Traveling on foot pros and cons. Organized tour or independent travel? Pros of organized tours

A journey of thousands of miles begins with the first step. What to choose: a tour operator or independent travel - everyone decides for himself.

In order to make this choice, it is necessary to consider the advantages and disadvantages of independent tourism. It is not difficult to find such information on the Internet - it is enough to familiarize yourself with the experience of numerous "pioneers" from various parts of the globe and classify their reviews into two articles:

Reliability

Financial problems, staff inconsistencies, organizational overhead and disrespectful attitude towards customers on the part of many tour operators are already well known. - more proof of that. Relying only on yourself, you make an investment in the most reliable project.

freedom of choice

Time. You determine the date of departure, return and travel time yourself. It is very rare that you manage to "day to day" bring the vacation time to the schedule set by the travel agency. Do I need to remember that time is money, and every free day spent in vain is also a reason for psychological discomfort.

Places. One who is accustomed to go with the flow will never be able to see the source. Travel itinerary you compose according to your own preferences, not focusing on the tastes and preferences of the guide or other group members.

Action. At any moment you can change a luxurious room in a five-star hotel to a thatched hut without amenities; no one will give you a command to go somewhere if you want to lie on the beach; you have no obligations to anyone for the entire duration of the vacation, which you can always shorten or extend.

Saving. You do not choose from multiple fixed cost tour options. You yourself make the calculation and plan the budget for the future trip. At the same time, there is always a choice of the most "cheap" weekdays for air travel; ; do not pay for the work of translators, guides, additional services and excursions if you do not need them.

Cons of solo travel

Planning and responsibility. You will have to spend more than one hour making a route on the map and studying the reviews of travelers on numerous Internet sites. You will need to get a visa yourself, and provide for a transfer. All this will take time and effort.

However, this minus can be countered by three pluses:

• the experience of planning the first trip will make you a "pro" in the tourism business, and preparing subsequent trips will seem like child's play;
• having learned how to independently organize long-distance trips, you will be able to give practical advice to your friends and acquaintances, which will “raise” you high in their eyes and complement the strengthened self-confidence;
• The greatest pleasures of travel are the preparation for it and the memories of the trip. Is it worth depriving yourself of one of these pleasures?

The language barrier. Can you have difficulty communicating with native speakers in your chosen country? Undoubtedly. But is it worth it to worry so much about this, if you remember that more than one billion people around the globe speak elementary English!

Security. Weather disasters, crime, domestic injuries and exotic diseases. You can (and should!) insure yourself against the latter by specifying what kind of vaccination you need to undergo before traveling to the selected country. All other troubles are almost as likely to threaten you at home. The elementary precautions that should be taken based on the recommendations of experienced travelers who are familiar with the specifics of the color and mentality of the chosen country are the best guarantee of your safety.

You are not going to solo travel? Make up your mind!

And we have prepared for you an interesting (and free!) email course “Find out how much you can save by traveling alone!”.

After completing this course, you will easily find out the amount that you can save by organizing a trip yourself.

The best tour operator strives to make you feel at home abroad. But is it interesting? The main reward from independent travel for you will be the opportunity to fully feel the atmosphere of the chosen country, which is very rare for tourists led on a leash by a guide!

Consider the main pros and cons of independent tourism using the example of visiting
European countries.

Pros:

Saving time on excursions. The solo traveler does not have to go to the meeting point with the group and does not have to wait for anyone. Neither a guide, nor another "lost" from the group, which is sometimes very annoying in an organized vacation.

The independent tourist has no time limits. He does not need to get up very early to visit excursions. He plans the time of visiting the objects at his own discretion. And, importantly, he can always change his plans.

Walking on your own, you can visit more museums, cafes, shops.

The tourist has to communicate with the inhabitants of the visited country. This allows you to plunge deeper into the culture and traditions of the local population, and, accordingly, get more impressions and emotions that will remain in his memory for a long time.

This is financially beneficial. Due to savings on excursions, professional guides, the trip is much cheaper.

Minuses:

More time to organize the trip. You need to buy tickets yourself, book a hotel, get a visa. When buying a ready-made tour for a vacationer, all this is done by the manager of a travel company.

Such a vacation is not suitable for everyone, since at least basic knowledge of the language of the visited country is required, or at least English to communicate with its inhabitants.

In the event of unforeseen circumstances, you will have to solve the problem yourself. In an organized trip, this function, as a rule, is performed by a guide from the meeting party, attached to a group of tourists.

So, both ways to travel, and independent tourism and organized recreation, are good and interesting, each in its own way.

Travelers with an active lifestyle, easy-going, are more suitable for independent tourism. And for calm people who prefer a measured type of vacation, it is better to resort to the help of travel agencies.

Happy travels!

What is the best way to travel? Buy a tour from a well-known tour operator who organized everything in advance: flight, transfer, insurance, hotel accommodation, meals, excursions? Or lay the route yourself, look for cheap tickets, book accommodation and move around a foreign country on your own, relying only on yourself?

Independent travel. pros

With the advent of the Internet, a lot of tools have appeared, using which you can find the cheapest flights, pre-book a hotel anywhere in the world, travel to any country, order a transfer from the airport. And all this without leaving home.

When buying tickets for regular flights, you yourself choose a convenient time, airport of departure, airline and take off at the appointed time without delays, which almost always occur with charter flights. If you deal with this issue in advance using the Internet resources, which monitors and compares many offers from all the major airlines in the world, you can always find cheap tickets in the right direction.

Tour operators sell tours to the same hotels, renting a large number of rooms in bulk at once. Therefore, the cost of living in these hotels with self-booking is much higher. But not many people know that you can find accommodation on your own much cheaper, more comfortable and with a better location than the tour operator offers.

The volume of rental housing offers is huge and has long been systematized on aggregator sites such as Roomguru. Aggregator sites collect and compare offers from many accommodation booking resources (including booking.com).

With their help, you can choose a hotel or apartment with a kitchen, by the sea or in the city center, a hut, a guest house, a villa or a two-family house. And if you do this in advance, you can find better and cheaper accommodation than tour operators.

In all countries there are owners who rent luxury apartments with several bedrooms and a spacious kitchen. They can be found on the same sites where hotels are booked. Prices for apartments are several times lower than for a similar hotel room.

How to find and book a hotel or condominium? You can find a profitable and convenient housing option on a well-known service Roomguru.com- the site compares the prices of various booking systems and finds the best one.

By purchasing plane tickets in advance and booking accommodation on your own, you do not risk losing money and ruining your vacation due to the bankruptcy of tour operators, which has often happened in recent years even with large companies.

A transfer booked on your own saves a lot of precious time when you want to quickly relax after a long flight, and not wait until the whole group of tourists who arrived on your flight will gather.

And finally, the most important plus of independent travel is complete freedom.. You yourself choose countries, routes, do not depend on anyone and can go where there are no offers from travel companies. Traveling on your own, you are forced to read a lot in order to learn as much as possible about the countries you plan to go to, about their history, traditions, way of life.

First, you make a virtual trip, learn about interesting places that you want to visit, study the route. Having gone on a trip, you follow the intended path, and not where the tour operator takes you with a crowd of tourists. You have to communicate with the local population, study their habits and values, expanding your knowledge and gaining invaluable experience of independent travel.

But of course, there are also disadvantages to independent travel..

First of all, this applies to trips to some countries, such as Egypt or Turkey, where there is absolutely nothing to do outside the hotel, and sometimes it is simply dangerous to leave the tourist area, for example, in the Dominican Republic.

The need to do everything on your own - book tickets and a hotel in advance, apply for a visa, buy insurance, organize a transfer. In a word, take responsibility. For some, this is a plus, for others, on the contrary, a minus.

It also makes no sense to travel on your own for two weeks, and even more so for 5 days. The shorter the trip, the more profitable it is to buy a tour from a tour operator.

How to find a cheap tour? A convenient search service will help you find a cheap tour in any direction. Travelata.ru- the site compares prices from all tour operators and finds the cheapest tour.

Traveling by train is a special kind of acquaintance with the world :) . It is both romantic, and inspiring, and interesting, and informative. Going somewhere by plane, and not by train, you lose a significant part of your impressions and positive emotions. The best place to travel by train is Europe: a developed network of railways, many trains, a high level of comfort. you can go at any time, but the best time is in the summer. And in this article I will tell you what are the advantages and disadvantages of traveling by train.

pros

• You will be taken directly to the city center. Railway stations are located in the city center. You go out to the platform and can immediately go sightseeing or check into a hotel. Arriving by plane, you will first need to get from the airport to the city itself, sometimes paying a lot of money for transport.
• No screening. You can get on the train just by showing your ticket and passport. And at the airport you are waiting for an unpleasant check.
• Quick entry. There is no such registration as at the airport on trains, which means that you save a lot of time and nerves.
• There are no restrictions on the weight of luggage. You can take at least three bags with you on the train, if you pick it up, of course :) . And no additional fees will be charged from you.

Minuses

• High price. For many destinations, train tickets are more expensive than plane tickets. You can save a lot if you buy tickets in advance (several months in advance).
• It takes a long time to travel long distances. By plane, you will get to the desired place much faster if this place is far from the point of departure. Trains save time only over short distances.
• Strikes are possible. In Europe, railroad workers go on strike almost every year, as a result of which many flights are canceled and train schedules are disrupted. True, strikes are almost always warned in advance so that passengers know about canceled flights and changed schedules.

Everyone needs to travel by train at least once. You can get ready for a trip in a few days, but there will be a lot of impressions and events during the trip, which you will then remember all your life. Travel and enjoy life! All the best!

So ended my legal two-week vacation. It remains only to enjoy the tan that has not yet faded, review the photos and share your impressions! Perhaps the most striking impression was that for the first time we rested not as a single family, but as a large company. That's what came out of it.

7 adults and 6 children

Yes, yes, this is the company we went to Bulgaria this year! Four families with different needs, characters and life principles and a different number of children from one year to 8 years old ... The result is not so terrible, in fact, we still managed to relax! With adventure, of course.

pros

When I returned, I, of course, began to analyze all the "charms" of such a holiday. Here's what I thought.

First, about the pleasant.

1. Children are not bored. The most important plus is that if there are children in the company (even if their age is from one year to 8 years), they will not be bored anymore! Phrases like "mommy, play ... blind ... read ... catch a bug ..." can be forgotten. Our children were happy to race to build sand trenches, eat dubious-looking soup, and even fall asleep "who is faster."

2. Mutual assistance. The second plus concerns the unfortunate mothers who are forced to drag their children with them to the toilet or take “Panamanian-vodichka-favorite toy” into the room. After all, there is no one to leave with ... Except when you are relaxing with friends and relatives. They can easily leave their blood for a couple of minutes. The main thing is not to forget at the same time that not only you came to rest, and therefore no one is obliged to babysit someone else's child for hours while you are lying on the beach or shopping.

3. Pleasant company. The third thing that pleased me was the opportunity to spend an enjoyable evening playing games, talking or having a glass of wine. Given that the weather this year at the resort was changeable, we really had a good time.

Perhaps that was where the fun ended. Now for what I didn't like.

1. Schedule. It's different for everyone. Someone sleeps during the day, someone is used to going to bed closer to one in the morning, etc., etc. If you adapt to everyone, you can pretty spoil your nerves. Therefore, we follow our schedule, and, if interests and opportunities coincide, we get together.

2. Waiting. Sometimes this moment could bring even the calmest person (me) to hysterics. Just by agreeing to go to the beach together, on the way, half of the company had seizures of sclerosis (forgot some water) or diarrhea (in children, as a rule). And the whole honest company was nervously waiting for the “latecomers”. On the third day, a magic phrase appeared that cured all diseases in one fell swoop: “We don’t wait for those who are late! Meet me at the beach."

3. Interests. Have you ever tried to go shopping with a group of more than 3 people? And don't try! Bad business. At best, someone will get lost and you will have to return home separately, at worst, you, who are absolutely not interested in bed linen, will have to wait for hours for your comrades in this undoubtedly interesting store. I preferred to get lost!

In my vacation, there were an equal number of minuses and pluses. To be honest, there were much more funny and funny moments than negative ones. Am I ready to gather a rather big company again and go on a trip? I'll say yes!

Have you had such an experience in your life?

To receive the best articles, subscribe to Alimero's pages in