European Vacation
 

Has anyone taken a European Vacation either cruise or package trip to (Italy, France, Greece, etc.). Who did you use to book it, how much was it, how many days, and what was your experience? I would appreciate any info you can give to me. Thank you so much!!

Have gone there often. Traveled on our own. Just rent a car, get a map und auf geh'ts.
Helps if you have a home base, either relatives or Wohnung.

look into repositioning cruises next spring. They leave Ft Lauderdale and sail to the med.

If you are not able to handle your own luggage then look for a company. If you belong to AAA they could be Abigail help

We did a land/sea tour of Italy, Turkey and Greece with Royal Caribbean

travel agencies do this for you

It would seem that each person contemplating a European tour must set something of their own criteria. What is your age, do you want to drive, do you want to visit relatives, are you a hiker, do you want to river cruise, ocean cruise, what is your budget, how long do you want to be gone. I've been to Europe many times and each trip was great, but it was something I wanted.
My explaining how long , how much, and from who wouldn't give you any valuable info.

Google Rick Steves.
Go to the library and take out his books.
Go cheapcruises.com. [repositioning]

That's what we did and it was inexpensive, a lot of fun and went by all too quickly.

I'll tell you more later.

YouTube your destination and see what pops up. If you are cruising go to cruisecritic..com to investigate your ship, room and read other people's reviews

Viking Cruises

We've taken trips with Trafalgar Tours to England, France, Italy and Eastern Europe. Each was a wonderful experience. We aren't adventurous so it was great to have things planned for us. All of the groups were from English speaking countries and it was a pleasure to meet lots of interesting people. We usually had the chance to go to local restaurants in the evenings if we wanted. It was also wonderful to bypass long lines at museums and walk right in through the tour group entrances.

Would not recommend them. They are scotch on food. Surf and turf was a small steak and a shrimp. Open Seating, cattle rush to find a seat, but there is waiter service. No entertainment just an attempt to indoctrinated you that the EU is great.

Ships are smaller then they appear on the ads.

My husband and I recently booked a 10 day Western Med cruise on the NCL Epic for April 2016. NCL has some great promos going on right now which you may want to check out. Our cruise starts and ends in Barcelona and stops in Sardinia, Sicily, Naples, Rome, and Florence. We like to unpack once during a vacation so cruises work for us. Cost varies depending on cabin choice and types of excursions you book, and of course your flights which right now is running around $1,000 round trip to Barcelona.

If a cruise is something that you may be interested in you can do mock booking on all the cruise line web sites (HAL, Princess, NCL, RCL, etc.) which will give you a good idea what a European cruise will cost.

Two years ago did the 12 day Mediterranean cruise on the Norwegian Epic. We sailed out of Barcelona and finished in Venice. It was a great trip. We didn't want yo deL with putting our luggage. Out at 6:30 each morning. It was wonderful coming back on the ship at huge end of the day. And not have to worry about dinner reservations. Do your homework

Before hand and know what excursions you want to do. For example in Toulon we took an excursion that took us by bus an hour and a half from the ship. We walked around the town , wat and got back on the bus. The town of Toulon had the same architecture and a beautiful seaport with a harbor filled with sailboats. We could have walked off the ship wandered around the town and then had lunch on the water. It would have been a perfect day.