Tour groups can be good or not good depending on yourself, where you are headed, and the tour you book. I do not consider myself someone who finds the concept of having a pre-arranged trip appealing. Actually it is kind of off-putting to thinking someone is choosing your daily schedule and where you stay and what not; however, I get it. Sometimes its just easier to book a company that will take care of all the literal and figurative heavy lifting. The latter I think is kind of the fun part of traveling, it probably contributes to the most mistakes but vividest memories. For instance booking shit hostels with bugs in the room leaves you with a terrible nights sleep but hell, its memorable, “Bro, remember that hostel in Thailand with the baseball sized fly’s”.
But there are times its okay to say “fuck it” and get yourself a tour group. I am facing this with the whole horseback riding and yurt thing in Kyrgyzstan*. By all accounts and shitty-travel-guide, this can be done easily last minute. You can stay in yurts and arrange how to get to the next sight in pretty interesting ways easily but there is a small voice in my head that says “do you really want to fuck this up?”. It is a bit risk reward, the risk of getting stuck in a shitty roadside money grabbing sheet over a stick yurt doesn’t sound appealing in the slightest. While the reward of riding up like a conquering hero on horseback to a remote high altitude shepherd pasture so pretty fucking cool. I am sure you can do this to some degree in a more cost effective way, there is a high cost to the convenience, but why risk it when the outcomes seem pretty wide and the idea of Instagram Craig Khan is so attractive. Still undecided but leaning booking a tour.
It also got me thinking about a couple arguing in a restaurant in Isle of Skye (I love eavesdropping on a good argument). In an nutshell, one party was upset that they were seeing isle of Skye from a bus, and they didn’t like the company of the fellow tour bus participants, and hated how they weren’t in charge of their own schedule. Frankly all great points, especially in an area like Scotland, safe, easy to get around, you speak the language. Why do a tour group? The roads are easy to navigate if you rent a car and you will be in charge of your own schedule. There is no language barrier that might be daunting to overcome. Scotland is not dangerous so you aren’t getting some sort of local knowledge that keeps you safe. It isn’t difficult to book accommodations there, B&B, hostels, and hotels a plenty. So why do it?
I guess it boils down to a simple question? Will I miss out on something if I don’t do a tour group? If it is in a culture so foreign to you that it scares the living shit out of you – sure do it. If it is dangerous like walking through favelas or summiting Everest – sure do it. If you are old – sure do it. Otherwise you’ll probably get more out of it, save some cash, and enjoy it more with yourself as the captain.
*Thank god for spell check, I don’t think I will ever spell Kyrgyzstan correctly
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