People used to scoff at the young backpackers I led around Europe, the ones who sat in a bus all day and sometimes did some sightseeing and then ate my questionable cooking at night.
Like, what are they gaining? What’s the cultural experience here? Is it really worth it to travel all the way to Rome and then eat the campsite lasagne prepared by a moderately sober 25-year-old Queenslander?
The answer, in my view at least, is that yes, it was worth it. Preferences have changed now and interests are different; those budget Topdeck bus tours I worked on don’t really exist any more either. But back in the day, that was a worthwhile experience purely because people had the time of their lives.
They drank and they danced, they saw sights and they ticked boxes, they made lifelong friends and they went home tired and broke and utterly satisfied. No regrets.
Those rowdy European bus tours with Topdeck – also Contiki and Busabout – were legendary and infamous. Such trips built a reputation for touring in general, though in particular for young people. People thought there was no genuine cultural connection or understanding on these tours – and to some extent they still think it.
Sign up for the Traveller newsletter
The latest travel news, tips and inspiration delivered to your inbox. Sign up now.
That is one of the myths about modern escorted tours: that the tour environment is a cloister that’s impossible to break out of; that passengers are shielded from real experiences and cultural exchanges by tour guides and buses, and the towering walls of cruise ships; and that they have no interest in the place they’re visiting, only the fun they can have there.
It’s not true. Let’s break down the modern misconceptions about group tours. One: that they’re huge and impersonal.
It’s true that those old Topdeck tours I used to work on catered to large groups, with as many as 40 people being carted around together. Debauchery was almost guaranteed. But Topdeck’s modern product is different now, with a maximum of 18 passengers on most of its itineraries.
Intrepid Travel, a leader in group travel, tends to have between 12 and 16 travellers a trip. G Adventures has a maximum of 16 on most of its itineraries. I still work as an occasional tour guide, hosting specialist food journeys with World Expeditions, and now only 12 people can join me. That – and you can trust me on this – is better than 40.
What else? There are no authentic experiences on group tours.
This accusation has been aimed at passengers and organisers since my Topdeck days. There was some truth to it then, I guess, if you can call visiting the Colosseum with 30 other people “inauthentic”. You inevitably meet fewer people, particularly local people, when you already have your posse of friends along for the ride.
Modern touring isn’t like that, partly because of reduced group sizes, but mostly because tour companies now put a lot of work into providing insider access for their clientele, exposing them to experiences and to people that you, as a solo traveller, would be unlikely to reach.
In that respect, a good group tour is often more “authentic”, or at least more culturally engaging, than independent travel.
I don’t want to toot my own horn too much, but when travellers come with me to northern Spain now, they meet all sorts of interesting people that it would normally take months in one place to get to know. They meet local restaurateurs, local chefs, local producers, local fishmongers, local artists.
All these people make the Basque Country and its surrounds what it is, they’re living, breathing markers of culture and tradition, and a tour allows visitors direct, immediate access.
I’m not the only one who offers this, and this is certainly not the only location in which it happens. This is true of many tour companies around the world, who make community engagement a priority and insider access a feature of their tours.
Do you visit the tourist traps on group tours? Sure. Occasionally. Though many tours now focus on niche interests – art, food, cycling, history – and avoid the major sights that you can easily find on your own.
Are these tours expensive? Sometimes. But that expense pays for organisation and access. It pays for restaurant bookings you wouldn’t be able to make yourself, or meetings you couldn’t set up, or private site visits that are unavailable to independent travellers with no local contacts.
The final myth of modern escorted tours is that you will have no freedom and no time to explore on your own, which again is a hangover from those very hungover bus tours I worked on, when almost every moment of your day really was decided already.
Nowadays, that’s not the case. You have plenty of freedom, including the choice to avoid my campsite lasagne.
Ben Groundwater is a Sydney-based travel writer, columnist, broadcaster, author and occasional tour guide with more than 25 years’ experience in media, and a lifetime of experience traversing the globe. He specialises in food and wine – writing about it, as well as consuming it – and at any given moment in time Ben is probably thinking about either ramen in Tokyo, pintxos in San Sebastian, or carbonara in Rome. Follow him on Instagram @bengroundwaterConnect via email.
