DW and I have been fortunate over the last several years to go on some great trips that are largely self-directed photo safaris. Many of these have been in North America (National Parks, etc.) but a few were in Europe, to Italy & Switzerland, France, and Norway. The international trips are usually for about 2 1/2 weeks and run $6000-8000 total including air travel. The domestic trips are less. We have loved them all.
I occasionally see in print or online some of the many offers of professionally guided photo workshops. While we have typically been quite satisfied to arrange trips on our own, there are some destinations that I think would be much more difficult to do well without experienced help. Two that come to mind are Iceland and Patagonia. I recently reviewed the offerings from IcelandPhotoTours.com and PatagoniaPhoto.com. They look fantastic, but the cost of just the workshop for one is in the range of what we pay for a whole trip for two. After paying for 2 workshops, plus travel and other expenses, the total could be $12,000 -$20,000. That would pay for 2 or 3 of our typical trips.
Has anyone taken a pricey workshop like this? Is is worth it? Does the community have some guidance on making such an expensive decision? Thanks.
