pinniped

I like them for a really focused purpose and small group (<10). Example: an afternoon / evening walking tour with a local guide to visit unique food markets and restaurants that tourists wouldn't easily find. Or a guided hike in a national park with a local who knows how to spot wildlife. (Did one of these in Costa Rica and we wouldn't have seen hardly any of the wildlife without him and his scope.)

Other than that, we like to be more independent. I hate being on buses beyond a short public transit ride, so any kind of multi-day bus tour is totally never going to be my thing.

mlbcard

I rarely take group tours, but the few times I have, it's been day tours with small groups and turned out nice. I got to meet people from all over the world, who gave a different prospective to the places we were all visiting.

gaobest

Agreed that it�s ymmv. Sometimes it might be fun to wear a fez and follow the green umbrella. I last did a walking tour in NOLA after a trade show - it was my first time there and I enjoyed the 2 hours. Oops in 2018 or so I did a walking tour of my own city because the tour guide was a musician that I liked. That was fun and I did it with friends. Only recall that buying a bartender a shot of fernet branca was the best gift for a bartender.

rankourabu

Some of my best travel memories are on small group "tours". I travelled with Intrepid, Tucan, Dragoman, Explore amongst others, I dont really think I could have traversed South America overland from Rio to Lima, or Africa from Nairobi to Cape Town on my own without much hassle. Most people on these were like minded people in their 20s and it was a lot of fun.

Nowadays, no longer in my 20s, and married,, we travel mostly by ourselves, but still do an occasional small group tour once in a while.

However, would I ever go on a bus tour of Europe with a large group of 50+ Americans .... hell no.

While this is true for easy places like Europe or Asia, I very much appreciated my "nanny", as well as a guaranteed mode of transport, pre-organized accomodation, etc, in places like Uganda, Bolivia or Uzbekistan,

Athena53

I agree- when I'm traveling on my own it's a good balance- still making my own choices and setting my own schedule but I learn from a local guide and interact with others in the group. It can be a good way to discover things to visit later and spend more time there.

LtKernelPanic

It really depends. As a solo traveler I generally prefer to do things on my own but will occasionally take a group tour. Usually for places like museums I like to go on my own so if something interests me I can take however long I want or vice versa. Earlier this year I visited Poland for the first time and decided to take the group tour of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and was very glad I did. The guide was fantastic, knew her stuff, spoke excellent English and like a lot of Poles, had a personal link to the camp. Hes uncle escaped from it the war. I also visited the salt mine near Krakow were you were required to go as a group for safety reasons. Again the guide was fantastic and had excellent English. The tour of Schindler's factory was interesting but I think I'd have rather done it solo and will likely do so next time I'm in Krakow. Might either do the self guided tour or maybe the longer 6 hour tour at Auschwitz-Birkenau as well. A few years ago I also took a small group tour, limited to 8, of the Normandy coast. I lucked out and had a fantastic guide but some of the other guides I saw could barely speak English.

moondog

For high school and (to a lesser extent) college students, group tours make sense:
-you presumably like traveling with your friends
-there is some form of adult supervision
-tour operators can, indeed, get better hotel rates than us
-you might not have to wait in line at the popular Smithsonian museums

invisible

Depends on 'group tour'. Example - my former coworker does walking tours for 2-3 hours in the city where I was born and raised and can tell that I knew that city quite well. Yet, every single time I am back there visiting family and relatives, I try to attend her tours because it is a wealth of information, and every single time I am learning something new - she actually does these tours for other tour guides only, not for the general public and these are pretty much outdoor lectures about history and architecture.

Would I do a 'city tour' in Istanbul, Vienna or some other places with 40 other people bussed from place to place - hell freaking no. Would I do an adventure overland group tour in Namini desert with no more than 8 other people so I don't need to think about logistics - yes.

WeekendTraveler

Due to group tours in college, I now dread the words �visite guidee� (with an accent over the first e in �guidee�).

abaheti

Going on our first real group tour soon and have to admit some trepidation. We usually plan it out ourselves and hire guides in individual cities or for specific things like a museum. This way we get to explore on our own and control the tourist type parts of the trip (we often just wander and hang out in a new city in between seeing "stuff".)

We have friends who have raved about Overseas Adventure Travel for years, and we even recommended the company to a single friend -- she's in love with them, currently on like her fourth trip with them in two years. Her experience sealed it for us to give it a try and then decide if this method is for us. On this trip, we just decided to let someone else think for us and hope that the small group works. I guess technically our first group tour was the Oberoi Nile cruise. right after Arab Spring. But, get this, because of the decline in tourism we were literally the only two passengers on the boat. We had the entire thing and crew to ourselves, including chefs, massages, tours, upgrade to the biggest suite, you name it. I don't think we'll ever travel like rock stars again, but I now totally get the appeal... :-) Oberoi was already a giant splurge and expensive but this was off the charts.

Will report back after our trip, but an cautiously optimistic given friends' experiences with the company.

Taoyuan

I've generally had great experiences with group day tours.

Have never tried an entire trip like that though -- doesn't sound great.

Barrheadlass

Abaheti: I�m taking my 22nd trip with Overseas Adventure Travel this year�took 4 last year! I hope you enjoy your trip!

abaheti

Wow, high praise from a flyertalk person. We are excited even if a bit nervous about being scheduled and having a group dynamic -- appreciate the endorsement. If this works I can see us adding it to our mix.

moondog

Where are you going with them?

Barrheadlass

This year, New Zealand. Also, “Friends of Overseas Adventure Travel “ is very active on Facebook.

Sorry Moondog…I thought you were asking me!