I am curious whether people taking Highlights tours (any country) find ways to see new things during free time or when the group is going to sights they themselves have seen before. Do you feel awkward about heading off to do your own thing when you are in a place you've visited before? How do you balance taking advantage of group travel -- for whatever reason you might want to be on a particular tour -- with sometimes seeing things again and again?
Posted by
Freedonia
14944 posts
I'll answer this from the other side....the tour directors.viewpoint.
Quite often, I'd have passengers who had already visited some of the sites we were planning on seeing and wanted to do something else. That was fine with me. I'd do my best to point them in the right direction and remind them where and what time they needed to meet up with the group.
I've even had passengers who left the tour for a few days to visit friends and then meet up with us in a different city.
As long as you don't delay or inconvenience the tour, you're free to do whatever you want.
At the end of the day, the tour company wants happy passengers. And if skipping something you've already seen to do something else will make you happy, go for it.
Posted by
New York City, NY, USA
5678 posts
I found that this was pretty easy to do on the Rick Steves tour. I chose to revisit some of the sights, but I definitely had my own ideas of things I wanted to see in free time and it was different from others. And there were at least a couple of others who wandered off for the day or morning and then rejoined us. I can't speak for other tours, but it wasn't a problem on my tour.
Pam