Any experience with Globus tours?

[Souschef]

On one of our tours, we had a discussion with the tour leader. He said he had worked for Globus, and they had emphasis on selling optional tours. I recently read a review of a Globus tour in Scotland this year. The reviewer that they were dumped at their hotels mid afternnon and stuck there if they were not on the optional tours.
In many cases the hotels were in out of the way places.

 

[Nemo2]

I would love to be able to take off and be as fancy free as you and your lovely DW. Maybe if we had started traveling at a younger age, we would not have a problem.

When I met DW 14 years ago, (she just turned 65 last month), the only place she had been to outside Canada was the US......she recently racked up 34 countries with more scheduled, and has a long list of others she'd like to visit.

Her daughter commented last year that "My mom's become a travel junkie".

I have a hard time seeing you on a tour. I think that you should be the one leading the tour!

I'd go bankrupt real fast....the people who 'do tours' wouldn't come with me, and the people who'd come with me wouldn't pay.

 

[Dreamer]

When I met DW 14 years ago, (she just turned 65 last month), the only place she had been to outside Canada was the US......she recently racked up 34 countries with more scheduled, and has a long list of others she'd like to visit.

Wow, that is amazing. See, she has her own special "tour director". I hope that she has the opportunity to visit her long list of other countries.

 

[Nemo2]

See, she has her own special "tour director".

Oh no, I merely ignited the eternal flame.....now she does the research, bookings, itinerary, record keeping, etc.......all I do nowadays is say things such as "OK, that sounds nice".

 

[audreyh1]

Instead of taking a rick Steve's tour have you considered just using his guide books for where you are interested in. This is what we did in Barcelona and his restaurant and hotel suggestions were spot on.

I use his guidebooks and web sites extensively to help plan our city walks, things to see/do, and day trips from the base city. Also his thorough info on local transportation as well as how best to get to a given city. By the time I’ve got most of the logistics worked out thanks to Rick Steves, I’ve usually run across a couple of other things to do that he didn’t cover based on reading reviews of all the sites. I follow up all his suggestions that interest us via review sites.

However we’ve found that his lodging and restaurant picks don’t usually match our tastes. We tend to go for more central locations and a bit more upscale, and rely on review sites to sort lodging and restaurants out.

Need to start working on Spain!

 

[audreyh1]

Oh no, I merely ignited the eternal flame.....now she does the research, bookings, itinerary, record keeping, etc.......all I do nowadays is say things such as "OK, that sounds nice".

Must be nice! See my sig line.

 

[Nemo2]

Must be nice! See my sig line.

From my perspective it's the successful completion of an international mentoring program.


(Of course, there's always the underlying (but unspoken) concern that DW will morph into Fantasia's Sorcerer's Apprentice. )

 

[Dreamer]

Oh no, I merely ignited the eternal flame.....now she does the research, bookings, itinerary, record keeping, etc.......all I do nowadays is say things such as "OK, that sounds nice".

That is great! She is a "keeper".

 

[Souschef]

Wow, that is amazing. See, she has her own special "tour director". I hope that she has the opportunity to visit her long list of other countries.

That happened to me also. I had done a bit of traveling before I met my wife, and she had been a few places.
I was also her "tour director". We have been married 10 years, but had to slow our travel recently due to some health concerns.
In that time we have been on 47 trips and she has been to 42 countries.

 

[Chuckanut]

We might be able to do this, if we were in an English speaking country.

English is the Franca-Lingua of the world today. I was watching a Swedish detective show. The Swedish detective had to call a police station in Germany to get information on a suspect. For the entire the scene the subtitles disappeared because both the Swede and the German spoke English to each other.

In Turkey I was in a hotel where the guy at the front desk was trying to help a French couple who were going on in French about some issue. Over and and over again he asked "Please, do you speak any English".

I do admit that in small towns English is not common. IN places like Paris, Rome Barcelono it is. Oh, you might need an accent translator in parts of Northern England, Ireland and Scotland.

 

[Nemo2]

"Please, do you speak any English".

We got up one morning, when we first arrived in Bulgaria, at 03:00 a.m. so as to catch the first train to a town we wanted to visit.

Had a rough idea where the station was.....walking along in the dark we encountered a woman out with her dog..........since we had no Bulgarian and she had no English it seemed futile to hope for directions to the terminal......until....DW mimed pulling the chain on a steam whistle and went "Whoo Whoo".

Big smile and mimed directions.....which took us right there.

Language? Pah!

 

[Dreamer]

That happened to me also. I had done a bit of traveling before I met my wife, and she had been a few places.
I was also her "tour director". We have been married 10 years, but had to slow our travel recently due to some health concerns.
In that time we have been on 47 trips and she has been to 42 countries.

Many of the people on this forum are some of the most traveled people that I know. Love hearing about people's travel experiences and seeing their travel photos. I have read about several of your trips. They sound terrific. I hope that the health concerns resolve for the better.

 

[mn54]

Instead of taking a rick Steve's tour have you considered just using his guide books for where you are interested in. This is what we did in Barcelona and his restaurant and hotel suggestions were spot on.

I have also downloaded his audio tours onto my phone to listen to as we go on walking tours of a city or a museum. they were very helpful walking around paris and in versailles.

 

[Moemg]

I have to admit I used Rick Steve's book to find a great espardrille shop in Barcelona .

 

[audreyh1]

English is the Franca-Lingua of the world today. I was watching a Swedish detective show. The Swedish detective had to call a police station in Germany to get information on a suspect. For the entire the scene the subtitles disappeared because both the Swede and the German spoke English to each other.

In Turkey I was in a hotel where the guy at the front desk was trying to help a French couple who were going on in French about some issue. Over and and over again he asked "Please, do you speak any English".

I do admit that in small towns English is not common. IN places like Paris, Rome Barcelono it is. Oh, you might need an accent translator in parts of Northern England, Ireland and Scotland.

Yep. I’ve witnessed French and German business people in Europe (France) speaking English to each other.

 

[audreyh1]

I have to admit I used Rick Steve's book to find a great espardrille shop in Barcelona .

Oh, yeah good shopping tips!