Quick Take
Globus Choice Excursions are real. On a given day, you pick between two or more excursions Globus has already built into your tour price, instead of the whole group following one fixed schedule.
Globus's own site says this shows up on close to 80% of its Europe and North America itineraries. That figure counts tours that have a Choice day somewhere, not how many days of choice you actually get.
Of nine tours we checked directly, seven had exactly one confirmed choice day and two had two. A 24-day tour can qualify on the strength of a single afternoon near the end.
Real feature, modest density, no way to check it yourself except opening the tour page.
What Choice Touring is
An included, price-covered day where you choose between excursions Globus already paid for. Nobody's charged more no matter which option they pick.
What it isn't
A reason by itself to pick one Globus tour over another, or proof of an "industry first." Check section 06 before repeating that claim to anyone.
Which "Choice Touring" Are You Actually Reading About?
Before comparing anything else, untangle which "Choice Touring" you're reading about. An old review and a current one aren't describing the same feature.
In 2021, Globus sold a line called Choice Touring by Globus — a set of dedicated itineraries built around something branded YourChoice Excursions. That product appears discontinued.
It isn't what's live on globusjourneys.com today.
The current feature, mainstreamed across most of the catalog since 2025, is branded Globus Choice Excursions. It doesn't require a dedicated itinerary.
It's layered into existing tours, city by city, day by day.
Same company, similar name, two different products, four years apart. If a review or forum post you're reading predates 2025, assume it's describing the older, dedicated-itinerary version, not the one this page covers.
Travelers researching Globus often stumble on both names and assume they're the same thing. They're not, and the distinction changes what you should expect to find on a current tour page.
Everything past this point is about the current, 2025 feature: Globus Choice Excursions.
The 80% Claim, and the Honest Counterweight
Globus's own language is unambiguous. What it measures is narrower than it sounds.
Globus's Choice Touring page states it verbatim: "Now, on nearly 80% of our Europe and North America itineraries, you'll find Globus Choice Excursions – an industry first at this scale." That's real, first-party language, not something we're inferring.
Here's what it doesn't tell you. The 80% figure counts presence, not quantity.
A tour qualifies by having a Choice day anywhere in its schedule — one afternoon is enough. It says nothing about how many choice days that tour actually delivers.
We checked nine tours directly for a confirmed choice day, city, and date.
Seven had exactly one. Two had two.
None had three or more.
Britain & Ireland in Depth runs 24 days. It carries exactly one confirmed choice day, on day 22, in Stratford-upon-Avon.
That's the whole thesis in one itinerary. Nearly 80% of tours qualify for the headline number.
Almost none of them hand you more than an afternoon or two of it.
The Confirmed Choice-Day Table
Nine tours, the city and day Globus names, and the actual options where we could source them. Treat this as a starting list, not a complete one — Globus won't confirm the boundaries of its own 80%.
| Tour | Code | Choice day(s) | Confirmed options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italian Mosaic | LI | Day 2, Rome · Day 8, Venice | Rome: Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel vs. Colosseum & Roman Forum (reseller-sourced). Venice: options not sourced. |
| Best of Eastern Europe | RO | Day 8, Budapest · Day 12, Prague | Budapest: Unicum tasting vs. thermal spa visit (reseller-sourced). Prague: Vltava River lunch cruise vs. a food walk — see section 05. |
| Essential Britain | GC | Day 10, Alnwick | Alnwick Castle vs. Alnwick Garden (reseller-sourced). |
| Scottish Highlands | GJ | Day 6, Inverness | Not sourced. |
| Sicily & South Italy | LM | Day 3, Sorrento | Gelato-making vs. limoncello tasting (reseller-sourced). |
| Lisbon & North Spain | ZO | Day 3, Porto | A port cellar visit vs. a Douro River cruise (reseller-sourced). |
| Italian Treasures | LK | Day 6, Florence | Pitti Palace with aperitivo vs. a food walk with buchetta wine (reseller-sourced). |
| Britain & Ireland in Depth | GT | Day 22 of 24, Stratford-upon-Avon | Not sourced. |
| Tour AQ · North America | AQ | Day 8, San Francisco | Not sourced. |
The city and day for each row come from first-party language on that tour's own page. The specific option pairs, where we list them, are reseller-sourced — useful context, not a Globus-confirmed menu.
Book expecting the city and day to hold. Treat the exact named options as likely, not guaranteed, until your Tour Director confirms them on departure.
The Prague Proof: One River, Two Systems
If you want one example that settles what Choice Touring is and isn't, this is it.
On Best of Eastern Europe, day 12 lands in Prague. That day carries an included Choice Excursion: a Vltava River lunch cruise, or a food walk through the city instead.
Whichever you pick, it's already paid for.
Globus separately sells a paid optional excursion called Vltava River Cruise at Sunset — on the same river, the same day, for a fee it doesn't publish anywhere we could find.
A traveler could take the included lunch cruise at midday, then pay again that evening for a different cruise on the exact same water. Nothing about the word "optional" would warn you that's even possible.
It's not a wording quirk. It's proof the two systems run independently on the same itinerary, with no reference to each other.
The included Choice doesn't discount the paid optional. The paid optional doesn't replace the Choice.
They're two unrelated line items that happen to sell the same river twice in one afternoon.
Ask which system you're being offered before agreeing to either one. Our Globus optionals guide covers the paid side of this in full, including why Globus publishes no price for either the sunset cruise or any other optional we could find.
Does "Industry First" Hold Up?
Globus's own page doesn't stop at 80%. It calls the feature "an industry first at this scale." That claim doesn't survive a look at the competition.
Insight Vacations
Runs a near-identical feature branded Insight Choice, letting travelers "choose between two carefully selected experiences." Functionally the same mechanism as Globus's.
Collette
Brands its version "Choose Your Own Adventure" and states plainly that "all of these choices are included with the price of your tour" — the same included-price structure Globus uses.
Tauck goes further than either. It offers choices on most given days — a denser cadence than Globus's typical one or two choice days per entire itinerary.
Trafalgar has no real equivalent; its optionals are paid, sold on tour, not pre-bookable choices built into the fare. That's the one place in this comparison where Globus's structure genuinely stands apart.
So the claim rests entirely on the phrase "at this scale." Nobody can verify that phrase, because no operator here — Globus included — publishes a day-by-day count of how often the feature actually appears.
Globus's own trade coverage doesn't repeat the "industry first" line either, which is its own kind of tell.
Globus Choice Excursions are real and genuinely useful. "Industry first at this scale" is marketing language built on a phrase engineered to be unfalsifiable.
Judge the feature on what it does — an included daily choice, most tours, once or twice — not on the superlative attached to it.
How to Actually Find Out If Your Tour Has It
Globus's Europe tour-search page carries no Choice filter, tag, or badge. There is exactly one reliable method, and it takes three steps.
Below is a quick lookup against the nine tours we've already confirmed. If your tour isn't listed, that doesn't mean it lacks Choice Touring — it means we haven't verified it yet, and step one above is still your move.
Booking, Timing & What's Genuinely Unresolved
Choice Excursion selections must be made in advance, per Globus's own terms — but the terms don't state an exact deadline.
A commonly repeated rule says Globus will pick an option for you if you haven't chosen by 35 days before departure. We found that figure only on reseller sites, never on globusjourneys.com itself, so treat it as a planning target rather than a confirmed first-party policy.
Can you change your selection after prebooking, or once you're on tour? No source we found answers this either way.
It's a genuinely open question, not one we're willing to fill with a guess.
Can you buy the option you didn't pick as a separate paid optional later? Also unanswered anywhere we looked.
Ask your Tour Director directly if either question matters to your plans — don't assume yes or no.
The practical move, given both gaps: confirm your Choice selection well before the 35-day mark if that figure holds for your departure, and ask on tour whether a late change or a paid add-on is possible, rather than assuming either.
Choice Touring vs. the Competition
| Operator | Included daily-choice mechanism |
|---|---|
| Globus | Globus Choice Excursions, on close to 80% of Europe/N. America itineraries by Globus's own count — typically one or two confirmed choice days per tour, not scaled by length. |
| Insight Vacations | Insight Choice — a near-identical, included, pick-between-two-experiences structure. |
| Collette | "Choose Your Own Adventure" — branded differently, same included-price mechanism. |
| Tauck | No separate brand name, but choices appear on most given days — denser than Globus's typical one or two per tour. |
| Trafalgar | No equivalent. Its optionals are paid, sold on tour, and not pre-bookable choices built into the fare. |
| Cosmos, Globus's sister brand | No equivalent found anywhere in our research — Choice Touring stays specific to the Globus brand within the family. |
Globus isn't the only operator doing this, and it isn't the densest one either. What it has that most of this list doesn't is a specific, checkable example — the Prague day in section 05 — of the included choice and a paid optional sitting side by side.
The Seabound Verdict
Globus Choice Excursions are a genuine, price-included benefit, live on close to 80% of Europe and North America itineraries. That's real, not marketing filler.
What it isn't is dense, or independently verifiable. Expect one or two confirmed choice days per tour, not a run of them — and expect to check for yourself, tour page by tour page, since no filter or list exists.
The "industry first" claim is the one part of Globus's own pitch that doesn't hold up next to Insight, Collette, and Tauck. Drop it from how you talk about the feature, without dropping the feature itself.
Trust the Choice day once you've confirmed it's really there. Question anything sold as an "optional" the same afternoon — Prague already proved they can be two different things.
We're also building a guide to the best Globus tours for first-timers, and head-to-head comparisons against Collette, Insight Vacations, and Tauck. Check back if this page didn't answer your specific question yet.
Ask Seabound about Choice Touring
Not sure if your tour has a confirmed choice day?
Tell us which Globus tour you're considering, and we'll help you check for the language that confirms it before you assume the 80% figure applies to your itinerary.
Tap a question or the button and an advisor will check your specific tour before you book.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Globus Choice Touring?
Globus's term for a day where you pick between two or more excursions already built into your tour price, instead of everyone in the group following one fixed schedule. Globus brands the current version Globus Choice Excursions, and its own materials say it appears on close to 80% of Europe and North America itineraries. Nobody pays extra for it — the choice is which included option you want, not whether you pay.
Is “Globus Choice Excursions” the same product as the 2021 “Choice Touring by Globus”?
No, and mixing them up will send you looking at an outdated review. The 2021 version, branded Choice Touring by Globus, ran a set of dedicated itineraries built around something called YourChoice Excursions, and it appears discontinued. The current, mainstream feature, live across most of the catalog since 2025, is branded Globus Choice Excursions. If a review predates 2025, check which product it's actually describing before trusting it.
What is Globus's 80% claim, exactly?
Globus's own Choice Touring page states it directly: on nearly 80% of its Europe and North America itineraries, you'll find Globus Choice Excursions. That's a real, first-party number, not something we're estimating. It measures how many tours carry a Choice day somewhere in the schedule, not how many days of choice each one delivers.
Does the 80% figure mean I'll get several Choice days on my tour?
No, and that's the gap most travelers miss. The 80% figure counts how many itineraries carry a Choice day somewhere, not how many days of choice you'll actually get. A tour with one afternoon of choice out of two or three weeks counts the same as a tour with several.
How many Choice days does a typical Globus tour actually have?
Usually one, sometimes two, regardless of the tour's length. Of nine tours we checked for a confirmed Choice day, seven had exactly one and two had two. Length doesn't predict density — a longer itinerary doesn't buy you more days of choice.
Is there a Globus tour with 24 days and only one Choice day?
Yes. Britain & Ireland in Depth runs 24 days and carries exactly one confirmed Choice day, on day 22 in Stratford-upon-Avon. That's the clearest single proof that the 80% figure measures presence, not quantity — a tour qualifies on the strength of one afternoon near the end of a three-and-a-half-week trip.
Is there a first-party list of which Globus tours include Choice Touring?
No. Globus's Europe tour-search page has no Choice filter or tag, and we found no published roster of qualifying itineraries anywhere on globusjourneys.com. The 80% figure exists. The list behind it doesn't.
How do I find out whether my specific Globus tour has Choice Touring?
Open that tour's own page and look for language naming an included choice in a specific city — Globus's own phrasing runs close to your tour includes your choice of excursions in a named city. That per-tour check is the only reliable method we found, since no filter or list exists anywhere on the site.
What is the clearest proof that Choice Touring and paid optionals are separate systems?
One day on Globus's Best of Eastern Europe tour. Day 12 in Prague carries an included Choice Excursion — a Vltava River lunch cruise or a food walk — and Globus separately sells a paid optional called Vltava River Cruise at Sunset, on the same river, the same day. Two unrelated transactions, one afternoon.
On the Best of Eastern Europe tour, what happens on day 12 in Prague?
You get an included Choice between a Vltava River lunch cruise and a food walk through the city — already paid for, whichever you pick. Later that same day, Globus also sells a separate paid optional, Vltava River Cruise at Sunset, on the same river. A traveler could take the free lunch cruise at midday and pay again for a different cruise on the same water that evening.
Is Globus Choice Touring really an “industry first”?
Not by itself. Insight Vacations runs a near-identical feature called Insight Choice. Collette brands its version “Choose Your Own Adventure” Tauck offers choices on most given days, denser than Globus's typical one or two per tour. Globus's own trade coverage never repeats the “industry first” line either. The whole claim rests on the phrase “at this scale,” which nobody can verify since no operator publishes a day-by-day count.
What do Insight Vacations, Collette, and Tauck call their own versions of this feature?
Insight Vacations calls its version Insight Choice, letting you choose between two carefully selected experiences. Collette brands its version “Choose Your Own Adventure” and states plainly that all of those choices are included with the tour price. Tauck doesn't use a separate brand name, but offers choices on most given days — a denser cadence than Globus's typical one or two per tour.
Which Globus tours have a confirmed Choice day, according to Seabound's research?
Nine, from our own tour-by-tour research: Italian Mosaic (Rome day 2 and Venice day 8), Essential Britain (Alnwick day 10), Scottish Highlands (Inverness day 6), Sicily & South Italy (Sorrento day 3), Lisbon & North Spain (Porto day 3), Italian Treasures (Florence day 6), Best of Eastern Europe (Budapest day 8 and Prague day 12), Britain & Ireland in Depth (Stratford day 22), and a North America itinerary stopping in San Francisco on day 8. This is what we could confirm directly, not Globus's full 80%-of-the-catalog count.
Do I need to select my Choice Excursion in advance?
Yes — Globus's own terms say selections must be made in advance, though the terms don't state an exact deadline. A commonly repeated 35-days-before-departure rule shows up on reseller sites, not on globusjourneys.com itself, so treat it as a planning target rather than a confirmed first-party policy.
What happens if I miss the deadline to select a Choice Excursion?
Reseller sources say Globus will pick one on your behalf if you haven't chosen by around 35 days before departure. We couldn't confirm that specific rule on Globus's own site, so ask your booking agent to confirm the actual cutoff for your departure rather than relying on a secondhand number.
Can I change my Choice Excursion selection after prebooking or once I'm on tour?
We don't know, and we found no source that answers it either way. It's a genuinely open question in our research, not one we're willing to guess at. Ask your Tour Director or booking agent directly if a change matters to your plans.
Can I buy the Choice Excursion option I didn't pick as a separate paid optional?
We don't know that either. No source we found confirms or rules it out, and we're not willing to guess just to fill the gap. Ask directly before assuming either answer.
Does Choice Touring cost anything extra?
No. A Choice Excursion is already built into your tour price — the choice is which included option you want, not whether you pay. Anything with a cost attached is a separate paid optional, not a Choice, no matter how similar the day sounds.
Does Cosmos, Globus's sister brand, offer anything like Choice Touring?
No. Our research found no Cosmos equivalent to Globus Choice Excursions. It's a feature specific to the Globus brand within the family, not shared across Cosmos or Avalon Waterways.
What's the most useful thing to do before booking, given Globus publishes no Choice Touring list?
Open the specific tour page you're considering and search it for language naming an included choice in a city, rather than trusting the 80% figure to tell you what your own itinerary includes. Then ask your advisor to confirm both the Choice day and any paid optionals sold nearby, since the two are easy to mix up on the same itinerary.