Trish and I did both our tours with "Insight Tours". Insight Tours provide very good quality tours, accommodation and meals. Their full sized buses only have seating for forty people and provide heaps of leg room and comfort. When you purchase a tour with them, the money you pay is for the 'basic' tour. The itinerary has quite a few "free afternoon to explore the city" or "have a meal at you own leisure' which we came to understand was a time Insight had set aside for an 'optional tour or meal' at extra cost. These were all explained to us as the tour began and we were asked to nominate which of the optional extras we would like to go on. Then we paid for them in a lump sum. If you went on all the optionals it would cost about AUD$1600 per person.
One of the reasons we liked the Insight tour itinerary was the free time to explore the city and meals at our own leisure. There were about 7 included dinners for our 19 day Europe Tour so we would need to find about 12 or so dinners on our own.
We came to discover that "Optional Dinners" were often held at a venue which provided specifically for tour groups. Upon arrival at the venue you would find up to 8 other tour buses in the parking lot and you would be ushered to your seat, usually at a long table, for your meal. Often a 'show' of "traditional German dancing and singing" (or the like) would follow and you would be wined, dined, entertained and returned to the your hotel by 9:00 pm to ensure the driver had his mandatory 9 hour overnight break.
It was your typical 'touristy' outing that many of our group really enjoyed. They did not have to think or prepare for a night out, the majority of people would just pay their money and go along. Sometimes these optional meals were excellent, other times they weren't! In many cases, all drinks were included and for 90% of this group that was a waste as very few at all enjoyed more than one or two glasses of wine or beer!
The vast majority of our tour group opted to go on all 'optionals' Only one couple attended less than 50% of the optionals, that is right us!
At first our Tour Director was concerned as to the reason we weren't going on most optionals with the rest of the group, she was worried we had a problem with some of the group members or that we were not enjoying our trip. She was also 'paranoid' she would lose someone, they would get lost or something in a strange European City and wouldn't be able to find their way back to the hotel.
When we were going off for an evening meal by ourselves she always offered us her advice on where to go and how we could get to and from the city if necessary. At times she pre purchased our subway tickets and always ensured we had a map so we could find our way back to the hotel.
After we had done a couple of things on our own she became quite confident in our ability to fend for ourselves in a strange city. Most times the decision we made not to attend an 'optional' was the correct, other times it wasn't correct.
We find that walking around a new city enables us to immerse ourselves in the city's culture and get a real feeling for what a place is about. It is a good chance to watch grass roots people, to allow us look into shops and come to know a place more deeply. Meanwhile the 'optional' tour may be enjoying a 45 minute boat trip on Lake Lucerne with all drinks included and costing almost AUD$80 per couple or enjoying a horse and buggy ride through the countryside.
However we did attend most of the optional evening river cruises through a city frequently finishing with a 'typical' meal quite often in a lovely restaurant or on board. The cruise was always informative and the meal was usually extensive (and drinks were always included!).
We would have no hesitation to tour with Insight Tours again or to recommend Insight Tours to any of our friends.
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