I've toured several times with a company called Contiki. Since a lot of my travel involves this company I thought i would talk about what a Contiki tour is. Contiki is a large tour company that caters to 18-35 year olds. They do group tours of Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and a couple other spots. The tours typically have around 40-50 people on them, many of the people are traveling Solo. The company that owns Contiki also owns Trafalgar, Insight, Bus A Bout and a couple other companies.
Contiki operates tours from 3 days to 46 days. They operate camping tours, tours where you stay in cabins at campsites and tours where you stay in hotels. This allows people to take more roughing it styles of tours in exchange for saving some money, or spend a little more money and have more conveniences. I'm a hotel tour kinda girl!
Contiki is good for first time travelers, solo travelers, and people who don't want to do a lot of planning. Contiki takes care of transportation, accomodations, some meals (typically breakfasts and half the dinners), basic tours of cities, and offers optional activities - meals, tours of cities or museusms, and different activities depending on the place designed to enhance the experience. The typically persons on these tour are looking to spend time touring and getting to know new place, but also looking to drink and socialize too. One tour manager said that every morning is Monday morning and every night is Saturday night. But how much touring you do and how much partying you do is up to you.
Who shouldn't take a Contiki tour? Well most people will enjoy Contiki tours, but there are some who will not. Very independent people tend not to enjoy the tours. Also, people who have not researched what a tour entails and the types of accomodations that are offered. While there is a lot of free time on the tour, there are quite a few time restricitons too. If your tour is traveling from one city to another, then their is only so much flexibility in the schedule. Or if you're not familiar with what a 3 star hotel in europe is and expect what you would get in say the US - you'll be disapointed. Also, if you're not happy unless everything is catered to you, don't take a Contiki tour.
If you're interested in more info on Contiki, check out their website at www.contiki.com
