European Whirl Reviews

The European Whirl is an unbelievable 12 day tour where you visit Europe’s most beautiful countries. This tour offers you the chance to indulge in each country’s culture and to visit all the main sites, along with free time for some solo exploring. Enjoyed all the places we visited, especially how we got priority as a tour group e.g. admission to the ...read more Vatican. Special dinners and venues were great. Quality of hotels was excellent.

The whole tour was wonderful. The Trafalgar guide and the individual guides in France and Italy were lovely. Very informative. The Global Journeys staff (Hannah) was very helpful and reduced my anxiety levels as I have never planned a trip to Europe before. Having the accommodation, air fares and passes into the venues was great.

I struggled to remember ...read more everyone's names on the tour and felt name tags, especially for the first couple of days, would have been helpful. I did not know I had the option of meeting a Trafalgar representative at the hotel where I was booked. I found out after I checked in and was fortunate to still see her. The relationship between the hotel staff and Trafalgar seemed a bit disconnected with misinformation but I had a wonderful start to the journey starting with the Eurostar and ending in Amsterdam.

It is a fast paced 12 days with wake up calls at 6.45am. You see a lot of places but also spend a lot of time sitting in a coach. The optional excursions are expensive but to get the best value out of the tour you need to do most of them. The Tour Guide and the local guides were very good and knowledgeable.

Enjoyed the rich history, beautiful architecture in Italy and wonderful scenery in Switzerland. This would not have been possible without Madeline's professional care and thorough follow ups with us. Thank you immensely!

The trip was excellent. We had a terrific guide, Bernie McCarthy. The hotels were all top quality. The included tours and dinners were really good, as were most of the extra tours. We certainly saw as much as possible in a short time. I would thoroughly recommend this tour to anyone. Thanks to Juliet from Global Journeys for your help with the arrangements. ...read more Next time I would probably book flights through Trafalgar as well. I didn't realise how flexible they were until I talked to some of the other travellers.

A very well organised trip by Trafalgar, This is our first trip with Trafalgar, we are impressed by the quality of all services we were getting. Everything went well as per scheduled, We will consider another trip with Trafalgar next year.

An introduction to European countries, covering the main attractions. Fast paced with a focus on packing in the attractions. Tour guide was knowledgeable on European history and did everything to make the tour run smoothly.

The tour pace was too fast. Everything else not bad. Co-travellers, driver and tour guide were good. May use Trafalgar again but on their At Leisure or more relaxing trips.

This tour was an ideal introduction for us as 1st time travelers to Europe. It covered all the major landmarks and attractions that we were personally interested in. Anyone with the slightest interest in European history, art or architecture will not be disappointed. For those that aren't, the scenery is spectacular - particularly in Switzerland and ...read more Austria. Our tour director Stephen Pearce was outstanding. His insider knowledge and attention to detail was first class, Our trip ran like clockwork. Even when weather and traffic threatened to derail our planned activities he still managed to get us where we needed to be on time. I would suggest that you take all or most of the optional experiences on this tour. Those of our group that didn't were pretty much left to their own devices while the rest of us were away.

It needs to be noted that there is a lot of walking on this tour and quite a few stairs to take to see the best views in some locations. The Colosseum in Rome and Mt Pilatus in Switzerland being just two sites where you will need to climb several steep staircases. I was disappointed with the so called "luxury" coach. Although it was practically brand new it was not my idea of luxury. It was no more comfortable than the average council bus. It certainly did not live up to the dictionary definition of luxury i.e. "conducive to sumptuous living, usually a delicacy, elegance, or refinement of living rather than a necessity". The overall accommodation was very good however the pretour accommodation at the Euston Thistle was less than satisfactory for the price that was charged. The Premier Inn Waterloo is right next door to the Trafalgar Departure Centre and is a much better option in my view. In spite of these few minor complaints I would definitely recommend this tour for fit, able bodied 1st time Europe tourists. It was a hassle free way of seeing Europe and well worth the price.

This trip is not for the faint hearted, on the go 24/7, but it was fantastic with more "WOW" moments than you can count on both hands. Just when you think nothing could top the recent experience, another one pops up to equal or better it! The trip was made even better by the weather, which was good to hot all the way round, but the tour director - Vicki ...read more Townsend was, in one word Sensational! Her knowledge & timing of history, music, & bad jokes, made this trip a complete standout, she is in every sense of the word "a true professional " so much so, that if we were to take another trip with Trafalgar (which is most likely ) we would attempt to follow her itinerary.

The whole trip was a highlight something I had always hoped we'd do and was not disappointed. Trip ran well the pace was on the go but that is what we expected. If you only have a limited amount of time it is the way to travel - never had to wait for anything, no lines! Each experience was special.

I am very pleased with the service provided by Global Journeys. Hannan has been prompt, helpful and handled our problems in an efficient manner and to our satisfaction. The tour was well organised by Trafalgar. Our tour coordinator Gerry was terrific. How he managed the schedule, time, handled our luggage, answered all our questions and looked after ...read more so many people is amazing. We all enjoyed each other's company and had fun as well. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

We were very impressed from day one. Our Tour Director was very knowledgeable and hard working. We felt very much at ease in her care and she was able to bring the whole group together very quickly. Our driver was also very professional and kept us on schedule every day. We felt safe with him and appreciated the things he did, like delivering our luggage ...read more to the hotels while we had our orientation tours and keeping the coach clean and tidy. We saw much more each day than we expected and appreciated the little surprises and extra treats along the way. We would definitely take another tour with Trafalgar, we felt it was great value for money and appreciated the inclusions and the optional experiences that were made available to us. Thank you too, to Global Journeys for making the booking process easy, and your consultant Hannah, for helping us make the right choice for our tour.

My wife and I were a little apprehensive about taking a coach tour as we do like the flexibility that a self guided holiday allows. This view has changed after experiencing what Trafalgar has to offer. A well organised tour with a very experienced tour guide to make your holiday stress free and very informative. Whilst self run holidays allow you the ...read more flexibility, you miss all the commentary about different countries history and cultures. Although we were disappointed that the European Interlude was cancelled due to numbers, the Whirl gave us what we were after. The youngest on the coach was 13 yrs and the oldest 73 yrs with most in their 40's. You are allowed to bonds as a group very quickly and thus plenty of long lasting friendships are made. These tours are fast paced and you need to be aware that to do everything on offer it will cost more, however you get the benefit of priority tickets and organised travel everywhere you go.

The tour director was very passionate about European history and he was able to give us the appropriate background before we actually see the historical places that he described. We took all optional tours which are all value for money, with the exception of the trip to the farm in Switzerland. The hotel room we stayed in in Florence (Grand Hotel Mediterraneo) ...read more is not comfortable. The toilet seat is very close to the wash basin such that if you cant stand up after using the toilet...you have to move sideways, then stand up. Other than this hotel, all others are very good especially the one in Sinsheim, Germany.

The whole tour was amazing the inclusions as well as the optional experiences. Our Tour Guide Stephen Pearce was just spectacular he made each and everyone of us on the tour feel very special which was a real bonus and his extra thoughtfulness to passengers who were celebrating special events I thought he went above and beyond which was just super. ...read more The places we visited were just gorgeous and a lot of the places I would definitely go back to and spend a little more time there. Steve's knowledge was just amazing and it made us love the place even more once we were filled in on the history and he did quite a few extra special things before we arrived in each country to understand and appreciate each of these beautiful countries. Steve actually put together a DVD with each countries highlights that he would play before we entered each country which was a really nice touch. Another stand out on the trip was our amazing coach driver Kristjan, he did some amazing driving through some quite challenging countryside and we always felt safe in his hands and he was always on time to pick us up even though he may have been presented with some difficult traffic conditions. The trip was spectacular in every way and I would certainly book through Global Journeys again and I would certainly travel with Trafalgar Tours again. My brother Ian is of the same opinion. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

It was a magnificent trip at the right pace for me. We had an awesome Tour Director who worked very hard to ensure we all had a great time & felt like VIPS wherever we went. Our coach driver was very professional & all his skills were demonstrated as he drove through the very narrow Fuker Pass. Our driver was always friendly & helpful. I liked having ...read more local guides to show me around places like Venice & Rome, they were very knowledgeable & humourous. All optional extras were very worthwhile and good value for money. Our group enjoyed the whole trip and everyone got involved in singing on the coach after nights out - a lot of fun. Many long term friendships were formed & several people from different parts of the world will stay in touch. I travelled on my own & opted for the single supplement & I had a great experience - it suited me & I would certainly recommend travelling this way with Trafalgar to others. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

Great trip. Tour director Roderick was brilliant and went out of his way to make things spot on for us. Would highly recommend Trafalgar and also big thanks to Yvonne Brooks from Global Journeys for setting our the two trips we booked into motion. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

This tour is a fantastic way to see a lot in a very short period of time. The pace is tough going, we were up at 6:30 every day and in bed around 9:00pm - 10:00pm. We had the best tour director in the business - Brendan Bush, which made the trip completely seamless, with absolutely no issues and also had a great bus load of fellow travellers who all ...read more had very good attitudes, adding to the fantastic atmosphere. The tour cost is fairly high per person over AUD $3000 and yes you will be asked to do "additional experiences" on board the bus that do cost a lot of money. My tip here is allow enough extra cash to do them all, most people did and this adds about 25-30% to your initial tour cost. You wont be sorry if you allow for the extra cash, you will be sorry if you don't! All in all, this tour is hard work but an absolute winner - did I mention our tour director? - outstanding!

Definitely a 'whirlwind' tour of Europe but very enjoyable. A great introduction to many interesting places that left us wanting to return at a slower pace maybe one day. The Swiss alps (with snow!) and the Vatican were particular highlights. All the optional excursions were fantastic and worthwhile, adding to the whole experience. Our tour director ...read more when out of his way to make sure that everyone had the best holiday possible. And we were very confident in the skill of our driver.