Bar hopping, adventure and romance

Tours aimed at 18-35 demographic emphasize youth, sociability

	Rudolf de Haan, left, and Caroline Bussey on Nov. 23, 2005, with the Left and Right Mittens in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Ariz., while on a Contiki tour. The couple met in 2004 on a Contiki tour in Europe.
Rudolf De Hann / Ap File

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By SHEILA FLYNN

updated 4:25 p.m. ET Jan. 17, 2006

DALLAS - Retirees and all-you-can-eat buffets? Not on this travel bus tour.

How about bar-hopping? Adventure side trips? Even scheduled free time and the potential for romance?

Only travelers between the ages of 18 and 35 can board a Contiki Holidays bus for sightseeing trips geared toward the young and social. Singles are OK, as well as those in relationships, but travelers on many trips must declare "red light" or "green light" status to show their availability for dates.

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"The concept is really for young, like-minded travelers who want to experience the world with other people in their similar age group," said Lisa Wooldridge, Contiki's vice president of marketing. "It's not your grandmother's tour."

For 40 years, the Geneva-based company has offered tours worldwide for young travelers, but they're still catching on in the United States. Many tour companies offers specialized trips - like adventure or music tours - for young tourists, but "Contiki has been one of the pioneers in their market segment" for general sightseeing tours, said Michael Palmer, executive director of the Student Youth Travel Association.

"One of the successes of a model like Contiki is that they found ways to bring people from a variety of different cultures and backgrounds together," Palmer said.

Itineraries vary from whirlwind four-day trips to 48-day tours of 16 countries, with prices ranging from $225 to $4,439. In the U.S., Contiki offers 18 trips, ranging from three to 24 days and locations from Hawaii to Maine. New York and Los Angeles are big draws for foreign travelers, Wooldridge said.

Jordan Allen, a 24-year-old tour manager, said the confines of the bus can create international friendships and even marriages.

"There's a lot of single people and tight spaces," Allen said recently during one of many cross-country trips that stop in Dallas. "You're forced to get to know each other really fast."

Caroline Bussey, a 21-year-old beautician from Tulsa, Okla., said she didn't book her Contiki trip to Europe last year with the intent of finding a boyfriend, "but I found a great guy and I credit the tour, because you can really get to know someone in 46 days."

Contiki trips are well-known in Australia and New Zealand - they were started by New Zealander John Anderson in 1961 - and are popular with Europeans and Canadians. While less known in the United States, young tourists who've discovered the trips say they're a great way to meet people from different countries without traveling internationally.

"I really like talking about different cultures, talking to people from different countries," said Bussey, the only American among mostly Australians and New Zealanders on a cross-country U.S. tour called the Grand Southern that toured 22 states, starting in New York and ending in California.

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