Among Friends

[dawg lover]

Thank you so much for all the great advice and recommendations. Much "food for thought" in here!

[dobiesrule]

I have traveled in Europe by cruising and by independent travel.   Independent travel gives you the flexibility to see exactly what you want and how long you want to be in each location.   However,  I was much younger when I did the traveling on my own.  It is a lot of work, both planning and doing.Europe is not all that big, so I would suggest that you take a bus tour and focus on no more than 2 or 3 countries and that should minimize the time spent on the bus.  I would not try to see as much as I could in one trip.  You can always go back!  If you are interested in England,  CIE Tours has an excellent trip that is pretty comprehensive and does England, Scotland and Wales.  My son did a 14 or 16 day trip with them last year and loved it.

[Justice4all]

I am a fan of taking your time to get to know the place, the people, the culture, the art and architecture, the climate, flora, fauna, smells, sounds, feel for the land and ways of life.  The festivals, the unexpected surprise.......the history...

[Group 5 minus 1]

I've seen the world on the 6 o'clock news and that's enought for me.

[haddon9]

Thank you for this timely thread!! Though I have been to Europe several times with DH, I have been contemplating how to go when we visit the British Isles for our next trip.

We've been on a Mediterranean cruise as well as a river cruise.  We've gone to Italy on our own taking the trains all over the country and occasionally picking up a day tour.  I really enjoyed traveling like that but as most here agree, each way of travel has its pros & cons.

Travel by ship takes you to many places and you don't have to constantly change rooms with all of the packing & unpacking.  Travel by bus takes you deeper into places you wouldn't see if you went by ship but being on a bus for hours can feel exhausting. With both ways of touring you are on the tour schedule and go where the tour goes.

Sometimes tours will give you time for some independent shopping & exploring.  Going on your own really is not difficult if you plan and prepare.  You can stay as long as you want in a place without having to depend on a tour.

As for me the reason I'm not sure about what to do is that my DH has had a chronic illness for the last few years and I know he wouldn't be up to doing it on our own any longer.  What if he gets tired one day and just feels like skipping a tour?  If we're on a ship he can stay and relax but probably not if we're on a bus tour.

I did enjoy going on a river cruise and would do so again but DH really wants to visit Ireland (land of his ancestors), Scotland & I would like to visit London and some of the English countryside while there.  There are no major rivers for cruising so it would be an ocean cruise (I found that Princess has a nice tour around the UK) or a land tour....I am still debating.

[this is my nic]

Land tour!   On Med cruises you only get to coastal or near coastal cities.  The river cruises are very nice, but if the rivers are low, they put you on buses.  We've been to Ireland and 3x to Italy, all land tours.  Loved both countries and hope to return.