How do tour groups fit into your travels?
A non-hypothetical question: What’s your relationship with tour groups? Travel blogs often debate the worth of these two, but I’m curious about the actual facts of your experience. How do tour groups factor into your travels, if at all?
An Indian friend of mine who lives in New York, no stranger to the vagabonding approach to travel, just got back from a two-week group tour through the American west. They cooked their own food, slept in tents, and covered about 3,500 miles in a ten-person van. He had a blast.
He chose to take the tour because he wanted to see a bunch of National Parks but didn’t have the time to plan it out. He didn’t want to drive, and wanted to meet like-minded adventurers. The group included people from six different countries, and the only American was the guide.
He found the tour company online and was confident to book with them based on the website alone. When the group got together, everyone seemed to have a similar Frugal Improvisation travel philosophy and friendships formed quickly.
Have you traveled with any tour groups lately? Did you book it at home or abroad? How did it square with your usual approach to travel? How did the cost compare to solo travel costs? Would you do it again?
Photo © S. Arora
June 30th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Disclosure: my parents own a small indie tour company.
Additional disclosure: this has caused me to rebel by refusing to ever take tours anywhere, make reservations, or generally comply with their advice.
Grown up evaluation, several years later: to be honest, especially for the solo traveller, there is actually a lot of value in some tours. It’s all pretty caveat emptor, but if you are crunched for time or are sick of planning there may be serious value. Plus, tour companies tend to have the connections to get things like permits and access that may be very difficult for a normal traveller with anything short of a diplomatic hook up to get into. The plans are also less likely to fall through because they will have test run the trip before. If it takes you a week on the ground of your month long trip – unless you value the learning curve experience (which I do but not everyone does) – to get your bearings and figure out how to do something… are you really saving as much as you thought?
I still don’t book tours. But I get why people do.
July 1st, 2010 at 1:01 am
I have experienced both. I have traveled on my own and also with tours.
I mainly complete tours for the same reasons your friend did, meet new people, share some of the experiences with them, don’t want to drive all the time (especially through the Canadian Rockies). I think that there is a bonus for adding a little bit of this type of travel to your World wanderings. If you get lonely, bored or want to do something different finding a short and cheap tour may cure all of those things and you can make friends that will last a life time.
I don’t prefer one over another. I have never been on a Contiki tour though, the ones that I were on were more Eco tours and Adventure tours, but that suits my personality more.
July 1st, 2010 at 6:14 am
I took a few trips with Intrepid Travel, and had a blast each time. They do things in more of a backpacker/flashpacker way. It was great for me when I was single and only had a few weeks of vacation time. They handled the logistics and provided companionship, and I got to enjoy myself and see the countries I wanted to see.
In retrospect, taking the Intrepid trips was a great way to learn how to travel in developing countries. I might take a trip with them again to go someplace where I’m not confident about traveling on my own, like Africa. But certainly not in Asia, where I live now, or in Europe, where I never have (or would) take a tour since it’s so obviously easy to do things on your own.
July 1st, 2010 at 10:12 am
Thanks for the comments so far.
Carl – You mention Intrepid. That’s who my friend went with too.
July 1st, 2010 at 11:49 am
i found tour groups the best part of my holiday. You get all the best information and meet lots of new people!
July 3rd, 2010 at 8:15 pm
I took a few trips with Intrepid Travel, and had a blast each time. They do things in more of a backpacker/flashpacker way. It was great for me when I was single and only had a few weeks of vacation time. They handled the logistics and provided companionship, and I got to enjoy myself and see the countries I wanted to see.
Thanks
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July 6th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
I’ve done three trips with Gap to developing countries and also found that it was a great way to meet people from around the world. I have posts on my blog about those trips, along with many others. I just returned from a trip to Europe for three weeks and mixed that up by booking trains/hotels for Spain and Portugal and then a 12 night cruise throughout Italy, France, Croatia and Greece.
I also enjoy trips by myself…I tend to meet more people that way. So…it depends on where you’re traveling, for how long and whether you have a companion to go…to make a good decision!