Packaged Tour for Honeymoon to Europe – Is It Worth It?
A lot of you have been asking about our honeymoon and all. So here you go! In total, we spent about $8,500 for this trip (excluding our own shopping and food). So is the trip worth every penny we spent on this trip? Read more below!
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To be honest, I have never been on a packaged tour since the age of 7. Sadly, I cannot really recall those before I turned 7.
Like what James always say: “We should enjoy hard after we have worked hard enough!”. Thus, we went straight for a good looooong holiday! This round, we took up a 13-Day, 11-Night Italy, Switzerland, Paris, Germany + 2-Night Dubai Trip with euHolidays.
I was initially very worried & scared but at the same time, excited. Worried & scared because I am more of a conservative person. I kept having thoughts like “What if there are delays”, “What if I get robbed or pickpocketed?” and just many “What ifs”! All these concerns were real because they were shared to me by close friends and relatives around me.
Having been to Europe a couple of years ago, the pickpocket issues there were very real. I went there with my university mates and some of them got ‘preyed’ upon! I almost experienced it first hand when one of my uni mates who was sitting right next to me got preyed upon by them…. I have to admit that I just developed “Euro-phobia” since then. Therefore, this is also simply the reason why we decided to go with a tour group. As much as you would think “bigger group means bigger prey”, it meant more peace of mind for us especially if you have a good mama-san there!
Thankfully, we had a great mama-san during this trip. She is actually the tour manager, Susan. Being a conservative person, she kept reminding and keeping a lookout for us. Must say that the trip wouldn’t have been the same without her!
We flew in with a stop over at Dubai airport. Fortunately, we only have to wait for a short one hour during the stopover; thankfully not much time was wasted during the flying portion! Our first stop was Italy – Rome. We visited the Colosseum and the price of the ticket was included in the trip so we did not have to top up for the entrance.
It was very hard to get a good shot there as the place is crazily packed! Still, this is not to be missed by first timers to Rome! Having been there for countless times, Susan knows where and which angle so she helped us with some photo-taking there! I was even guilty to say she took even better photos than we did! Haha! That was not the only merit of her; Susan is definitely very well read as she knows every location inside out from its rich history, heritage, local practices and so on. For James, this is definitely a plus point as he really love to know a place inside out! He always say that is the point of travelling!
For this, another plus point for euHolidays!
Picture taken in Rome
We also visited St. Peter’s Basilica, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and even visited our first Christmas Market at Piazza Novona! We were very lucky because it was the Christmas season so we had a lot of Christmas markets to shop and experience. Even more lucky as we met the Pope himself! That very day we visited the St Peter’s Cathedral, he was giving his blessing to the visitors! What else can I say, we are blessed to be on this trip LITERALLY!
Personally, I love Siena the most when we were in Italy. I love the peace and the structures of the building! They have the oldest building in whole of Italy. If you know their artistic history, that was the gothic period. From structures to food, everything is good! Even a simple pizza there taste super good! According to Susan, Siena is not somewhere easily accessible without a coach. You can make a day trip there but it will cost you a few hundred bucks to book a cab to and fro.
Picture taken in Siena
Next up, we went to Florence and Venice. Needless to say, they are very beautiful too!! Beautiful in a different way. Venice was so pretty that I look as though I was photoshopped in all the photos! We also saw how figurines were made by their masters using murano glass there. We wanted to buy wine glasses back but they were so expensive. 2 for SGD300-400 (I can’t remember the exact price)? Nonetheless, we still manage to get a glass horse which is now part of the accessories at James’ drinking corner in the house!
Fun Fact: Do you know that there are no land transport in Venice? You will have to take a water taxi to reach Venice and also when travelling within all the small winding channels of Venice.
Picture taken in Venice
Picture taken in Venice
Of course, I love my outlet shopping at The Mall in Italy too 😛 I bought a Gucci and Prada bag there! We were only given 2 hours to shop. I wished we had more time though. Queueing to enter the different boutiques took up 1/3 of the time already 🙁 I also regretted not getting the YSL bag that I saw. It was only $1,800 at the outlet mall and that was nearly 40% off the retail price!!!
The bags were so affordable that I find everything in Milan expensive when we were there 😛
For Germany, it was a 1-Day trip and we only visited the famous Black Forest so not much photos were taken there. It certainly is nice to know that the stuffs at Germany are really cheap. Cheapest in fact, as compared to the other parts of Europe. We bought winter beanies for 5 euros each!
Probably our most favourite activity – ‘Sledding’ in Switzerland. Sledding at Wetterhorn Mountain is only exclusively available to euHolidays so if you are keen to slede there, I would suggest you to give euHoliday a try!
Picture taken in Switzerland
P/S: Traveling up to the mountain is very expensive. The Cogwheel Mountain Train cost us more than SGD$300-400 (if I didn’t remember wrongly). Do note that the tickets are not included in the package. You will have to top up for this as an optional tour.
If it is your first visit to Switzerland, I would strongly suggest you to go for it. I enjoyed the beautiful view of the mountains and Alps but I wouldn’t spend the money again if I were there for a second visit.
Picture taken in Switzerland
Sledding was so tedious but fun though!! We did like some training before the actual 2 rounds of sledging. It was freezing like crazy because it was a mad -16 degree celsius. Our ears, fingers and toes almost broke!!! I would still pick the cold than the weather we have right now though! I love layerings!! Good for a different type of OOTD though! Haha!
Picture taken in Switzerland, Wetterhorn
Food and transportation are VERY VERY expensive in Switzerland. But if you are a Rolex fan, do shop for one here! James was definitely looking out for his sports range Rolex during this trip. They have slightly more designs available in Switzerland but…. not the biggest range. Read on to find out more about Rolex shopping.
Picture taken in I-Forgot-Where because we were having too much fun
It was my second visit to Paris and I had a very different experience. I was not on a packaged tour so I focused more on shopping the previous round. I felt that my trip to Paris this time round was more thorough – they covered the place with a city tour (We roamed around the city in a coach and in a boat ride). We had a day of free day so we roamed around the places that were introduced to us.
I met another 2 couples in the group who were there for Honeymoon as well so the 6 of us traveled together all the way. We visited Louvre Museum and died after that because we literally walked a few stations and combed the city by foot. These people here are so nice to travel with and I am so glad to have them with us!!
Picture taken in Paris
P/S: We attempted to take a night train to Zurich when we were in Switzerland, Horgen (where we stayed there for a night). We succeeded but it took us 40 minutes to get our train tickets because we couldn’t understand the language. Nonetheless, thanks to the friendly locals, we still made it! We came to a conclusion why we took up a tour package for our honeymoon. LOL!!
We topped up some euros and took a boat ride around Paris too. The view was fantastic but again, we were freezing like crazy.
Picture taken in Paris
Picture taken in Paris
We had a free day in Paris and the entire tour group decided to spend that free day at the outlet mall so all of us chipped in and paid extra for the coach and Susan’s arrangement. As compared to Italy, Paris outlet mall has more brands but lesser variety in a brand. I would pick Italy, The Mall anytime!
After spending 13 Days and 11 Nights in Europe, we flew to Dubai for a 3 Days 2 Nights trip. The change in weather was drastic. Imagine going from a -16 to 34 degree celsius in 2 days. OMG! And you can imagine our luggages, we had to pack both Winter & Summer clothing!
We took a water boat taxi to the Gold Market which they called it a Souk. Not Zouk ok! It was a very different experience and it felt as though I have been to the place before because of the show Running Man where they would played games in the show. The places looked exactly the same!
As we did not comb Dubai thoroughly, I do not have much to share except the Desert Safari Tour, which the 6 of us booked privately. It was a good experience and if you are planning to travel to Dubai, do head over for an experience too. It is not expensive. We booked the tickets online for $59/2 pax, inclusive of transportation to and from your hotel.
Like our Garden by the bay, Dubai has their own Miracle Garden too. The Dubai trip was pretty much free and easy except for a half day tour with Susan and the local tour guide. It was very cute in there but the sun was seriously too hot for us to enjoy 🙁
To our surprise, Dubai has a lot of Rolex models that are always out of stock in Singapore. We went to a few shops in Switzerland and were told that the few models were always out of stock too. The price of the watches (after tax rebate, exchange rate and credit card charges) are almost comparable to the retail prices in Singapore boutiques. Only difference is that you still get a chance to buy a two tone sports model there whereas in Singapore, you could be waiting for a lifetime to get a new one! If you are keen to get a sports model, do visit the biggest mall in the world, Dubai Mall. They have a three storey Rolex there!
We flew back to Singapore after Dubai and there were a lot of hiccups with the airline. Families with kids were separated and so were James and I. My seat was repeated. Another guy and I got the same seat number and the staff at the airport refused to help us rectify it; neither did they accept our request to put us together.
Luckily, Susan was there to manage the situation for us; otherwise, flying back would have been a disaster! I can’t imagine the kids sitting by themselves without their parents :O
All in all, I had a wonderful honeymoon all thanks to euHolidays; there is minimal conflict of interest as we paid for the trip but the trip did meet our expectations and it met our objective of “we just want to relax this honeymoon so let’s leave the itinerary planning to someone else”. For the places that were touched-and-go, we will certainly be back to experience them now that we have a good idea of what to do and where to explore now.
