Abroad Part Two: The Pros and Cons of Tour Group Travel

     Traveling abroad can be done in various ways, and these different ways each have benefits as well as potential problems.

     For students, one of the most conspicuous ways to travel abroad is with a tour group agency such as Education First (EF) for high school groups or EF College Break for college students.  I have been on one EF tour to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and I am looking into traveling with EF College Break in the future. There are incredible benefits that come with tour agencies like EF, but there are also problems and tradeoffs that come along with signing onto a tour.

Pros:

• Knowledgable Tour Guides:  On the tour to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, I traveled with students from my school's german department. We had an excellent tour guide named Atto Suttarp. An actor from Berlin, Atto was incredibly energetic as well as knowledgeable about the areas we traveled to.  Not only did he fulfill all that EF promised, he went above and beyond in making sure that our German-speaking-group got the absolute most out of our trip. At one point, he led a small group of us out of the way of the normal tour path so that we could visit an actual German video store to buy films for future German classes.

• Reliable Transportation: Companies such as EF generally arrange all transportation from the time you arrive in the airport to the time you depart.  This includes transportation between cities and often within cities themselves, and EF generally will use a charter-bus for this purpose. The benefit of this transportation is limited confusion and unexpected expense. Transportation is included in the trip fee and is therefore accounted for before the trip even begins.

• Lodging:  Lodging can be one of the most intimidating things when it comes to traveling abroad, especially if in the place you choose to travel there is a language barrier between you and the person working the front desk.  All lodging is pre-booked and included in an EF tour price, which can save head-ache and unexpected lodging costs.

• Activities:  Another inclusion your tour are itineraries and entrance fees to major museums and attractions.  This can be especially helpful, as it gives you the "highlight reel" of wherever you choose to visit, and can sometimes save you a little on admission. This is an additional time when your tour guide can be helpful: having been to the places multiple times, they can often tell you what are the best things to spend your time on in a given place.

"Reliable Transportation" in that EF always makes sure you get from point A to point B.

Cons:

• Price: While many things, including air-fare and lodging, are included in these tours, you are still paying a hefty sum for service rendered.  Tours to Europe average $2300 or more, and that is without souvenirs and quite a few meals.  There are by far cheaper was to travel, because with companies such as EF, you are paying for convenience.

• Other Groups:  With pre-college EF tours, unless your group numbers close to 50, you will be placed with additional groups.  While this can be an opportunity to meet new friends, it can also be a dangerous mix.  Our trip was nearly ruined by a large group of elderly people that were taking advantage of the system.  A group of 2 "students" with 30 chaperones over the age of 50 is hardly a "high school group" as most would define it.  These people were working the system, as tour groups for older people are generally even more expensive.  This was a serious problem, as they were not fond of high school students at all.  Moral of the story: you are rolling the dice when joining a tour group.

• Less Flexibility: While structure can be good to some points, these tour groups seriously limit the spontaneity allowed when traveling.  When your tour guide tells you to be at a certain block at a certain time, you must be there, no questions asked.  Instead of being able to visit a museum on a whim, you are forced into a very set schedule, and you might miss something that you are genuinely interested in for the sake of a tourist trap that you would rather avoid.

• Disconnect:  When you travel with a tour company, it is extremely easy to miss out on the cultural experiences that make traveling so rewarding.  If you wanted to, you could spend the entirety of your trip with people of the same culture as yourself, and have little to no interaction with the culture you are visiting.  Personally, I travel to learn, and as I watched the aforementioned group members eat meal after meal together in McDonalds, I realized the danger that these groups posed.  They did not make any attempt to immerse themselves in a truly rich culture, and EF especially is accommodating for that kind of attitude in a dangerous way.

   Personally, the method EF uses for high school tours is not the way I prefer to travel, but it is an effective way to travel with a large number of students.  The EF College Break program is more flexible, allowing you to make some decisions along the way, but is again extremely expensive and restrictive.   That being said, I do not have anything against EF as a company. I truly enjoyed my trip to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland--I simply believe that there may be a better way for The Pocket Change Traveler to travel abroad.

   Traveling abroad can be an extremely fulfilling experience, and in the future I will discuss a different method of travel and use a different example. Next time, we will travel together to the wonderful country of Japan, and discuss the benefits and problems of traveling in small independent groups.