justme
Senior Associate
Joined: Feb 10, 2012 13:12:47 GMT -5
Posts: 14,618
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Post by justme on Sept 20, 2017 20:57:08 GMT -5
Has anyone used it and what for? Not helpful for solo travel, but I kind of like the idea that they set it all up for you and you get a lot of perks.
It seems like it might be a good deal, but you could probably do better if you cobbled it together. I randomly picked one, it was three cities in Europe with flight there and back, train to one city flight to another, transfers to hotels, hotels, and each hotel had perks from 400 in tour credit, free meals including most had breakfast included, etc. It was $2500 for the random time frame I choose. Figure if you can do the other meals, tours, and transportation that's nine days in Europe for $3k each.
But that's all hypothetical, so I'm wondering if anyone's used them or price compared them.
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swasat
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 13, 2011 9:34:28 GMT -5
Posts: 3,735
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Post by swasat on Sept 20, 2017 21:32:53 GMT -5
We have. All trips to Europe have been through Costco travel, through their affiliation with Trafalgar Tours.  LOVED them! Trafalgar provides exceptional service. Best of locations, best of hotels and every amenity provided for. PM me if you have specific questions. I can give you more details tomorrow. Off to bed now! |
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Sept 20, 2017 21:36:12 GMT -5
I haven't, but have heard very good things about them. I'm looking on booking our next trip through there.
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justme
Senior Associate
Joined: Feb 10, 2012 13:12:47 GMT -5
Posts: 14,618
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Post by justme on Sept 20, 2017 22:04:50 GMT -5
No big questions yet. My friend is just talking about Europe next year, so with a travel buddy Costco travel seems to be a good thing to check into.
Though, I guess the one big question is if you still get good deals if you do something that's not a packaged deal. ie I looked this time and they had a London/Paris/Madrid and my friend and I would much rather go to Italy over Madrid. I've seen packages for that previously, but didn't notice any advertised today.
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Anne_in_VA
Junior Associate
Joined: Dec 20, 2010 14:09:35 GMT -5
Posts: 5,549
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Post by Anne_in_VA on Sept 21, 2017 8:46:31 GMT -5
Does anyone know if they do Oceania cruises in Europe? When I checked their site, it only looked like they do France, Portugal, Spain and Mediterranean type cruises. We'd like to do a northern cruise (Sweden, Norway, Baltics, etc.) but didn't see anything like that.
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swasat
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 13, 2011 9:34:28 GMT -5
Posts: 3,735
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Post by swasat on Sept 21, 2017 10:18:36 GMT -5
No big questions yet. My friend is just talking about Europe next year, so with a travel buddy Costco travel seems to be a good thing to check into. Though, I guess the one big question is if you still get good deals if you do something that's not a packaged deal. ie I looked this time and they had a London/Paris/Madrid and my friend and I would much rather go to Italy over Madrid. I've seen packages for that previously, but didn't notice any advertised today. Yes. Yes, you do. Depending on where you go, they have a ton of optional tours that one get go on. Also, there are some hard to get in places in Europe that were a breeze for us travelers because Trafalgar pre-booked the tickets and we all just walked in. Like Vatican museum in Rome - the lines for the tickets start at 6 am and get a mile long by 8 am, and you may still end up not getting an entry because the museum restricts the number of tourists each day. We strolled in at 9 am because our tickets were bought 2 months in advance. Same for Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain. Tickets go on sale 4 months in advance and you simply cannot show up at the ticket counter expecting to buy one. We never had to worry. The way all Europe tours work through Costco is that you deal directly with Trafalgar. Find the tour that you want to go on. You can see the entire itinerary and hotel info online for each tour. Call Trafalgar and tell them you are a Costco member. They will ask for your membership info and will tell you the discounted price. If you want you can book your air travel through them as well (or not). You can also customize your travel by talking to an agent. They are every good about adding another city, skipping another one etc from your itinerary. |
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Sept 21, 2017 11:47:34 GMT -5
You can also customize your travel by talking to an agent. They are every good about adding another city, skipping another one etc from your itinerary.
Within limitations. They seem to do mainstream well, but not so well off the beaten track. When I was planning our trip to South Africa, I ran into a wall in getting info about The Blue Train (which is South Africa's equivalent to the Orient Express). I finally contacted Costco. Like with Europe, they do not do anything with Africa but shunt you off to someone else. So I contacted their subcontractor and pretty much hit a wall. They wanted to sell me the whole safari experience, or nothing. As we had already paid for the safari, I was not about to pay for it twice. So I offered that they could make our hotel reservations for Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. <gulp> Sorry, I'm not going to pay $250+/night to stay in a hotel, when I can get a 5* guest house with breakfast, free wifi and parking for less than $100/night. Luckily I had done quite a bit of research to know what the prices should be. The hotels they recommended were those I deliberately avoided because I didn't want to stay in a Hyatt equivalent. Oh, and they could give me squat on The Blue Train. I wound up doing this myself (they were all booked up), with a bit more research.
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