Quick Take
Cosmos includes the logistical backbone of the trip: hotels, motorcoach transport between destinations, a Tour Director and driver, breakfast nearly every day, and dinner roughly every 2–3 nights depending on the itinerary.
That's the backbone, not the whole trip.
What it doesn't include: hotel porterage, most lunches, many dinners, gratuities, travel insurance, Optional Experiences, pre- or post-tour hotels, and a private room for solo travelers unless a promotion applies.
Compared with sister brand Globus, the gap isn't the coach — both average 36 guests. It's the hotel tier, the depth of the included program, and porterage.
Generally in the base price
- Scheduled hotel nights, motorcoach transportation, and the services of your Tour Director and driver
- Breakfast nearly every day, plus dinner roughly every 2–3 nights depending on itinerary
- Guided sightseeing at the major published sites, led by local guides
Generally your own cost
- Airfare, most lunches, many dinners, Optional Experiences, and travel insurance
- Hotel porterage — a genuine, sourced gap versus Globus and Avalon
- Tour Director and driver gratuities (no published flat rate), and a single-room supplement unless a promotion is active
The Framework: What the Base Price Generally Covers
Every Cosmos advertised fare is built from the same rough set of components as its sister brands. Several are dialed down a notch from Globus, and a couple are absent entirely compared with Trafalgar.
| Category | Generally included? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hotels | Yes | Value-tier positioning, not premium; no published star rating |
| Motorcoach transportation | Yes | Between destinations; average 36 guests, same as Globus |
| Tour Director | Yes | Their service is included; their gratuity generally is not |
| Driver | Yes | Same split — service included, gratuity not |
| Local guides | Often | Lead sightseeing at major stops on the itinerary |
| Breakfast | Nearly always | Close to the night count on all 3 audited tours (6 of 6, 9 across 8 nights, 12 of 13) |
| Dinners | Some | Roughly every 2–3 nights, varies sharply by itinerary — see meal counts below |
| Lunches | Essentially never | Not included on any of the 3 tours we audited |
| A signature hosted-meal program (like Be My Guest) | Not found | No equivalent branded experience found on Cosmos's own tour pages |
| Hotel porterage | No | Cosmos's own FAQ: not included, exceptions only on select tours |
| Airport transfers | Unclear | No region-by-region table published the way Trafalgar's is; confirm per tour |
| Airfare | No | Advertised fare is land-only unless flights are explicitly packaged |
| Travel insurance | No | Purchased separately; Travel Protection Plan payments are non-refundable |
| Optional Experiences | No | Extra cost; no published price list found |
| Private room | No | Single supplement applies unless a current promotion waives or discounts it |
Hotels
Your fare covers the hotel nights on the published itinerary, not the night before or after the tour.
Cosmos's own descriptions emphasize value and a guaranteed private bathroom rather than premium positioning, and the brand publishes no official star rating. Comfortable, not characterful.
That's a sourced step down from sister brand Globus, positioned at a more premium hotel tier on a broadly similar itinerary.
The trade you're making for the lower advertised fare shows up here before almost anywhere else.
If you're traveling solo, pricing is based on twin occupancy by default.
A single supplement applies unless a current promotion is active.
As of August 2026, Cosmos is fully waiving it on select 2027 Europe departures and discounting it 50% on select 2027 North America departures.
Select departures, not all of them.
See our dedicated Cosmos Solo Travel guide for exactly how that works, including the unresolved question of a room-share option.
Motorcoach Transportation and Airport Transfers
On-tour transportation
The fare includes motorcoach transportation between destinations, at the same average 36-guest group size Cosmos and Globus both currently publish. Same coach, same headcount.
Cosmos's own tour descriptions commonly reference onboard Wi-Fi as a convenience, in line with the same pattern across sister brands.
Treat it as commonly available, not guaranteed. It depends on local connectivity.
Getting to the tour itself
Transportation during the tour is part of the package.
Getting yourself to the tour's starting hotel is a separate question. Unlike Trafalgar, we did not find a region-by-region transfer eligibility table published on Cosmos's own site.
Trafalgar publishes a detailed table of which regions get complimentary airport transfers and under what conditions. We looked for a Cosmos equivalent and didn't find one.
Rather than guess at a regional policy, we're flagging it plainly: confirm your specific tour's transfer eligibility directly before assuming either way.
Tour Director, Driver, Local Guides — and Their Tips
Who's running the trip
- Tour Director: handles day-to-day logistics, hotel check-ins, and group pacing for the full itinerary
- Driver: handles the physical motorcoach operation and intercity transport
- Local Guides: lead sightseeing and city introductions at specific stops — our own itinerary research found a Local Guide-led walking tour of Rome's landmarks, for instance
What's included vs. what you tip
The services of these professionals are included in your fare. Their gratuities are not.
Cosmos is noticeably less transparent about the amount than Trafalgar is.
Its own FAQ confirms Tour Director and driver gratuities can be prepaid in select destinations only, at an unstated per-person base rate.
South America bundles local-guide tips into that prepayment, while Europe, the South Pacific, and independent tours are explicitly excluded and handled on tour instead.
No flat daily dollar figure is published anywhere we could find, unlike Trafalgar's stated $5–7/day Travel Director and $3–5/day driver guidance. You'll be estimating, not budgeting.
Meals and Signature Experiences
Cosmos guarantees breakfast on nearly every day of the tours we audited — matching the night count almost exactly.
Beyond that, there's no universal brand-wide meal percentage. Dinner inclusion varies sharply by itinerary length, and lunch is essentially never included.
| Tour | Days | Nights | Breakfasts | Lunches | Dinners |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rome, Florence & Venice | 7 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| Irish Discovery | 9 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 3 |
| Italy's Best | 14 | 13 | 12 | 0 | 4 |
Figures above come from our own day-by-day audit of these three 2026 itineraries, cross-checked against two sources where possible.
We haven't yet audited Cosmos's remaining roughly eight tours to this level of detail. What's above is what we've verified, not a brand-wide average extrapolated from three data points.
Trafalgar guarantees a signature Be My Guest hosted meal — a visit with a local family, farm, or small producer — on every single tour. Every tour, not select ones.
We looked for a comparable named, guaranteed experience on Cosmos's own tour pages and found none. Cosmos's included dinners appear to be standard restaurant or hotel meals rather than a branded hosted-meal format.
That doesn't make the food worse. It's a sourced difference in what's guaranteed, and it matters if that kind of experience is part of why you'd book an escorted tour.
Sightseeing and Optional Experiences
What's included
Cosmos's own materials describe guided sightseeing at the major sites on the published itinerary, led by local guides.
Unlike Trafalgar, we did not find the same explicit "Included with trip" labeling convention on individual attraction line items across the Cosmos tour pages we reviewed. Confirm which specific admissions are covered on your own itinerary rather than assuming a blanket rule.
Optional Experiences
These are paid add-ons, and Cosmos publishes no price list for them anywhere we could find.
That's a bigger disclosure gap than Trafalgar. Trafalgar publishes a priced European Traveller optionals list on its own site.
A disclosure gap, not a pricing one.
A traveler reported a $72 charge for a Sistine Chapel excursion on the Rome, Florence & Venice tour, against roughly $28–31 for a direct ticket at the time.
A single reported case, not an official price.
Our dedicated Optional Experiences guide has the fuller price breakdown we found, including one traveler's full 17-excursion spend from another Cosmos tour.
What Costs Extra, and What a Trip Can Really Cost
Before finalizing a budget, remember that Cosmos generally excludes: international airfare, most lunches and many dinners, Tour Director and driver gratuities, hotel porterage, Optional Experiences, alcohol, pre- and post-tour hotel nights, and a private room for solo travelers unless a promotion is active.
Budget for all of it.
None of this makes Cosmos less valuable for the price. It means the advertised fare is a starting point — a leaner one than Globus's or Trafalgar's.
Luggage and porterage
Unlike sister brands Globus and Avalon Waterways, Cosmos does not include hotel porterage as standard.
Its own FAQ states exceptions exist only on select tours depending on hotel facilities and operational necessity. Treat porterage as something you'll handle yourself, not something covered.
Drinks, insurance & pre/post nights
Alcohol and specialty drinks are not included as standard.
Travel insurance isn't automatic.
Cosmos sells its own Travel Protection Plan, non-refundable once purchased, or you can buy third-party coverage separately.
Buying it is a choice, not a default.
Arriving early or staying on afterward means booking and paying for extra nights yourself.
See our cancellation & refund policy guide for how deposits and final payment dates interact with any date changes.
We're not layering illustrative placeholder figures on top of an advertised fare here.
Our Cosmos Trip Cost Planner runs the real meal-inclusion math for the three tours above and lets you set your own gratuity and single-supplement assumptions. Cosmos doesn't publish fixed rates for either one.
How Cosmos's Inclusions Compare
Cosmos vs. Globus
Same coach, same average group size — 36 guests on a standard motorcoach for both brands.
The difference is everything built around the ride.
Globus is positioned at a more premium hotel tier, includes hotel porterage where Cosmos doesn't, and runs a fuller included-experience program via its own Choice Touring mechanism.
The ride itself is identical.
Cosmos is the honest budget pick when a leaner included program is an acceptable trade for the lower price.
Cosmos vs. Trafalgar
Two unrelated companies with a similar mainstream position, and a few concrete differences.
Trafalgar guarantees a signature Be My Guest hosted meal on every tour and includes porterage as standard, neither of which we found for Cosmos.
Similar shape, different guarantees.
Trafalgar also publishes a flat daily gratuity guideline where Cosmos publishes none.
Cosmos's advertised fares tend to run lower, broadly consistent with the leaner inclusion list.
How to Read a Cosmos Itinerary Before You Book
- Exact tour price and whether a single-supplement promotion is currently active
- Number of hotel nights, compared against the "days" count
- Exact meal counts — how many lunches and dinners are at your own cost?
- Whether porterage is genuinely included for your specific hotel, or left to you
- Which attractions are actually covered versus offered as Optional Experiences
- Whether you've confirmed a gratuity plan, since no flat rate is published
- Your specific tour's airport-transfer policy, since no general regional table exists
- Whether you need a pre- or post-tour night, and how to book it
- Your deposit amount and final payment date — several product lines run outside the standard $250/60-day terms
The Seabound Verdict
Cosmos includes enough to remove most of the logistical burden of a multi-city vacation.
Hotels, transport, a Tour Director, breakfast, and some dinners.
It is also the leanest inclusion list in this cluster so far.
You'll budget separately for airfare, most lunches, many dinners, gratuities, hotel porterage, Optional Experiences, and travel insurance. There's no guaranteed signature dining experience the way Trafalgar's Be My Guest works.
The question isn't whether Cosmos includes enough to be worth booking. For the price, it generally is.
The real question is whether the things left outside the fare — porterage, the extra dinners, a fixed gratuity plan — are worth paying more for on Globus instead, or worth handling yourself for Cosmos's lower starting price.
Price both, then decide.
Ask Seabound about Cosmos's Inclusions
Not sure what your specific trip includes?
Tell us the itinerary you're considering, and we'll help you check before you book.
Tap a question or the button and an advisor will answer against current pricing before you book.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is included in a Cosmos tour?
Generally: hotel accommodations for scheduled nights, motorcoach transportation between destinations, a Tour Director and driver, breakfast on nearly every day, dinner roughly every 2-3 nights depending on itinerary, and guided sightseeing at the major published sites.
Are hotels included on Cosmos?
Yes - hotels for the scheduled nights of the itinerary are included. Cosmos positions its hotels as value-tier and comfortable rather than premium, with a guaranteed private bathroom but no published star rating - a step below sister brand Globus's more premium hotel positioning.
Are meals included on Cosmos tours?
Breakfast on nearly every day, and dinner roughly every second or third night, based on the real 2026 itineraries we audited. Lunch is essentially never included. Cosmos's own language is that it includes enough meals to save time and money while leaving free time for travelers to pick their own restaurants.
Is breakfast included every day on a Cosmos tour?
On the three tours we audited day by day, yes, essentially every day matched the night count: 6 of 6 nights on Rome, Florence & Venice, 9 breakfasts across 8 nights on Irish Discovery, and 12 of 13 on Italy's Best.
Does Cosmos have a signature hosted-meal experience like Trafalgar's Be My Guest?
We found no equivalent guaranteed, named signature dining experience on Cosmos's own tour pages the way Trafalgar guarantees a Be My Guest visit on every tour. Cosmos's included dinners appear to be standard restaurant or hotel meals rather than a branded hosted-meal format - worth knowing if that kind of experience matters to you.
Is porterage included on Cosmos tours?
No, not as standard. Cosmos's own FAQ states porterage is not included at the hotel, with exceptions only on select tours depending on the property. This is a genuine, sourced difference from sister brands Globus and Avalon Waterways, which both include one bag of porterage per traveler.
Are tips included on a Cosmos tour?
No, and Cosmos doesn't publish one flat daily rate the way Trafalgar publishes $5-7 for a Travel Director and $3-5 for a driver. Its own FAQ says gratuities can be prepaid in select destinations at an unstated per-person base rate; Europe, the South Pacific, and independent tours are explicitly excluded from prepayment and handled on tour instead.
Are airport transfers included with Cosmos?
We did not find, for Cosmos, the same region-by-region transfer table that Trafalgar publishes on its own site. Treat transfer eligibility as something to confirm directly for your specific tour and region rather than assume either way.
Are Cosmos's Optional Experiences included?
No. They're paid add-ons, and Cosmos does not publish a price list for them anywhere we could find - the one real data point we sourced was a traveler-reported $72 charge for a Sistine Chapel excursion, against roughly $28-31 for a direct ticket at the time.
Is airfare included on a Cosmos tour?
No. The advertised fare is land-only unless flights are explicitly packaged in for that specific departure.
Is travel insurance included with Cosmos?
No. Cosmos offers its own Travel Protection Plan for separate purchase, and the payment for it is non-refundable once made, the same as the deposit and the base fare.
Are pre-tour or post-tour hotels included?
No. Arriving early or staying on after the tour concludes means booking and paying for those extra nights yourself.
Does Cosmos include a private room for solo travelers?
No, not by default - solo travelers pay a single supplement for a private room. Cosmos doesn't publish a fixed supplement percentage the way Trafalgar does; it runs promotion-driven solo pricing instead, including a full waiver on select 2027 Europe departures as of August 2026.
What is the group size on a Cosmos tour?
Cosmos and sister brand Globus currently publish the same average of 36 guests on a standard motorcoach. The price gap between the two brands comes from the hotel tier and the included-experience program, not a smaller or more crowded bus.
Does Cosmos include Wi-Fi on the motorcoach?
Cosmos's own tour descriptions often reference onboard Wi-Fi as a convenience, in line with the same industry pattern seen across sister brands - treat it as commonly available rather than a guaranteed, unconditional inclusion, since connectivity depends on local coverage.
Is Cosmos all-inclusive?
No - Cosmos is selectively inclusive, and noticeably leaner than sister brand Globus. It covers the logistical framework of the trip - hotels, transport, a Tour Director, breakfast and some dinners - while leaving most lunches, many dinners, gratuities, porterage, and Optional Experiences to your own budget.
What costs extra on a Cosmos tour?
Airfare, most lunches, many dinners, gratuities, hotel porterage, Optional Experiences, travel insurance, and pre-/post-tour hotel nights all cost extra, along with the single supplement unless a current promotion is waiving or discounting it.
Is Cosmos less inclusive than Globus?
Yes, on several specific points we could verify: Globus includes hotel porterage where Cosmos doesn't, Globus is positioned at a more premium hotel tier, and Globus runs a fuller included-experience program via its own Choice Touring mechanism. The two run the same coach at the same average group size, so the difference is entirely in what's built around the ride.
Is Cosmos less inclusive than Trafalgar?
In some specific, sourced ways, yes: Trafalgar guarantees a signature Be My Guest hosted meal on every tour and publishes a flat daily gratuity guideline, neither of which we found published for Cosmos. Trafalgar also includes porterage as standard, which Cosmos does not. Cosmos's advertised fares tend to run lower, which is broadly consistent with a leaner included program.