Winter Getaway

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- 11 nights hostel accommodation
- 4 nights bungalow accommodation
- 2 nights hotel accommodation
- 17 breakfasts, 11 dinners
- English Channel Ferry crossings
- Touring by coach
- Assistance of a tour guide & driver
- Touring & sightseeing of all sites as per itinerary

* High season supplement starting from an additional R800 per person apply for travel  for set departures between 29 OCT 2016 - 26 NOV 2016

* High season supplement starting from an additional R1600 per person apply for travel  for set departures between 29 NOV 2016 - 07 JAN 2016

London to Paris, France

Leave London for dust as we jump over the English Channel to Calais for a beauty smackdown. Brush up on your bonjours when you meet the rest of the group & wrap your lips around your first real French meal. Dinner may leave you full but it's just an appetiser; see the City of Light at its best on a driving tour & play landmark bingo with the Eiffel Tower, Champs Élysées & Arc de Triomphe.

Included today: English Channel crossing & Paris city driving tour

Meals: Dinner

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Paris

A free day in Paris to partake in pastries, paintings & Centre Pompidou! Bike along the Seine on an optional tour or just flâner (stroll) around and drink it in. Check out L'eclair de Genie in Le Marais (don't ask questions), get your obligatory Eiffel Tower #selfie then explore the world's largest grave at the Catacombs. Tonight, experience the razzle dazzle of a cabaret show or hop on a boat down the river to crank the romance dial to 11.

Meals: Breakfast & dinner

Optional Activities:
-Paris cabaret
-Seine River cruise
-Paris bike tour

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Paris to Swiss Alps, Switzerland

Tear yourself away from that baguette - fondue awaits! Driving through the Swiss countryside is like watching Monet paint a masterpiece, each mountain on the way to Interlaken another masterful brushstroke. Thanks, nature. Get your comfort eating pants on for an included dinner. Hint: There will be cheese.

Meals: Breakfast & dinner

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Swiss Alps

Hop on board the optional Jungfrau Experience, which takes you to the highest train station in Europe. Want more adventure? Up the adrenaline by skydiving out of a helicopter, then head back down for some snow angels & hot chocolate. #HardLife.

Meals: Breakfast & dinner

Optional activities:
-Jungfrau excursion
-Helicopter skydiving
-Skiing
-Snowboarding

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Swiss Alps to Florence, Italy

If you're going to make something wrong it better be good looking. Failures don't come anymore beautiful than the leaning tower of Pisa. Snap a pic (you know the one) then make your food baby sing as we roll into the land of hearty Tuscan cuisine & birthplace of gelato: Florence. Whip around Santa Maria del Fiore before tucking into amore on a plate.

Included today: Pisa visit

Meals: Breakfast & dinner

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Florence

Florence has more stories than Bilbo Baggins, more culture than a Shoreditch hipster & over 1,800 restaurants. Get schooled on the Medici family, stroll the Ponte Vecchio & learn about leather (new handbag, anyone?) on a morning walking tour. Use the afternoon to meet a guy named David doing his best Blue Steel in the Accademia Gallery, shop the markets & hunt down the best aperitivo spreads.

Included today: Walking tour by local guide & Leather demonstration

Meals: Breakfast

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Florence to Rome

Romeward bound, we make a stop in Orvieto for the chance to grab a wild boar sandwich so tender you can cut it with words. Then we hightail it to the Eternal City for a rendezvous with ancient architecture's biggest players. Make like Caesar (the emperor, not the salad) & work up a colossus hunger as you pass by the Pantheon, throw your two cents in the Trevi Fountain & sit on the Spanish Steps.

Included today: Orvieto visit & Rome walking tour

Meals: Breakfast & dinner

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Rome

Create the ultimate Roman Holiday in one day with a whirlwind of Vespas, espresso, two cheek kisses & pizza the way it's supposed to taste. Pop in on the Pope on an optional tour of the Vatican City to see how Michelangelo messed around & created the High Renaissance, then play eye spy with two & a half millennia worth of history. Shop till you drop on Via Condotti, head to Capitoline Hill for awesome views of the Roman Forum & Colosseum or just kick back in Piazza Navona for some dolce far niente (delicious idleness).

Meals: Breakfast

Optional activities:
-Vatican City tour

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Rome to Venice

Hark! Maketh haste to whence the lady Juliet was wooed in Verona. Snap a selfie at her balcony & join throngs of lovers leaving notes on the wall (or avoid the crowds & just marvel at the ancient arena). Say ciao to Venice from across the lagoon as we check into our hotel & have an Eat Pray Love-worthy relationship with an irresistible Italian (meal) & get pumped for living out your own version of The Italian Job tomorrow.

Included today: Walking tour of Verona

Meals: Breakfast & dinner

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Venice

100+ slowly sinking islands won't explore themselves. Get your bearings on this morning's walking tour, then get hopelessly lost. Your GPS won't save you here. Soak up St Mark's Square before a quintessential gondola ride on the Grand Canal. Corny smooching not included. This afternoon, snoop the Doge's Palace, cross Rialto Bridge & shop for Carnevale masks.

Included today: Walking tour of Venice & Vaporetto ride on the Grand Canal

Meals: Breakfast

Optional activities:
-Gondola ride on the Grand Canal

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Venice to Salzburg, Austria

So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye as we set off to find The Sound of Music. Go for baroque & make a date with Mozart on a walking tour of his birthplace, & then play eye spy with the fortress overlooking the city, Salzburg Castle. Tonight we feast in a beerhouse. Schnitz yeah!

Included today: Walking tour of Salzburg

Meals: Breakfast & dinner

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Salzburg to Prague, Czech Republic

First, a sobering visit to Mauthausen concentration camp for a lesson in the resilience of humanity. Then, fuel up on trdelník (pastry deliciousness) before a walking tour amongst spires & cobblestone streets in Prague. Suss out the castle deemed worthy by Guinness World Records as the largest ancient castle in the world, cross medieval Charles Bridge & watch 'Death' toll the hour on an astronomical clock that's over 600 years old. After dinner, get cosy in a cafe with hot chocolate so thick you can stand a spoon in it or slip into an absinthe bar to meet the green fairy.

Included today: Mauthausen concentration camp & Prague walking tour

Meals: Breakfast & dinner

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Prague

Channel your inner bohemian & seek out the John Lennon memorial wall to start your free day. Soak up some more Czech history at the National or Communist Museum or get a taste of the quirky local culture at a marionette puppet opera (you gotta see it to believe it). Snap a selfie at Prague's own Eiffel Tower, visit a miniatures museum, eat roast pork from one of the street vendors lining Old Town Square & drink beer. Really. Good. Beer.

Meals: Breakfast

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Prague to Berlin, Germany

Get acquainted with 800 year old Dresden - a city virtually destroyed in WWII & then rebuilt - & ogle the Frauenkirche before making your beard all the more ironic in Berlin. Prep yourself for currywurst & more hipsters per capita than anywhere else. We'll drive you around to see (what's left of) the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate & the Reichstag building before making your food baby sing with a hearty German meal. Save some room to get your DJ groupie on.

Included today: Dresden walking tour & Berlin driving tour

Meals: Breakfast & dinner

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Berlin

Join the optional Third Reich walking tour for an insight into what the city was like under Nazi rule during WWII, go on a museum crawl (covering everything from the Ramones to DDR) or head to the zoo. More culture awaits on Museum Island, with creative types & memorable meals available in the Prenzlauer Berg & Kreuzberg neighbourhoods. Tonight, no curfew at clubs = all bets are off!

Meals: Breakfast

Optional activities:
-Third Reich walking tour
-Berlin Alternative Tour and Nightlife tour

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Berlin to Amsterdam, Netherlands

Amsterdam it's going to be a good day! Start dreaming of cheese, clogs & cheeky cafe stops as we roll through tulip & windmill dotted fields to Amsterdam. Get your bearings on a walking tour of the vibrant capital & see the Dam Square, Royal Palace & National Monument. End the night with a cone of hot chips with mayo. Mmm.

Included today: Amsterdam walking tour & Dutch cheese & clogs demonstration

Meals: Breakfast

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Amsterdam

Get on your bike & ride! Do as the locals do & join the 881,000 bicycles on a city bike tour to soak up the wintery canal vistas before retreating with poffertjes & stroopwafels. Take on the city's 51 museums (must-dos: Van Gogh Museum & the Anne Frank House). Still thirsty for more? Check out the Heineken Experience for an interactive visit & tasting at the brewery. Top it off with a dinner cruise on the canal.

Included today: Bicycle tour of Amsterdam & farewell dinner canal cruise

Meals: Breakfast & dinner

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Amsterdam to London

After all the Amster-damage has been done & dusted, it's time to hit the road & make tracks to ol' Blighty. Soak up all the happy group vibes you can possibly handle - this is your last coach ride with the gang. #sadface.

Meals: Breakfast