Travellers have long joked about not knowing what country you’re waking up in on a Contiki tour but the company is fighting back with a new range of slower-paced trips for those who want to see more.
Rather than racing through as many countries as possible in a given time, those who choose the “Easy Pace” tours spend two or three nights in each city, staying in comfortable hotels and with later starts on most days. Contiki has 16 Easy Pace tours in its 2012-2013 Europe program, including an eight-day tour of Italy and a 13-day trip to the Greek Islands.
The managing director of Contiki Holidays, Fiona Hunt, says the trips are aimed at the upper end of Contiki’s 18 to 35 demographic and at those who have already been to Europe.
“We recognise all travellers are not cut from the same cloth,” Hunt says. ”There are those who want to do, see and experience as much as possible in as many places as possible, those who would rather see less but delve deeper, and those who are a mix of the two,” she says.
This article is an excerpt from Jane E. Fraser’s weekly travel column in The Sun Herald, Sydney.
