Pros and Cons of Traveling with a Tour Group
2014-05-04
Organized group travels seems to be all the rage in China. Even when I was traveling in Europe, I would see floods of Chinese tourists pouring off buses following their tour guide with their little flag. The Chinese tourists were always unruly in that they would push and shove to see whatever it was, take a picture of it, and they were gone in several minutes. I have personally always been a fan of independent travel, but this holiday, someone invited me to join their tour group at the last minute so I thought, "Why not?"Here are some pictures from my travels to the Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Shanxi.
The Pros
- You can take it easy; it is the tour guides job to worry about finding the hotels, direction to/from wherever you are going, you don't have to be worried about getting cheated by locals
- It's all paid for; you paid in advance so you don't have to constantly worry about finding the best price
- You don't have to do research; research on hotels, direction, information etc., your tour guide ought to know all this and give you detailed history of the sight you are seeing
- It can be cheaper; the tour guides usually have special relationships with certain hotels/restaurant and can get you better prices than you can get yourself
- It's luxurious; if you are a cheap ass like me, I always find the cheapest hotel, eat minimally, and walk/bus everywhere, but with the tour, I stayed in 3 star hotels, ate way too much food, and we had our own minivan
The Cons
- It can be more expensive; if you are a cheap ass like me and usually stay in the cheapest hotels, barely eat any food, and walk/bus everywhere
- Its really easy to get cheated by the travel agency! I have heard countless stories about bad travel agencies ripping off Chinese people. If you found a reputable one, take note of it.
- You never know what is going on; because you didn't have to do any research, you never know where you are or what you are going to do next. You only know what the tour guide tells you and what is on the scheduled itinerary.
- Lack of freedom; you have to follow the scheduled itinerary. Depending how big or small your group is, you have more or less freedom to do as you please. For me, this is a big one because I really like exploring random things and I like to go at my own pace.
- Lack of adventure; because you are constantly with your tour group, at a designated hotel/restaurant, at some tourist site, you have very little opportunity for interaction with locals or the chance to have an adventure
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Yea, that's another hard part is compromising on what to do and see. Its really important to travel with people who are like minded when it comes to what to do and how to spend money.
I agree. I notice my Chinese friends seem to travel this way. I told my friend I wanted to spend 7 days hiking in Zhangjiajie and she was completely shocked that I wanted to spend so much time in one place.
I find so difficult to came up with a go o d route while travelling with friends， everyone has their own plans。 thank you for sharing your experience.
I would rather go to fewer places in a traveling week and spend more time at each and try to get to know the place and meet some locals. A tour group is like collecting photos of places and how many can one fit into a day!
That is true. I did not experience that on this trip because it was a very small group, but in my tour group experiences in SE Asia, they always stop for an hour or two at a very expensive pitstop.
I like traveling alone better because, just like what you said, it's a waste of time and money to travel with travel agency because they often take us to some useless shops instead of letting us enjoy the beautiful place more...
Another bad point on going with a tour operator: too much souvenir shopping.
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