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Planning a trip to Europe?  Do take a look at my review if you are considering to pay for a tour package from a Singapore tour company.

I signed up for Chan Brother’s 14D 11N Best of Italy, Switzerland, Paris and Amsterdam package in October 2016. Prior to this trip, I was not able to find reviews of the tour package online, hence I am journaling this down so that future travelers can get additional information when planning your vacation.

As I was traveling with my mother, and it was our first trip to Europe, we decided to follow a tour group to skip the hassle of planning and worrying about transport and safety. Overall, we had an enjoyable trip visiting those gorgeous cities. However, there were many areas which I thought the tour company could look into improving such as exorbitant charges for optional tours (e.g. charging 30 Euros for a scenic boat ride which only costs 13 Euros in Paris) and poor planning and time management on certain days.

Price: We paid $3800+ per pax (minus optional tours/ personal expenses during the tour)  for the tour package.

Tour group size: We had about 26 people in the tour group. A Singaporean guide (Mr Lawrence) was assigned to the group for the entire trip.

Day -1 (Singapore – Doha – Italy):

Hotel: Ardeatina Park Hotel 

We flew by Qatar Airways to Italy with a 1 hour transit in Doha. When in Changi Airport, you may want to consider purchasing a Europe SIM Card with 4GB data for $48 from ChangiRecommends. Granted it is not a lot of data, but it comes in handy when you want to WhatsApp photos to loved ones or when you need to google for directions or recommendations on the free & easy days.

The flight from Changi Airport departed at 10.40am and we reached Doha about 6 hours later. Due to the delay of the first flight, we had to rush to catch the connecting flight to Italy.

We arrived in Rome at about 8pm local time and boarded our bus to Ardeatina Park Hotel where we got to have a good night’s rest before starting our adventures proper the next morning.

The hotel is new and clean but is located in a remote location (read: no shops, no night activities). As we arrived in autumn, there was no air-conditioning and the room got a bit stuffy after a while. Guests may open the windows (at their own risk) to let in the cool air.

Find out more about my tour experience in the following posts here.