Topdeck European Odyessey Tour Review

So I’ve finished my first Topdeck tour – an 18 day European Odyessey EuroHotel tour of Paris (France), Engleberg (Switzerland), Florence, Rome and Venice (Italy), Tyrol (Austria), Prague (Czech Republic), Berlin (Germany) and Amsterdam (the Netherlands) with some other stops in between.

I’ll be posting a day-by-day account as well, but here’s my review of the trip overall.

Tour guide and tour organistion
Our tour guide, Lyndsay, was great. She was an Aussie but she knew a lot of information about the places we visited. As we headed into each new city/country she would stand at the front of the bus and tell us about the history and culture of that particular place. And then, during our walking or driving tours of each city, she’d come out with even more information about the places we were visiting. At the sights during our walking tour, she’d give us free time to wander around for a little bit and take some photos after she’d explained to us what we were looking at and why it was important. She would also help us figure out how to get to/from the hotel on days we caught public transport and be on hand to answer any other questions we’d have.

We had a daily “what’s on” sheet which was put up in the hotel reception area for us all to see which had all the important information we needed to know about the next day or two such as breakfast hours, times to meet the bus etc. We also got a map for each city which had all the important sights marked on it (and their opening times and admission prices) as well as tips for getting around and a few phrases in the local language.

Tour bus and driver
Our driver, Frenchy, was a true French man who loved his cheese. He was also a great driver – driving a massive bus through the narrow archways of the Louvre, up the winding roads of the Swiss Alps and pulling out of a tight entrance to a Tuscan winery was nothing I would ever have attempted, but I never felt unsafe whilst travelling in the bus.

Having never done a long bus trip before, I found the bus quite comfortable to travel on, even on long driving days. Our group was only about 30 people so a lot of us got our own seat. The seats themselves were comfy and reclined. The windows were big enough to watch the scenery pass by or there were curtains we could close if we wanted to catch up on sleep. There was also usb port in the middle of the bus where we could charge our phones etc. during the drive.

The driving days themselves were usually quite long. The longest drive was Paris to Switzerland which took 10 hours including stops. We tended to stop every two or three hours for a bathroom break (about 15-20 mins) and stopped for about an hour to an hour and a half for lunch. Lunch stops were usually at truck stops but a couple of times we’d stop near a supermarket or a fast food outlet. On one particular driving day we were told that there weren’t a lot of good food places to stop along the way so it was suggested we pick up some food the day before at the supermarket to take with us. Most drive days started around 8:30-9:00 but some days we’d try to head of earlier (particularly on the drive to Tyrol as we only had one afternoon there). We usually started the drive day with some quiet music and a chance to catch up on sleep. Then after lunch we’d do some sort of group activity (introductions on the first day, a quiz day etc.) or watch a movie (usually something inspired by the city we were about to visit – such as Gladiator on the way to Rome).

Accommodation
I went into this trip knowing that, although I’d chosen a hotel tour rather than a hostel or camping tour, this was a budget tour so I wasn’t expecting amazing accommodation. However I was pleasantly surprised by most of the accommodation. Some of the hotels were on the small side and quite a few didn’t have elevators (certainly got our exercise carrying our suitcases up multiple flights of stairs!) but nothing was terrible.

The worst accommodation we stayed in was probably Florence (the Hotel Arno). The room itself wasn’t horrible, but the bathroom was a nightmare. The toilet didn’t flush all the time, the shower head looked like it was about to fall off the wall and there was no side or curtain to the shower which meant that water ended up all over the bathroom! But that was probably the luck of the draw that we got a bad room. However, the wifi was quite expensive and only worked in the lobby and even there it was quite slow and kept dropping out.

The hotel in Switzerland was a nice little ski lodge nestled in the Alps and we stayed in a lovely guesthouse in Austria where the owners made us feel so welcome. Both of these were only in small towns but were in nice quiet areas where we could easily spend a lazy afternoon wandering around the town. In Amsterdam, we stayed at the Botel, which is a boat floating on the canal and a short ferry across to the main station.

Meals
Breakfast was included every morning – just basic cereals, toast and cold meats most mornings but occasionally there were hot foods as well. About half the dinners were included and were usually two or three courses. Dinner the second night in Paris was a picnic under the Eiffel Tower and dinner on the last night was Chinese at a restaurant on the canal in Amsterdam. A couple of nights when dinner wasn’t included Lyndsay would organise for us to meet and head out to dinner together as a group if we wanted to.

Optional extras and included activities
Topdeck has a range of option extras which you can choose to do. There was skydiving in Switzerland and a few adrenalin activities in Tyrol which everyone who did loved, but I am definitely not an adrenalin junkie so I steered clear of those. I also skipped the pub crawl in Berlin as I’m not a big drinker.

In Paris, after our picnic we had two options for the evening – either a cruise up the Seine or a cabaret show – and I think everyone on tour did one or the other. I did the cabaret which was the more expensive option of the two, but it was good to go with a group and a typical Paris show to go and see. The Canal cruise in Amsterdam is a nice way to finish off the tour after the final dinner (the cruise picks you straight up at the restaurant) and most of the group did this which was good.

I also did the excursion to Mt Titlis in Switzerland which I would highly recommend to anyone who hadn’t seen snow. It was definitely an amazing experience. The Vatican tour in Rome was an early start as they let tour groups in before they open the museum to the rest of the public and was worth heading in early to skip the lines, even if there were still a lot of tour groups who also got in early.

There are also plenty of activities that Topdeck includes in the tour which makes the trip that little bit more special. A gondola ride in Venice, dinner at a Tuscan winery and the Hofbräuhaus in Berlin, a bike ride around Amsterdam and a visit to a cheese and clog farm in Amsterdam – all these European experiences you don’t have to pay extra for!

Overall 
I think part of having a good time on a tour is having a good group. We had a great group and while some of the group enjoyed heading out for drinks, there was no pressure to go out if you didn’t want to. We had a few couples on our tours, several groups of friends travelling together and several solo travelers. The tour can also be split so we had some of the group that left in Prague and another three people join us in Prague.

Overall, I found Topdeck good value for money and a great way to see Europe for the first time. I loved not having to worry about getting from place to place, having a guide who could tell me all about the places I was seeing and meeting new friends. I saw more than I imagined I could and while I didn’t have a lot of time to explore a city in depth, it has given me a good overview of Europe and given me plenty of ideas about places I may like to return to in the future.

• Posted in: Europe 2013 ♦ Topdeck European Odyssey Tour