However, if you usually do your own thing when and where you want to, it might be incredibly constricting to travel within the confines of a group tour. Trust me when I say this: the last thing you want to do is be a frustration to the group leader. Or worse, be the person that everyone waits for.
The Good News Is…
Fortunately, more and more tour companies are realizing that travellers want to seek out their own experiences. Tour leaders are getting more adept at giving information to solo travellers who come with their own lists and agendas.
While in Italy, I joined up with a day tour to the island of Capri. To my surprise, it was cheaper, and quicker, to go with the company, than to do everything they were doing by myself.
As soon as we got on the island, I let my guide know that I really wanted to see the Blue Grotto. This was something that I wanted to see for over a decade, and I had really come to the south of Italy for that reason alone.
She suggested that the grotto was touristy, and that I would be disappointed, and that if the line was so long, as it sometimes was, that if I got delayed getting back to the group, that they wouldn’t be able to wait for me. She suggested the various options that the group would be doing.
All these things, a tour guide should say. By keeping her group together, she had less to worry about.
But after seeing my determination, with or without her help, she told me exactly how to catch the local bus. She then advised me that, if I was late coming back, I could call a fellow tour guide. If he had room on his boat going back to Sorrento, he would take me back as part of his group, for no cost. (😯)
Needless to say, I managed to get to the Blue Grotto, and not only that, got back to the group in time to take part in the past activity of the day before the return boat to the mainland. (Side note: the blue grotto, while touristy, is 100% worth it…)
If you find yourself on a group tour and want to break off for a time, always remember the following.
If you take a tour that explores the coast of Italy, you can get this view of the Cinque Terre!
Communication and Consideration
The tour guide can only help you if you are clear on what you want to do. It might seem obvious, but if you don’t plan to return to the group, tell them so!
On that same trip to Capri, there was a couple on our boat that did not return at the end of the day. We waited nearly 40 minutes for them before they called to let the guide know they wouldn’t be returning and had made plans to stay overnight.
A bit of consideration for your fellow travellers will keep you from being That Traveller that gives everyone a bad taste of independent travellers.
Give the guide the benefit of being a local
As a local, they can give you lots of advice for solo exploring. They are ultimately one of your best sources for local information and tips, but are most likely to share their wisdom to polite, considerate travellers.
Be the type of solo traveller that they want to help, not the one they can’t wait get rid of.
On my first trip to Russia, I took a group tour. Because I was travelling on a minimal budget, I didn’t take part in many of the extra excursions. I often preferred to arrange my own local experiences, and was fortunate to pair up with other solo travellers also on the tour.
I experienced this in St Petersburg. The group had the optional excursion of seeing Swan Lake at the Winter Palace (a tourist trap if I ever saw one…but still, a great sounding experience). If I had opted for the excursion, it would free me up to do another excursion to a ‘cultural evening’.
I did a bit of my own research, and found that Giselle, a beautiful ballet, was on at the same night as the optional cultural evening. The ballet cost 11$, and the Swan Lake experience was 150$.
I told my group leader about my indecision and she immediately told me that of course I should do Giselle. She encouraged me skip the Swan Lake and cultural evening, for a local experience. She encouraged me to go alone, telling me she knew that I was able to navigate St Petersburg by myself. The experience was sure to be much more genuine.
To this day, I think about her, and her honesty. She was probably paid commission on everyone she took to the tour-sponsored activities, but she not only encouraged me away from that, but she gave me the extra prod in the right direction to seek out the more authentic experience. She also gave me advice on pre-arranging safe transport at night.
Old Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, Russia
Embrace being unique within the group tour
When you travel with a tour company, chances are good that there will be other couples, families and groups. Solo travellers on a group tour are a relative rarity. As such, we are also unique. Fellow travellers are keen to hear where you’ve gone, why you’re traveling solo. They will often be eager to strike up fast travel friendships.
Additionally, a group tour can put you in contact with dozens of travel companions. Even if you don’t opt for the official excursions, there will always be others opting out too. In most places, a small group of travellers can arrange for their own unique experiences fairly easily.
Safety
Traveling in a group undoubtably provides an additional measure of safety, but there are some other things to be aware about.
Make sure to make contact with someone in the group, preferably a group of people. This is as simple as your seat-mate on a bus, someone staying at your accommodation on the same tour, or even the group leader. If something happens and you get separated from your group, this person knows you are solo and can watch out for you. (Unless you’re like the people above in Capri. In that case, why even bother with a tour…)
Get a contact number, even if you don’t have a local SIM card or a phone that can call internationally. Having the leaders phone number is very helpful if you get into a situation that requires it. Most local establishments will allow you to make a local call. You can get in contact with the group should you need to. Bonus points if you use an establishments phone; they’ll be able to translate for you!
Relax and have fun!
A group tour, especially over a longer period of time, can mean that you have less work to do. Less of your own work arranging hotels, activities, and transportation. It means you can relax and just show up when you need to. You can use that time to make new friends to visit in other countries on future travels.
My tour group in St Petersburg, Russia
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