Should you book a tour or go it alone?

Looking through the guide book of a foreign country can be a little daunting. Getting from one location to another, especially in particularly far flung countries, can sound more like an endurance test than a holiday.

In any group, there will always be someone who is consistently late, there is likely to be a moaner who will try to illicit your support and there will probably be an oddball who will want to be your best friend

So it is very tempting to book a tour; you wll be picked up, taken care of and shuttled around all the sites you want to see without ever having to worry about buying a ticket for a train that only runs once a week at 4 a.m. from some remote station. But being a passive passenger on a tour is very different from forging your own path in a new destination.

I have travelled independently in some of the more remote parts of the globe, lugging a backpack through heaving train stations and hiking into the middle of nowhere to sleep on a bunk-bed made of old doors. I have also taken my fair share of tours, moving effortlessly through a pre-planned itinerary with my fellow tourists. There is no right or wrong way to travel, but these are the things to consider when you are deciding how to do it.

Where you are headed

In some countries, such as Egypt, I felt more vulnerable as a lone traveller than I did in a tour group. In others, such as Bhutan, it is extremely difficult to get a visa unless you are booked with a tour. In India, getting around by public transport was such a torturous hassle, that I was regularly jealous of the holidaymakers peering down at me from their air conditioned buses as I stood, forlornly, at remote bus stops watching buses with incomprehensible Hindi scripts on them zoom by.

Independent travel might connect you more fully with your destination, but when that means being trailed for hours by beggars and rickshaw men and having to fight your way onto a local bus only to set off in completely the wrong direction, there is something to be said for doing a destination in ‘tour-operator’ style.

Money talks

Sometimes the buying power of tour operators means that they are cheaper when you purchase a straight forward flight and hotel package.

But for something off the beaten track, especially in destinations such as the Far East, Africa or much of South America (where travel and accommodation tend to be cheap), you might find that booking an organised tour can be up to three or four times the price.

This is because the tour companies will charge a European premium for your airport transfers, accommodation and so on, when in fact, at local currency rates and with a bit of canny negotiation, you can often get these services for next to nothing.

Look at the itinerary of the tour and then compare it to the suggested prices for accommodation and travel in a guidebook such as the Lonely Planet to get an idea about whether you could actually do the trip for considerably less money.

Having travelled extensively in Peru, the prices for tours that cover the most obvious attractions such as Lima, Cusco and the Inca Trail make my jaw drop; you need to weigh up whether you are really prepared to pay four times as much as an independent traveller for the convenience of a garrulous guide when you could do it yourself with minimal effort and probably have more fun.

Precious time

One area where an organised tour tends to trump independent travel is the number of sights that they can cram into a small amount of time.

If you have only a two week holiday and want to visit some very specific stops on the tourist trail, a tour can be hard to beat. You won’t waste time trying to find out when the next bus to Stonehenge leaves; you will be taken to exactly where you want to go for a specific amount of time.

On the other hand, the journey is all part of the holiday experience. If you spend it mindlessly sitting on a tour bus, you will miss out on the local colour and flavour of people-watching in a crowded railway carriage or meeting the friendly owners of a local guesthouse.

Planning time

Travelling independently can take a little longer to plan than booking a tour. To get the most of a country, it is usually better to research exactly what you want to see and how to get there a reasonable amount of time in advance so that you are not disappointed by a ferry that does not run anymore or a train that was fully booked sometime last year.

By contrast, to book a tour, all you need to do is check that the itinerary includes roughly what you want to see and you are guaranteed to see it.

I have to confess, however, that as an independent traveller, I have generally thrown caution to the wind, booked the flights and only consulted the guide book extensively once I boarded.

This can lead to expensive and time-consuming mistakes (I once had to return to New Delhi five times in three weeks because I had not booked direct trains to the Indian cities I wanted to visit) but it also has the advantage that you can change your plans if you hear a great tip from a local, so you really get to experience the country on the way.

Your tolerance of other people

If you are one of those people who love groups, throw yourself wholeheartedly into icebreaking activities and are happy to participate in team karaoke at a cheesy themed hotel bar, then look no further than your local tour operator.

If, however, the idea of being herded by Roger the Rep from museum to ancient ruin to tourist rip-off warehouse (and there almost inevitably always is one) fills you with total horror, independent travel is the way to go.

Most people fall somewhere in the middle so what it boils down to is this: in any group, there will always be someone who is consistently late at every destination; there is likely to be a moaner who will try to illicit your support and thus sour the holiday mood; there will probably be an oddball who will want to be your best friend.

If you can take these givens in your stride and still have fun, try the tour. If not, buy a backpack and start consulting the Nepal train timetable.