Month: August 2021

There a numerous ways to go traveling. For me, it depends upon where I am going and what I want to do while there.

I can book everything myself and be completely on my own (or with a travel companion) while there. Or do a combo where I book everything and mostly wander around on my own, but then take some day trips or short two-to-four-day trips out of wherever I am based. Or I can do a hybrid trip through Monograms (which is a branch of Globus Tours), where they take care of booking the air, airport transfers, hotel, plus give you some day trip options, but you make all the decisions about what you want to see and do.

Tours include land touring (large group, small group, or private) or cruises (large ship, smaller island hopping ships, or river cruising).

Entirely On My Own

If I am really familiar with a place and/or plan to basically stay in the one place the entire time and/or it is a short trip, I might opt for being entirely on my own. An example here would be the Black Hills of South Dakota. My mom grew up there. So booking the air, hotel and car rental was no big deal. We knew exactly what we were doing and had the itinerary planned in advance. We also did this several times in Los Angeles where we have family.

I do recommend doing research and planning what you want to do before you get there, so you know how much time you need. What are the attractions and activities in the area? When are they open? How far away are they from where you are staying? Is a rental car the best option, or would you be better off on mass transit?

As far as booking is concerned, sometimes I will use a site like Kayak and sometimes I will book directly with the hotel or airline or car rental company. Again, it depends upon where I am going and how familiar I am with that location.

Combo On My Own with Day Trips and/or Short Trips

I have done this one a lot, in several places in the US (such as Los Angles, San Francisco, Boston and New York City) as well as in London, Edinburgh and Paris. I usually use Viator, which consolidates day trips, short trips and longer trips out of most relatively large cities. So, say you want to visit Oxford or Bath while in London. They will show a variety of trips offered by several different vendors from which to choose.

The trips are offered on specific days of the week and times of the year too. I sometimes will end up with trips with several different vendors, depending upon when they are going, price, and possibly a large group on a big coach versus a small group of about sixteen max in a smaller van.

I also will pick a vendor with whom I have had a great experience in the past — such as Rabbie’s — a Scottish company that does day trips, short tours and longer tours on a small group basis, out of Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, and Dublin. I have always had a great experience with them. These days, if I want to do something out of Edinburgh or London, I look at Rabbie’s website first to see what they have before checking Viator.

Monograms — a Hybrid

As I mentioned above, Monograms is a division of Globus Tours, which is the main tour company I have used since 1984. Monograms takes care of booking the air, hotel, and airport/hotel transfers for you. There is a person at the hotel who can help you out with where things are and how to get there. They also take you on a orientation tour of the city the morning of the next day after you arrive and can set you up on any day trips they have on their daily list. For a multi-city trip, they will also arrange for you to get from city to city.

For instance, I am looking at a future Four Night Paris & Four Night London trip through Monograms. I would start in Paris, then they would put me on the Chunnel Train to London to get me there. I would be met in London and taken to the hotel, where I would have a Monograms person to help me out when in London. I am contemplating one possible day trip in each of those cities, but doing my own thing the rest of the time. I can decide in advance which days I want to do the day trips and have them booked ahead of time so the Monograms person would only be watching for me to get on the right tour bus at the right time.

Land Tours

So far, all of my large group land tours have been through Globus or their budget arm, Cosmos. I have looked at some other groups and have some trips in mind through other companies, but so far have only done Globus and Cosmos. They seem to go where I want to go, have decent prices, allow a good amount of free time at most locations, and they have always had wonderful tour directors who have taken great care of the entire group. They have also been very helpful in the few times that my mom or I have needed something.

For small group tours, I have already mentioned Rabbie’s. I tried them and several other companies out with some day trips first and then decided Rabbies’s was the best by far and went for a couple of longer trips with them. For accommodation, Rabbie’s offers, hostels, B&Bs and hotels as choices with price ranges for each. Booking them is done by Rabbie’s, but paying for them is your responsibility. For one of the tours I did with them (in England and Wales), I chose mid-price B&Bs. When checking out of each B&B, it was necessary to have the right amount of money in cash (British pounds). The other tour was a Scottish castle tour involving country house hotel accommodation. So that was covered in the price of the tour and paid by credit card when the tour was booked.

I haven’t done any private tours as they have been much more expensive than what I care to spend, so I won’t go into them here. Viator always has some listed however.

Usually with land tours, the hotels, all land transportation, and several meals (often all breakfasts and some dinners) are included. Sightseeing is also included with some optional extras that can be purchased separately after the tour begins. With Rabbie’s, some sightseeing is included and some isn’t. They do tell you in advance so you are prepared.

Cruises

The two to three thousand passenger ocean-going cruises in places like the Caribbean or Mediterranean are not something I have done as of yet. I have so far stayed with smaller cruises.

The biggest ship I have been on for a multi-day cruise was a french ship carrying roughly 600 passengers around the Aegean to the Greek Islands with two stops in Turkey. It seemed to be just big enough without being too big. The cruise was part of a 16-day tour of Greece & the Greek Islands through Globus. We had eight days on land in Greece and then eight days on the cruise.

All meals were included on the cruise. A drinks ticket could be purchased in addition for either non-alcoholic drinks (which included things like milkshakes and non-alcoholic cocktails) or, for a good deal more money, a drinks ticket including beer, wine and cocktails could be purchased. I did the math and realized that I would pretty much have to be sloshed all day each day to make the price of the drinks ticket with alcohol worthwhile, so I went with the the non-alcoholic drinks. Pretty tasty stuff and I didn’t feel the least bit deprived. All shore excursions were extra and were purchased the first day on the cruise (and paid for by credit card).

River cruises are the best in my opinion. I have booked two of those so far. One was in Egypt on the Nile and the other in France. The one on the Nile was part of a Cosmos tour of Egypt (a week on land plus a week on an Egyptian ship from Aswan to Luxor). Our group stayed together for all included excursions and meals. There were no extra expenses. The ship held about 160 people max.

For France, the tour was booked with Avalon Waterways, which is the river cruise arm of Globus Tours. All meals and airport transfers were included. There were included excursions for each day (for which I signed up just so they knew who was going on which excursion as there were choices) and there were some optionals for which I was charged extra if I wanted to participate. The included excursions and optionals both had choices that meant I could do something different in locations where I had been before (such as in Normandy, where I had already been to all of the D-Day landing beaches for the US, Canada and Britain) so I opted to tour the towns and villages of Normandy. I really liked that. Even in Paris I could do some new things.

Next Time — Preparing for anything (packing smart while traveling light), cash versus credit cards, and taking photos