Group Tours

[Harpy Eagle]

Does anyone have any experience with group tours?

My wife and I have never done one but we booked one for this spring for 12 days around Scotland.

The company we are using is one a co-worker of my wife used and loved it.

The group size is from 24 to 42 people. We choose the tour we did because it spends 2 nights in every city is stops at, plus we added an extra day on the day before the tour starts to have some us time in Edinburgh. There are planned activates plus also a fair amount of free time.

This will be a new adventure for us but our kids are grown and we do not really have a circle of friends that we travel with so this seemed worth trying.

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[audreyh1]

Yes, a lot.

For us the critical issue with group tours is the size of the group. We only do small groups. Usually less than 16.

Also some organizations do better jobs than others in terms of smooth flow and efficient use of time. By far National Geographic Expeditions ($$$) was the best organized such that our slightly larger group of 20 didn’t get bogged down at all - not even at meals as they were all prearranged. Some folks swear by Tauck tours.

We are usually doing something specific when we go on a small group tour. Early retirement it was many birding tours and a few photography tours and we saw and did way much more than we would have on our own. Later tours have been because we wanted to travel with scientific experts and that was awesome. Plus a well done group tour means significantly less planning and research on your part and as a veteran planner of many, many independent trips I really appreciate that aspect.

2 nights in every city is a nice feature. Adding your own days at the start and/or end of a tour is also a good idea. Especially going to Europe you usually need at least a day to adjust to the time zone.

When it comes down to it it’s well worth giving it a try, certainly as an introduction to a brand new area. You can see if it’s enjoyable or not for you.

 

[braumeister]

Yes, a lot.

For us the critical issue with group tours is the size of the group. We only do small groups. Usually less than 16.

Same here. NatGeo, OAT, and REI Adventures have been good tours for us, and gave us enough of an overview that we could later go back to the area on our own for a more in-depth visit. I would never go on any group tour larger than those, because I've seen people spend almost more time getting on and off a bus than they could use on a visit.

 

[JoeWras]

Like braumeister says, we went back after a group tour to Greece for a more in-depth visit. The tour gave us a lay of the land and was helpful. Then we had the confidence to go 100% on our own.

One thing these days: one person gets Covid, you all get it. That happened to us last summer. The bus is very close quarters.

 

[DuluthGA]

We did a group tour with church friends to Israel in May 2023. There were 40 of us and we liked it as the guide had significant knowledge on the sites we visited. The group size was not a problem as the bus had two doors and we were able to get on/off quickly. I’ve done the same tour with 25 before and the experience was about the same. We’ve also done a couple of river cruises with their included tours which we liked as it gave us a good overview of the area and helped us decide where we wanted to spend more time.
We just returned from doing Paris on our own and commented we should have added guided tours for Versailles and Louvre to get that background and depth of knowledge.
The age and infirmities of your group will impact it the most.

 

[audreyh1]

Same here. NatGeo, OAT, and REI Adventures have been good tours for us, and gave us enough of an overview that we could later go back to the area on our own for a more in-depth visit. I would never go on any group tour larger than those, because I've seen people spend almost more time getting on and off a bus than they could use on a visit.

Not to mention meals taking forever!

We did one small group tour with a small European outfit touring the Loire valley chateaux with a few Paris highlights including Versailles and Fontainebleau to start. There were 8 of us plus one leader. The locations visited were excellent and well arranged. We were kind of jammed into a small van but that was OK.

But the evenings were interminable! Mostly because the included dinners took forever even though there were only 9 of us total. The group would go out to nice location restaurants but most of the group struggled with foreign language menus so ordering would take forever, plus wanting changes more American style and then even forgetting what they had ordered! Maybe people were just too tired. We would get back quite late and have to be ready to go early the next day, so a rush to get ready for bed and rush in the morning. But overall I remember the trips out to dinner taking way too long.

By contrast our Nat Geo tour, lunch and dinner - there were no menus, there was no ordering! They already had people’s food restrictions and took care of those individuals. I think only one place did they offer us a choice for the main course and that was offered verbally. They chose excellent places with top local cuisines and in most cases we were in a private dining area - like private catering. As a consequence the meals and evenings were much more enjoyable and not lasting forever.

 

[sengsational]

I'm not a fan, but there are good aspects. Unless you're a researcher/planner, you're less likely to miss the basics. But you gotta like the basics, and getting regimented doses of the basics. More true the larger the group. I like oddball, off the beaten path stuff. Getting lost and finding my way again makes life less boring. If I wake up with an alarm clock, do exactly what someone tells me to do, see another old part of town, some old architecture, yet another church, yet another fort, all walking behind the lady holding up the red umbrella...ho hum. Get on the bus, get off at the hotel. Rinse, repeat.

 

[braumeister]

 

[audreyh1]

We did a group tour with church friends to Israel in May 2023. There were 40 of us and we liked it as the guide had significant knowledge on the sites we visited. The group size was not a problem as the bus had two doors and we were able to get on/off quickly. I’ve done the same tour with 25 before and the experience was about the same. We’ve also done a couple of river cruises with their included tours which we liked as it gave us a good overview of the area and helped us decide where we wanted to spend more time.
We just returned from doing Paris on our own and commented we should have added guided tours for Versailles and Louvre to get that background and depth of knowledge.
The age and infirmities of your group will impact it the most.

We often supplemented our independent travel with a couple small group minivan day trips to locations that were too logistically complex to visit on our own. Usually 8 max. We really lucked out as most of them were fantastic.

I do generally recommend guided tours of some locations as long as it’s not a big group.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

I'm not a fan, but there are good aspects. Unless you're a researcher/planner, you're less likely to miss the basics. But you gotta like the basics, and getting regimented doses of the basics. More true the larger the group. I like oddball, off the beaten path stuff. Getting lost and finding my way again makes life less boring. If I wake up with an alarm clock, do exactly what someone tells me to do, see another old part of town, some old architecture, yet another church, yet another fort, all walking behind the lady holding up the red umbrella...ho hum. Get on the bus, get off at the hotel. Rinse, repeat.

We had some of these same concerns, it is one of the reasons we have never done one in the past.

It is also why we choose one that spends at least 2 nights in every city with a pretty fair amount of free time added in. and if there is a tour we do not want to join, we will just do our own thing.

We are hoping the social aspect of it outweighs some of the negatives you listed.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Not to mention meals taking forever!

We did one small group tour with a small European outfit touring the Loire valley chateaux with a few Paris highlights including Versailles and Fontainebleau to start. There were 8 of us plus one leader. The locations visited were excellent and well arranged. We were kind of jammed into a small van but that was OK.

But the evenings were interminable! Mostly because the included dinners took forever even though there were only 9 of us total. The group would go out to nice location restaurants but most of the group struggled with foreign language menus so ordering would take forever, plus wanting changes more American style and then even forgetting what they had ordered! Maybe people were just too tired. We would get back quite late and have to be ready to go early the next day, so a rush to get ready for bed and rush in the morning. But overall I remember the trips out to dinner taking way too long.

By contrast our Nat Geo tour, lunch and dinner - there were no menus, there was no ordering! They already had people’s food restrictions and took care of those individuals. I think only one place did they offer us a choice for the main course and that was offered verbally. They chose excellent places with top local cuisines and in most cases we were in a private dining area - like private catering. As a consequence the meals and evenings were much more enjoyable and not lasting forever.

I can see the meals being an issue. The tour we choose mostly provides breakfast with group dinners only 7 out of the 12 days and only 1 pre-planned lunch.

 

[audreyh1]

I think this will be a good experience for you. It certainly will help you gain experience in terms of what is important to you with respect to traveling with a group.

Getting older, I’m pretty much giving up on extensive independent travel overseas. It’s just too much pre-trip work! Staying in one location for a week would be fine, but we’ve generally moved around much more than that.

 

[rodi]

When I was younger, my first time traveling solo, I signed up for a contiki tour (geared towards younger people). I was older than many since I was 31. I pretty much decided that group tours were only as good as the people with you. You get a jerk or two and the group dynamics are impacted.

No more group tours for me till the OAT tour of Machu Picchu/Galapagos 2 years ago. The small group was definitely a plus. We had a pretty good group of people. I would do OAT again but still have a strong preference for independent travel.

In general I prefer slow travel with stays of 1 week or longer in apartments with kitchens. No pressure to meet a scheduled activity or miss a bus. More time for people watching and exploring.

 

[Bestwifeever]

We have taken many group tours as well traveling independently, with and without friends, during the past ten years. DH is a super planner for the independent travel but he also likes the organized group travel. An organized Scotland trip, although not yet finalized, is in our future. “Enjoy the journey”—we've always found something memorable regardless of type of travel, and hope you will too.

 

[brett]

We are in our mid 70's. All of our travel has been independent. Since retiring it is not unusual for us to do two 8 week trips per year. Slow travel.

DId our first organized tour this year (other than an 8 day safari 14 years ago) Did a month in Morocco. Two weeks prior to blast off we did more research and decided a tour would be better for the far reaches. So we we booked last minute. We very much enjoyed the remaining 21 days touring on our own.

It was very good. We were glad that we did it. 9 days. We did it at the front end. We would not have wanted anything longer. 16 people on the tour.

Would we consider another tour? It very much depends on the country and what we want to see.

 

[OldConch]

Does anyone have any experience with group tours?

Yes. We love a good small group tour as a part of our travel. Just returned from a two week tour of Turkey with Intrepid Travel. There were 9 of us in the group and we had a dedicated driver and an excellent tour guide. We added 2 nights in Istanbul before the tour and 4 nights each in Prague and Budapest after. Great trip. This was our 16th tour with Intrepid since our first in Thailand in January 2020. Just booked Intrepid trip #20 to Iceland next July and we'll spend time on our own in London, Oslo, and Bergen on that trip.

Are you using Gate 1? I've been following them since we retired in 2016 and receive their weekly email. Haven't used them yet but have been tempted. In Tasmania last January we shared many of the same hotels as a Gate 1 Discovery group.

Hope you have a wonderful trip.

 

[Teacher Terry]

When I was married we did independent travel. Now I take tours. I have done 2 with EF go ahead tours. They stay 2 nights in each place. Breakfast is at the hotel before you leave. They give you free time or you can pay for an optional tour during that time. The group ranges between 20-38 people depending on the tour.

Dinner together was 5 of 11 nights . Things went smoothly and mostly no ordering off the menu but a variety of food served home style. Always plenty to choose from even for this picky eater.

 

[brett]

I met a gentleman in Hue, Thailand. He and his wife were on a Gate1 tour. I asked him about the tour and about Gate1.

He was highly complementary on their Thailand tour and on Gate1. It seems they had done several Gate1 tours. Our friends did one in Morocco this year. They were very happy with the experience.

 

[Scrapr]

We have done 2 group tours. Both last year. The first one was very small....8 I think. We fit in a van. That one was last minute as the tour guide had an last minute cancel. So we booked on Thursday & arrived Rome on Sunday. the other tour was Ireland with 16...so small bus.

We liked both. The guide for the really small group was good...not great. The bigger group was fantastic. The tour guide grew up in Ireland so he had deep knowledge of the areas. He was singing & telling stories as the bus went on down the road.

In the future we may use small tours. We travel independently & fit in guided walking tours for interesting locations. We just finished 5 weeks in Italy. We stayed mostly 4 days in most locations. We may try to increase the number of days we stay in towns. We had a couple instances where it looked as if we were the only tourists in the area. That was the experiences we talk about. In one town the cruise ships had bused in boat loads of folks. So we would start late in the day (2 or 3 o'clock). We literally were walking in when the groups were walking out. A couple nights I think we were almost the last ones going out the gates.

 

[athena53]

I've been doing tours with Overseas Adventure Travel. Small groups are a plus. Guides for the most part have been excellent. Only one interminable meal, in Bulgaria- a single waitress who really needed more help, ordering was slow (several of us had to repeat what we'd already told her when she came around again). Guide did a great job with multiple dietary requirements (gluten-free, etc.) but he had no control over the service. More confusion when it came to settling bills. Most of the time OAT gives you a choice of 3 entrees, they get a count and text it to the restaurant ahead of time, which works well.

I do find the packing and unpacking every 2-3 days a pain but that's how you get to see multiple areas. I also like the fact that with group tours if something doesn't go according to plan, THEY solve the problem and OAT has been great about that. Two examples: getting us out of Bolivia in March, 2020 when country after country was closing its borders, and avoiding one stop on the Baltic cruise because the seas were rough- the extra day on Bornholm Island was wonderful.

Having said that- my next trip will be an independent one to Vienna- I've been there before, my German is decent and I'd like a little slower travel this time. I still have 2 more tips with OAT (my 8th and 9th) scheduled.

 

[braumeister]

I certainly agree that the group meals are among the biggest cons of such tours. The last few that we took, we simply told the group leader we would not be going. It's too easy to find a good restaurant on your own and have an enjoyable dinner. The only caveat is that since those meals are often prepaid, it's best to let the leader know a day in advance so they can change the number of people expected.

 

[Sunset]

OP - What company did you book with ?

 

[grasshopper]

We have done 5 group trips with Country Walkers, and 1 unguided trip with them. All groups are less than 16 and we did a safari trip with only 5. For our trip in Croatia breakfast at the hotel/inn, lunch provided most days as we were hiking and may have walking still at lunch time. Dinner was mostly at private residences, of winemakers and chefs. Beer and wine always on the menu. Never an inexpensive trip, and we get a lot of value for the buck.

 

[Gumby]

The past two years, we have done two group tours - once to Egypt and Jordan for three weeks in 2022 and last year to Greece for two weeks. In both cases, the group was 10 people or less, and in both tours the guides had great flexibility to adjust things to suit the mood/interests of the group. I also found in a group that small that it was easier to develop a bond with our fellow travelers. We have stayed in touch with many of them, including visiting a couple here in the US. I also thought it worthwhile to have someone else worry about all the arrangements, especially in a country where I don't speak the language

However, our very best trip not done on our own was just the two of us, a guide and a driver, when we went to Peru about 20 years ago. We usually make our own arrangements and travel by ourselves.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Yes. We love a good small group tour as a part of our travel. Just returned from a two week tour of Turkey with Intrepid Travel. There were 9 of us in the group and we had a dedicated driver and an excellent tour guide. We added 2 nights in Istanbul before the tour and 4 nights each in Prague and Budapest after. Great trip. This was our 16th tour with Intrepid since our first in Thailand in January 2020. Just booked Intrepid trip #20 to Iceland next July and we'll spend time on our own in London, Oslo, and Bergen on that trip.

Are you using Gate 1? I've been following them since we retired in 2016 and receive their weekly email. Haven't used them yet but have been tempted. In Tasmania last January we shared many of the same hotels as a Gate 1 Discovery group.

Hope you have a wonderful trip.

We are using Gate 1, my wife's co-worker loved them. We did our own flights instead of having them do it