Individual tours: features, advantages and disadvantages

Individual tours: features, advantages and disadvantages

Individual tour is a complex of different tourist services the tour operator offers one customer and group of tourists. Often apart from the basic services, they provide additional ones, for example, personal guide or the car with a personal driver.

Individual tour is based on the clients’ wishes- from the choice of the hotel to the planning of excursions. Possible changes of route and visit to the additional objects must be arranged in advance. The statistics shows that individual tours are suitable for the newlyweds and businessmen that go on mission and have free time for the rest. The main feature of individual tours is that they allow you to see things not included in the common tour.

As stated above, individual tour is formed taking into account the customer’s wishes and demands. However, you can’t do without the professional recommendations and advices. Travel agency or company will help you to choose the way of travelling, and the specialists will find you that trains and planes. The customers will be offered a few most famous attractions and most interesting excursions. The hotels will be also chosen closer to these places. In short, individual tour must maximally fit the employer.

Individual tours can be simple or complex. Simple individual tour implies reservation of tickets, hotel rooms, visa application and transfer to the hotel and back. Complex individual tour includes the full package of services based on the client’s wishes. Apart from the above-mentioned functions, the agency arranges customer’s internal displacement, meeting at the arrival point and books the rooms in the hotels. At a client’s request, the tourist company can find equipment for fishing, hunting, diving, surfing, yachting, etc. The agency can order the place for participation in the celebratory banquets. In short, the tourist just needs to предельно clearly define his wishes and requirements. It is important to identify the route, hotel status, car class, exact number of tourists and time of their stay in the hotel.

Individual tours have both advantages and disadvantages. Let’s see the first ones.
1. Individual route. The customer can choose the places he/she finds especially interesting. The customer decides how much times he/she will stay in one place and where he/she will go after that.
2. Individual program. Different people have a different taste, which means that the things one like, someone else can find uninteresting. If you travel alone, you can be guided by your own interests and give clearer priorities.
3. You don’t have to be linked to the group. Tourists often travel to rest from the work and the people around. Group tour doesn’t allow this, while the individual one gives an opportunity to travel alone.

Individual tours have their disadvantages. The most serious of them are:
• Price. It makes sense that individual tour is more expensive than the group one. After all, excursions, transfers and guides for one or two people are more expensive than similar events, for the group of 20-40 tourists.
• Time. You can coordinate even the smallest details with the agency, which can take a lot of time. Of course, you may trust the representatives of tourist companies, but in this case you won’t be able to realize everything you’ve planned.
• Solving the small problems. It is more difficult to travel alone or in two, as you will have to do without the other’s advices and tips. It is especially hard for those who don’t speak foreign languages. In this case, catering, arrangement of rest and travelling can be very uncomfortable.

Although high cost is considered as one of the disadvantages, but the individual tour can also help you save money. After all, it is not an expensive tour that includes only the high class services. Tourist can allocate his/her costs as they see fit and refuse from the things they find uninteresting.

So, individual tour is perfect for the people who don’t want to be always among the crowd. It allows you to make your rest maximally interesting and comfortable.