What It’s Like Traveling with Contiki
We’re usually pretty hands on when it comes to our trips, and we’ve never used a tour group for anything longer than a weekend. But when we heard about Contiki, it seemed like the perfect way to try out a different style of travel, especially when we landed on South America as our destination. Peru is a big country, and it seemed more out of our comfort zone than most of the other trips we’ve done. So what was it like to leave the planning – transportation, hotels, activities, and food – up to someone else for once?
Perks:
No Planning = No Stress
Working full-time jobs and trying to plan our first major trip post-COVID could’ve easily left us feeling a bit stressed. Having it planned for us took one layer of thinking out of the equation. Contiki’s Peru itinerary was planned by locals, so we knew it was giving us the best of the best in the country and offer us a feel of the local culture. With this being our first time in South America, we liked knowing we were going to reputable places and activities.
Transportation
It would have been tough to see all of Peru’s gorgeous terrain by planning transportation on our own. There didn’t seem to be much in the way of public transportation, so it would’ve taken significantly more research and planning to figure out how to get from point A to point B. We mainly took private coaches and trains between cities, which were comfortable, gave us room to relax, and took out the pain of having to try and catch taxis or time buses to get back to our hotels. Since Contiki has established partnerships with businesses like these coach buses, it’s likely transportation itself would’ve been significantly more expensive if we’d been traveling alone vs. in a group.
Jhono was the Best Tour Manager!
Not only did our trip manager, Jhono, do all of the planning, coordination, and time keeping for us, he also became a friend by the end of the trip. He knew where to go to get good, safe food that wouldn’t leave us in the bathroom for the rest of the trip. He took us to his family home for a real look at Peruvian life, and he had friends everywhere – from airport staff to club owners – his connections to the area helped make our trip smooth and fun. It was also super entertaining to hear his personal experiences and funny stories from places he’d been.
Making New Travel Buddies
There’s no better way to make instant connections with strangers from all over the globe than by spending every waking hour with a group of your newest travel buddies. It’s always inspiring and energizing to bond with other travel junkies and swap war stories while sharing new, amazing experiences together. Even though you spend only a week with this group, it’s easy to feel like you’ve known each other for much longer. Trust us, nothing will bond you more than finishing the hardest six-hour hike of your life and ending the day with a stellar view of Machu Picchu (or the amazing experiences you’ll have on any Contiki trip).
Reality Checks:
Easy to Feel Disconnected
While it was nice to have all the “stress” of planning lifted off our shoulders for this week-long trek through Peru, it was also the most disconnected we’ve felt to a trip when it started. We had no idea what to expect and felt a bit unprepared when it came to packing and knowing where to go/what to do. Since we hadn’t had to research what we wanted to do for the week, we honestly hadn’t even thought about our free day in Lima before the trip started. We ended up reading a book on Peru at the airport.
Pre-Planning was Lackluster
Overall, there wasn’t a lot of communication beforehand, so we felt like we were going into the trip pretty blind. In fact, after booking, we didn’t really hear anything else from Contiki except reminders of documents we had to submit and a copy of our itinerary with hotel details about 10 days before we left.
There was some miscommunication about luggage size and our trip starting point, which left us starting the trip feeling rushed, flustered and unsure about the level of organization we would experience (we ended up being very pleasantly surprised by how organized and well communicated everything was for the rest of the trip).
Get Ready for a Jam-Packed Schedule
Planning your own trip means that you get to make your own schedule – what’s your main focus, how much do you want to pack in, when do you want to grab food. But when you’re traveling with Contiki, it’s full on and you have no control over the schedule.
Probably the most difficult part of the trip was that for a week straight we were going at full-steam for most of the day. We rarely got to sleep past 5 a.m., and we were often crashing hard by the end of the day.
“Free Time” is not Free Time
We had a few hours of “free time” built into each day to peak around markets, take a break, etc. However, the free time was only 1-2 hours, which left little time to sneak in a nap before prepping for the next activity. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the opportunity to really soak in the cities we were staying in since we were constantly on the go. Our recommendation is to add a day to your trip before or after your time with Contiki so you have one day to leisurely explore at your own pace. Sometimes there’s nothing better than people watching in a foreign city and doing absolutely nothing.
Is it Worth it?
Our biggest question going into this trip was whether we’d get our money’s worth (because Contiki ain’t cheap). After reflecting on everything we saw and did in Peru – sleep in the jungle, hike the Inca trail, try a locally made beer called Chicha, and take selfies with Llamas – our answer is yes. Having all of our transportation lined up, our accommodations handled, amazing guides on every tour, and a trip manager who took care of us like family, it was worth every penny.
