The Upside and Downside Of Picking The Right Travel Tours
If you're dreaming of seeing the world, you'll find that tour companies are in the dream-fulfillment business. They print up shiny brochures showing the world's wonders, which they will gladly wrap up for you in neat packages but they offer many advantages. On a prepaid tour, you can sit back and let somebody else take care of all the details of travel. A tour relieves you of the chores of getting around on your own in unfamiliar cities, choosing hotels, deciding where to eat, making restaurant reservations, or planning every day's sight-seeing. You'll never have to worry about transporting luggage or finding your way to a hotel. And if your luggage does not arrive, it's the tour manager, not you, whose job it is to follow through.
Despite these warnings, the makeup of any one tour is unpredictable, and sometimes you can luck out. The one element that makes or breaks a tour is the tour director or escort. It is up to the tour director to see that everyone shows up on time, to deal with the inevitable grumblers, and to set a tone of goodwill and fun for the group. Ideally, this person should be all things to all people. This person should be friendly, outgoing, humane, intelligent, articulate, witty, well informed, and even tactful. Directors are usually college educated and the better established the tour company, the better the chances that you will have an expert tour director.