It's almost pointless to discuss this tour company vs that one. What's far more important is traveler vs tour company. There are far more types of travelers than tour companies. Point is, what is that certain traveler looking for - what is most important. Do you travel for the price? hotels? itinerary? How much research do you do? How reasonable are you? Common sense? Is 5 blocks WAY out of town??? or a mile? It is a good idea to get facts from other travelers but beware of opinions. I remember a man who drove his wife crazy most of the tour because she bought an expensive bottle of water ($2) instead of waiting and investing time in price shopping!! Take me for example. I look first for itinerary. Then hotels. Sure 5* in the center of town is great, but seeing I usually wander back about midnight and out at 7am all I really care about is clean and safe. Included food? - usually at the hotel and usually pretty much like wedding reception meals. Excursions? hmm, paid extra or prePAIDalready included? I prefer paid extra. I can take one if i want or go out on my own. From this I guess you can tell I'm more or less a budget (tour price) traveler. I spend most of my travel money on finding nice restaurants, and stopping off at a great little museum I happen to pass by - as i wander around town - lost. It really gets in my way if I feel I HAVE to be back at the hotel at 7 for dinner or 12:15 to join the city bus tour because I already paid for it. Breakfast to me is looking over free travel brochures and transportation timetables I picked up at the many local travel agents, hotel or tourist info spots and enjoying coffee and pastry. So before you go, spend a lot of time figuring out what type of traveler YOU are, then see what types of tours are out there. Hope this helps. Happy travels

I'll admit I started reading your post thinking "What is His/Her Point", then it hit me.. .. ..Duh lol! Your perspective is very much like mine, of course I like the 5:30/6:00 am walks before a shower and breakfast, even the out of town hotels have something worth seeing on a morning walk! We like to take the tour bus into town even when not going on the optional, and create our our optional. We take budget tours and make the most of what is right in front of you (actually wander off away from "Tourist traps"). . The non budget tours can be great for multiple day stays when you are near everything and have lots of "time or your own to explore", everyone has different ideas of what makes them happy. I find the Where I'm going has a lot to do witht the type of tour I want or to do it on our own, when going it on our own we look at tours in the area for ideas of what we may want to do or even stay.

Hello there immimitravels,
Thanks for your post. I felt a bit like Brian2 and also have a similar outlook to travel. You are not alone when it comes to exploring a bit on your own - more of a traveller really.
The next step for us is to plan the whole trip without a tour company involved.. . and why not, just got to get some confidence up.

I note your post appears on the Cosmos board as they offer budget tours. Good to see that you build on the basic tour and your thoughts on how you spend your travel time and on Optionals is of value also.
Why don't you join this board and offer help to others as a user instead of a guest. God knows we need some sane people here. In this way, a better history of your posts will be recorded both for you & others.
I actually reckon guests entries should be discouraged (although many are genuine helpers). .
Cheers for now - Bluey

sorry. The post was part of another discussion that I accidently posted as a new topic. I was trying to help settle an argument about good tour companies vs bad, that it was mostly a matter of opinion and that the type of traveler one was, was really the key to happy touring. "one man's tour is another man's torture". . I was trying to express how important it is to first find out what type of traveler you yourself are. Don't get me wrong - I love to read others opinions and stories of their travels but I try to figure out if it's relevant to the way I personally like to travel. So when someone says "Suchandsuch tour company is awful" or "the food stinks" I take it with a grain of salt and a giggle.