Escorted tours?

[justHB]

Have any of you ever gone on an escorted tour in another country? If so, what did you think? Can you provide the positives and the negatives, as well as any additional impression you might have had?

Thanks!

[Ohana]

We've done escorted tours a few times. Once was in England. We had a couple of free days in London and then joined a bus tour throughout Southern England. We're a big family, so it was a lot easier than renting and driving 2 cars, booking tons of hotel rooms, etc. However, you are on someone else's time clock. If there's something you find interesting, you have to leave with everyone else, and if you're not interested in a particular stop, you're stuck until the bus leaves. But it's pretty much a no brainer. You never have to make reservations, try to figure out another country's transportation system, and the guide is usually very knowlegable about the areas you're visiting.

Even though you lose the opportunity to do things on your own, I do think it's a pretty good way to see a lot of a country in a short amount of time, particularly if you find a good tour company.

[elladee]

DH and I did three tours during our honeymoon. Overall, I was very happy with that decision. We were in Venezuela and neither of us speak much Spanish. Normally we would have taken the language barrier as a challenge, but we only had 2 1/2 weeks and wanted to make the most of our time. It was great because we didn't have to worry about any transporation, lodging, etc. We also got to see some neat, out of the way places that we may not have discovered on our own (especially with having so little time).

Our first tour was a large group and we got to meet people from all over the world. That was fun. The other two were to less popular regions of the country and we actually ended up with our own private tour guide. That was fun too because we got to customize the tour and do things on our own schedule.

We did plan to have free days here and there throughout the vacation so we did get to do some exploring by ourselves. As much as I liked the tours, I'm glad we had that.

[Lilla]

DH and I went on our first tour last fall. I'll premise this by saying that as long as we've been together, we've traveled a lot and tend to be very independent travelers - arrange all our own accomodations, transportation, etc.

We decided to try something different for once and took one of Rick Steves' tours (ricksteves.com (http://www.ricksteves.com)). We've used his guidebooks for years and figured his tours couldn't suck. We chose the 17 day Italy tour and could not have had a better time! I'll list my pros and cons:

Pros:
-All your transportation and accomodations are taken care of for you.
-The tour groups are capped at ~25 people so that they don't get too big
-All activities/excursions/tips/gratuities are included in tour price
-The tour was very active - lots of walking which we loved
-The tour guides are locals and really do a lot to explain the local customs/food/etc.
-Not every single meal is included. I list this as a pro because, being the independent people we are, we liked having the option to do a dinner here and there on our own and try a restaurant that looked interesting to us
-If you decide you are not interested in a particular activity or excursion, that is fine and you are free to venture off on your own.
-Our guides used our bus time between cities for history and/or language lessons. This really helped us feel connected to the cities and places we were visiting.
-You get to meet and get to know a bunch of new people. The age range will vary. We were the youngest couple in our group, but not by much. We had everything from 30-60 years old, which we quite enjoyed.

Cons:
-Rick's philosophy on hotels might bother some people that like to stay at nicer hotels when they travel. That said, we never stayed anywhere that was bad, but some of the hotels were fancier than others. He goes for location over opulence. All the hotels were in the center of each city which is perfect for sightseeing. This didn't bother us in the least, just pointing it out as a potential con.
-Sometimes you can feel rushed. For example, we had a few hours at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. If you were really into art and wanted to spend an entire day there, for example, you might feel rushed.
-The tours aren't the cheapest thing around

I could probably go on all day about how much we loved this experience, but this has gotten long already (sorry!). Feel free to PM me if you want more info.

[justHB]

I think the thing I'm worried about most with the escorted tours to foreign countries is wanting to spend more time in some places and less in others but being forced to do what the itinerary says. That, and I'm not exactly thrilled so far with the hotel options I've seen presented.

[Lilla]

Valid concerns.

Could you maybe seek out a shorter tour to start your trip with that hits a few places you are interested in? Then after the tour portion of the trip, you could go on your own to the places/cities where you'd rather spend more time - and perhaps splurge on the nicer hotels during that time as well. Kind of a compromise between the two, I guess.

[Hello Kitty]

I agree with what lilla said. Another thing you may want to consider is booking your stay and making your own arrangements, but purchasing some day trips or excursions.

My GF and I went to London and made our own arrangements, but we bought a day trip for Stonehenge & Bath. It was an easy way to get out of the city and see two different things with the help of a guide, but at the same time, we were free to do what we wanted the rest of the time.

[Asha]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think the thing I'm worried about most with the escorted tours to foreign countries is wanting to spend more time in some places and less in others but being forced to do what the itinerary says. That, and I'm not exactly thrilled so far with the hotel options I've seen presented.

i think it all depends on the tour you go on. a lot of tours have "free" days and afternoon/evenings built in so there is usually time to do what you want. also, you are able to look at the itinerary beforehand. we went on a tour to peru and absolutely loved it. it was an experience of a lifetime. our tour guide was so very helpful. he helped me when i was vomiting from altitude sickness!! also, he knew soooo much about the history and culture. we wouldn't have learned that much on our own. also, our tour group was small - 16 people. i don't think i would have liked a big tour group bc i feel like you can't always hear what's going on. we ended up with all retired people, but that was ok. we also didn't have to worry about transportation and stuff like that. my dh loved the tour so much that he almost didn't want to go to israel bc we couldn't find a tour to fit our needs. in terms of hotels, a lot of tours have pretty basic hotel options. though, there are luxury tours which cost a lot of money that also have spectacular hotels. some tours have different hotels to choose from based on your budget.