I'm planning on doing a tour of central europe in august for 2 weeks, or more. my question is, from everyone's experience, are escorted tours worth it? I'll be going with three other guys (all of us in our early 20s) and I realize that a lot of people on these tours will be older, or they'll be families with kids.
But also, the other guys are afraid of NOT going on an escorted tour, thinking it'll not only be more expensive, but we won't know what the hell we're doing or where we're going.
So I guess what I'm wondering is, is there a happy median? Are there tours that let you explore cities on your own, yet arrange hotels and travel for you, with option to hire a tour guide?
I've been thinking about this for quite some time, but can't find anything online. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!! In fact, I will send anyone with useful information some Turkish Delight.
Reply to this Hey. My partner and I are on our own tour (bought a van and driving round) and we both reckon that it is by far the best way!! you can leave if a place is dumb and stay a bit longer if you like it. we have met LOADS of young people (20-30) on tours. Lots of them seemed to wish that they had done what we had done. Some of them said that their tours were awful (crap food and no time to look at stuff) others said that it was ok. So I think either way is ok. You just have to look around. Checkout websites for tours that seem to cater to young people. (the one that go on big trucks seem to be fun). But we still think doing your own thing is the way.
Have fun!!
Reply to this If you haven't travelled before tours can be good for getting your bearings and working out what you want to see more of and where you want to go again. They can be very tiresome though as you are often on and off buses, trains and the like getting to and from different places. The upside though is that you don't have to arrange anything and just go along for the ride and have fun.
If you don't go on a tour, you can still travel cheaply. Do a bit of research before you go so you have an idea of what you want to see so you know how much some of the stuff is going to cost you. Booking accommodation over the internet is a good way of getting some really cheap and not too shabby hotels. My friend and I will be in Europe in July for a month and we have managed to book places for $50 (australian) per night. With the exception of the hotel in Paris they all look pretty good. If you're booking accommodation over the internet try looking at the reviews that other people have made about the places. They can give you an indication of what the hotel/hostel is like.
Going solo also means you can do what you want when you want. That is a major plus when travelling. Doing your own thing is a lot of fun and I would recommend it. If you want some tips on budget travelling let us know.
Have an awesome trip!
Tegan
Reply to this Hi
A tour could could take some of the stresses of planning and running around out of the equation and this way provide a more relaxed experience. Also , you can meet alot of people and some tours are oriented to a young crowd. So, here are a few recommendations:
Topdeck Tours are oriented towards a younger crowd and they have some excellent itineraries.
Isram Tours is a veteran operator with plenty of experience in Eastern Europe and a variety of short one city tours and long tours all over Eastern and Central Europe. Some of their itineraries are arranged for a more independent traveler. This means you have plenty of independent time in each city visited but you also get an introductory tour in each city. Ofcourse, your accomodations are pre arranged.
Rick Steve's Tours offer friendly, well planned tours and a particularly thoughtful approach which you can tell if you visit their excellent website. They have a TV show, a graffiti wall, a blog, contests, interviews with travel teachers. What don't they have? They offer four Eastern European tours.
Hope these help
Reply to this If you don't have a clue about where in central Europe you want to go or have specific sites in mind, then a prepackaged tour may be the right thing for you. There are tours available for your own situation, so don't worry about the families thing. I prefer to do my own research on the areas that I am interested in and begin narrowing from there. Once I've done that, I research train schedules for departure/arrival times, as well as journey times. If my journey time is more than 4 or 5 hours, I will look for somewhere along the way to explore and stay the night. If you don't have a lot of time to plan your journey, then a packaged tour provides a ready-made itinerary for you - but, you may not really be interested in 100% of the journey - that's the down side. I generally take at least a couple of months in research before I finalize my plans. Get your friends involved, where each one of you is respsonsible for researching a town or area, and come up with the itinerary jointly. That will cut down on the planning time and you all can get excited and become "experts" for a segment of the trip.
Reply to this I personally think that you guys should go on your own. Aww those escorted tours are sooo boring and you are so right, people over there are usually much older... I usually go to travel agency, they book a hotel and plane tickets for me and then I can enjoy the unknown by myself 😉 Besides, 3 guys is fun enough. Take care and have fun! All this is coming from a 19 y.o. female.
Reply to this I'm a staunch advocate of independent travel. My exceptions would be to areas of high risk or inordinate difficulty for a woman travelling alone. But you're a bloke and not alone and Europe is definitely not high risk as far as I'm concerned.
Tours are almost always WAY more expensive than travelling independently, especially if you stay in hostels rather than hotels.
You might make friends on your tour but generally won't interact with many people outside the group - locals or other travellers.
Travelling solo or in a small group opens you up to many more social opportunities.
In Europe the standard sights are all easy to get to and transport/accommodations are simple to arrange. Independent travel will simply allow you more options, I don't think it'll add too much stress to your life.
Having said that, if your goal is to go along for a great ride and enjoy the sights with less emphasis on exploration/discovery and if you have the budget to withstand $100 or more per day... go the tour. It will make your trip pretty much effortless on your part.
But my vote is grab a good guidebook and make your own adventure!
Reply to this Unless you want to be an armchair traveler who happens to be on the move, avoid tours! If you spend some time deciding where you want to visit, it's easy to put it together yourself. For our first trip to Europe, I visited some of the tour sites, looked at their tours, then copied the itinerary but traveled independently. We saved a lot of money that way!
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