K2849RJcarom
2 months ago
My husband and I took the Europa en Jeans tour from VPT through Falabella. I had taken this tour back in 2017, so I was aware of the craziness and prepared for it. I'm afraid a lot of people take this tour without knowing what it takes, so here's it:
1. Great guides. María, Alicia (and Ana in 2017) were always willing to help, Alicia and Ana gave us their phone numbers, and Alicia was always ahead of our questions providing help on how to take public transportation, where to find public toilets, and everything without asking, she just took the lead.
2. Bus. Not good, doesn't have a bathroom. Make sure you bring earplugs because you'll most likely be traveling with 50+ people and the bus won't be quiet. The drivers (Joao and Luis) were excellent.
3. The tour itself. This is like the Hunger Games, in survival mode, with hotel arrivals at 8-9 pm and check out at 5-6 am. You'll be making lines to get out of the bus, pick up the luggage, give out the luggage, get your room card, have breakfast, basically everything. Probably one of the most difficult things is that you'll be sharing space with a lot of people and they will surprise you with a lack of empathy, education, or common sense (like, let me stop everyone trying to get off the bus while I search for my backpack, or let me see 100 tiktoks full volume on at 7 AM...)
Something I complain about is that they gave us too much free time in Florencia on the 25th of December when there was not much to do. We decided to spend a couple of hours along the river under a tree and it was a nice (but freezing) experience. Same in Venice, way too much free time.
The panoramics in Madrid, Paris, and Rome often are very shallow and will end in a spot to buy stuff in stores where they have a partnership (they don't tell you that but is a bit too obvious). We recommend you plan your day by yourself, use apps like CityMapper, and just have fun on your own, it will also help you take some fresh air without the bus and the trip people, which can get very overwhelming.
Be aware that they'll recommend you eat in some places or take the services from a particular provider. If possible, dismiss most of those, they're only business intended. Here are some examples:
1) The Gondola recommendation: Hard NOOO! It was terrible, the gondolier spent the whole 10 minutes (which should have been 30) shouting at his partner from the other gondola, they were rude, never acknowledged us and just gave us a turn around the corner. Is also $10 EUR above the average.
2) Lunch in Florencia: You can skip it and find better options here on TripAdvisor.
3) The Paris Lights tour: Take it! The river trip in the Sena is amazing, unforgettable and one of my fav experiences, just loved it. I've done it twice and have fallen in love twice. The tour that follows is very basic tho, with almost no historical insight. But the river trip makes it worth it.
4) We didn't take the Monaco, Pompey, Vatican, Versailles, Moulin Rouge, etc, tours. They were way too expensive for basically just a transportation service. Also, at the point you get to those tours, you're exhausted from the non-stop dynamic.
5) The perfume and Murano glass and souvenir stores they take you to, hard pass. Go to other places and find better options, you've already paid the VPT agency enough to be also spending on their partners with high prices and ugly products.
6) The Munich tour: NOOO. They will take you anyway because the bus has to do the tour before getting to the hotel. Just say no and you'll get the "free tour", because they just offer it to get extra cash, is actually included.
4. The hotels... Mmm, what can I say? You will most likely get different hotels than us, but definitely keep your expectations low. For us, Burdeos and Rome were the worst, along with Venice whose bathroom door didn't get to the floor so you had no privacy. If you get The Caesar in Rome, be careful, they're known for stealing. So anytime you leave the door for long, you have to lock your suitcases. Once you get the list of hotels review them in Google so you know what to expect but also what you should be careful about.
Our Madrid, Paris, and Rome hotels were near Metro/bus stops which allowed us to move freely. However, they were very far away from the city center.
If you want to see many cities in 16 days, you are young, don't have any movement or digestive issues (long trips, the bus has no bathroom), or have children, then you can definitely take this. If you're older, have back or digestive issues, little kids, babies, little patience, skip the VPT services.
Finally, remember to use CityMapper, Trip Advisor and Google Maps to plan your free days or let along your own Europe tour.
