You’ve read my post on planning your holiday, downloaded my handy trip itinerary and taken a look at it. And you don’t like what you see.
If it looks like a lot of work, let me assure you it is a lot of work. However in my opinion, travelling independently still beats joining a package tour. Here’s why.
Sleep all you want
Look at any tour package advertisements and you’re likely to see a long list of attractions. Tour agencies know that the typical package tourist expects to get his money’s worth. That means advertisements and trip itineraries are usually crammed with activities to do and sights to visit.
Looking down the glossy brochure, you drool at the prospect of seeing the Effiel Tower, London Bridge and Stonehenge for the first time. What you didn’t know is that you’ll be seeing all that in 2 days. Say hello to waking up at 6am, wolfing down a greasy breakfast and squeezing into the coach with your fellow, bleary-eyed travellers.
In truth, you crave for a couple more hours of sleep. Forget London Bridge.
Do you really want to crawl out of your warm bed at 6am when holidaying? I definitely don’t. I prefer to wake up when i want, have a leisurely breakfast and then enjoy the sights.
I’ve have it no other way.
What do you actually experience?
With a full itinerary, you get to see more but experience less of everything. Imagine being told “you have 1 hour here” after a 2-hour drive. Barely enough time for you to take a few photos and stroll around.
And don’t forget that while you’re there, you’re fighting with “mates” trying to grab their share of the sights and photo-ops. Worse still if the sights are far apart, you’re more likely to spend much more time on the road than at the sights. Not only do you wake up early, you’re likely to hit the sack late.
Interestingly, if the itinerary is not scheduled fully or “packed”, what then are you paying tour agencies for?
Some people seem to think that the whole point about going on a holiday is the number of sights they tick off the itinerary.
Zero Tour Fare
I’ve not heard of this particular term but this unethical practice do surface in the news occasionally. The tour agency sells a package but instead of organising the programme and ensuring the tourists are looked after, they “hive off” the group to an agent in the destination country. These foreign agents do not get a share of the tour fee and rely only on the tourists spending extra money on additional tours and at shops they are taken to.
I’ve heard of horror stories where tourists were coerced into spending money against their wishes. In one case, the agent even refused the tourists entry to the coach when he felt that they “didn’t spend enough”.
If it’s up to me, such companies would be fined so heavily that they face bankruptcy and have their owners blacklisted by the Accounting & Corporate Regulatory Authority (i.e. business registrar). Cut off their livelihood and maybe they will pay more attention to how they run their businesses. Simple isn’t it?
So do you still want to join a package tour?
Travelling by package tour is usually cheaper than travelling by yourself (for the same itinerary of cause). That’s because tour agencies are usually able to negotiate better deals for accomodations and air fares through bulk purchases. But is what you get really worth saving those few hundred dollars for?
Tags: Holiday planning