7 Guidelines To Choosing A Tour! — Comparing Tours

7 Guidelines To Choosing A Tour — These are a few questions to consider when choosing a vacation tour no matter the destination. With more and more travelers being faced with limited vacation time, many want to be as active on vacation as at home, some want to be very active or more active on vacation than in their daily lives, and some simply want to shuttle from place to place and enjoy the experience without having to invest a lot of physical effort.

There is no wrong or right tour. In today’s world, there are tours of all sorts designed to meet interests of virtually every traveler from the vacation walker or biker, dedicated wine taster, culturally passionate, and cruise lover.

1. What Type of Tour? Decide — Which type of tour are you looking for? What experience meets your vacation travel interests – active, bus, walking, big or small group, budget or luxury?

Ask yourself…

Are you active in your daily life, and prefer a tour that offers an equally active vacation experience?
Are you in search of a tour that includes authentic cultural experiences combined with walking, plus offers daily options or choices?
Are you interested in a multi-cultural tour but without the “active” portion – meaning shuttling around all day long by bus with minimal walking?
Are you in search of a tour that offers specialized touring, such as a wine focused tour or biking?

Once you’ve decided on the type of tour you’d like, and have made a short list of tour companies offering the type of tour you’d like, check the fine print – the Inclusions – What does the price include?

2. Compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges —

Even if 3 different tour companies run similar looking tours that seem to include the same sights or similar activities but differ in price, it doesn’t mean the most expensive choice is the best. There will be differences reflected in the price.

Factors that greatly influence tour prices include…

Do the guides live locally or is the tour company flying tour guides into foreign destinations from their home country to service their tours?
What kind of hotel is included in the tour price?
What kind of activities, visits, and experiences are included in the tour price?
On walking tours, are the scheduled walks guided or are you merely given a local map and set on your way after a post-breakfast briefing each day?
For cultural tours, are the tours privately guided by the tour company’s locally employed guides or do they only provide entry fees or do they leave you completely to your own devices?
For artisan encounters (wine, cooking, painting, tastings, etc…) with local destination professionals, does the company know the professionals on a personal level, is there an established long term friendship or family link, or is the tour company sending their clients to visit the local tourist hot spot, yet labeling it as a personalized, local experience?
What is the group size? Is the tour marketed as a small group tour, but come to find out, the company categorizes a small group as 24, 36 or even 40 people per tour?

Below we investigate these points in greater detail…

3. Cost – With some tour companies, it’s not always true that you get what you pay for.

Tour companies that are NOT based in the “destination country” where they operate tours have to calculate additional costs beyond the actual activities, food, guide service fees, transportation, and lodging costs of their clients into their tour prices. They also have to calculate the international airfare, lodging, and food costs of the tour guides they’re flying to the “destination country” into the tour price that you, the consumer, pay.

Tour companies based locally in the “destination country” and whose guides live and work locally naturally offer better value for your money, because none of these costs need to be factored into their tour prices.

It’s also important to consider what activity fees, entry fees, and services, as well as type of hotel, are included in the tour price.

Are beverages, cocktails, and wine included at meals or are they an extra you pay at every meal?
How many, if any hotel changes during the tour?
What are the quality of the meals included in the tour price?
Are entry fees for activities and visits described in the itinerary included or extra?
What category hotel are you getting for the tour price?

Obviously you would expect the more expensive the tour, then the better the hotel, the meals, and more things included in the price, right? Not necessarily. Some tour companies advertise a tour price of $4,000 per person and higher while lodging their clients in 2-star hotels or bed and breakfast establishments, requiring their clients to change hotels every couple of days, offering meals at low cost restaurants, and excluding drinks at meals; making them an extra cost for travelers.

Here again, tour companies based locally in the “destination country” naturally offer better value for your money thanks to local relationships.

Tour companies based in the “destination country” are able to secure higher quality lodging at better prices thanks to established, local relationships, and they pass on these savings to travelers through better value tour prices.
They also use their local geographical knowledge to effectively choose 1 charming boutique hotel to serve as base camp for the entirety of the tour.
Less time spent on transfers to/from a new hotel every day or 2 means travelers only unpack once during the tour, reducing fatigue typically experienced from packing, re-packing and moving hotel to hotel during a tour!
And, they do the same for their restaurant selections, tour companies based in the “destination country” expose travelers to more authentic and better quality gourmet dining experiences, thanks to their established relationships with local chefs, some of France’s highest rated culinary professionals.