So you’ve decided to take that long awaited trip and now need to decide.. Are you going to go on some sort of organised tour or are you going to “go it alone”?
It’s a question that will potentially get raised for nearly every holiday destination. Some destinations, it will be a ‘no brainer’- you’ve been there before, it’s your annual holiday to the beach or whatever.. Its easy, you’re going to go it alone. But what about for that trip of a lifetime…. to your long awaited destination… In…. Outer Mongolia
Hmm… Now for someone like me, who has actually been to Outer Mongolia, I’d probably go it alone.. this time around! But you might be interested to know that for my first excursion into the steppes I didn’t go it alone and happily chumped up the dollars to have someone else worry about getting me from A to B. (If you want to read more about my travels through Mongolia go to my sister website weary-feet.com )
The first thing to recognise is that organised tours (whether they are land based group tours, cruises etc) are not everybody’s cup of tea. For starters, when you are travelling with a group of people, more often than not, you won’t know everyone on the tour– so you won’t know the personalities or physical capabilities of your travelling companions. Some organised tours are designed for certain demographics (tours for Under 30s, Over 60s, Bi-sexual ex) but many are designed for just about anyone who wants to join.
The biggest advantage to an organised tour… is summed up in that key word- Organised… Generally, you pay your money, and the tour company worries about the rest. Excellent for that long awaited journey to Outer Mongolia or that desperately needed week of relaxation on a South Pacific Cruise. The biggest downside could end up being that the one and only tour you take has seven other participants and two of them constantly complain about the travelling conditions. It is a game of pot luck.
I personally have travelled on many organised tours and haven’t had too many issues. I’ve had the quirky travel companions, the old and decrepit, the measly “live on a 50c a day” backpackers and everything in between, but, in the main, the majority of people who travel on an organised tours are loads of fun. They are all travelling on a tour for the same reasons as you, because they can’t be bothered organising themselves/ don’t want the hassle or don’t have the time.
The inverse is true for “going it alone”.. The clear advantage is that when you organise your own travel you can do exactly what you want, when you want, where you want and often at a slightly discounted rate. The downside.. is that you have to work it all out yourself. This can be problematic if you are travelling to a country where there is a hefty language barrier/ lack of tech/ exotic food or somewhere that you feel is “less safe”.
All in all, it will always come down to personal choice and a few key questions:
- Do you have the time to organise it yourself?
- Do you have the confidence to organise it yourself?
- Do you want to tour by yourself/ with your family/ friends or do you want to tour with some soon-to-be new friends?