and make everyone feel comfortable, no matter the situation. Her patience is unmatched, and her enthusiasm is contagious – I’ve genuinely never seen someone so happy to push through every challenge just to make our experience unforgettable. What truly sets her apart is how she approaches each day with a smile, even if she may be facing her challenges or adversities. She brings a warm aura and an uplifting presence to the group, making everyone feel at home, no matter how far from home we actually are. Regardless of the personality or demands of any traveler – even the most challenging among us – she greets and helps everyone with grace, kindness, and an unparalleled level of support. She constantly goes above and beyond, always anticipating our needs and creating special moments that made this trip feel both personal and one-of-a-kind. Her unwavering commitment, compassion, and resilience transformed every day into something extraordinary. She is truly an inspiration as both a guide and as a person in general. I am so grateful to have met her and experienced her talent as a guide. When i mentioned my next travel plan she went above and beyond to recommend two great places & showed me photos and videos of them. Thank you for an unforgettable experience Ri. You made my first big solo adventure one I’m not sure I can ever beat!

Dem was absolutely amazing. Her knowledge of every place we went really helped to solidify the experience and I learnt a lot through her fun stories and ways of explaining things. She became more than our trip manager she became our friend and our person if we needed anything she was always willing to help

We saw a lot in this 13 country trip over 26 days, however, the trip would have been more enjoyable and less stressful if Expat would have chosen better quality hotels, modified the itinerary so that the group would have arrived at the hotel by 6 or 7 pm instead of 9 - 9:30 pm followed by a 6:30 am breakfast and 7:15 am back on the bus schedule. Expat should identify that participants have to be quite fit, able to walk at a speed of 5 km/3 miles per hour for 1-3 hours on the city orientation tours and have to carry/drag their heavy suitcase up 2 or more flights of stairs because some of the hotels have no elevator or inadequate elevators. The tour leader should also slow down his/her walking speed to avoid falls and loosing tour members during the walk!

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Enjoyed a beautiful vacation in Greece. Shell of a tour with not much included as stated. Ran into a few snafu's that were quickly and efficiently resolved by the tour company with care and consideration as well as cost refunds and room upgrade. Thanks Barb. This tour would benefit greatly from a couple of added excursions. Also of note, Galaxy Villa's in Crete should be avoided.

Thank you for essentially planning all of our excursions and planned activities.

The overall experience was excellent. The tour included transfers from our hotel in Istanbul to the airport, the flights to and from Cappadocia (Kayseri Airport), pickup and transfers there, two nights in a hotel, and a great look at the highlights of Cappadocia. (It did not include admission to the sites that we visited, which could be paid directly in Turkish lira, or paid to the guide in lira, US dollars, or Euros.) This was a small group tour with two full days of touring in Cappadocia (requiring a very early departure from Istanbul the first day), that allowed people to join or leave on the day of their choice - some of the people that we met the first day had done "Day 1" of the tour the day before and were leaving at the end of the day; we got to do "Day 2" with them, and finished up with "Day 1" the following day - a clever bit of coordination that maximized flexibility. Our guide (Erdi) and driver (Okan) were helpful and informative, and it was a pleasure to meet them. The organization by the tour company (Tour Altinkum Travel) was among the best that I've seen. They provided very detailed information ahead of the trip - itinerary, hotel, pickup times, meeting places, airline flights, and contact information - that left us feeling very confident that we knew where we were going and what to expect. This level of detail also allowed us to identify a problem with one of the flights, which was corrected within hours when we brought it to their attention. Everyone charged with transporting us, in Istanbul and Cappadocia, was exactly where we were told they would be, ready with our names on a sign or a list. The tour itself covered the high points of Cappadocia, getting us to several fabulous sites that overlooked or walked through cliffside dwellings and rock formations, a major underground city, and the cave churches of Göreme. The Fresco Hotel, in the town of Ürgüp, was beautiful, with its own excellent restaurant, a spa located in a cliffside cave, and a rooftop bar and terrace. Several stops to learn about local crafts (leather goods, pottery, and jewelry) were interesting, if mostly geared to selling us things (at worst, an excuse to drink tea and rest our feet, and a good look at some of the local industries.) One place that I would have liked more shopping time was Göreme, where I skipped lunch with the group to go browse a couple of excellent carpet shops, with vintage as well as modern selections. (The shop called Village Dowry stands out.) My only other recommendation to Tour Altinkum Travel would be to add half an hour or so to the airport transfer times, both in Istanbul and Kayseri. Istanbul airport is enormous, and a little extra time is always welcome, and Kayseri airport, while it doesn't involve much walking, is trying to do check-in and security for 200 or so passengers (a full flight back to Istanbul) who are all arriving at the same time - we were the last ones on the check-in line, and the flight was already boarding by the time we got through security. Overall, though, every aspect of the trip went very smoothly (I realize that this is a matter of luck, but good organization helps), and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to add a quick visit to Cappadocia to a visit to Istanbul.

- The transfer from the airport took me to the wrong hotel. I has to pay to get from the wrong hotel to the right one. - No information given about the horse riding ie. what should I take, what should I wear etc. I was on my own with a young lad that didn't speak English. He was lovely thankfully but I had specifically enquired beforehand whether I would be with a group on the activities. As a sole traveller this was very important to me. The answer was yes so it was then a shame to find out I was on my own - the accommodation was Ok but it wasn't a cave hotel which is what I wanted and had originally had confirmed. Again, a shame seeing as I was in Capadoccia partly for this reason! - the two tour days were nice. Tge veggie option for the first day was 🍕. Not great un Turkey! - the tour finished an hour early on the second day. - tno confirmation for the return transfer was sent the day before, which happened with, everything else. Then it was half an hour late - only way to contact was on messages. Phone calls weren't possible which I found frustrating

There are many things that we loved about this tour, many things people complained about on our tour that weren’t necessarily problems and many things that were sorely lacking in the program that we'd love to see improved for future tours: Things we loved: 1. They had some of the most incredible gems to stop at in between the larger cities. Caceres and Zaragoza are amazing and every stop provided a new experience with so many beautiful sights 2. Balance between "group" and "individual" - I loved that we were supported by the guides or group members for part of the day and then parts of the day were left to us individually so it still felt like our own trip and I wasn't dragged around to restaurants I didn't want to eat in or sights I wasn't interested in 3. Ignacio- I had to add this as a specific love because the guide in the Barcelona- Zurich leg was amazing. He was so confidant and calm in his leadership, was always warm and went the extra mile to help travelers. Things we heard travelers complain about but weren't a "problem" per se 1. Changing guides/tour divided into legs - if you are looking for the standard actor guide who entertains you with a dramatic flair, a tour group that sticks together all day for everything and a "family" that you grow close to over the two weeks, this isn't for you. The guides are not actors and they vary in quality. They are all native Spanish speakers, and their English fluency varies (tour group from Spain- you should expect this). Some were only okay in English and because I know Spanish, I could tell they were giving information in Spanish that they weren’t giving in English. 2.The pacing- is described in the itinerary including how long you spend in the cities (never more, can be less) and how many kms you travel each day. It isn't a leisurely pace and if you go into it expecting that, you are only deceiving yourself. 3. Free time - you are paying for the bus, guides and hotels. That's mostly it and the price reflects this. The itinerary clearly indicates what you pay for and when your free time is. You don't get a ton of tickets to things or personal tours of certain tourist areas. You get a very general, two hour bus tour of the bigger cities. Excursions and entrance into tourist attractions are extra in the optional excursions or for you to arrange on your own. I'll explain how this gets complicated in my next list. 4. Hotels- if you’re a budget traveler, these are the hotels you know well and you should expect this. They’re the Super 8 or sometimes even the Holiday Inn level. Most of them are fine - clean, have everything you need. Not fancy. Things we didn’t like about the tour 1. The crowds/group tours- Europamundo puts 100s of travelers on most legs of this trip. They get away with this because the tour you’re specifically travelling on says they only have a max of 75, but there are several different tours going on at the same time, in the same city from Europamundo. You get mixed with them on buses, in the hotels and at the tourist areas. We “fought for our resources” the whole way through this trip- fighting crowds for breakfast, spots on the elevator for luggage, seats on buses, spots in queues to get to the bathrooms or food. 100s of people let off in the same rest areas, same central squares, staying in the same hotels or going on the same tour was what made this tour much less enjoyable for us. It is this reason alone that we would probably never do a bus tour again. This has nothing to do with the high tourist season either. This wasn’t the busy season and guides said that. The problem is that too many tour groups stuff way too many people into the same small spaces at the exact same time and expect them to just deal with it. 2. Chaotic daily schedule – I said earlier that they did a good job of demonstrating the overall pacing in the itinerary and that is true. It was the minor details that they tended not include and wouldn’t even reveal until the last possible moment that can cause stress. If I don’t know when or where we’re being dropped off or picked up, I can’t book tickets or plan anything for myself for the 8 hours I have free in Lisbon, for example. If I do book my own excursion somewhere, I risk my booking being far out of the way, missing the transfer to my hotel or missing my booked activity because we didn’t get dropped off in time. We wanted to book restaurants but we couldn’t in the last two legs because they were much more chaotic than the first. We had a hard time trying to work around them and spent more time just sticking near a meeting spot to kill time because it was to busy and crowded to try to get in anywhere last minute. If we could’ve booked things ahead or known more information, we could’ve planned better

Too many people in the group , and the time spent in the attraction is too rush. However, the guides are very professional and helpful and pleasant!

Great tour to give you a taste of what Turkey has to offer. Very well organised, always on time and great communication throughout the trip via what’s app. Tour guides were amazing, Hakkan is Cappadocia and. Igun in Kusadasi, very informative, gave us lots of history of the area and Turkey

The experience with Tour Radar and the actual tour company which provided services (City of Sultans) was not what I was expecting. I have been on many group tours which usually involve a group of people traveling together with an in person leader who travels with the group and assists with any issues. While we had an online , through WhatsApp, contact, there was really no point person with us other than the site specific guides each day. This was a fast paced tour which was promoted as a small GROUP tour and not the experience we had. While the guides were excellent, the overall experience is not one i will book again.

The two-day trip with international company was super. Omer is a great guide who knows a lot about the history. Hotel Perissia I would not recommend. As a solo traveler, you are not asked if you want something to drink with dinner. It is too far outside the center. A cave hotel would be better. I had inquired about the balloon ride from teeors but was told to arrange it locally. I did not get to the hotel until 10 p.m. on Sunday and when I did so on Monday, my first excursion day, it turned out that everything was already full for Tuesday. I think that was poorly arranged. The return transfer was not okay either. Outward in a super deluxe bus we were 1 hour 10 minutes away. In the shuttle back I was at the airport in 45 minutes.

We just returned from our 10 day Italian Discovery tour-here are our thoughts: Can't say enough about the beauty of everything we saw & the nice people we encountered on this trip. HOWEVER, this is NOT a consistent tour-Meaning,I thought that we were booked on a tour with the same guide & driver for the whole 10 day trip-and also that there would be a maximum of 30 people as stated in the description. Day 1-5 we had a GREAT Guide Stefano & a GREAT driver-Luigi. We stopped to pick up other passengers at a diff't hotel on day one-those people had a partial version of our tour.That made it more than the 30 max-there were 36-38 people- So ask-if this is not what you want- We had several different people added to our tour throughout our trip-often dropping them at another hotel at night. Days 6-9 were a mishmash of diff't drivers and local guides, some with confusing information. There are a few excursion days where you have a local guide, and after the tour-need to find your way back to your hotel on your own ( they did tell you how to do that-but I would prefer to have the same bus take us back to the hotel.) Some of the hotels were 3 star at best due to quirky rooms, others were better-but the food whenever included was usually good. The included lunch in Motepulciano was fabulous! Capri/Blue Grotto day, which was our last day was definitely the most challenging-with literally 9 modes of transportation-mini bus-ferry-smaller boat-row boat & back again-also the guide on the bus messed up our hotel and took us to the wrong one-making a group of us have to take a taxi back to the hotel we thought we were staying at ( by this time 10:30 at night) Overall, there could be more time for shopping & more organization of where the tour guides meet you at the end of the tours. You start every day very earl and pack a lot in-Get ready for a LOT of walking-bring good walking shoes! Make sure you have coins for the public bathrooms! I think with a few tweaks-this could be a great tour-but will definitely check that it is one group of people for the entire time on our next trip!

The hotel accommodation was good apart from the hotel in Oviedo. We felt that too much was crammed in to the 10 days for example travelling to Bilbao then being taken the next day to San Sebastián and back to Bilbao that evening. I would have preferred more time in Bilbao. The guide was not clear about travel timings regarding stops and meals, and wasn’t familiar with Northern Spain. We were told our trip from Madrid to the Rioja winery would be just over 3 hours it took nearly 6 and our lunch was a light tapas at the winery in the cellars that had been waiting for us. On another occasion lunch was cancelled at a stop and we moved on only to get to Oviedo for 5 o’clock to find all the restaurants unable to serve us as as it was a national holiday and they weren’t opening again till later. On the Sunday we travelled to see the cathedral at Mondonengo to find it closed. We travelled with you to Sicily last year and it was an excellent holiday. I found the tour operators you used ‘Mapping Journeys, less efficient and disappointing at times.

I loved this tour of Sicily. The accommodations were all very nice, and the tour guides were fantastic. This tour was a little different than I expected where there isn’t a tour guide overall. You never meet the organizers. Each day you have a different guide and driver. It was fine, just not what I expected. A couple of the days were long, but overall you have lots of free time. Perfect choices of towns. I would recommend that the drivers that are also guides, have a microphone, as it is difficult to hear in the back of the van. I recommend this tour, Sicily is amazing.

Wonderful tour experience from booking to end. Tour operator was excellent in making adjustments to our itinerary to accommodate additional days before and after the tour. Communication during the tour was great as well.

Marina Travel 3 day tour wasn't my first choice, but had to book quickly after Arctic Adventures canceled on me 2 weeks before the trip that I had booked months ago. I am very happy how responsive Marina Travel team was, the booking and the communication was great. Everything was well organized, and despite the heavy rain that followed us, we had fun! Very nice experience, I will highly recommend.

The Pearls tour was terrific. We saw a wide swath of Albania, were introduced to its various cultures, tasted many of its traditional foods, and stayed in nice hotels throughout. Albania was full of jaw-dropping beautiful sights. We were surprised by the variety and beauty of its landscapes and seascapes. We found the Albanian people to be very welcoming and friendly -- and also helpful whenever we needed it.

Excellent support from the Choose Balkans team from planning through the whole trip. Excellent guide during the tour with alot of knowledge about the country the culture and the history. The hotels were very good and most had a local character. Overall we were very satisfied and would definitely recommend the tour.

Good morning, Thanks for asking to our experience during the tour. In general it was good. The things were good: The driver was helpful, gentleman and offer his help all the time The order of travel between the cities was organized and comfortable. The hotels were good and clean Things to be improved: The time of gathering on the first day at the VPT office was not precise (time given to us was 07:45, but the office opened& the staff came at 08:30) and the driver came at 09:30 The bus was old, noisy and uncomfortable during the trip No wifi (internet) available in the bus during the tour, The driver offer us his wifi from his mobile phone. The variety of foods in lunch and dinners were limited and no options, some tourists are vegetarian and others are Muslims and have their meals. The local guides were helpful and tried to give us the valuable information but their English language was not good and some information was missing. The tour in some cities was short and not precious and short like Granada, Cordoba. We missed a lot of important things like the old city of Cordoba (Alzahrra), Lions Fontaine in Nasser palace in Granada… etc. In general the tour was good and thank you for your services. Regards.

The itinerary was just right and our guide Venessa was excellent.

Makis was an excellent driver, the itinerary was comprehensive and the guides were well versed in their subject matter.

Great service. We really enjoyed the our time, our hotels were in the center of each destination with easy access which was mandatory for us. The hole team was friendly and professional, no issues. Excellent.

Worked well for us. Clear instructions Hotels were good especially Hotel Brazzero in Syros.

Great experience. Team was always available to answer my questions or concerns. Enjoyed my stay in Crete and last minute I asked them to extend my day at the Hotel and change air tickets. All was done within 2 hours and they paid to secure booking before collecting payment from me. Will be back next year but Dot Travel will be top of my list. Thank you Team,your wonderful support made my tour memorable. Lots of Love Mark

A good trip with lots to see and well organized. Transfers to and from the airport were excellent.

I recently took my family to Turkey to visit the Seven Churches of Revelation, and it turned into a spiritual journey in ways we never anticipated—mostly involving terrible food, too many service stations, and a tour guide who was a complete circus act. Imagine a camel with a detachable jaw, outlined in black—that was Ahmet, our history tour guide. We started in Istanbul, where we got a free chiropractic session courtesy of the 100 meters of unsealed road that had turned into an obstacle course outside our hotel. Between dodging potholes and merchants trying to sell us everything from “authentic” Turkish carpets to questionable designer labels, it was a miracle we even made it to the tour bus. Ahmet greeted us with his painted jawline, and off we went on what quickly became more of a gas station tour than a historical one. For every church we visited, Ahmet took us to about seven service stations. By the end, I started thinking the Seven Churches were just a metaphor for the 100 gas stations we stopped at. Ahmet had clearly struck a deal for free meals and drinks at every stop. When he claimed there were 13 disciples, we started Googling Bible facts from the backseat just to keep him in check. At least Google didn’t need a pit stop every 30 minutes for Turkish tea. Then came the hotel disaster. This hotel was so bad that even the roaches packed their bags and left. Midway through our stay, sewage began leaking through the bathroom ceiling. We flagged down Ahmet, whose solution was, “Don’t worry, the next hotel will be better.” It couldn’t be worse. So, we were expected to ignore the ceiling caving in and enjoy the ambiance of the sewer smell. Eventually, the ceiling gave way, and a handyman showed up. He wrapped a couple of plastic garbage bags around the leak like it was some kind of five-star repair, patted the pipe down with our towels, and left. No offer of a room change, no cleanup—just a bagged-up sewage fountain. Meanwhile, Ahmet was chilling in the dining room, loading up on food like he hadn’t eaten enough at every service station in Turkey. He stuffed his face while collecting fruit for tomorrow’s journey. For a slim person, he ate like a professional in a food competition. Somewhere between the 57th gas station and the bathroom ceiling collapse, we lost all faith in Ahmet and the tour company. My wife kept reminding me that at least we saw the Seven Churches—along with every gas station in Turkey. We just arrived at another hotel, and this one looks like the cave where Christians hid from Roman persecution—but at least the bathroom isn’t leaking. We were expecting an educational experience, but instead, Ahmet focused on his commissions from every service station we visited and his tip at the end. His priority was clearly personal gain. Without Ahmet, the tour would have been much more enjoyable. He seemed to be on his own personal crusade, rushing through every church site so quickly that we ended up doing our sunset cruise at lunchtime! And to top it all off, we had to listen to him boast about his 40 years of experience. What experience? Honestly, if we taught a chimpanzee one fact per year, it would be more knowledgeable about history than Ahmet. I wouldn’t recommend this tour with Ahmet to my worst enemy. The tour company would do themselves a huge favour if they never used Ahmet again.