by Nerissa Miller

Created on: July 20, 2009   Last Updated: July 24, 2009

You are drained of all energy, feeling stressed out, and wanted to run away from your work place. It is so easy to just book a tour package, and get away the very next day, but is that what you want? Do you prefer to spend your hard earned annual leaves on escorted tour or an independent tour? Stop for a moment, and consider the following before you book your ticket:

Purpose

If your purpose of travel is to cover as much places as possible within a short period of time, and be at the major tourism sites not to be missed, you may want to go on an escorted tour. The itinerary is prearranged, you know cost, and time you need for the whole trip.

On the other hand, if you want to explore the culture of a country, understand about how others live, what they do, have more time to enjoy the sceneries or just spend an afternoon at a coffee house, you may want to go for an independent tour.

Group tour may not allow you more than two nights stay at one location, thus you may not have sufficient time to do what you want. Your preferred lifestyle, thus determines how you should travel.

Duration

The duration of travel is very important, as that affects your budget, and determines the coverage, as well as content of the whole trip. You may prefer independent travel if you can afford to extend your trip, so that you can travel at leisure, and cover places that an escorted tour may not allow you.

Energy level

Independent travel requires more time, and energy. You may miss seeing certain events or sites even though you may have thought that you have everything well planned. If you do not have the stamina to do long distance walking, independent travel may be tedious for you.

Budget

You need to consider the amount of money you want to spend on your trip. You will know the number of meals provided, taxes involved, and the amount you want to apportion for purchase of souvenirs if you go on escorted tour. Independent travel will require proper planning, if you want to stay within budget. You need to find out the mode of travel, and estimate the amount you will be spending on meals.

You may choose to just go on bread, and some spread for all lunch, and spend more on dinner or you may prefer to go on noodles for some of your meals if you are putting up in apartments or lodge that has cooking facilities. Thus, you will need to check out the cost of living in the country of travel to be an informed decision.

Tour mate

Your tour mate may have his preference for food, and mode of travel. There must be an agreement on what to expect, where to go, and the budget for the tour. This will avoid conflicts and unhappiness during the trip.

There are pros, and cons to in either form of travel, thus all that matters is how you want your trip to be. Proper planning will allow you to enjoy the trip much more, however, if you do not want to spend too much time planning for the trip, you can either book day tour when you arrive at your destination, or just go on a group tour.

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