Insight Coach Tours

Hi,

I am planning on taking my mother on a coach tour of Europe. She wants to see Germany the most. We are looking at Insight Premium Tours. They are a bit high in the price range. Can anyone tell me if they are worth the difference from the %26quot;supersaver%26quot; tours. Any advice about coach tours we be appreciated.

Sima :o)

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I can%26#39;t imagine how anyone would actually enjoy a coach tour. Practically no time to see the places, cramped on a coach for hours, bad hotels and the knowledge that you could have organised it all yourself for far less and travelled by high speeed train.

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My mother is 68 and can%26#39;t walk for LONG periods of time. We thought a really nice coach (like the insight premium coaches) would be good for her. It will cost me double to travel for 2 via train, book nice centrally located hotels and then meals. I am not sure what to do.

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Hi Sima

If this is the first or one of the first overseas trips for your mother she might very much enjoy a coach tour. At about the same age as your mother is now, the mother of a friend of mine and her friend of the same age, took an Insight or similar tour of Europe and loved it. It might not suit a person who wants to be %26quot;a traveller, not a tourist%26quot; but their popularity with many tourists is the reason the coach tour industry is still booming. My advice would be to try to find a tour that focusses on one or two countries at most and preferably one where you do not move hotels every night, if they exist, so you can unpack and settle in a bit but still go sightseeing in the group each day.

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Thank you for your input. I had a similar response on the German forum. He suggested we find one small town to tour. We will be leaving from Amsterdam and will need some sort of transportation. I can%26#39;t afford to fly to several countries so the coach tour sounded good. I don%26#39;t want to rush her everywhere so your idea of one or two countries sounds good too. My 13 year old daughter will be with us and she wants to see Paris. Mom wants to see Germany! I am trying to figure out how to see both without wearing my mother out :o)

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Hi,

I did an Insight Tour to Italy in July and it was more expensive than other tours but it was well worth it. I was leary about a tour to begin with but it really is the best way to see everything. The accomodations are first class, the bus is extremely comfortable and everything is planned for you. No waiting in lines or having to make any of your plans on your own. It really was the best trip I%26#39;ve ever been on. One big differnce we found with Insight also was that they move your luggage for you, we stayed at 4 different hotels on our tour and that was a big plus not having to carry our luggage in and out of the bus, they have it waiting there for you at every hotel room check-in.

I%26#39;ve just booked another coach tour to Ireland and can%26#39;t wait.

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Hi,

How was the pace? I was told that you don%26#39;t have much time at each stop and with bathroom breaks by the time you get through those lines you have to run to see anything before you have to re-board the bus. I want my mother to be able to see the sights, but she doesn%26#39;t move fast at all.

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it depends on the tour you take. We did the very agressive busy tour so we could see all possible sights, however, there are down times and you don%26#39;t have to go to all the sights. They also have slower paced tours at least for Italy. It is true about the bathroom breaks but we still got to see every thing we wanted to see that was important. But we do like a fast paced vacation. You should ask the tour guide what the pace will be for your tour.

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I have taken my mother to Europe 6 times in the last 7 years. She is 77 and doesn%26#39;t walk so well either. We found that the public transportation is so good that her lack of endurance isn%26#39;t really a problem we just make sure we don%26#39;t have to rush . If you are planning a trip to the large cities than I wouldn%26#39;t bother with a coash tour. Most of the large cities have hop-on hop-off tour busses that allow you to go at your own pace. If your mother gets tired you can hop off close to a metro station and go back to your hotel. If you are on one of those large tour buses you%26#39;re stuck for the day. If you%26#39;re set on a tour I would look for a smaller more personalized tour company. Forget the cattle tours where they herd you off and on the bus.

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Thanks. I have been on the internet for quite some time trying to figure out how I am going to do Germany (Black Forest area, Alps) and Paris at a nice slow pace. I agree. We are going to need to do this on our own. The tours just aren%26#39;t going to work for us. I need to figure out the transportation problem. Tour some small cities in Germany-Alps and then get to Paris for a couple of days. Ugh!

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Just returned from Highlights of Eastern Europe run by Insight. Hotels OK but not near city center in most cases, and hotel group dinners were very poor quality. Generally not enough in-depth exploration of cities visited; too many %26quot;drive-bys%26quot;. Best sightseeing reserved for %26quot;optional%26quot; excursions at extra cost. They often appeared to be cutting corners to reduce their expenses.