Highlights of Germany Reviews

This is the third "Cosmos" tour we have undertaken and I have to say that we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the hotels used during the whole tour. In previous tours we found there were some hotels that missed the mark, for various reasons, but not this time. Even if located a little away from the city there was always transport options ...read more close by, and sometimes alongside the hotels. Breakfast at all the hotels was also excellent.

The tour director, did a great job, especially in the way she had to handle a passenger with physical and medical conditions that developed within this and an immediately previous tour. The included tours with local guides were good, as were some of the optional tours, the highlight for us being the "River Danube Evening Dinner Cruise", not for the dinner but the stunning views of all the buildings illuminated along the river. As always, we feel the optional tours are a little expensive, but we have come to accept that.

Things that we felt were not good were that following a 10 hour coach journey from Prague to Budapest to go straight to a restaurant for dinner before checking into the hotel was not on. Also, in Salzburg it took at least 15 minutes to walk back to the coach, in pouring rain, from dinner at a city restaurant. Accepting that Cosmos are not responsible for the weather, the consideration of the restaurant's location should be taken into account when they know that majority of the passengers are elderly and find walking a long way difficult at the best of times. As usual, the booking process with Global Journeys was faultless, many thanks to Georgie for her professional work once again! (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

I joined this tour the day it came over into Europe and not at the beginning in London. The first couple of days we saw some beautiful scenery and visited some lovely little towns however it was very tiring due to long distances and only overnight stays. After this there were 2 night stays everywhere which was a lot better. On the whole I found the ...read more accommodation very good apart from the hotel in Berlin which had no air conditioning while we were there.

The Hungarian tour director was amazing. She could speak a little bit of most languages in the countries we visited and was very knowledgeable about the places we went to. She also tried to give us free time where the schedule permitted. Most of the local guides were also very good. Overall I feel the tour was good value for money and provided what was advertised. I got a taste of the culture and history of some of Europe's Imperial Capitals in a short period of time. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

Exciting, stimulating trip, loved so much of it, especially arrival in Munich to blanket of snow in spring. Each country had something new to offer. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

Loved this tour! Well paced with 3 night stays in most cities. Tour group was wonderful and our guide was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. Loved having the free time to explore each city in depth. Local guides were great also. Would highly recommend this tour to anyone wanting to see Prague, Budapest & Vienna. The optional boat cruise along ...read more Danube River in Budapest was a highlight. Thank you to Hannah for booking my tour and flights, she did a great job! (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

Our tour guide Tina was absolutely wonderful. Nothing was too much trouble for her and she was great company and we had good fun on optional excursions. Mauritzio our driver was excellent and also a fun person and always cheerful. The extra nights in Prague, Budapest and Vienna meant we could explore these cities on our own using local public transport ...read more which helped to give a "feel" for each city. The included sightseeing was well balanced with free time. The optional' Evening on a Boat' in Budapest is a must! To see the city buildings illuminated as you cruise along the river was unforgettable. The Czech and Hungarian optional dinners were fun evenings though our group felt that the final optional dinner in Munich was not worth the money especially as the location was not as advertised. In hindsight we should have missed a couple of optional excursions as we really enjoyed time just walking around and looking at what captured our imagination. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

Excellent tour. Not a lot included - eg 2 dinners & generally only 1 walking tour per city (as well as hotels & breakfasts). A welcome dinner to meet everyone would be good. Disappointing that none of the optional cultural dinners ran as not enough people opted for them. Would have preferred more tours included perhaps. Overall an excellent trip though. ...read more Good mix of ages & nationalities. Hotels & tour guide Mladen were great. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

Overall a great trip. Was amazed though that we found the coach travel tiring and were glad of 2 nights stops where we could 'catch our breath' ready to go again. Was very pleased with the accommodation for most of the way, except for Vienna which was away from the city centre and on a public holiday as well, nothing was open, so hard to find a place ...read more to eat. Even restaurants were closed. Hotels were all clean and comfortable which was great. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

A great tour that took us to cities that we had dreamed about visiting. Perhaps may not choose some of the optional tours next time as we missed out on some free time that we may have put to better use. Some of the local guides were excellent but others spent far too much time talking and the pace of the tour was drawn out. Hotels were Ok but not central ...read more enough totals the most of free time especially in the evenings. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

We really enjoyed the slower pace of this tour. Spending 3 nights in each city gave us time to explore without rushing. We thought our tour leader, Simona, was excellent. Her warm friendly personality made her very approachable & nothing seemed to be too much trouble. We particularly enjoyed our stay in the Bellevue hotel in Vienna. It seemed to capture ...read more the old world charm of the city. It would be great if there were more 'slow' trips to enjoy. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

We had a great time on this tour. Although the first couple of days included a lot of sitting on the coach, once we got through this all the places we went to were amazing. We had a great tour director who gave us enough attention but also personal space and time. Our accommodations were really good esp. compared to another tour we had recently done. ...read more We enjoyed all the optional excursions we did and thought they were good value. I would recommend this tour as a good value and interesting tour. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

Wonderful trip, with fantastic guide. Our tour consultant Georgie answered all my queries promptly and expertly. Can't wait to do another tour with Cosmos. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

It is a great tour which covered a lot of ground in the very short time. The cities visited were all beautiful and interestingly historic. The Cosmos tour guide and the local guides were very informative and interesting. Some days had too many hours spent on the bus between cities which sometimes caused tiredness too spoil the night time optional excursions. ...read more Overall the tour was very enjoyable. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

We were more than happy with the hotels and sightseeing and thought it was all great value for money. Our guide Orsi was very knowledgable and a real asset to Cosmos. We found the tour a little tiring - maybe that's our age. Less time on the bus would have been preferable as there was often no time to rest and change after arriving at our hotel, before ...read more going out to dinner. Saying that we saw and experienced so much and on the whole the trip was very well planned. Had such a good time that we won't hesitate in booking another Cosmos tour soon. Would have brought a travel kettle if we had known that many Europe hotels don't provide tea and coffee making facilities. Maybe this could be added to the pre tour info. Global Journeys were excellent. Thank you to Georgie for always replying to our emails very promptly with all the information we needed. We will definitely book through Global Journeys next time and won't hesitate to recommend them to all our friends and family. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

Well paced with three-night stays in key cities, good quality coach and driver. Tour Director Anita was very good and included tours were of a high standard. Some of the optional tours were not as good, particularly where the meals were poor. The exception to this was the night cruise and dinner in Budapest which was very good, however the Czech Dinner, ...read more the Hungarian Night and Evening in the Vienna Woods were very ordinary. Accommodation was a good standard for a low-cost package and overall Cosmos provided a good value package, as they had on our previous tour with them. I have recommended Cosmos to friends who have booked tours based on our experience. I have also recommended Global Journeys to many people based on the quality of service and value provided. Thank you Yvonne, hope to contact you in 2014 for another Europe package! (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

It was a last minute decision to book this tour and Frances organised everything completely fuss free. The tour itself was well beyond my expectations, I couldn't believe my luck. Despite being a relatively low cost tour the hotels were of a very good standard (only a couple not as good as the others but certainly good enough and a couple were 5 star). ...read more Some meals and tours were also included, adding to the value for money. The destinations were spectacular, my fellow passengers a good mix nationalities and ages with everyone mixing well. The tour guide and driver were excellent (Lisa & Philippe, a big thank you). This experience was a winner, I'll be a repeat customer. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

The tour gave us a taste of lots of fascinating places that we might like to return to for a longer stay in the future. It was well organised and the tour leader made sure everyone knew what was happening. She was very knowledgeable and went to great lengths to make sure everyone was ok. The accommodation was generally excellent, with Europe's financial ...read more woes leading to several very classy hotels being available for this more budget tour. We shared hotels with Globus on several occasions. Excluding London the hotels were mostly 4*, although I think the Hotel Budapest would be pushing to get 2*. It's all part of the experience though. Some of the hotels were quite out of the way and getting to the city without the assistance of the tour bus was too inconvenient, but I think this was balanced by them being nicer hotels.

The passenger demographic was mostly 40's - 60's. As a couple in our early 30's, we found that we wanted to strike out and do our own thing at a slightly faster pace on the free days and were able to do so easily. I would have liked to see some more exciting optional tours as the ones offered were very sedate, being mostly city tours and traditional-style dinners. The tour pace was slower, the passengers more mature and the ambience more relaxed than Contiki. In September the weather was a gamble that worked in our favour with only two drizzly days. The days were still quite long and warm plus the bulk of the summer crowds had died down. Although we enjoyed the tour, we decided to end it early in Berlin and fly directly back to London instead of spending the last two days on the bus driving to London. I'm glad we did, as other people from our group we met later said they wished they did the same thing. As we suspected, the last two days of the tour were very long driving days without much sightseeing and if you're on a tight time-budget it's a bit more expensive but much better value flying back and spending extra time exploring London. I would highly recommend this tour to people who want a taste of some amazing architecture (and sausages!) and seeing many glorious attractions and cities that seem straight from fairy tales.

Booking through Global Journeys was fantastic. I was a little hesitant at first because I'm in Western Australia and couldn't physically visit Global Journeys, but Georgie provided me with excellent service and answered all of my questions promptly and in detail. The price was the best I could find anywhere online. I would be more than happy to book with them again and recommend them to friends. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

The Cosmos tour was amazing! The driver and tour director were both wonderful, very accommodating and knowledgeable, and everything was so straightforward and easy to understand. It was planned so well, and I was never left wondering what to do. There was a lot packed into the 13 day tour, but I was satisfied that I'd seen the best of everywhere we ...read more went, and I would definitely book a Cosmos tour again! As a solo traveller, the initial organisation was a bit confusing and intimidating, being thrown onto a bus with no introductions and with two other tour codes, but I understand they were just getting us all down to Dover as fast as possible. It was just a bit uncomfortable to begin with! But once we got onto our respective coaches in Calais, our tour director was fantastic and I felt much more comfortable.

I was concerned as well about the age range, as I am 24 and much younger than the common age range for Cosmos tours, but I got lucky and there was a great range of people from their 20's through to their 70's. It was a fantastic choice for a solo female traveller! My experience with Global Journeys was nothing but positive - Yvonne and Frances were so thorough that I never needed to ask any further questions, and they were quick with a quote so that I met the 4 month advance discount. I would definitely recommend Global Journeys to anyone else considering booking a tour - and the bonus for me was that they waived the single traveller supplement, and I ended up sharing with another girl in her 20's which worked out so well! Overall, it was the best experience, and I am already looking into more tours. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)

Quick prompt service, documents received in ample time and in correct order. Friendly service from Global Journeys. Tour was enjoyable and a good mix of scheduled tours, free time and optional tours. The tour guide was great as was the driver, the bus was clean and new and always maintained by the driver. The guide was friendly and informative about ...read more all the places visited. She was a credit to Cosmos. Would recommend both without hesitation. (Ed: Review based on slightly different itinerary. Trip name and itinerary updated this season)