Join a Group Trip vs. Tailored Itinerary
There are many ways you can travel: solo, groups, couples and multi-generational. Each trip is different and the reasons for it. Special occasions, unplugging on a beach, seeing a destination for the first time, quality time with friends, and much more.
Based on your trip goals, you can decide whether joining a group trip or creating a bespoke trip works better for you. I’m going to breakdown the benefits of each:
Group Trip Benefits
Traveling as a group will always be more budget friendly because rates are based on bulk rates for touring, transportation and sharing rooms.
If you join a set departure (fixed dates and itinerary), you save even more with companies like G Adventures, Tauck, Uniworld, Collect, Abercrombie & Kent, and many more.
If you want to travel and not wait for someone to join you, jump on a group tour with Gals Abroad Getaways, Wander Women Retreats, and you’ll never be alone!
You can see the whole package right upfront. There will be some questions and customization but it’s pretty much set.
Travel by special interests like bird-watchers, wine lovers, adventure and much more or you can seek out a certain age group to find like-minded travelers, people your own age and new friends.
A lot of things are included so that you’re rarely paying out of pocket expenses on the trip aside from you personal spending, tips and other small things at your discretion.
Join group trips for harder to get to or organize destinations - similarly with multiple destination or country movement. The tour operator makes it seamless and all you have to do is show up!
A really good value for your money is river cruising. You get on the ship, unpack once and hit several destinations with touring and food & beverage included. You can avoid high hotel room rates.
Tailored Itinerary Benefits
The obvious is that the whole trip is tailor made to your travel dates, budget and traveler interests from start to finish. You can have more say in your accommodations, and flexibility when moving by individuals and couples. In contrast, it’s more expensive.
You can have a dedicated travel advisor who will match your interests with the right destination(s) and elements of the itinerary. The agent is your go-to for gaining access to cool events, experiences, visas, travel insurance and much more along the way.
You can customize your dining and make reservations on the fly if traveling in a smaller group or two. You can lean on your hotel concierge to help you do things in a more spontaneous way while you’re traveling.
You can set the pace of the trip. If you’re trying to see the highlights of a place you’ve never been, then it could be more of a busy schedule vs. slowing it down across a few days based on people’s energy level on the trip. It’s up to you!
When you’re traveling with a family, you can appease all ages by customizing and being on your own itinerary or space.
You don’t have to worry about other travelers that might not jive with your travel style or plan.
Single Rooms & Solo Traveler Supplements
On either travel type, single room supplements are something that always comes up. It’s always tough in groups when you have an odd number or solo traveler. That’s something your travel agent can help you with based on accommodations with better room category types, suites, villas and so forth.
Lots of tour operators are recognizing the rise in solo travelers and accommodating single travelers by cutting the single supplement to half or waive it all together on certain departures. Look to shoulder season and reach out to your agent to help scout those opportunities out. If you’re traveling solo, that’s the best way to meet people and many opportunities to be paired with the same sex on Intrepid and G Adventures for example, which is how I visited Egypt. Not to mention, my partner had already lived in Cairo so he wasn’t into revisiting. It worked out great. You should never wait for someone else to join you. Just go!
Reach out if you want travel guidance on either as your go-to travel advisor!
