What's wrong with doing it yourself ?

I agree! I think that if you rely on tours too much, you get a homogenized, pre-packaged sense of what's worthwhile, whereas if you do it yourself, you find all sorts of things that appeal to you as an individual, whether or not they would to anyone else. Thanks for starting this topic.

its an interesting topic. what always make me wonder is. with so many people (tourists) having so little available time to devote to particular holidays (this forum is proof of that) that you often see groups of people huddled around a tour guide that is taking soooo long to describe every last detail of a particular thing. fine, if you have the time.

we have really enjoyed the rick steves walking guides, in a good number of countries, because they are relatively short, to the point and free. while we are away for months at a time, we still don't have time to spend trying to learn every last detail .nor would we want to. we would much prefer to have a mix and discover somethings for ourselves.
but each to his own.

your comment "isn't it preferable to discover a place by yourself, at your own pace and at no cost?" I think this covers a lot of things. perhaps its also why some people think some places are overrated. they don't do their own home work before hand to see if they might like a place. rather they go there because everyone else they know has been there. doesn't necessarily equate to you liking it. and perhaps equals lots of tourists in one place.

I second that ! I want to stop anytime I want and explore !

That being said, we have done bike tours and cooking classes (technically, not a tour, I guess). And truly enjoyed ourselves.

Our friends have used a tour guide while in Rome - it was just their family and him - so they were not herded through places with many people. It was very personal attention to visit what they wanted.

When traveling with my wife, a guide instills confidence that we know where we are going and will find the requisite sites. Otherwise, this is a typical result.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lmw0d6S6jU

We've used local tour guides from time to time (sometimes free or for very little money - Munich, Edinburgh, London Walks, Rothenburg Night Watchman, York and York Cathedral come to mind) and they have been well worth it. We can't know it all before we go, so it's worth having a short tour with someone who has done the research.

@ Sam: I do recall such situations. :)

We prefer to go at our own speed. We did a bike tour in Berlin which was a lot of fun and a great over view of the city. I do enjoy a private guide for some museums as that really adds to the enjoyment of them. I can't even imagine Europe by cruise ship - I would hate to have so little time in each place.

To do or not to do a do it yourself tour depends on your and your tour mates skill and knowledge level and the consequences of errors.

For first world city tours covered by decent guidebooks such as the Rick Steves, Lonely Planet and other proven guides, doing it your self is pretty easy. Major tourist destinations in first world and even second world environments have enough English speakers that even language deficient travelers such as this writer can get by with an essential travel phrase book.

That said, guided tours with knowledgeable guides and tour organizers can both show me things beyond guide book imagination and get me to twice as many places and experiences as I could on my own. Our two guided trips to China fell into this category, visiting areas where we were part of the handful of "Western" tourist, most other tourist being nationals. Having both a driver and guide expedited travel as neither we nor the guide had to be concerned about transportation or watching our baggage.

Guided active tours may also be best led by guides. We have been on hut to hut ski tours in Norway and Finland where guide knowledge of both the winter environment and conditions, and navigation from hut to hut were valuable is not essential to safety.

On the other hand, we have done self-guided but supported hut to hut walking tours and inn to inn bike tours. The tour organizers booked our accommodations, provided luggage forwarding services, and supplied guide books/notes, topographic maps, and directions on getting from start to finish. We could tour at our own pace but paid for the convenience of having a tour structured and organized.

For some of us doing it yourself is the way to go, we like the research and planning and the spontaneity of going where and when we want and staying only as long as it's of interest to us. Others dislike the research or, as the other poster noted, don't want to spend the time that takes, they just want to have someone experienced and knowledgeable give them the information. Some want the 'whole ball of wax' taken care of as on a multi-day tour, others do some of it themselves but take short guided tours here and there such as cooking tours or biking tours. There's nothing wrong with doing it either way. Different strokes for different folks. Whichever way you travel is the right way if it works for you.

Nancy put it perfectly. It's your vacation for your enjoyment on your budget and with your interests and your personality; so do what ever works best for you.

I can only share my preferences which means nothing if you aren't me. Still, I have never been on a group tour (sorry RS) and I don't know if I ever will. In groups I tend to worry about everyone having a good time and worry about if I have been helpful enough or generous enough or considerate enough or polite enough or...... Hell its my vacation I just want to worry about me. So generally what we do is a lot on our own; but not exclusively. There are times when I think we get a lot of good out of a private guide. For instance a 2 day lay over in Moscow or Belgrade. With a guide we can cover more ground, more enjoyably and with more background information than if we tried it solo. My problem with private guides is I tend to hire the best. The best provide a very high level of service and I don't do well being waited on. I feel guilty. I don't like the whole "you work for me" attitude so we end up treating the guide like a relative ... which makes them wonder if they are earning their salary. All very complicated.

Personally, I don't like having others make choices for me - what to see or do, how long to spend at a particular place. I think my tastes are very different from the mainstream, and even though a tour guide may be sincere and doing their best to make guesses about what "everyone" will want to see/do, IME those guesses are almost always very, very wrong for me (even though they may be perfectly correct for most of their customers). Let me make my own choices, even if they're horribly bad mistakes (that happens, I usually learn something from the experience). The idea of an organized tour makes me want to stay home. I know others love 'em. That's fine, they're welcome to them.

Of course it's up to the individual, and I too have found some tour guides extremely delightful and engaging, fellow tour companions less so. What I was more pointing at was it seems to include a 'gimmick' or 'novelty' is necessary nowadays. Is this just marketing, or because of social media and our short attention spans?

I don't see why you can't do both? I find the antidotes quite entertaining and would be bored listening to a non interactive podcast, or reading from a book. Plus, I can also get the lay of the land on a tour. Sure, I could figure it out on my own, but hey, I'm on vacation! If you allot enough time, you can go back and check out what intrigues you if the pace is too fast. I love being able to ask questions, don't want to have to google it when I get back to the hotel, lol. You don't have to hire an expensive private guide, sometimes the free walking tours are too big, then you can bow out and go to plan B. I did a Jack the Ripper tour that was an absolute joke, talk about gimicky. I like to do a variety of types of tours to break things up, walk, bike, Segway...( I do have a short attention span, or actually I like to say I process quickly). Everyone learns differently, and this is what works great for me!

I have gone to Europe every summer for 13 of the last 14 years and while there have taken 13 (soon to be 14) RS tours.
We are fortunate that we can spend time in Europe on our own either before the tour, after the tour, or both. Next month we will be heading to England, again, before going to Portugal where, when there, we will be taking a RS tour.
We get the advantage of doing what we want some of the time and having a great tour some of the time.

Everywhere I've gone in the world, with one exception, I've done on my own. I study guidebooks, surf the internet, and make sure I know everything I need to before I leave. I can't imagine having to move at some else's pace and not be able to do what I want, when I want, and either linger or leave! It takes a lot more work but to me it's far preferable.
The only time I went on a tour was because it was through my public sector employer via a federal grant. We spent two weeks in China visiting colleagues and counterparts. It was an amazing trip but it drove me absolutely nuts to have 1 hour at the Great Wall of China, have to visit government sanctioned junk shops, and not get to spend the entire day at the park surrounding the Temple of Heaven on a Sunday when everyone in Beijing was out dancing, playing instruments, playing games...next time I go it'll be on MY terms!

RE: ...China, HAVE TO visit government sanctioned junk shops....

We experienced the opposite on our two guided tours. Not enough shopping beyond the tea tasting stop on the visit to the silk factory. (Our guides specifically noted that we were not under any obligation to buy tea, silk, etc). But then these were pricey alumni affinity group tours.

On the other hand, friends have taken advantage of super low priced China tours where shopping stops are mandatory. If clients do not go to the shopping stops the were charged an extra $100 (so we heard). I don't think that they were forced to buy anything, but they had to go in. By cheap, apparently the tour cost less than what independent travel would have cost for comparable rooms.

I've done about a dozen "tours" in the last 10 years. However, all but three were because they were required for admission (ex. Linderhof, almost all castles or palaces). I paid for the optional audio tour of Königstein and took the optional guided tour offered by Dachau.

For the most part, by the time I decide to go somewhere, I've done enough research on it I don't need a guide.

Sam - loved the link. I mostly travel solo. Years ago I was chatting with a woman while her husband was taking photos. She said " you must see so much more on your own; you don't waste all your time arguing about where to go."

I do the research and I like to go at my own pace, which is why I don't take multi-day tours to places I can see on my own. If given a choice at a sight, I'll take the audio guide, not the guided tour.

However . . .

A few times, I've used a HOHO bus and the only one I can remember that I didn't much like was Berlin. I have taken a lot of 2-3 hour guided tours, enjoyed most of them and usually learned something interesting. I loved the one Segway tour I took - Paris after dark. I'd been to Paris several times and knew the city well. It was so much fun to tootle around on the Segway and it was a good way to get from place to place - Eiffel Tower to Louvre and back with plenty of time to stop for photos. The guide was amusing and very interesting even though I knew something about every place we stopped, he kept the standard info brief and related unusual anecdotes and facts, and the group was fun.

While I was in Barcelona, I took the TI's Moderisme tour. I'd already walked everywhere the tour went, and I had a great time. I saw things I had never noticed, learned to look at the city differently, and understood why the city has developed in the special way it has. Plus, as a solo tourist it was nice to chat with the other tourists when the guide (who was terrific) was quiet. She was working on a graduate degree in Moderisme architecture, so she was able to impart knowledge that I would not have garnered even from many hours of independent research.

I've taken the TI walks recently in Barcelona and Valencia, which were basically orientation walks and recommend them too. It was only after several visits to London that I tried London Walks, and my only regret is that I hadn't taken more of them. I've had varying experiences with Paris Walks, because of mediocre guides. When they're good, they're excellent.

What's popped up in recent years are "greeter tours" in lots of cities. They are usually truly free as the greeters are forbidden to accept fees or tips, though I'm sure they often get treated to a drink and snack. I booked a greeter once - in my home town of Chicago. I had a private two hour tour (really 3) of the neighborhood where I was born (but didn't grow up) with someone who'd lived there for decades. I'm going back to Chicago this summer and will try to book another one, maybe this time the friends I'm staying with will join me.

I am often bemused at the seemingly odd locations in my own city where I see 'greeters' pop up in their red shirts. It does make you look around at familiar surroundings with new eyes.

Great topic, David. Our trips are all DIY, and we use walking tour resources we can find, as well as museum audio guides most of the time. But as the Chief Travel Planner and Resident Tour Guide for our household, I get tired of being the researcher and leader ALL THE TIME. A guided tour once a week or so really gives me a break. Sometimes it is a simple walking tour (London Walks, Paris Walks) and sometimes it is a special thing or an expedition we cannot do ourselves: A wine tour in Burgundy, a food tour in Paris. We also found a tour guide enormously valuable in places like the Louvre, Pompeii, and the Vatican Museums.

So a mix works for us.

I'd say 90% of the time I prefer doing it myself. I like the research end, I find I learn and enjoy more if I set it up vs. just passively listening.

That said, there are some times when a tour is beneficial. If you want to go rowing in Venice, a tour might be the only way, same for other specialized activities. I've booked food tours because they know all sorts of hole-in-the-wall places that I couldn't find. Some tours give you early access (thinking of the Pristine Sistine tour of the Vatican which I haven't taken but will book for the fall). Finally, an actual expert guide who knows the history can be very engaging. Oh, and fun - solo travelers might take tours to meet other people or to be more social. I don't often travel alone and when I do I enjoy the solitude but not everyone feels that way - especially if they usually travel alone!

I have used tours a few times - when we were in San Fran and didn't have a car and wanted to see Muir Woods/Golden Gate vantage point. First time in Avignon area we didn't have a car and did a tour to Pont du Gard and a few other spots. When we went to Pompeii, we hooked up with one of the tours outside at the train stn. And a Walks of Italy for after-hours Vatican. And first time in Rome, hooked up with one of the 'outside the Colosseum/Palantine Hill' tours.

Obviously the first few were because of lack of vehicles and not wanting to mess with trains/public transport. Pompeii was because we only had a few hours before we had to hightail it to Amalfi so we needed something with a quick overview. WoI was because - well, same reason - we wanted an after hours tour hitting the highlights. In both of those instances, we found that the guides talked way too long about stuff that was of no interest to us.

On the van/bus tours, we barely had time to see somewhere - too fast paced. On the flip side, they def whetted our appetites so we will do it again at our own pace next time - we actually returned to Pont du Gard last year on our own with a car and enjoyed a less hurried visit. And when we do return to San Fran someday, we will make sure to rent a car (well, we did rent a car last time but it was upon leaving the city and we had places to be) and will take longer to visit Muir Woods and Sausalito.

Sometimes tours give a good overview if you are in a hurry (don't have time to spend 6 hrs at the Vatican) or don't have a vehicle and public transport is a hodgepodge. But there are a lot of interesting tidbits the guides share that you otherwise may not know, and can help history come alive for you in a way that doing it on your own may miss.

But I do prefer to travel at my own pace.

isn't it preferable to discover a place by yourself, at your own pace and at no cost?

It isn't preferable or non-preferable. Just a question of taste.

Ray has it right. Is it preferable to cook your own meal or go to a restaurant and be served?

Yes it really all depends on what you like & what you are most comfortable with. I like a mix of both when going to a new destination. We went to London and did a tour of Bath but explored London on our own. In Rome, we did a tour of the Vatican. In Venice, a tour of St Marks Basilica. My first time in Paris was a tour group with my daughter & her French club. (She is a French teacher.) The next two times we explored on our own.

We've "done" a number of self-guided bicycle trips in Europe, so is that a tour? The convenience of having touring bicycles ready, map/route/highlights listed with deviations at our own wishes, self pace, accommodations booked and help just a call away, outweigh hauling/paying for our bicycles from here to Europe, etc. As for regular tours, I couldn't image taking one in Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and Scandinavia. Taking tours in Turkey and Bulgaria were well worth it for us. There's no right answer...only the one that works for you. Are we about to digress into tourist v. traveler blather?

Certainly, taking a tour vs. doing it yourself should be according to your tastes and preferences, and there's a place for both. However, I've been noticing occasionally on this forum that some people appear to think there are places they can't go except on a tour - while I'm sure that's the case for some places (painted caves in France, perhaps?), it is not so for most others.

We have traveled extensively since we got married almost 48 years ago. We lived in Germany our first 2+ years (Uncle Sam) so started our travels then. Since then, we have had many, many trips to Europe on our own. I do the research, book hotels and I love it. For the last 20 years the Rick Steves books have been great with ideas. In 2011 we took our first organized tour to Turkey, and it was fabulous. We take tours to places we don't have a comfort level on our own. ( South Africa, Egypt/Jordan, Morocco, Vietnam/Cambodia, Aust/New Zealand, etc) Have used, GCT, OAT and Odysseys-Unlimited (our favorite). I still do lots of research before we go to get more out of the trip. In Europe we sometimes take Rick's recommended walking tours to gain more insight. Favorite Quote: "The world is a book, and those who don't travel, read only one page."

I'll take day trips with a guide if it seems to be the best way to make good use of my time, though I always feel rushed and like I didn't get to explore as much as I wanted to--nothing's worse than glimpsing a fabulous town from the window of a tour bus, or seeing a shop full of something I love and not being able to check it out.

From London I did a tour that included touring Windsor Castle, 45 minutes in Oxford (could have spent all day) and Stonehenge (seeing from the tour bus would have been enough) and it really just gave me the slightest hint of what the places had to offer. But, as a first-time solo traveler abroad it suited my comfort level. In Tallinn I spent 2 glorious days venturing outside to see more of Estonia and that was time and money well-spent. From Krakow I did a small-group tour to Auschwitz & Birkenau, and that was also a good choice.

I never do orientation tours, by the time I arrive anywhere I've already got a solid plan--just set me on the street with my map and I'm off.

I'll just ask - what's wrong with hiring a guide (or paying your 10 pounds for London Walks)? I enjoy it immensely and learn far more than I could ever research on my own. I'm like Nancy and Laurel, I do both. Plan on my own and take advantage of local guides who know the area I'm visiting in order to enhance my time and make the most of it. What's wrong with that?

I'll go on a walking tour in a heartbeat. They are my favorite thing to do when I get to a city. One learns so many quirky things that are never in a guidebook. It is what makes a vacation so memorable.

Loved our walking tour at the Golden Gate Bridge, my food tour through Sacramento, all of the themed tours I have taken in Berlin, tours of synagogues, mosques or churches, tours of Concentration Camps, tours about half-timbered buildings or skyscrapers, tours about famous people like Paul Erlich or Anne Frank, and tours of cemeteries.

I go on them here in Frankfurt all the time. The city has such fascinating sites that it is impossible for anyone to know all of them. One company here has at least 200 different tours you can go on, most of them for 15 euro or less. Famous crimes, Flora and Fauna, Bees, inner workings of hotels, Police stations, Music, and neighborhoods are just a few examples. I love them all! The people that do them are so passionate and you can tell how they have devoted a huge amount of time researching their theme, digging through books, finding one of a kind photos, and more.

Our 2 day tour of the Normandy beaches was in a mini-van and at the time we thought it was kind of a lot of money, but we still feel like this was so worth it, we would do it again.

I don't understand people that have paid a large sum of money to come to Europe and balk at paying a few euro for a tour that would have made their trip even more special. The last thing I want to do is wander around a city with a guide book in my hand reading a boring paragraph about the stunning building I am looking at.

My biggest challenge with an organized tour is that I am sloooow. 71 and a couch potato. An energetic 25-year-old tour guide is going to lose me in a few blocks. So I prefer to wander at my own speed, reading the RS self-guided walk commentary about the things I could see if I were willing to climb 237 steps. I may not see everything, but I enjoy what I do see.

It's up to the consumer's powers of discrimination to distinguish a gimmick from a theme, isn't it?

Theme examples:
•Nick Lloyd's tour of the Spanish Civil War in Barcelona is one of the travel highlights of the decade for me, even though the route includes spots that I and everyone else have trodden aplenty, like the ramblas.
•Context Travel tour of Renaissance architecture in Rome. They concede up front that Rome is not the best city for Renaissance architecture, but when I took the tour I was the only participant who didn't have an MFA, and the level of discussion and insights were inspiring. More: mind-blowing.
•Wars of Religion walking route in Orange. How could you possibly discover this on your own even after studying the relevant history in detail?

Gimmick example:
•Behind the scenes of Las Fallas. On the Thursday afternoon of Fallas week, Chani and I took a walking tour that said we'd have privileged access and gain better understanding. It attracted a lot of walkers who were not native English speakers and the guide herself was not very fluent and miscommunication compounded with poor planning for crowds resulted in a tour whose only merit over walking around yourself was being able to go inside the crowd barriers at the monuments. Not really worth it.

Comments about fitting interests and attention spans point to the diversity of travelers -- I usually want to hear more than a guide has to say, not less. So, I tend to be That Guy who stays close to the guide while walking between stops pestering them with questions. If all you want is a sentence or two and a human to point to where you should look, then the gimmicky tour might be more your speed anyway.

I am 68 and have visited 70 countries, not including the countries that no longer exist.

I have lived in Germany for four years and Saudi Arabia for five. I have been retired for six years and traveled extensively since then.

While living overseas in 1981-85 and 1987-91, I traveled with family, including children and did it budget style. Most of the travel was do it yourself, staying in Bed and Breakfasts, etc. Since 2010, my Wife and I have done a mix of ocean cruises, coupled with some land travel, river cruises and land tours. This travel has been more oriented toward paying for tours instead of DIY. However, on some cruises, at some ports, we have DIY due to my research where DIY is more feasible and paying for a tour is just not worth the dollars.

Whether or not you go DIY or with a Tour depends on a number of factors:
1) Age, as one gets older and weather, there is more of a willingness to pay for a tour.

2) Resources, if you are on a budget going DIY might be the only option. Guidebooks can get you a long way.

3) The site makes a huge difference. When visiting Athens, Greece from a cruise ship, it is easy to take the METRO to the city from the port and then to key sites like the Acropolis or Acropolis Museums. Still, if on a tour, the hassle of buying a METRO ticket, getting acquainted with where to go, then walking to the Acropolis is a bit harder. For some, it is worth the extra money. Also, for some age may have limited how far they can walk. On another site, DIY is just not worth the minor savings, if any. We visited Normandy from Le Harve and yes you can do that with a rental car or by train, but the logistics are just too much. The tour we took visited several places, saved us a lot of time. We had too see the Bayeux Tapestry, but also saw the Cathedral, more than one Normandy beach and museum as well as American cemetery.

4)The country makes a difference. Some countries are harder due to language, or the risks involved. For example, going DIY in China is just too much. Chinese crowds can drive you crazy and the language is frightening. A good tour is worth it weight in gold. Also, some countries are more dangerous or the culture is so different. Egypt is a good example. Egypt is a very poor country and sanitation can be a problem, affecting where you can eat or stay. There is a risk that makes going DIY, just not a good idea. Another example of not a good DIY is Moscow. Taking the METRO is not easy with the Russian language it is not easy to determine what station to exit.

5) Last but not least is the tour can provide more details about what you are seeing, far beyond a guidebook. Having a tour guide in the Hermitage Art Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia is great. They know where to take you to see the most important paintings and save you a lot of time with the huge crowds.

Recently, we have found the Free Tours where for three hours a local takes you around to see the high points of the city for no cost but what you tip the person. It is a great way to get to know the city. Also, we have done some great biking tours where you get to see more, since you are not slowed by just walking.

In summary, whether you go DIY or not depends on a lot of factors.

Each to his own :-)

I have grown to enjoy a HOHO tour when I arrive in a new city (and I even did one in London last year at my 30-somethingth visit). it helps me get an overview of where to spend the rest of my visit.