Contiki
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Contiki is a holiday company which is exclusively for 18 to 35 year olds. They operate tours in various parts of the globe and annually about 80000 people travel with them. A Contiki tour is designed for travellers who want a little more security than that offered to the average hitchhiker, but still want the freedom to behave badly at night and choose to sleep in dodgy hotels and youth hostels or under canvas. Currently their tours are restricted to planet Earth as the coaches can't reach escape velocity without the tachograph police escorting the driver to the nearest jail.
The thing about travelling with Contiki is that your tour group is made up of people from all around the globe, and usually some who are more loosely associated with planet Earth. I travelled with them twice and on one tour we had about 10 nationalities and a New Yorker. This makes for a very stimulating tour, and I found that I learned more from meeting and spending a few weeks with these people than I learned about the places that we visited.
Contiki-ites are a happy band of people, except when they reach 36 because they become sad as they are "over the hill" and are excluded from the fun. Essentially they have been deemed old and boring :-(
There are numerous websites recording tours with Contiki, including my own at http://www.earthdweller.co.uk/contiki.html , which is a member of the Contiki Tour Experience WebRing. Other sites can be found on the forums on Contiki's own website at http://www.contiki.com
I propose to build up this guide entry to include a lot more about touring with Contiki, so visitors who have toured with them are welcome to add their experiences to the forum associated with this page.
The thing about travelling with Contiki is that your tour group is made up of people from all around the globe, and usually some who are more loosely associated with planet Earth. I travelled with them twice and on one tour we had about 10 nationalities and a New Yorker. This makes for a very stimulating tour, and I found that I learned more from meeting and spending a few weeks with these people than I learned about the places that we visited.
Contiki-ites are a happy band of people, except when they reach 36 because they become sad as they are "over the hill" and are excluded from the fun. Essentially they have been deemed old and boring :-(
There are numerous websites recording tours with Contiki, including my own at http://www.earthdweller.co.uk/contiki.html , which is a member of the Contiki Tour Experience WebRing. Other sites can be found on the forums on Contiki's own website at http://www.contiki.com
I propose to build up this guide entry to include a lot more about touring with Contiki, so visitors who have toured with them are welcome to add their experiences to the forum associated with this page.
