The era of lockdowns and restricted travel stole many life experiences from people, not least Grace Carter, who was supposed to travel to Italy and Greece on a Year 12 trip in 2020.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
With the luxury of youth on her side however, she finally got to realise her Mediterranean dreams five years later when she jumped on board a London-to-Athens (and Greek island hopping) tour last year with Contiki.
She wasn’t daunted by taking her first venture abroad alone because of the nature of the company’s group travel experiences.
“Doing something like Contiki, you know you're going to make a lot of friends and meet a lot of people on there and that's exactly what happened,” Grace said.
The trip was a 27-day adventure beginning in London, travelling through France, ducking into Spain, moving through the French Riviera with a stay at Contiki’s chateau, up to Venice and then down through the boot of Italy before landing in the waters of the Greek islands and spending two days each on four of them.
Contiki trips are aimed at 18 to 35-year-olds, but 23-year-old Grace shared the bus with people mostly of a similar age or a year older.
Of her 40 or so travel companions, only eight were men.
Tour managers told her it was typical to see more women than men on their tours, as generally men were comfortable travelling alone and without guides, while many women felt safer in group travel scenarios.
“I found that really interesting, because I never really thought of it like that,” she said.
“I just kind of went because I didn’t want to organise anything; I’ll just pay and you just take me wherever.”
While the trip was loaded with highlights, including visits to iconic landmarks and lots of opportunity for both sightseeing and partying, it still afforded passengers plenty of free time to do their own thing, or book add-on day tours and experiences throughout.
It was also what’s known as one of Contiki’s “modular tours”, where guests either joined at the beginning and left the tour somewhere along the way, or stayed with it from start to finish, as did Grace.
At each destination, the group was assigned to rooms, mostly in hostel-style accommodation — but sometimes in hotels, special stays and one night on a ferry — often with different roommates each night.
“I think the most we had in a room at a time was six and then the least was probably three,” Grace said.
“It wasn't really that bad to share with a few people, and you end up with some of the same people, but then you end up with different people in a different room in one city and it's nice to chat to them and mingle with them a bit more.”
The tour cost just under $7000 without flights, which Grace says was good value given the many included meals and activities, and all accommodation.
As the group travelled through Europe to the soundtrack of Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping, their ‘day song’ — a song played on the bus at the beginning of every day to create a core Contiki memory that is triggered in future whenever travellers hear it — Grace was finding her own favourite moments to become memories.
“Venice was so beautiful,” she said.
“That was really nice to just walk around, look at all the architecture and we did a gondola ride and Aperol Spritzs.”
Italy had many landmarks that stole her heart, including the Colosseum and the ancient ruins of the Roman Forum.
“Pompeii was really cool to see as well, and to see Mt Vesuvius in the distance, you know, very surreal.”
But, taking the cake, literally ‘by the ocean’, were the Greek islands.
“It was just the perfect way to end a busy trip of sightseeing and doing all the touristy stuff,” Grace said.
Besides the trip being “just the right amount of time to see all the main things,” Grace said it was a great way to meet other travellers.
“You know that they're all not sketchy and they’re above board because you've all paid the same to be there and it's just a bit more secure, if you will,” she said.
Her first Eurotrip hasn’t so much cured that long-thought-lost opportunity from her final high school year as it has fuelled a desire to travel more, and perhaps with Contiki again.
“I would do a different mainland Europe one,” Grace said.
“I'd probably go in winter, because I think a lot of the stuff we did, you wouldn't need to do it in summer when it's more touristy.
“I’d definitely recommend Contiki as a first trip for someone to go on, especially if you've never been overseas... I booked it and then kind of felt like I was forgetting to do something because it was all so easy, but it really just is that easy.
“You book the thing, you pay your money, you book your flights, and you've got a passport, you're good to go.
“They make it so easy to dip your toes in.”
If you’d like to hear more about Grace’s trip, listen to her episode on our Roam if you want to podcast here: