London Explorer (3 Days)

Customer Reviews

• EM

  Elizabeth

  · October 28th, 2016
  London Explorer (4 nights) Although friendly personalities and people to greet you, I did not find this tour particularly helpful. I felt like I could have booked my own night in London without this tour. The Contiki office is conveniently located in the basement of the hotel but from my own research and interest in separate London walking tours (they only knew Evan Evan's) I felt like I knew more than the rep's there to help me. Ahead of time I pictured travel agents equipped with the tools, resources (maps/brochures) and a wide knowledge base to sit down with you and help you map out your time in London. This is how it should be and what I needed, a travel center of experienced agents still mixed with the Contiki vibe. London is a huge, overwhelming city and as a solo traveler never having been overseas I was nervous, anxious and had a lot of questions. I felt rushed when talking with the rep assisting me. The rep's honestly seemed more interested in socializing with each other in their own 'hipster club', you had to approach them. The music is constantly blaring on repeat in the basement making it difficult to concentrate on your research. I packed up and went to my hotel room. After this I did not go back to the Contiki basement again. Their fall hours 9am-8pm (September) and then when I returned from my Great Britain & Ireland tour (to do London Explorer after) in October changed to 11am-7pm. These hours are too limiting for travelers who want to get an early start to their day. The office should be open at 7am daily. I would have liked to have asked more questions and purchased discounted tickets but I wanted to leave earlier than 11am and always returned back to the hotel later than 7pm. The rep also did me a favour by providing me with the London Explorer package ahead so I could use the oyster card for my free time in London before starting Great Britain & Ireland. However, upon return from Great Britain & Ireland they gave me another London package through my trip advisor. It was then my responsibility to return it between the 11am-7pm hours because I obviously didn't have a second voucher to give them. I had to kindly ask a fellow traveler starting later days to return it for me because I was not going to start my limited days in London late or finish early just to return a package they forgot about. The rep's also did not inform me that the included West End Musical ticket could only be redeemed the day of the show you were going to. I went to Encore more than once and they told me they had seen this multiple times with Contiki travelers. This tour was not worth the cost to figure out everything yourself, just an added headache with Contiki and I would not do it again.
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  Trip date: October 2016