Small Group Travel Tours

Small group travel is one of the best ways to travel. There are a number of reasons to take a tour and there are ways to do it and not just feel like you are part of a large tour group. There are two types of tours that we have taken over the years: “Cruise Excursion Travel Tours” and what we are calling “Small Group Travel Tours”. We will explain both in more detail later.

However, first we are not talking about tours that we would call all-inclusive, meaning you are part of the same large group from the moment you arrive somewhere to when you depart. Cos’s parents used to take those kinds of tours. We just don’t think they are what we would enjoy that much, as there is always someone who is late and holds everybody else up from leaving on time. Some people might say that by booking a tour of any kind you are moving away from being a DIY Traveler. We agree that is the case with the all-inclusive tour but otherwise disagree. Here is our logic.

Say you are on a cruise, and you are stopping in a port. You have three options:

• Book a Cruise Excursion Travel Tour, usually with a large group of 40 to 50 people.
• Book a Small Group Travel Tour, usually a much smaller group.
• Get off the cruise and just walk around.

As a DIY Traveler will want to learn as much as possible about that place you are visiting. Just wandering around may be the perfect DIY Travel Strategy for someone who knows the local area well. However, if you are new to an area, wandering around will not be much help. Following is some advice on when and how to book both “Small Group Cruise Excursion Tours” and “Small Group Travel Tours”.

Small Group Travel Tours – Cruise Excursions

Cruise Excursion Tours are easy to book as the Cruise Line makes money from these tours, and they are anxious to have you sign up for them. Typically, once you have made your final payment for your cruise, the cruise line opens up their website for you to sign up for their tours. They will have a nice description of each of tour. Ocean cruise excursion tours are almost always an additional charge. They can vary from under $100 to $500 per person or more if helicopters or other extravagant transportation or activities are involved. They often involve a full-bus load of people involving 40 or more guests. When we take these tours we definitely prefer small group travel tours and not the full-bus load variants.

River Cruise Excursions

River cruise excursions are a little different. The cruise line usually will offer a free excursion, and also offer other options with an upcharge. One issue with cruise excursions is that they often cancel excursions at the last minute. This can be a problem, as you pay in advance and suddenly you are at a port with nothing to do. Normally you will get your money back as a credit to your ship’s account.

However, on river cruises there is a greater chance of cancellations due to the smaller number of people on the cruise. We had a situation where the ship needed to go back to headquarters to get approval for the credit. It actually took over six months and a number of nasty phone calls to finally get our money.

Cruise Excursions can really be a good way to learn about a new place you are visiting. The better cruise lines have the better excursions.

The free River Cruise Excursions are normally pretty good choices. However, when you see something special that appeals to you, it is worth the extra money. For a small upcharge, Robin and I got to play golf at an incredibly interesting golf course, Sainte-Mere-Eglise in Etretat, France. We were actually playing on a cliff overlooking the English Channel (see our DIY Travel for Golf post). This was part of Uniworld’s Paris to Normandy cruise on their famous S.S. Joie de Vivre River cruise ship. For more information see our post on DIY Cruises, check out Uniworld directly (uniworld.com) or check out Cruise Critic, for more cruise ideas.

Small Group Travel -Local Travel Tours

Tours that are booked independently from the Cruise line fall into our local category of tours. You need to be careful when booking local tours. If your tour gets back to the boat too late, you may very well have missed the cruise departure. At this point, you are now responsible to get yourself to the next destination port. Obviously not a very pleasant situation, and a great way to ruin a vacation.

Therefore, when we book local tours, we are sure the local tour will get us back to our ship hours before departure time. We had a great local tour that we wanted to take in Hobart, Tasmania, a real Hidden Gem. Unfortunately, we had to cancel it because the tour operator wouldn’t wait to start the tour until after our cruise ship docked in Hobart. Such a shame, it was going to be a great tour.

Small Group Travel – Tour Aggregators

Local Tours can be found in many different ways. Please check out our Reservations post for more details. Viator and Get Your Guide are two services that we have used to book our local travel tours. Another tour aggregator that we have used to book longer tours is TourRadar. All three services are actually just putting your in touch with tour operators who will provide you with the service. Therefore, it is very smart to check out the references of the tour operator.

We had a bad experience in Brazil, when we tried to book a tour to a Futbol (soccer) match. We purchased the tickets through the website only to learn that there was no game scheduled for the day we selected. Neither the tour operator nor the website vendor wanted to give us our money back. We ended up having to go through the credit card company that we used to pay for the tour (in this case Amex) to get our refund. When the vendors you are working with don’t want to part with your money, (americanexpress.com) can bail you out.

Audio Tours

We found another way to do a tour by using your own vehicle. The company, GuideAlong, formerlyGyPSy Guide provides some great audio guides. You can listen to the guides as you are traveling on your mobile phone. Audio tours will integrate right into the radio in your vehicle. We used them in Maui on the Road out to Hana (see Things to do in Hawaii or Best-10 Day Hawaiian Itinerary) and we use them for other road trips. The guides use GPS to link to the exact location on your trip. It is an easy to use, excellent service.

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