To us, quality is more important than quantity:

Each year we offer only one "Best of Europe"  overseas tour, period. It must be of the highest quality and for the best price available for our participants. This enables us to pay careful attention to detail and ensures that our tour continues to be a remarkable experience for our participants. While each year large commercial tours arrange dozens of trips for thousands of people, we limit our trips to only one tour per year and keep our tour size small. It is well organized and thoughtfully planned. We really believe it is the best European tour available, for the following reasons:

Pre-tour classes:

Other tours typically don't bother to help participants learn all of the ins-and-outs of preparing for their overseas experience.  This inadequate preparation often leaves the traveler unhappy and frustrated when unanticipated events occur while overseas.

The "Best of Europe's"  pre-tour classes provide each participant with the advantage of having a series of 6 once-monthly sessions designed to prepare them in advance on the many aspects of their overseas experience.  The information shared in these classes builds personal travel confidence. Our class sessions include practical tips on many topics, such as travel health, personal security, packing, cultural expectations and travel realities, slides on the specific locations you will experience and their significance, supplemental readings and handouts, etc.  The cost of registering for this class is $262 at time of printing. Individuals who reside out-of-state or outside of the college education district may also particpate without paying any extra fees.

Airfare:

Many package tours expect you to make your own flight arrangements or pay more for your ticket because you do not qualify for a special group fare. Booking your own flight keeps things simple for the tour company, butr shifts the cost of the higher fare onto you. Expect to pay an aditional fee if your tour departs or returns on certain days of the week.

Our "Best of Europe" tours include roundtrip airfare on regularly scheduled commercial airlines.  Arrangements can be made through TSA Tours for those participants who wish to arrive early overseas, or who would like to remain late after the group has returned.  Having group rates for airline ticket purchases and bookings helps to keep flight costs low and helps insure that overall tour costs remain affordable.

Meals:

Mass marketed tours most frequently provide only a limited number of meals, the majority of which include skimpy continental breakfasts and dinners that cater to perceived "American tastes."  Participants on these package tours usually must pay for the majority of their own dinner meals, in cities where quality meals are expensive and often a major challenge to find. The cost of additional dinners quickly adds up to a more expensive tour.

Our "Best of Europe"  tour experience provides high quality continental breakfasts and full course dinners each day.  Specific menus are carefully arranged, to give you an opportunity to experience the culinary nuances of each country.  They represent traditional selections from each of the European regions through which we travel.

Your own travel group:

Most travel agents book "mainstream" package tours, typically throwing unknown travelers together from all over the country.  This creates an unprepared experience for unfamiliar traveling companions.  It is common for these companies to reserve the right to change your tour departure date at the very last minute, in order to fully fill each coach, thereby maximizing their profits, while compromising the comfort and convenience of their clients.

The pre-tour classes that are an integral part of Chemeketa Community College's "Best of Europe"  tours, provide valuable travel advice and tour information to our tour participants.  These classes also allow participants to become comfortable and familiar with each other prior to their travel experience together, and provide an excellent introduction to an overseas experience.  Members of the group can be confident that they will be traveling with a "group that is well prepared." This special group experience leaves our participants happy and satisfied with their experience; their testimonials consistently provide us with our most effective advertisment (see: Past Participant's Comments), year after year .

Coach services:

The goal of most other mainstream tour companies is to fill as many seats as possible in each coach.  In a short time, participants on these tours begin to look, feel, and smell like "sardines."  Itineraries and coach drivers are not flexible, with tour participants expected to pay "extra" for any after-hours coach excursion that their tour leader may wish to arrange for the group's tour experience.

 

The "Best of Europe"  escorted tour uses only the finest full-sized European motor coaches and professional courteous drivers.  They are fully contained, with large panoramic windows, refrigerated beverage bar, on-board toilet, air conditioning, and reclining seats.  Numerous vacant seats remain open on our coach, to insure free movement while traveling and to provide space for participants to "spread out," read, snooze, etc.  In addition, the coach is at your Tour Leader's complete disposal.

Guides:

Big national tour company package tours often provide only one director per full coach for their huge groups rather than hiring professional city guides.  These less experienced, overworked tour leaders do not provide the quality of information and local insights that a licensed professionally-trained guide provides in his or her own city.

With the "Best of Europe"  tour experience you'll have several experienced group leaders traveling with you for the entire tour, ready to assist you 24 hours a day, every day.  In addition, the best professionally licensed European guides available (see: Professional Staff) will show you the outstanding sights in each major city and share local history and culture as only they can.

Sightseeing activities: 

On the typical package tour you can expect to pay extra for sightseeing "options," often as much as $50-$75, once or twice each day.  Check carefully to determine exactly which of the listed itinerary items are already free and open to the public.  To see most all others, you will be required to pay an additional fee.  What at first glance seems to be an economical tour often quickly adds up to be a very expensive one!

All group events and entry fees for "Best of Europe"  tour segments are included in tour prices, as outlined in the itinerary.  This bonus adds up quickly to be a substantial savings on tour, and makes for an exceptional "Best Buy" feature.  Our skilled experienced guides can also provide you with advice on a variety of unique and special free time activities.

Accommodations:

Many "main-stream" tours use budget hotels located near noisy city centers.  These economy hotels frequently provide "Spartan" accommodations, have shared "down the hall" shower facilities, and are located in the more seedy parts of town.  They will compromise in quality for the sake of providing a "back-street" European experience.

On our "Best of Europe"  tour you'll stay in Superior Tourist Class (three or four star) hotels in Europe.  Each has its own bath and shower facilities for your privacy and personal security.  Frequently these hotels are family owned and operated, having provided a tradition of excellent service for many generations.  Often times they also provide a beautiful quiet country setting.  This country ambiance, and the easy accessibility that our coach provides to local sights, makes for an unbeatable combination.  Each of these unique hotels has been hand-picked by Professor Jacobson and cannot be beat for their authentic old-world ambience and tradition of quality service.

Travel Insurance:

Various types of insurance can be purchased on other tours, but at a substantial cost for each.  This additional type of coverage can add up quickly and become a significant extra expense to the traveler.

Our "Best of Europe"  quality insurance package covers many potential problem travel situations, including emergency medical and dental care, stolen luggage, trip interruption, etc.  It is included as part of your the tour package.  Additional amounts of travel insurance may be purchased if preferred, at competitive industry rates through our booking agency, Travel Systems Abroad.

 

Room Pricing:

On other main stream big-company package tours, single travelers without a travel partner typically are required to pay an extra supplement of several hundred dollars as well as an "adult supplement" if they join the tour without a traveling companion.  They frequently charge extra for a double room.

Our tour rooms are priced on double occupancy.

"Best of Europe"  tour participants who sign up without a roommate can most often be combined with another participant who also wishes to share a double room, usually at no additional expense.  This is comfortably and easily done once participants become more familiar with one another as class members, after having meet together during our several tour class sessions.  A reduced price triple room rate is also available, for those tour members who do not mind sharing a triple room with two other travel companions. Some travelers prefer to room by themselves.  We can accommodate these requests if informed of this preference in advance of our tour travel dates.  The supplemental price for a single room on each of the tour segments is available upon request.

 

Tour design:

Others provide a "whirlwind" mainstream tour, whose breakneck speed includes 15 countries in as many days.  These itineraries typically overwhelm and exhaust travelers early on in their tour experience.  You want your travel experience to be a dream experience, not a marathon nightmare.

The "Best of Europe"  tour is a Custom Tour experience.  It is specifically designed to allow its participants to travel at a comfortable pace.  It includes the major sights in each city, as well as many unusual and unique experiences that you will not find included on any other tour.  Experienced guides also provide daily activity options that suit participants' specific individual needs.