Comments on: Europe – Packaged Tour Groups Pros/Cons

By: Ellen

Ellen — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:36:28 +0000

One of the best ways to travel on an organized tour is to find one that meets your specific interests, i.e., gardens or Harry Potter, where you travel with like-minded fans. It’s even better is the group size is small. The most obvious advantages of small group tours are the peace of mind that comes from knowing your tour director is taking care of the myriad last-minute details of touring, and the companionship of a group of fellow travelers. It’s the opportunity to join a group of travelers, with whom each new experience can be shared, and often lasting friendships forged. Most tours had independent time, too, so you can explore on your own, if you like, or find someone int he group to explore with.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:10:30 +0000

I’ve taken several packaged tours (bus tours) – the most extensive being a 30-day Europe tour where “If it’s Tuesday It must be Belgium” type. Besides the cost benefits of the tour, I wouldn’t even consider driving myself in a foreign country. How else would I have ended up in San Marino, Vatican City, Rome, Greece, Spain, and a dozen other European countries on my own in 30-days. No way. I’ve also done Germany in 11 days ten years ago and am doing it again this year. With the current dollar being what it is, it would be impossible to do it myself.

I’m also one of those people that if I had to do it myself, I would likely stay securely in my hotel room and see nothing. While the bus tours tend to move quickly and one might ask about the speed and not connecting, it turns out that with a little bit of work you can actually find the local market and get a bit of local exposure. But certainly, not much.

I do rent cars and move around in certain US Cities, recently in NW Missouri. There I had a mission – genealogy – and it wouldn’t have been useful at all to do bus tours, even if they were available. In that case, which I’ve done three times in the past five years, I do indeed enjoy the locals and move around at will. But I prefer the smaller towns (10,000 – 50,000 people) as opposed to the bigger places.

By: Herne

Herne — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:57:35 +0000

I choose package tours for a couple of reasons, but mostly efficiency and “most bang for the buck.”

I do not drive therefore I can’t just rent a car and do a self-tour. Nor do I want to spend most of my time worrying about how I’m going to get from point A to point B and what hotel I’m going to find when I get there. On one hand it’s nice to have someone else worry about the coach, the hotels, and the meals, but on the other hand I don’t always like where I end up at the end of the day. Nor do I like it when the coach stops at an obvious tourist trap because the tour company is getting a kick back, but these are some of the things we put up with in order to get the most “vacationing” done within the short time I have for being on vacation.

I would never be able to book myself a room at the Mariott in Glasgow, not at £120 a night, but I stayed there for 2 nights on my package tour. Part of traveling with a tour company is also the buying power of that company…