Quick Take
Globus includes more than sister brand Cosmos does: a more premium hotel tier, more of the meal program, hotel porterage, and Choice Touring on most of its itineraries.
That's the backbone, not the whole trip.
What it doesn't include: most lunches, many dinners, Tour Director and driver gratuities (no published rate at all), airfare, travel insurance, and a private room for solo travelers unless you land a Globus Escapes departure.
Compared with Cosmos, the gap isn't the coach — both average 36 guests. It's the hotel tier, the porterage, and how much of the meal program is bundled in.
Generally in the base price
- Scheduled hotel nights, motorcoach transportation, and the services of your Tour Director and driver
- Breakfast every night of the tour, plus dinner roughly a third of the time
- Hotel porterage for one bag per person, and Globus Choice Excursions on close to 80% of Europe and North America itineraries
Generally your own cost
- Airfare, most lunches, many dinners, and travel insurance
- Tour Director, driver, and local guide gratuities — no published per-day rate anywhere we could find
- A single-room supplement unless you land a Globus Escapes departure, and airport transfers unless you booked your air through Globus
The Framework: What the Base Price Generally Covers
Globus used to publish an itemized inclusions list. It doesn't anymore — the current /why-globus/whats-included/ page reads as marketing prose, and its own comparison table doesn't render. We pulled what follows from that page, the terms, the FAQ, and the retired legacy .ca site where it still says more.
| Category | Generally included? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hotels | Yes | Deluxe / superior first-class / first-class — real classes, undefined on the current site |
| Motorcoach transportation | Yes | Between destinations; average 36 guests, no published maximum |
| 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 | Every night | Tracks nights exactly across all 12 tours we checked, never day count |
| Dinners | Some | Roughly a third of nights, varies by itinerary |
| Lunches | Rarely | 8 of the 12 tours we checked include zero |
| Hotel porterage | Yes | One bag per person — Cosmos does not include this as standard |
| Globus Choice Excursions | Yes, where offered | Close to 80% of Europe/N. America itineraries, usually 1–2 choice days |
| Airport transfers | Conditional | Only with air booked through Globus; not offered in North America at all |
| Gratuities — wait staff & porters | Yes | Included at meals, except hotel meals in Europe |
| Gratuities — Tour Director, driver, guides | No | No published per-day figure anywhere we could find |
| Airfare | No | Advertised fare is land-only unless flights are explicitly packaged |
| Travel insurance | No | Travel Protection Plan sold separately; premium never refundable |
| Private room | No | Single supplement applies unless a Globus Escapes departure is booked |
Hotels
Your fare covers the hotel nights on the published itinerary, not the night before or after the tour.
Globus rates its hotels deluxe (D), superior first-class (SF), or first-class (F) — a real classification that still shows up in its own product feed today.
What's missing is the definition. globusjourneys.com's own inclusions page reads as marketing prose, not a spec sheet, and it doesn't explain what actually separates the three tiers.
The only place we found a real definition was the retired legacy.globusjourneys.ca site, which rates hotels against an independent standard called the Hotel & Travel Index. No star ratings appear anywhere first-party.
The property itself isn't locked in either. Globus's own language calls listed hotels "provisional and subject to change, and may be substituted with properties of similar standard," and reseller feeds routinely list two candidate hotels per city rather than a single confirmed one.
The D/SF/F letters aren't marketing fluff. They're still live in Globus's own booking feed today.
They're also defined nowhere a shopper can actually read them — not on the tour pages, not on the inclusions page. Only on a retired .ca domain most travelers will never find.
That's not proof the hotels are bad. It's a genuine disclosure gap at a premium price point.
Motorcoach Transportation and Airport Transfers
On-tour transportation
The fare includes motorcoach transportation between destinations, at the same average 36-guest group size Globus has published for years — with no maximum stated anywhere on its own site.
Reclining seats, individual vents, extra legroom, and an onboard restroom (not fitted in London) come standard.
Free Wi-Fi is included in North America and Europe, but it's browsing-only, not built for downloading.
Hotel Wi-Fi is a separate matter. On many properties it's lobby-only rather than in-room, something resellers tend to overstate.
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.
Globus only covers that ride when you've booked your air through them, and even then only on qualifying flights and dates.
They're not offered in North America at all. Arrange your own air there, and you arrange your own transfer too.
Globus's own marketing calls the daily seat rotation "your custom of daily seat rotation." Its terms call the identical rule "a mandatory, daily seat rotation."
Custom, or requirement — the practical result is the same. Everyone rotates, whichever word you happen to read first.
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 on the itinerary
What's included vs. what you tip
The services of these professionals are included in your fare. Their gratuities are largely not.
Globus includes gratuities for wait staff at included meals, except hotel meals in Europe, and for porters.
Your Tour Director, driver, Local Hosts, Local Guides, and any ship's crew are left off that list entirely.
No flat daily dollar figure is published anywhere we could find — unlike Trafalgar's stated $5–7/day Tour Director and $3–5/day driver guidance. You'll be estimating, not budgeting.
Prepaying sounds like a workaround, until you notice Globus blocks it on Europe, the South Pacific, and Independent tours — exactly the departures most people book.
We looked across Globus's terms, FAQ, and inclusions pages for a recommended per-day gratuity figure the way Trafalgar publishes one. We found none — not a range, not a suggested minimum, nothing.
Some resellers publish their own guess at a figure. We're not repeating one here, because it isn't Globus's number. It's theirs.
Budget generously, and expect to work out the amount on your own.
Meals
Globus guarantees breakfast every night of the tour, matching the night count exactly on all 12 itineraries we've checked — never the day count.
Beyond that, the pattern is uneven. Dinner shows up roughly a third of the time. Lunch is the real gap: 8 of the 12 tours we checked include zero.
Included meals in Europe typically come with one complimentary drink — wine, beer, a soft drink, coffee, or tea — a small first-party detail that rarely makes it into marketing copy.
Globus meals
- Breakfast: every night, matching the night count on all 12 tours we checked
- Dinner: roughly a third of nights, clustering on remote overnight stops with nowhere to walk out and eat
- Lunch: zero on 8 of the 12 tours we checked
Cosmos meals, for comparison
- Breakfast: close to the night count on the three tours we've audited day by day (6 of 6, 9 across 8 nights, 12 of 13)
- Dinner: roughly every 2–3 nights, depending on itinerary
- Lunch: zero on 11 of Cosmos's 12 tours — only Gourmet Tuscany includes any
Neither brand runs lunch as a real inclusion in Europe. Where Globus pulls ahead is dinner frequency and, separately, porterage and hotel tier — not meals alone.
Sightseeing and Optional Excursions
What's included
Globus's own materials describe guided sightseeing at the major published sites, led by a Tour Director and local guides.
On close to 80% of Europe and North America itineraries, Globus also builds a Choice day into the price — you pick between two or more included excursions instead of following one schedule set for the whole group. It's a real, price-included mechanism, not a marketing label.
Choice density runs about one or two days per tour, and it doesn't scale with a longer itinerary — a 24-day tour we reviewed carried exactly one choice day. We're covering Choice Touring in full depth on its own dedicated page; for the inclusions question here, just know it's real, and smaller in practice than the "80%" headline implies on its own.
Optional excursions
Beyond the included Choice days, Globus sells additional optional excursions at extra cost, the same as every operator in this segment.
We haven't yet built out full optional-excursion pricing for Globus the way we have for Cosmos and Trafalgar. Treat individual excursion costs as something to confirm per tour rather than assume, until that research is live.
What Costs Extra, and What a Trip Can Really Cost
Before finalizing a budget, remember that Globus generally excludes: international airfare, most lunches and roughly two-thirds of dinners, Tour Director, driver and guide gratuities, optional excursions beyond the included Choice days, alcohol outside included meals, pre- and post-tour hotel nights, and a private room for solo travelers unless you land a Globus Escapes departure.
Budget for all of it.
None of this makes Globus less valuable for the price. It means the advertised fare is a starting point, the same as with every operator in this cluster.
Luggage and porterage
One bag per person, maximum 30 by 21 by 11 inches (62 inches of combined length, width and height), and 50 pounds.
Porterage for that one bag, where available, is included in the price — a real, sourced difference from sister brand Cosmos, which doesn't include it except on select tours.
Insurance & pre/post nights
Travel insurance isn't automatic. Globus sells its own Travel Protection Plan, and the premium is never refundable once purchased.
Covered cancellation reasons refund the penalty in cash. Cancel For Any Reason claims pay out only in Globus travel certificates, valid two years and non-transferable.
Arriving early or staying on afterward means booking and paying for those extra nights yourself.
We don't yet have a dedicated Globus cost calculator published. When we do, it'll run the real meal-inclusion math the way our Cosmos Trip Cost Planner already does, and let you set your own gratuity and single-supplement assumptions — since Globus doesn't publish fixed rates for either one.
Until then, price your specific departure directly and build your own tip and single-supplement line items into it.
How Globus's Inclusions Compare
Globus vs. Cosmos
Same coach, same average group size — 36 guests on a standard motorcoach for both brands.
The difference is everything built around the ride.
Globus sits at a more premium hotel tier, includes hotel porterage where Cosmos doesn't, includes more of the meal program, and layers Choice Touring across most of its catalog.
The ride itself is identical.
Cosmos is the honest budget pick when a leaner included program is an acceptable trade for the lower price.
Globus vs. Trafalgar
Two unrelated companies at a similar mainstream position, with one clear published difference.
Trafalgar states a flat daily gratuity guideline — $5–7 for the Travel Director, $3–5 for the driver. Globus publishes no equivalent figure for either role.
Same shape, different disclosure.
Both brands leave most lunches out of the price in Europe.
How to Read a Globus Itinerary Before You Book
- Exact tour price and whether a Globus Escapes departure waives the single supplement
- Number of hotel nights, compared against the "days" count
- Which hotel class letter (D, SF, or F) applies, and what that actually buys — since Globus won't define it for you
- Exact meal counts — how many lunches and dinners are at your own cost?
- Whether your specific itinerary carries a Choice Touring day, and where
- Whether you've confirmed a gratuity plan, since no flat rate is published for the Tour Director or driver
- Your specific tour's airport-transfer policy, since transfers only apply with Globus-booked air
- Whether porterage genuinely covers your one bag at your specific hotel
- 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
Globus includes more than its own sister brand does: a better hotel tier, more of the meal program, porterage, and a real Choice Touring mechanism on most itineraries.
It is also less forthcoming about the details than some competitors.
No published hotel-class definitions. No per-day gratuity figure. No group-size maximum on its standard tours.
You'll budget separately for airfare, most lunches, many dinners, and Tour Director and driver tips.
The question isn't whether Globus includes enough to be worth booking. For the price, on what it does publish, it generally is.
The real question is whether the things it doesn't explain — the hotel class letters, the tip amount, the transfer eligibility — are worth confirming yourself before paying a premium over Cosmos for them.
Ask before you book, not after.
Ask Seabound about Globus'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 Globus tour?
Generally: hotel accommodations for the scheduled nights, motorcoach transportation between destinations, a Tour Director and driver, breakfast every night of the tour, dinner roughly a third of the time, hotel porterage for one bag per person, and Globus Choice Excursions on close to 80% of Europe and North America itineraries.
Are hotels included on Globus tours?
Yes - hotels for the scheduled nights of the itinerary are included. Globus rates them deluxe, superior first-class, or first-class, a real classification system that still appears in its own product feed, positioned above sister brand Cosmos's plainer, value-tier hotels.
What hotel class does Globus use?
Deluxe (D), superior first-class (SF), or first-class (F). The letters are real and still show up in Globus's own product feed, but the current globusjourneys.com doesn't define any of the three anywhere we could find. The only definition left standing lives on the retired legacy.globusjourneys.ca site, which rates hotels against an independent Hotel & Travel Index standard. No star ratings appear anywhere first-party.
Does Globus tell you the actual hotel before you book?
Loosely. Globus's own language calls listed properties provisional and subject to change, and reseller feeds often show two candidate hotels per city rather than one confirmed property. Worth knowing if a locked-in hotel matters more to you than the price.
Are meals included on Globus tours?
Breakfast every night of the tour, without exception on the itineraries we checked. Lunch is rare - 8 of the 12 tours we checked include zero. Dinner shows up roughly a third of the time. Included meals in Europe typically come with one complimentary drink: wine, beer, a soft drink, coffee, or tea.
Is breakfast included every night on a Globus tour?
Yes. On every itinerary we checked, breakfast tracked the night count exactly, never the day count. That held across all 12 tours in our research.
Is lunch included on Globus tours?
Almost never. Eight of the twelve itineraries we checked include zero lunches. Lunch is the real gap in a Globus itinerary, more than dinner is.
Is porterage included on Globus tours?
Yes - one bag of hotel porterage per person, where available, is included in the price. That's a genuine, sourced difference from sister brand Cosmos, whose own FAQ states porterage is not included except on select tours.
Are tips included on a Globus tour?
Partly. Globus includes gratuities for wait staff at included meals, except hotel meals in Europe, and for porters. It does not include tips for the Tour Director, driver, local guides, or ship's crew, and it publishes no recommended per-day figure anywhere we could find, unlike Trafalgar's stated $5-7 and $3-5 guidance. A prepay option exists, but it excludes Europe, the South Pacific, and Independent tours - the departures most Globus travelers actually book.
Are airport transfers included with Globus?
Only if you booked your flights through Globus itself, on qualifying flights and dates. Transfers aren't offered in North America at all, and if you arrange your own air, you arrange your own ride to the hotel too.
Does Globus include Wi-Fi on the motorcoach?
Free Wi-Fi is included in North America and Europe, but it's browsing-only, not built for downloading. Hotel Wi-Fi is a separate matter - it's often lobby-only rather than in-room, something resellers tend to overstate.
What's the luggage allowance on a Globus tour?
One bag per person, maximum 30 by 21 by 11 inches (62 inches of combined length, width and height), and 50 pounds. Porterage for that one bag is included; anything beyond it is your own responsibility.
Are double-bedded rooms guaranteed on Globus?
No. Globus contracts twin-bedded rooms as the standard, and its own terms state double-bedded rooms - one bed per room - are not guaranteed. Request one, but don't book assuming you'll get it.
Is the daily seat rotation on a Globus motorcoach mandatory?
Yes, and Globus describes it two different ways depending on where you read it. Marketing language calls it your custom of daily seat rotation; the terms call the identical rule a mandatory, daily seat rotation. Custom or requirement, either way, everyone rotates.
Are Globus Choice Excursions included in the tour price?
Yes. On close to 80% of Europe and North America itineraries, Globus builds a day where you pick between two or more excursions into the price rather than selling it as a paid upgrade. Choice density typically runs one or two days per tour and doesn't necessarily scale with a longer itinerary.
Is airfare included on a Globus tour?
No. The advertised fare is land-only unless flights are explicitly packaged in for that specific departure.
Is travel insurance included with Globus?
No. Globus sells its own Travel Protection Plan separately, and the premium is never refundable once purchased. Covered cancellation reasons refund the penalty in cash, but Cancel For Any Reason claims pay out only in Globus travel certificates, valid two years and non-transferable.
Does Globus include a private room for solo travelers?
No, not by default - a single supplement applies, and Globus doesn't publish a percentage or flat rate for it anywhere we could find. There's also no room-share program; Globus's own solo-travelers page states plainly it won't pair you with a stranger. Globus Escapes is the real first-party workaround, with select tours bookable without the supplement based on availability.
Is Globus all-inclusive?
No. Globus covers the logistical backbone of the trip - hotels, motorcoach transport, a Tour Director, breakfast, some dinners, and porterage - while leaving most lunches, many dinners, gratuities for the Tour Director and driver, airfare, and travel insurance to your own budget.
Is Globus more inclusive than Cosmos?
Yes, on several specific points we could verify: Globus includes hotel porterage where Cosmos doesn't, sits at a more premium hotel tier, includes more of the meal program, and layers Choice Touring across most of its catalog. Both brands run the same average 36-guest motorcoach, so none of the difference comes from the ride itself.