Day Trips: Pros and Cons of Organised Tours

There are pros and cons of organised tours or doing it yourself.

On the whole, I avoid group travel or organised tours. They often scream commercialised tourism and generally I avoid any life situation that requires me to be in a large group. Regardless of the circumstances.

That being said, organised tours have their perks and I’ve found myself on a couple recently that have been great.

It’s hard to know what places are best to do the organised tour or do it yourself. So here are the top things you should consider before making the choice.

Pros and Cons of organised tours or doing it yourself

Cost:

Often an organised tour is more expensive than catching public transport or a taxi yourself, but this is location dependant so do the maths before making that assumption.

For example:

Walking Tour of Boston Freedom Trail : $20

Public transport & free podcast guide: $2.50

Organised trip to Grand Canyon (from Vegas): £70

Vegas car rental for a day: £150+ Fuel

Schedule:

How much time are you going have at the main event in the tour? Sometimes tours will advertise themselves as a “full day”. But they have a 2 hour lunch stop, 4 hours driving and a 1.5 hour break at a roadside market. Leaving a very small portion of the day actually at the sight.
When you DIY you have far more control of the schedule. You can get the earlier or later train depending on how you’re feeling. You can eat when you are hungry, stop for a coffee break when you need and take an hour just to people watch if you wish.

Photography:

If you’re a photographer will you have free time to set up your tripod and get your snaps or be in a group scenario the whole time? Often free-time is built into tours, but on my tour of Chichen Itza it wasn’t, so I had to sprint ahead of the group, take 3 very quick jump shots and the run to catch up behind them again. Not so chill.

Food

Is lunch included? Often this is an added bonus to factor into your costs. But at the same time, if you’re a fussy eater or don’t want to spend 1.5 hours in a buffet restaurant, then DIY means you can just pack a sandwich in your bag and eat on the move.
Consider the cost of buying food on location- there will likely be a large markup which could mean failing to prepare is preparing to go broke.

Distance

How far away is the attraction you want to see? This could be a major factor in deciding to take an organised tour or doing it yourself.
For trips with three hours driving each way, when you want to see something on a day trip an organised tour is the way to go. Having someone else getting you from A to B means you can take nap after that 6 AM wakeup.
Driving abroad or in an unfamiliar setting can be more tiring than usual so keep this in mind before you commit to taking a road trip when travelling by coach is an option.

Tour Guides

Are you headed to the place that you want to learn about? By taking an organised trip, you are more likely to benefit from information about your destination en route. Often coach drivers or a tour guide will give you fun facts about the state you’re headed to see and the various places to pass on the way there.
If you’re not too interested in a ton of historical facts and would rather plug into some music, grab a guide book ( or check out a few travel blogs) before you go.