A Contiki tour is almost considered a right of passage for all young adults in Australasia; with Australians and Kiwis being the biggest clientele and booze hags on any tour bus. I went on my Europe Contiki in September 2017 travelling through 6 countries starting in Berlin. Contiki tours are well known for their ‘learn all day and party all night’ culture; you are taken through some of the most incredible sights and if you’re lucky enough to travel with a great bunch of people like I was; then you’re going to have the most memorable time of your life.

 If you haven’t been on a Contiki tour (yet) then you should definitely know at least one person that has. With their stories including that of incredible adventure, alcohol driven nights, sleep deprived mornings and knowledge fueled motivated day trips.

History of Contiki Tours

The Continental Tiki Tour, aka ‘Contiki’ began in 1962 with a little bit of kiwi ingenuity – 1 bloke and 1 bus in Europe. Advertising his bus in a local paper, John Anderson hoped to fill enough seats to help him pay for the costs of travelling Europe. Even after alerting any possible touries of his lack of knowledge of Europe he managed to sell out his bus and have a successful first trip.
John Anderson continued these Contiki tours through Europe and grew a successful business spanning over 50 years and spreading across 4 continents.

Where Do Contikis’ Tour?

Browse your choice of Contiki tours across every continent (except Antarctica); you can either choose to explore a few cities in one country, or cross as many borders as Contiki offers. Spend anywhere from a couple of days to nearly two months being taken on guided tours around some of the most incredible pieces of history, while making the most of the nightlife and carefree lifestyle you’ll be living. Make sure to keep an eye out on the Contiki website for deals or prizes to be won when you sign up for a tour!

13 Day Eastern Road Contiki Tours Europe

The ‘Eastern Road’ European Contiki took us through 5 counties in 13 days; it was a whirlwind trip packed full of history, banter and instant friendships.
The reason for choosing this tour was purely due to the inner nerd and mini historian inside me; World War II and everything that comes with it has always fascinated me, and I have a big love for Europe. When I found a tour which was primarily based around the history of WWII I jumped at the chance to get on-board, regardless of whether or not I was riding solo.

Easy to say that this European Contiki tour exceeded every expectation I had and I would do it all again if given the chance.

Berlin, Germany

The first day of Contiki is usually about putting on your best behaviour and meeting your tour family. The first night in Berlin was spent eating local cuisine, drinking German beer and ending the night at a shisha bar. Everything seemed to be going well until the next morning where one guy went AWOL and caught the next flight back home to Australia. #WheresMatt?

History Tour Through Berlin

Our first Contiki group expedition included East Side Gallery in Berlin where a series of artistic and political based murals decorate the last standing section of the Berlin wall. Continuing onto the Typography of Terror, Checkpoint Charlie and gorging ourselves on Rittersport chocolate and tapas for lunch.
An ‘alternative’ walking tour awaited us for the evening where we were educated on the art and culture of Berlin. This included the “Butcher of Berlin” and the story of androgynous Anita Berber, who would often dress in a fur coat with nothing else underneath and carry around a personal stash of A class drugs throughout the day and night. We finished off our evening with our first taste of clubbing on Contiki, visiting Matrix club and drinking far too much.

Prague, Czech Republic

Prague is a bustling metropolis of Marijuana inspired treats, absinthe, baroque buildings and attractive Prague Castle guards.
Prague Castle is definitely worth a visit, but I highly recommend booking a tour or going early in the morning to avoid any queues or photo opportunities.  One walking tour later and we were gunning for a typical night out in Prague which did not disappoint; Beginning with a traditional dinner of meat, potatoes, meat, bread, alcohol and more meat, and Czech dancing for entertainment.

Multi Story Clubbing in Prague

Clubbing in Prague begun at what looked like a quiet saloon bar on the edge of old town; 3 sets of downward spiraling staircases later and we found 3 different themed bars, a strip club and a cocktail bar with a disco dance floor. After an hour or two of bouncing between the strip club and the disco floor, we ventured across the street where we found another multi-story club. Each level was themed to suit a different music genre. The classic 80’s grooves with their own disco floor had me hooked while others were split between the RnB, mainstream music floor or the ice bar in the basement.

Bike and Bunker Tour in Prague

Who’s idea was it to mix an awful hangover with a bike tour of the city? Thankfully Prague is as flat as my pulse was the next morning and I managed to survive a cycle tour around famous monuments and artwork across the city.

I conquered my fear of being in enclosed spaces when we had a comical tour of an underground bunker in Prague. Learning about the rise and fall of communism in Czech Republic. With a collection of equipment including gas masks and chemical analysers which were prepared for and used from World War II to 1989. Obviously, I couldn’t turn up a photo opportunity especially when it involves authentic looking communist uniforms, grenades and guns.

Vienna, Austria

Our journey to Vienna included one of the creepier visits when we entered a church decorated with thousands of real human skeletons. Some displayed in a glass case showing how the previous ‘owner’ died; whether it was an arrow to the head or being bludgeoned and their skull caved in. Most other bones within reach, literally nothing stopping you from stroking some poor persons femur. Not many people can say they got a selfie with a graveyard worth of skulls.

Prater Theme Park

One of the bext evenings on my Contiki tour was spent at the Prater theme park. This theme park in Vienna was free to enter and you paid for rides as you went. I managed to conquer my fear of heights by taking a ride on the 117m tall high chair swing. There was a sushi restaurant in the park where your food was delivered to you from the top story via a miniature roller coaster that wound it’s way down to the bottom floor.

Vienna Walking Tour

The next morning we embarked on our walking tour around Vienna; witnessing some extremely beautiful and well preserved buildings, Vienna has a plentiful history of amazing classical masterminds.

Schnapps Museum

There was no shortage of amazing tours on this Contiki tour; the next stop in Vienna was a trip to the Schnapps Museum; this was super interesting where we discovered how Schnapps became one of the most favourite drink of choice in Austria, how it’s made and we even got to try and many flavours as they were able to offer. I was drunk by 3pm and clambering back onto the tour bus with a bottle of absinthe and rocket fuel in each hand.

Classical Music and Clubbing in Vienna

Tonight was the one and only night where we had the opportunity to pretend we were civilised human beings. Half of us spent the first section of our evening falling asleep to works from Mozart, not because it was boring but the music was so beautifully calming I could have easily fallen into a deep sleep sitting up right. We followed the classical music with another night at an incredible night club; back to Prater Theme Park for their night club with 4 different rooms suited to 4 different genres of music. Lucky me got punched in the face trying to stop a fight while the YMCA was being blasted on he country music dance floor.

Bratislava, Slovakia

Bratislava is a beautiful town in Slovakia and most famous for it’s beautifully restored castle that sits above the town.

Most of us welcomed today with another hangover, and I remember this one with such great detail because we walked up a steep hill to reach the Bratislava Castle and I could feel the alcohol seeping out my sweat glands. We had a short walk around the town, I laid on the cold concrete to pose with a statue crawling out of a manhole. Stood in a cold mist machine at the entrance to old town. We lost and later found two people from our tour. Then positioned myself in a fetal like position in my chair for the remainder of the bus ride to Budapest to try and recover as much as possible to join in on another night of binge drinking.

Budapest, Hungary

We reached our hotel in Budapest; if I ever wanted to experience living in the 80’s then this cylinder-shaped hotel was my one opportunity. I don’t think our hotel had an interior design upgrade since the fall of communism in 1989. And the curved corridors were a bastard when trying to locate your room when half cut.

Danube Dinner Cruise

We spent the afternoon visiting Fishermans Bastion and had dinner floating down the Danube river. Watching the lit-up city go by with a bottle of wine each, this was a picture perfect ‘wholesome’ end to our day. Before we ruined any smokescreen of dignity at a pool party with discounted cocktails. However, we did manage to ruin the captain’s night by taking the whipped cream can and spraying it at each other’s faces.

Budapest Spa Party

In typical Contiki fashion half of us spent the night wasting money on alcohol and killing brain cells at Sparty. A place where crowds of partiers go to deface historic public baths for the sake of…well fun. My night ended when I slipped on the wet tiles in slapstick fashion and couldn’t feel the pain throbbing through my head. Great night 10/10 would experience again. 

The next morning I woke up in my bikini and wondered how the fuck I got back to the hotel after Sparty. I dragged my sorry ass out of bed and slumped around Budapest for the rest of the day. Another 4am home time because why not spend all night dancing when you can spend all the time on the bus sleeping.

Krakow, Poland

7 hours until we reached Krakow from Budapest; if it wasn’t for the sound of excessive snoring you could have been mistaken that half our bus was dying from alcohol poisoning. The smell being emitted with the sight of loose limbs hanging from seats was anything but a picture of health.

A lunch stop in Slovakia was enough to bring us back from being cast in The Walking Dead.
Licking the Pope was my next accomplishment of the day, and probably the decade. We visited the salt mines outside of Krakow where tunnels, caves and large underground chambers were dug out to source salt. Giant statues, chandeliers and carvings were all carved from salt 327 meters below the earth’s surface. Yes the Pope was roped off and yes my tongue breached that cordon.

Pierogi Making

Our night out in Krakow included making pierogis’; a traditional Polish dumpling. This was a super fun and interactive way to get involved with and learn about the Polish culture. Our class ended with a feast of Polish food including pierogis, unfortunately none of the ones we made were good enough to cook but that was probably for the best!

Clubbing in Poland

Our first night in Poland was relatively tame because of what the next day was going to bring. We walked down to a local bar which offered $2 shots in so many different flavours; from Chupa Chup, spicy chilly pepper and jam doughnut flavours they had it all! The weather was pretty crap so we headed back to our hotel where we pulled out all the board games in the common area and spent the rest of the night enjoying each others company on a more wholesome level.

Warsaw, Poland

This was the only morning experienced sober and for good reason; we left Krakow for Warsaw with a stop at the very emotional Auschwitz along the way. This time my dehydration was caused by tears streaming down my face rather than too many vodka shots.

We visited the Black Madonna in Czestochowa. I’ve been to countless religious buildings while travelling and Jasna Gora Monastery was the most impressive. With grand halls, gold detailing along every wall and marble floors. The Black Madonna is said to perform miracles; curing disabilities and illnesses. A wall in the monastery is covered with reading glasses, crutches, and symbols of various limbs to represent the miracles believed to have been made by the Black Madonna.

Warsaw Ghetto

Later on in the day we visited the Warsaw Ghetto, where hundreds and thousands of Jews were crammed into a small suburb of poverty and poor living conditions during WWII, before a majority of them were carted off to death and concentration camps. The Ghetto was separated from the rest of the city with a brick wall quickly built up around the Ghetto; Jews weren’t allowed to mix with the rest of the city and forced to fend for themselves with people dying on the streets and suffering from starvation.

Clubbing in Warsaw

Tonight’s antics involved a 2-story club; private booth, a bucket full of red bulls, vodka, prosecco and very long detour home. I pinned the wrong hotel at the other side of the city for our Uber home.

Day 2 in Warsaw was a blur, not sure whether it’s because a lot had happened or because my body was slowly shutting down from exhaustion and dehydration.
Our last dinner together was a feast of meat, potato and salad. We finished the evening at a cigar bar where I learnt that the smoke should not be inhaled, sorry lungs.

Warsaw – The Last Supper Breakfast

All good things must come to an end. Waking up that morning in true Contiki fashion – hungover and smelling like a half-burnt cigarette. We all said our goodbyes and went our separate ways; with me heading to the airport looking like a homeless person who stole a passport. I’m not at all surprised my bag was swabbed.

My next adventure was waiting for me in Croatia; embarking on a 7-day cruise around the islands in the Adriatic Sea. Little did I know my body would give way halfway through this cruise and I would end my two-and-a-half-week bender by hibernating over my 22nd birthday.

---

​The magical thing about Contiki is you can go into it knowing no one but two days in you’re all acting as if you’ve known each other your whole lives; napping on each others shoulders, shouting lunch and drinks, celebrating birthdays like a family and lending a shoulder to cry on when everything gets a little bit too much.

Apart from discovery different cities and countries throughout Europe, the bus rides were definitely a highlight during this trip; if someone hasn’t passed out in the aisle or contorted themselves to make a bed, then you’ll probably be experiencing flashbacks from the night before and hearing about how Matt just packed his bags and purchased a flight home after the first group dinner.

If you’re thinking about a European tour but can’t decide, read up on my experience with Sail Croatia.