Independent Travel Tours

We’ve always been fans of independent travel. When we took our first backpacking trip in 2000, we didn’t have a lot of money so naturally we shied away from organized travel. It was much cheaper for us to go it on our own.

Through the years, we continued to travel independently by taking local buses and trains and hiring a guide once we arrived at the station. Or we’d hire a guide from our guest house or walk around town until we found someone that looked good. We’d hop from local tour company to local tour company feeling people out, weighing the price of the tour with our budget, and asking about every detail regarding what we get with our purchase. Most of the time we did amazing.

We couldn’t have asked for a better guide to Everest Base Camp with our now friend Deep, we saved a bundle climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with Moshi Tours by arriving from the airport and hammering out a deal, and just recently we booked a great tour around the island of Aruba for $20. We saw all the highlights, we stayed as long (or in our case as short) at each stop as we wanted and we didn’t have to listen to long drawn out speeches about the history and little known facts. (Not that there’s anything wrong with this) But we’ve been on some tours where I want to pull my hair out as our guide drones on and on over a microphone telling about every single building or street sign we pass. Most of the time organized tours are not for us.

Time vs Independence

c For one thing, independent travel takes a lot of time. When we travelled Asia, Central America and Europe independently, we had time. We had time to spend an entire day searching for a guide or tour company to take us up a mountain or into a rainforest. We had time to explore ruins and historical sites on our own reading our guide books. If we felt we didn’t get enough out of the experience, we went back with a local guide the next day.

A lot of people don’t have the luxury of time. And that’s where a tour company makes sense.

Choose the Right Tour Company

But the most important thing is choosing the right tour company. We recently had a tour company offer to work with us to help promote their tours, but after looking at their product, we declined. Our worst nightmare for travel is to sit on a big tour bus and watch the world go by. Sorry folks, but it is. We’ve done a couple in our lives and each time it’s taken all my stamina not to scream let me out of here or jump out the window. I feel so stuck on a tour bus it’s painful. But some people love being on the big buses, they are happy with looking out the window and jumping out for a quick snapshot here and there. That’s fine, you just have to decide if it it sfor you.