For a long time now my wife and I have been putting away money to sometime go overseas. It was initially going to be to Japan for the next Rugby World Cup but having lost all faith in South African rugby we would like to do a week long tour in either Europe or the US.
Can you guys recommend any sites or places that have deals on these kind of tours? Basically flights and everything included.
@Solitude, have a look at this company:
They do tours like contiki does, but they can accommodate older people on their tours, not just a bunch of 20 somethings. Plus they are relatively cheap if you want a guided tour. I have a friend that did a New York to Niagara Falls tours through them, and absolutely loved it.
+1 for Contiki also look at doing a Mediterranean cruise with MSC
The big thing with the cruise is that your food expense tends to be cut down drastically (breakfast and dinner is included and on the boat) and do the guided excursions at each port. Parentals have done this twice already. Fly out to Venice (1-2 days there) then from Venice to Croatia, then Greece (Santorini & Mykonos), back to Croatia, then Ancona in Italy and finish back up in Venice.
However you need to decide what you want to see/do in Europe.
Give Natalie Matthews of Travel Counsellors a call. She’s a long time personal friend, and damn good at what she does. It’s like having a personal travel agent on call 
https://www.travelcounsellors.co.za/natalie.matthews
She always has a bunch of packages and tours available (https://www.travelcounsellors.co.za/za/leisure/top-offers/) but can also look at tailor-making a package just for you.
If you do talk to her tell her Greg sent you and she’d better look after you
Thanks @GregRedd! Will do that. It will only happen a bit later in the year however but will save the details.
Also thanks @DieGrootHammer and @PsychoFish!
ouch 
right in the feels!
Unfortunately I’ll have to learn with the fact that I’m not young anymore.
My wife travelled a lot as a teenager and varsity student.
She tells me contiki’s are like a readers digest version and don’t pay for all entrance fees.
She reccomends it for a first time travellers to see where they want to go back.
If you have a more specific goal in mind ie visit medieval castles and chapels then go on your own.
They drew up a wishlist and planned a back pack tour down the east coast of the state’s. Far from glamorous but the locals recieved them better as they weren’t part of a big group and they saw a lot more with the locals hope.
Try air bnb, my mom did 3 weeks in Thailand (not the main stream island thailand) on a cooking course where she lived with the locals.
She’s almost 60 and very reserved but loved the experience.
So much to think about but in summary list what you want to see and then plan jow
Yeah, to echo what @Snowbeast has said. Contiki is amazing if you want to see as much as possible in as little time as possible. The excursions when you do a cruise are like mini Contiki tours, you’ll see all the touristy places (although they might have 3+ options for excursions at each port)
Both my parents and in-laws have done multiple cruises and planned additional holidays based off the bits they’ve seen when visiting countries. They hit Turkey during their last cruise and will be going to Turkey for three weeks in October since they loved the country so much they wanted to go back.