Travel News

Flexible Itineraries: Group Travel With A Personal Touch

Locations in this article:  Florence, Italy Rome, Italy Venice, Italy

Help For Group ToursIf the thought of escorted travel conjures visions of coach buses and tourist-trap restaurants, it’s time for a tune-up.

Travelers are growing increasingly sophisticated, eschewing the “If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium” mentality for more flexible, immersive experiences, and tour companies are starting to pay attention.

Marcy MacDonald investigates the revamped products from organized tour companies and how they measure up to a savvy traveler’s needs.

One thing group tour operators have concluded is that “subtly guided tours” are right at the top of the travelers’ wish list.

According to the US Tour Operators Association (USTOA), a membership survey concluded that more than 35 percent of their members cited escorted tours as their greatest area of growth, with 25 percent reporting flexible itinerary tours (FIT) as their major growth area for 2010. Twenty-three percent of respondents reported independent tours accounting for greatest growth, with vacation packages cited by a 15 percent rise.

The trend is swinging toward packaged tours that incorporate free time, tour guides who really do show you hidden gems in destinations you thought you knew well, and provide flexible options and immersive activities.

Nola with her 'Rola - a new type of tour guide“The most negative word is ‘regimented.’ Operators are overcoming antiquated perceptions,” explains John Staphnik, chair of the USTOA. The industry is reporting a trend that has emerged over the past two decades: the desire to experience bragging rights coupled with the security of an organized group.

Bruce Poon Tip, who founded GAP Adventures reports, “Boomers seek lifelong learning experiences, so the standard week-on-the-beach or canned coach tour no longer satisfies their need for authentic experience.  Young professionals grew up with unprecedented choices, so freedom and flexibility in travel, combined with the security of a group resonates strongly.”

Culturally immersive companies like GAP Adventures and Intrepid Travel have to rely on flexible itineraries because of their experiential focus. After all, when taking public transportation and traveling off the beaten path, there can be no cookie-cutter plan.

These days, even more traditional tour operators are re-calibrating the concept of an organized coach tour.

Get the latest on these types of experiences in our Group Travel section.

According to Linda Haydon, product development director for Trafalgar Tours, “This is no longer the ‘herding’ experience it once was.” Gone are the days when coach tour travelers grazed on polyester cuisine at community troughs in towns overcrowded with mediocre tourist traps. Today’s travelers are just too well-informed.

Break away from spring Break crowdsUsing Trafalgar as a paradigm for what many touring companies are now attempting could explain many of their new programs. A Taste of Europe involves cooking your way from country to country; Hidden Treasures feature expert leaders for a more immersive, off-the-beaten-path experience; At Leisure itineraries feature longer breaks for individual pursuits (no tour begins before 9 a.m.) and includes “hop-on/hop-off ” sightseeing tickets.

So what are the benefits of traveling on an escorted tour, but on a more flexible itinerary?

Based on a recent experience with A Trafalgar At Leisure tour of Italy, I can report that my original fear and loathing of traveling with an escorted group has been greatly alleviated: Over the past 20 years, the game has changed, liberally.

Once upon a time, wavering off course meant the possibility being chastised at length or, worse, being left behind. Today, flexibility is the norm.

In its At Leisure itinerary, if breakfast at noon is still too early for you, speak to your personal tour director, a magician who can organize anything from a converter for your computer to a bathtub (Rome may have hundreds of miles of aqueducts overhead and hundreds of Roman baths beneath you, but finding a swimming pool, much less a bathtub, takes some doing).

You like the Boscolo Hotel Aleph (the location is great), but you dream of a night at the Hotel Hassler or the Grand Hotel? Ask.

Learn more about Italy’s capital, the Eternal City, with our Off The Brochure Travel Guide: Rome, Italy.

The Colosseum - RomeIf you want to visit or adopt one of the famous Colosseum cats, for instance, your Hidden Treasures guide will not direct you to the Colosseum (where you would find only one, a permanent resident called The Highlander, according to Tour Director, Robert Astarita): all of the others have been removed to the Roman Forum near Largo Argentina where Julius Caesar met his fate, and are attended to by the Roman equivalent of the SPCA.

You took an immediate dislike to the person seated next to you? No problem: Each day, you are encouraged to take a different seat on the coach.

You think you already know Florence so well, you call her Flo?

You may still be surprised with your Hidden Treasures expert shows you the hearts carved into the eyes of Michelangelo’s sculpture of David, and points out that this beautiful boy was as uncircumsized as the artist’s lover.

Gallery walk in Turin, ItalyYou’ve photographed Pisa so often, you’d rather ditch the itinerary and go to the nearby International Film Festival in the lesser-known town of Lucca? Ask.

If you still think the Five Towns are located somewhere in New York State, you’ve never seen UNESCO’s World Heritage Site, the Cinque Terra, a series of coastal gems, inaccessible by car, but connected by a miniscule train that travels from gorgeous village-to-village, each of which has a distinctly different profile than its seagoing neighbors.

Of course, there will always be elements that the independently minded traveler can’t abide, which could include anything from ample time to peruse a favorite flea market to asking new friends to board the coach and come along with you.

However you travel, consider all of the options before you make your final choice.  There’s a world out there that is waiting for your eyes only.

By Marcy MacDonald for PeterGreenberg.com. Marcy MacDonald is a New York-based freelance writer covering travel and lifestyle for national publications.

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