This is a budget tour. Manage your expectations. Expect to carry your own bags, stay in remote hotels with very small rooms, and travel with 45 guests. The complementary meals were basic. Many hotel breakfast bars were not set up to handle this many people. I would advise not purchasing optional diners as they probably won't meet your expectations. That said, the tour goes to great locations which is why we booked it. This tour is challenging for people with mobility problems because there are so many places with stairs and cobblestone roads. The coach was new, Wifi poor/unavailable, and very full. The tour price for us was good value for money. We are happy we went but feel the Operator underperformed and over-promised to a minor degree.

I have traveled using Affordable Tours for 5 years now and every trip was what I expected it to be with more pleasant surprises added. Because of this, my husband and I are comfortable using their organization for the way they manage their services, their staff/travel consultants who deal with bookings up to the tour directors/guides and tour drivers, as well as the places and excursions that they include in the itinerary. Everything has been carefully well planned to get a true immersion and experience of the country we're visiting.

Nina, I'm very pleased with you and Affordable tours but as it turned out the Cosmos tour didn't near meet our expectations. We have toured with them 2 times in the past both booked through Affordable and was very satisfied. This time they went just as cheap as possible and had many dissatisfied customers. I can't say enough good things about both the tour guide Peter and the driver Andrea. They were both very professional and very pleasant with the tourist. They did everything to make it a fun and lasting experience. I would be happy to tour with them again. But as far as accommodations they were terrible, to small, terrible located, poor amenities and the Ibis ones were so small that there was no place for luggage. Most of them had no in room coffee service. The plan left us located where no other services were if we chose not to attend an optional event.

The hotels are way far away from the center of the city. Many nights we ended up with the terrible hotel food due to the locations of the hotel. Would not recommend this tour to other people.

The hotel rooms were clean and comfortable, the food was delicious, and the itinerary was outstanding. a lot of walking, so it is sometimes difficult for elderly participants or persons with mobility issues to keep up, but then this tour is advertised as being somewhat strenuous, I believe. The one down side is that that is very little free time in Paris, and we did not even go inside the Notre Dame cathedral, but again, the point of the tour is to see as many venues in a two-week period for a "budget" price, so I am very satisfied that Cosmos delivered on its promises. Our tour director, Katarzyna, was fabulous: very organized and always very pleasant. Thanks for an unforgettable tour!

Trip was basically as described, but came in too late in Bordeaux to do walking tour the evening it was listed (took it next morning before leaving) and as we planned to explore the town that night--had no chance. The other disappointment was at Pont de Gard, where it was listed as a picture stop, but the only pictures taken were of the group from all the tour members' cameras and had no chance to actually go up to the aqueduct to take pictures or explore it at all. A waste of time to enter and walk almost to it to only to take pictures of the group. Also, made a service station stop after 1.75 hours drive for 1.25 hours, then visited Nimes for an hour after about another 1/2 hour, then on to the aqueduct where we had absolutely no time to experience it. This day definitely needed an adjustment. The other negatives were the rooms in Paris and Avignon where there wasn't even room for one suitcase to be open. I expect small rooms, but they should be large enough to open a suitcase! Cosmos is a budget tour, which I understand, but a few adjustments to the itinerary and possibly a few more hundred dollars for a trip to France would be in order. However, the positives were an outstanding tour guide and driver, with the rest of the itinerary being quite good.

Great trip. Saw a lot of France. Early wake up calls but lots to see in the day.

Another excellent trip with Cosmos!!

This trip was a wonderful education of beauty and art!

Our trip was fantastic, especially because of our excellent tour guide who was very knowledgeable, caring and careful in looking out for our interests and safety, fun, funny and very personable. The tour was worth every penny and we will definitely book with Cosmos and through Affordable Tours again.

We would have liked a day in Lyon to explore the city. We slept over night there, but had no time to see it. That also was the same for Toulouse. Need to provide 2 days extra for those two cities. The Kyriad Paris Bercy Village was a hotel with sleeping and showering areas that were too small and cramped.

The Grand Tour of Switzerland was wonderful. There was a scenic view around almost every curve. I would have liked an extra day or two at St. Moritz and also at Zermott. Those were very special places where we were able to get outside and enjoy nature. The Grand Tour of France covered too much territory without giving travelers enough time at any one place to really learn about it. Several travel days, especially going down the west side of France were rather boring, with nothing outstanding to see. We felt rushed at coffee break/rest stops, and not given a chance to linger at worthwhile places like the Normandy Beaches while spending hours in villages where there was only an old castle or church and vendors selling souvenirs. It was not a 'grand' tour in my estimation. Some hotel rooms were very small, with no room to stack luggage except in front of the door. The food in France was way below expectations.

The only thing that needs clarification is what towns are visits and what towns are stop overs. For example when I see that we are spending the night in Toulouse or Lyon, I would expect to at least get a quick walking tour of the city (similar to Bordeaux). It's disappointing to stay in big cities such as those and not see the city. The itinerary as posted is not clear on that point, and clarifying it would align expectations

I just need to stress that available internet connection in hotels is now essential/ vital. It is no longer an option, and the tour operators should not select hotels that have no reasonable connection or those who offer weak connection and continue to push their paid connection. We had two of these in this trip. All others were satisfactory, good, or excellent.

The trip exceeded our expectations. It offered great value. We were very pleased.

The tour exceeded my expectations. It was wonderful.

In general, the lodging accommodations were distant from city centers and, in a couple of cases, were too small for two people. Otherwise, we enjoyed our tour.

I thoroughly enjoyed our grand tour of France...the only accommodation we did not like was the first one outside of Paris...it was in an unsafe part of town...TErrible way to start a trip but eVerything after that was wonderful. I also enjoyed the four optional tours we took except the dinner in Nice...terrible food and ambiance at the restaurant. I can't wait to book another tour next year!!!