The Contiki experience

Showing our team spirit at Palio in Siena.By Anna Warwick

Before I took my amazing tour of Tuscany, Italy, I didn’t know much about Contiki. I had heard about the tours of course – something along the lines of “lots of 21 year olds drinking and hooking up.” But our tour was nothing like that! It was a group of intelligent 20-something travelers soaking up a rich, fast-paced cultural experience.

Contiki has designed these cultural tours to cater to a new generation of tourists, aged 18-35 - they call the “Intellectual Traveller”, or iTraveller. This is no quiet getaway – this is non-stop action packed sightseeing, learning and experiencing. It’s like an in-depth cultural crash-course. It really blew my mind and my expectations right out of the water.

These tours also cater to another new breed – the “flashpacker”. No – this doesn’t mean trenchcoat wearing backpackers… Flashpackers are on a slightly bigger budget than backpackers - they are happy to splash out on a B&B or even a hotel rather than a hostel, and spend a bit more on a few nice dinners or nights out. Ring a bell?


The Leaning Tower of Pisa.So Easy
Contiki was perfect for me because I am a “happy-go-lucky” traveller – I like to play it by ear – i.e. do no research and book nothing. This bad habit has lead to a lot of fun adventures, but it has mostly led to a lot of standing in a back street of a strange city trying to mime “internet café” to a local grocer… Often I get so tired I just find a nice warm spot and stay there for the whole trip! Not this time…

Contiki organises your hotel (very nice hotels, too), most meals, all transport and a tight schedule of fabulous sightseeing and adventures. We saw roughly three major tourist attractions per day – often travelling for a few hours on the coach to get to each one. Off my own bat I probably would have seen one or two max.

If I did get the urge to explore on my own or try out a certain restaurant, off I went and rejoined the tour later – perfect!

But every minute away from the tour you missed out on learning or seeing something. Yes - it was pretty full-on, and yes you should do things at your own pace, but my advice is to JUST DO IT – do everything on the tour itinerary. You can sleep when you get home, or on the bus.


Sabine carried a magic singing flower so we could always find her in the crowd.Tour Mania
Unlike travelling alone, on a tour everything you see is contextualised – you learn about the people who built the monuments or created the art you are seeing, and why they did it and what it meant at the time. I hate that “what am I looking at?” feeling. In fact I’m addicted to tours now. When I got to Hong Kong on the way back, the first thing I did was jump on a tour bus, turning an eight hour stopover into a mind-expanding journey. But the guide wasn’t as good as Sabine.

Our amazing Contiki tour guide Sabine was so smart – not only did she speak her native Dutch, as well as perfect English and Italian… she had a few more tongues up her sleeve just in case! Sabine had a broad knowledge of local history and politics and she kept us entertained and informed 24/7. She was also totally calm and had all 30 of us perfectly organised at all times. And if necessary, she could translate what other guides were telling us in perfect detail.

Missing the Bus
Ok I have to admit it – on the very first day of the tour I was so excited to be in Europe I got lost in the magnificent cliff top town of Orvieto… I was wandering the cobbled streets with my breath permanently taken away, and came back to the town square to see the last shuttle bus taking off! I ran down the mountain to the train stop, but I had missed that too so I got a lift with some locals – a little girl and her grandparents – and tried to mime to them where the coach stop was. But I got that wrong too and the lovely Nerissa (Aussie PR girl) had to get off the coach and come find me. But that was ok – we had a glass of wine and caught the train to meet the bus. Phew! But yeah I didn’t do that again.


Italy: the food was - GREAT!Fellow Travellers
Of course the best part of the trip was all the people I traveled with. There were people from the USA, Canada and the UK as well as Australia and NZ. I have to say, none of them were the “happy-go-lucky” tourist types like me – they were all super organized (they were all in their 20’s as well). Some were taking a couple of weeks of work and wanted a package tour. Some were traveling for the whole northern summer and had no companion for this leg of their trip. One or two were on their second or third consecutive Contiki tour. There were those who came as a couple, those who came on their own and those who came with a friend. Some had Italian parents or grandparents and wanted to learn more about their homeland. It was a fantastic bunch of people and while some enjoyed a couple of quiet drinks at the hotel after dinner on a few nights, most us were too knackered to party on. Any hookups? I think there might have been two or three budding international romances ;).

Contiki’s Regional European Tours
Contiki Holidays offers six regional itineraries through Europe, covering Italy, the Mediterranean, Spain and Eastern Europe. The tours are designed to offer an in-depth journey into the heartland of a country from its cities to its history, culture and way of life.


Another day, another city - walking in to Florence.Our tour - the eight-day Tuscany tour visited Rome, Siena and Florence with day trips to Pisa (as in leaning tower of), the Tuscan Coast, as well as medieval towns Orvieto, Volterra, Bagnoregio and more.

The tour gave us a chance to explore the amazingly beautiful central Italian region on adventures like cycling through Chianti, visiting castles learning to cook a Tuscan meal – home made pasta - and tasting all the delicious cheese, salami and wine we could handle! We met a gorgeous truffle-hunting dog and best of all – we were in the town of Siena for Tuscany’s most celebrated festival the Palio. This crazy festival (which I will tell you more about next week) is centred around a famous bareback horse race which lasts two minutes and is taken deadly seriously by the locals, resulting in days of celebration. WOW it was fun.


The 14th Century Castelo Meleto in the Chianti region.Contiki Holidays’ eight-day Tuscany tour is priced from $1419* per person, twin share, land only. The price includes seven nights accommodation, most meals, the benefit of an experienced Contiki tour manager and driver as well as loads of sightseeing and activities. For more info see au.contiki.com. To book see your local travel agent.

Something for Everyone
Whatever holiday you’re looking for, Contiki’s got it covered. Whether it’s an adventure packed road trip across America, a chilled mini-break at one of our resorts or cultural overload in some of Europe’s finest cities, you’ll experience more than you ever expected. Contiki is global – they run tours in the USA, Europe, Australia, Russia, Egypt, Hawaii, Turkey, Croatia, Canada and Scandinavia, to name just a few.

*Price quoted based on 2007 departures until 29 September. Tour runs over the European summer, May to September.