Group Travel
The Good:
Like a well-oiled machine, group tours are guaranteed to get you up and about. The tight schedule means you’ll be rushed from the Colosseum to the Trevi Fountain faster than you can say ‘ciao bella’. Group tours are great for getting you places faster and packing in must-do experiences into a short time frame, thanks largely to tour companies being able to flex their ‘priority access’ muscles. Groups usually number 30-40 which means you’re guaranteed to find a travel bestie to share a few selfies and mojitos with. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen an elevator open to find a swarm of young backpackers on Contiki fall over each other in a drunken mess. It’s this camaraderie that marks group tours as a unique experience, especially when you consider that sometimes it’s not the destination but the people who make your journey memorable.
The Bad:
Heavy scheduling and tight time frames limit the amount of time you could spend exploring on your own and you can miss out on some local gems you would otherwise enjoy if you were travelling solo. There’s a perception that group tours are also a shallower form of travelling. There’s something quite sad about watching a gaggle of girls jump off a tour bus at the Arc de Triomphe, rattle off a heap of selfies and quirky poses before jumping back onto the bus without bothering to stop for a second and actually appreciate the icon.
You’ll be spending a lot of time on a bus with the same people for an extended period of time, meaning personality clashes are an unfortunate reality. The peer pressure that comes from being expected to party until the wee hours each night can also start to take its toll on extended tours. Tour companies can be pricier than if you organised the same trip on your own.
The Ugly:
Bogans. You’ll find at least one on every tour, constantly drunk and obnoxiously yelling ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie’ at 4am in the next dorm room. Also, travelling in large groups of drunk young people means you’re practically guaranteed to be kept awake at least once listening to other people getting frisky.
Why Not Both?
Like all things, the answer lies in moderation. When planning your adventure, think about augmenting passages of your itinerary with shorter group tours. This is especially useful when you only have a handful of days to spare in one place, allowing you to get in, make great friends, and then move on to the rest of your adventure. Who knows, you might even have new travel companions join you off the beaten track. It will also help break up the rhythm of constantly calling the shots and who doesn’t enjoy just being taken care of sometimes.