How we got started

The Sound of Music Tour Bus

About to-europe

to-europe was established in 2001 by Thomas Giesick. Thomas became familiar with tourism when he studied business administration in Frankfurt in the 1980’s. On weekends he worked part time as a Passenger Service Agent for Delta Air Lines, Inc. at Frankfurt Int. Airport and when he graduated from University, he worked in the Senior Management for a coach company owned by DB Deutsche Bahn (German Rail). When Thomas got in charge of the “Romantic Road Coach”, a tour bus line running along the Romantic Road from Frankfurt via Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Neuschwanstein Castle to Fussen, he was told by the bus drivers that more and more people travel independently, looking for advice about hotels, sights to see and things to do and company. He did some research and he found out that there are many offers for people who would like to travel in a group but almost none for people who prefer to travel independently. And since Thomas himself is not the “group-kind-of-traveler”, the idea to start to-europe developed:

“I do not like to travel within a large group of people and when I founded to-europe in 2001, the simple idea was to provide a service for travelers like myself. Although it may be the right thing for some people to book a guided tour and travel within a group, it is just not my way of travel. I like to be more independent. If I want to have a cup of coffee somewhere, I want to take the time to sit down and have that cup. If I visit a specific site, I may want to stay a little longer, maybe to enjoy the quietness or peacefulness of that particular place. Also during my journeys to foreign countries, I noticed that as an independently traveling person, contacts with locals, which enriched my travel experiences, were much easier.”

to-europe focuses on English-speaking guests looking for a tour in Central Europe. For singles, couples, families or small groups of friends traveling together, to-europe provides beautifully-designed rail, coach, and self-drive tour packages.

“The idea behind to-europe is to provide itineraries which make travel easy for people who prefer to have freedom in travel. That means conveniently-designed itineraries, arranged in the most efficient way to keep costs down. And, which allow you to have a great travel experience!”

For more information on how to-europe arranges your tour, please also visit “(NOT) ABOUT US – it´s all about your tour to Europe!” and also see our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).