Cosmos Tours

[pisduck]

hi handydog,
that's what my beautician advised me also. to bring old shirt so that wear already can throw away.
but, i bery vain, leh. want to look pretty pretty.

as long as some hotels have laundry service then no probs. we can do laundry as and when there is washing machine.
what we are afraid most is that all the hotels dun have laundry.

anyway, glad for your advice.

 

[makino]

Hi pisduck,

What I did when I went for my tour was to bring a few shirts (presentable ones) and we washed our clothes in the bathtub/basin at night. Normally we got to stay for only 1 night at a hotel, so we wld hang our clothes in the toilet and then the next day, sun it in the COACH. We had a lot of empty seats around so we just made full use of the area. We managed to dry T-shirts and socks in this manner. My tour manager even helped us find sunny spots around the coach. My friends brought old T-shirts to be used as pajamas so that they could throw them away.

Btw some hotels that I went to didn't have any heater/cooler. We just opened the windows at night for natural air. Some hotels that I went to had a dryer where you can hang your clothes to dry overnight. I guess you need to check out your hotels first, if possible.

Hi Handydog,
What made you choose cosmos over others like trafalgar?

 

[handydog]

just the package available that time. Think both abt the same.

Must bring along a piece of nice dress or top/pant for more formal dinner. Usually u 'll hv that in the trip. I had 2 during my trip. Yap me also vain, so luggage specially heavy..my poor hubby had to help me carry, especially after end of trip with the shopping spree..

Best to keep it light in the beginning. my 2 cents.

 

[pisduck]

hi tsukushi,
that's new. hahaha... it's the first time i heard of drying barang barang in the coach.

guess u guys were lucky to get a small group then. wonder how big my group is though...

hi handydog,
my hubby is also teling me to keep it light.

 

[makino]

Hi pisduck,

I think most probably you will find a few empty seats around to be used

The coach we took for the entire trip could accomodate 50 pax but there were only 20 of us in the group.

I think a good way to keep your lugguage light is to bring a good overcoat and light tops, like a mix of long sleeves and T-shirts. Maybe long john if you need to go up a mountain. T-shirts can be washed and dried quite easily so you don't have to bring too many.

 

[touraco]

pisduck
all the hotels i went to do not have washer or dryer. but as the rest mentioned, you just in the basin and hang them dry overnight. as some of the hotels i went to had their heater on,i put them on the heater to dry.super fast.

never tried drying on the coach before though.
anyway, when it's cold, u will be seen wearing just the same thing on the pics as u will be having your coat on all the time.

 

[novia]

anyone with comments on cosmos? I'm thinking of signing up with them...

 

[novia]

Hi, I'm thinking of "the best of italy", "essential italy" and "the splendours of italy" tour package with Cosmos. Has anyone gone for these tours before? Any advice?

 

[jaspanda]

Hi touraco, I saw your postings, and guess you joined Italy and Switzerland packages. How do you combine them together? How much did you pay for these two land packages together?

 

[touraco]

bride
i joined the splendours of italy...great...

jasda
i was in london and paris before flying to italy to join the land tour and then i fly off from italy to switzerland and joined the switzerland tour. i can't remember how much exactly but the brouchures shld have the prices. i got 5% discount for the switzerland tour as cosmos has 5% for 2nd package.

 

[haru]

hi!
anyone been on a cosmos tour recently?wanted to find out how u all arrange ur trip.do you book the tour first or make sure there is a flight first? i am planning to go to spain/prague in oct..

 

[touraco]

hi haru
i booked the tour first before booking the flight but i made sure i check the flight time of the internal flight before making the booking of the tour

 

[askabride]

Hi all,
Any1 juz came back from Cosmos' "Cosmopolitan Europe 15D" tour package?
I'm kinda keen to book this but would like to find out more fr those who has juz came back, care to share?

A few qns in mind now are:

1) What type of currency did you exchg? Do we nd all 4 (i.e. USD, Euro, sf and pounds)?

2) How are the cosmos hotels in terms of cleanliness/accessibility to other places/security?

3)If you were to book a return air tic with cosmos to connect to their land package and if the land package got cancelled/postphoned, what's going to happen to the return air tic's cost? Gotta stick with their alternative dates and we have no way of refund of the air tic if we cannot make it for the new dates?

4) May i have a feel of how much per pax you spent for this whole trip? (i.e. air tic + land pkg + optional excursions + own meals + tips + misc purchases like mineral water and toilet visits)

Lookg fwd to all your advice

 

[pisduck]

We went to cosmopolitan europe last June

1) we exchange USD, Euro, Pounds, SF.

2) It is relatively clean and safe. But SOME of the hotels are NOT ACCESSIBLE. The ones in the big cities like Paris is pretty good though

3) dunno, we buy air tickets ourselves

4) optional excursions price is available on the web right? Tips is really up to you, unlike local agency but cosmos also has guidlines and tips is not cheap as you have to tip the driver + guide for 15 days. All I know is we spend like ard 10k for the entire trip including 5 days stay in London.

 

[askabride]

Hi Pisduck,
Thx a lot for your prompt reply and am glad to know some1 who has actually tried the same land pkg that i'm keen on.

Hmm, $10k for both of you seems reasonable!
Does it include any hidden costs? What are they if any?

I've read that you booked your 5D in London on your own, care to fwd me the website you used? I suppose it's safe to pay via credit card since you've tried it b4?

And oh yes, im aware of the list of optionals online. Would you mind if you share with me which ones you took and if they are worthwhile? Was kinda disappointed i dun see any "Moulin Rouge" visit within...

Sorry for the qns, i suppose im gradually getting excited just like wat you have been thru last year hehe

 

[pisduck]

hidden costs... not really. There isn't any hidden costs at all. Just the tipping and the meals on your own. The meals are quite expensive esp the dinners where some of the hotels are quite inaccessible so basically we ate in the hotel resturants.

5D we booked at the hilton website for Hilton Euston for around 69 pounds per room per night. Very good deal as the hotel was very good, and within walking distance to Oxford street,etc.

The good optionals... we only went for one dinner at romman hills. not very good. We joined most of the non-meals optionals... as some of the hotels are inaccessible and the timing is too tight for you to do anything on your own. EXCEPT the one in the Austria, the hotel was pretty central so we went to visit the palace on our own instead and saved quite a fair bit of money and spend more time at the palace at our own leisure.

don't get too excited about moulin rouge. The night for our Paris cabaret optional, we travlled from swiss to paris and the Traffic at paris was TERRIBLE. If you are flexible with your tour dates, please book a tour so that you arrive in Paris on the WEEKEND. TRUST ME, the whole paris is like gridlocked during weekdays.... In the end the optional cabaret show was canceled.

 

[askabride]

Hi Pisduck,
Thx once again.
As for the arrival in Paris during weekend, think it's kinda hard for us to be flexible since the cosmopolitan europe pkgs all have the same days of arrival in Paris (i.e.all are wkdays!). Guess there's a high chance we'll hv no cabaret shows then?

How difficult is it for us to go visit moulin rouge cabaret shows on our own (train is faster?)

Also, we noticed fr the itinerary, day 1 in london and day 15 in london don't seem to cater time for any london optionals. Yet, the list of optional excursions provided online has optionals ard in London?! Kinda confused. Did you do any london optionals with cosmos?

 

[askabride]

Hi Pisduck,
Thx once again.
As for the arrival in Paris during weekend, think it's kinda hard for us to be flexible since the cosmopolitan europe pkgs all have the same days of arrival in Paris (i.e.all are wkdays!). Guess there's a high chance we'll hv no cabaret shows then? How difficult is it for us to go visit moulin rouge cabaret shows on our own (train is faster?)

Also, we noticed fr the itinerary, day 1 in london and day 15 in london don't seem to cater time for any london optionals. Yet, the list of optional excursions provided online has optionals ard in London?! Kinda confused. Did you do any london optionals with cosmos?

Or any1 besides Pisduck can help me with these qns? Thx!

 

[rae]

hi pisduck!

i'm joining the Cosmos tours too.. Focusing on Italy and Paris in late July.. and will be extending my trip in London for 5 days.. need some help in accomodation..

wow saw that u've gotten urself a great deal for the Hilton hotel stay.. i've tried to search for the similar deal u got on their webbie but they are now charging like 95pounds per nite!

are there any other hotels located near Hilton Euston? as most probably we will be taking the transfer with Cosmos which we hav to gather at the hotel provided by Cosmos.. did u get their transfers too?

 

[yongee86]

hi,

can i check how do you book cosmos tour? do you do it online or via tour agency in singapore?

anyone that goes europe in aug? how's the weather like?

 

[lyons]

<font color="119911">hi ant, don't know if I'm too late but you can call them through www.scenic-travel.com

Weather in Aug should be cooling and not hot cos the peak summer season will just be over.</font>

 

[yongee86]

hi bride, thanks but i'm already back from europe.

cosmos turned out to be a disappointment for me. it was full of elderly people (which I'm fine with). the included city guide tour was barely 2 hours n the tour director was not very good in introducing these places. tour director is forever throwing a tantrum which is quite annoying n cosmos have tons of optional excursions which they try their best to psycho you to join. for those that we joined them, time management was terrible. the only good thing was the city guide was so short and we opt not to join most of the optional excursions, we went off on our own to explore the places ourselves and actually cover more places as compared to my tour mates who joined almost all the optional excursions.

optional dinners were very steep which we did not join, was not exactly very delicious according to my tour mates.

 

[lyons]

<font color="119911">hi yongee, oh dear.... it sounded like you didn't have a good time... why don't you feedback to cosmos?

I've booked a tour with cosmos already

covers italy only. which package did you take?</font>

 

[yongee86]

hi bride,

I did feedback on the feedback form they gave us at the end of the trip. my package is st paul's to st peter.

cosmos turned out to be just a tool for us to move from state a to state b since most of the time, we explore on our own so we are not affected by all the weird stuff happening. the hotels provided are quite bad in italy, super tiny and usually in the outskirts from city centre.

anyway, u may not get the same tour director so not to worry too much i think. your experience may be different from mine.

 

[lyons]

<font color="119911">thanks for the reassurance yongee. May I know if there is any place interesting in rome/florence/venice that you may have explored on your own? We also never intended to go on the optional tours, except the gondola one.</font>

 

[yongee86]

for venice, no need to join those optional dinners coz can go n check it out on your own. as for gondola, i din join that one either. the river is pretty dirty n smelly so... u decide for yourself when you are there. venice is an island by itself n do not worry about getting lost. getting lost in venice is part of the experience.

florence is a very small city so not much additional to do. but can cosnider taking the horse carriage ride if the weather is cooling.

for rome, we went to vatican city which was great. n we covered almost all buildings/ cathedrals etc on foot by ourselves in rome.

 

[lobangking88]

hi there was thinking of using cosmos too

 

[monkeychi]

hi

just wanna ask about cosmostours...
any negatives &amp; positives bout it..
hows the hotels ? and the tour guide ?
how many people in the tour ?

btw we've booked for the sept tour
focus in italy &amp; paris 15 days tour...
anyone tried that ??

thnks for the info

 

[lovella42]

We took the same tour with Cosmos a few years ago. All I can say, it was "The Tour From Hell". . Hotels are absolutely horrible, food for the most part edible except for the hotel outside of Lucerne (in Fluelen). . That food was horrible. The dessert was an apple and the main dish was noodles. That's all--noodles. The tour guide was the worst ever. Could care less about conditions or helping you. The joke on our bus was that she and the driver would end up paying us a gratuity at the end of the tour. We have taken many, many European tours and I would never, ever go with Cosmos again.

 

[belleepoque]

Hi I took a Cosmos tour in the early 90s and didn't find it good. The tour director was not good. Her idea of introducing a new place is to say,"Welcome to such and such a place...." After the group members complained, I saw her reading from a guide book! I knew because I was sitting in one of the front seats.

If I remember correctly, there are local guides who lead the local city tours so the tour director's role is to lead the group throughout the European cities.

On our tour, there was a large contingent of Americans with their own tour leader. Actually they were the ones who complained since they had the biggest group.

The hotels tend to be in less central areas and obviously cheaper but they were alright. Some even had character. I remember having breakfast in a traditional pension in Soll (outside Innsbruck) with windows that looked out to grazing cows in rolling fields and the surrounding houses all had murals on outside walls set in idyllic grounds. There was nothing to do being stuck in a ski village in summer but it was nice roaming around the cute little village.