India, South East, Far East, Indo-China, Middle East, Americas(North & South), Great Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and on and on and on. So many countries and just one lifetime. How to cover? Not fair isn’t it? But then again the question arises “If Not Now, Then When?” These are just one of the many questions that crosses my mind. And I answer to myself that I will cover these countries in this lifetime only. Maybe I go to some place only once and others maybe twice or thrice. But visit I surely will. And why do I think that? Simple, I love to travel and explore places.
The kind of travel I enjoy is, Exploring one country or place at a time instead of the tiring time-bound tick box travelling. And I am sure many of us nowadays enjoy similar kind of travel. There always will be contradicting opinion on the travel styles; The Classic All Inclusive Guided Tour or The Contemporary Way of Exploring the place at your own pace and space. Both travel styles have their share of pros and cons. Let’s list down the pros and cons of each style;
Guided Group Tours – Pro’s and Con’s
Pros of Guided Group Tours
1) Maximum places covered in the given time
2) The costs are all inclusive i.e. flight, hotels, taxes
(airport and hotels), entry fees, meals, guide fees, transfers etc.
3) Hotels are usually 3* & above lapped in luxuries
4) Vegetarians don’t have to worry about the food part as the
package includes Indian food.
5) Because we don’t need to spend any money on meals,
we can use the currency for shopping etc.
Cons of Guided Group Tours
1) Itinerary is crammed with lot of sight seeing as we are time bound
2) Because it is a set package, we do not have the flexibility of choosing
the hotels or flights or the activities on our own
3) All the fluff and paraphernalias many a times makes the tour heavy on the pocket
4) As we already have a set meal included in the package, we don’t get to taste the local delicacies the place has to offer
5) Due to time constraint, the amount of time we would want to spend in exploring and enjoying the retail therapy is cut down drastically
Self Exploration – Pro’s and Con’s
Pros of Self Exploration
1) We have the liberty of choosing the destination(either one or two) and tweaking the itinerary to the optimum; including the flights, stay, activities etc.
2) We have the opportunity to explore the unexplored of the destination of your choice
3) We have an array of local and international epicurean delights to choose from
4) The retail therapy can be done at our own pace, own time, at our preferred shops; be it the local market by the day, night markets, malls or hi-end outlets
Cons of Self Exploration
1) We can only do one or two destinations at a time as we prefer doing
it at our own pace and time.
2) At times we may have to pay extra, more than our stipulated budget
3) Very little options for vegetarians, especially if trying out local street cuisines.
4) Lot of time needs to be invested in researching about the place for best bargains in terms of preparing the itinerary, the flight timing, stay, activities, best bargain shops etc.
Jotting down the pros and cons of each travel style has made me realize one thing, like a coin has twin sides, everything else in life including Travel has a good side and bad side to it, so why bother conflicting? In the end it comes down to what each of us is comfortable in; The ready-made or The tailor-made. As the saying goes “To Each Its Own”.
As for me, I still prefer the tailor-made. What about you?
Do let me know your Travel Style.
Till then; Explore.Dream.Discover