Twenty-SomethingTravel

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

This summer, my sister and I went to Europe; one week traversing Italy, and another week in the Greek islands.  Planning Italy was doable, but organizing the Greek leg was torture. The ferry schedules were always changing and difficult to decipher. We also kept hearing that they are never on time. Great.

We learned that a cruise line, Louis Cruises, sails through the Greek islands. Not only would we get to see the two islands we originally wanted to see, but four others, as well, and someone else would take care of the nitty-gritty logistics.

Contiki, an Australian-based tour company for 18-to-35-year-olds, does a group tour on this cruise. Nearly all their trips are bus tours, though they do a handful of other types, such as this. Why go alone when we can do it with a fun group of peers?

We arrived in Athens and met our group of about 25 to 30 people in addition to our guide, Dan (a sweet and cute Australian). There were people from South Africa, California, Australia, New York, and so on. The hotel was chosen by Contiki; the inside was lovely, with a rooftop bar featuring an astounding view of the Acropolis. But the area (Omonia Square) was very sketchy, and we read that it’s not wise to be out after dark. Our guide said Contiki signed a contract with the hotel several years ago, before the neighborhood went downhill.

There were two couples in the group, but nearly everyone came with a friend (I think we were the only siblings). There was also a good amount of solo travelers. Those who came alone either had to pay a single supplement or hope they were assigned a good roommate. I saw a few people matched with someone they liked, but I also saw some bad situations. One girl on our trip had a learning disability; I believe it was some form of autism. Her parents sent her alone thinking it would be a good experience for her, but she had a very hard time and her roommate ended up having to babysit her most of the trip.

After an introductory meeting with our group that first night, Dan led an outing into a nicer area. While most of the group went, we were exhausted from a long day of traveling, so we decided to rest instead of go out and party.

On our morning bus ride to the port, Dan got on the mic and talked about Athens and pointed out important sites as we passed them. We boarded the ship and quickly learned that it wasn’t very fancy, the food wasn’t impressive, and the entertainment was pretty bad. But the set-up gave us the option to do group activities or do our own thing, which was important to us. There were two nights when we had organized group dinners together, and while they were encouraged, they were optional. One night, we had a private Contiki cocktail hour where they paid for all our drinks for two hours. We were told which excursions Dan was going on, but we didn’t have to do them. During at-sea time, we were left to our own devices. We spent a lot of time sunbathing and reading.

My main issue was that people were very cliquey. There was a group of four or five girls who lived in London together and stuck together like glue. They acquiesced a few other girls into their group, but made it obvious they weren’t interested in being friends with the rest of us. There were a few other smaller groups that stuck together. Some other people in the group were a bit odd. Fortunately, we met a small group of cool girls who were very friendly and spent most of our time with them.

One perk was that Dan gave us a free walking tour in Mykonos. He took us through the town, telling us history, pointing out important buildings, recommending restaurants, and so on. He then gave us a good amount of free time to explore before we got back on the boat that evening. For the other destinations, he told us which shore excursions he recommended and which were a waste of money.

Many people flew home the day the cruise ended, but many of us were staying in Athens one more night, so someone suggested we all go to dinner. About 18 of us met up at a restaurant in the Plaka district. It was in this environment that I finally felt like I got to know some of these people (maybe because the big clique wasn’t there).

In retrospect, I think we would have done just fine on this cruise without being a part of Contiki. But our guide was a great source of local knowledge; he could tell us things like where to find the best Internet cafes. While we met some great people,  we haven’t stayed in touch.

I liked that we had so much time to do our own thing and didn’t have to hang with the group if we didn’t want to. For that reason, I think I would hate their bus tours, where you are forced to be with those people for long periods at a time. If you are on a trip with great people, that’s fantastic. But odds are you won’t like everyone.  Don’t believe me? Read the forums on Contiki’s website.

Emily Starbuck Gerson is a travel junkie and professional writer based in Austin, Texas. She runs a travel blog, Maiden Voyage, geared toward people in their 20s (and others young at heart).

Related posts:

1. Who Should You Travel With? Part 1 of 3: Why Traveling in a Big Group will Make you Crazy and Possibly Homicidal
2. Lessons from a Croatian Party Boat
3. My Summer of Yes