It is important to know when signing up for a group tour, that there are ALWAYS going to be some sort of hidden fees or unexpected costs, whether it is stated on the tour description or not. Tipping the tour guides, buying travel and health insurance, as well as extra activities that you think are included but may not actually be.

Before signing up for a tour, you should make sure that you not only have enough money for the tour itself, but a stable amount of extra spending money that will support your extra costs and hidden fees.

Did you fall in love with a certain stop on your group tour and wish you could have stayed longer? Are you not really interested in doing some of the group activities already included in your trip? Well, the bad thing about joining a group tour, is the lack of flexibility.

If you want to stay either longer or shorter in some places, or even skip some places, it is not possible without leaving the whole trip all together. Did you see a cool location on Pinterest or Instagram that you want to visit but your group tour does not go there? You will have to extend your trip after the tour is over if you want to go back and hit missed spots.

The majority of group tours are created on the basis of seeing as much as you can in a short amount of time. They are often known for traveling at an extremely fast pace and not spending more than 1, 2, or 3 days in the same city or town.

Because of this, it is hard to truly experience a city or country authentically as tours are mostly sticking to the tourist attractions and not actually diving into the culture and life style of the country. If you want a slower paced and relaxing trip where you can truly take in all the sights at your own comfortable pace, a group tour is not the right choice for you.

Group tours are of course, way costlier than if you were to do the same itinerary or similar itinerary on your own. This is of course, because the tour company is making a commission from the sales of their tours. Also, group tours tend to stay in hostels or hotels that are not necessarily the cheapest in the location as well as pressuring you to eat at restaurants that are touristy and overpriced.

When I travel solo, I usually always eat from grocery stores as well as staying in the cheapest decent quality hostels that are available, which lets me spend significantly less money than the amount I would spend on a group tour.

Along with my hidden fee point, there is also other costs to consider that are usually not included in your typical group trip. These includes the expensive costs of return international airfare, any domestic flights, baggage fees, visa fees, spending money for snacks, drinks, and souvenirs as well as any extra add on trips, any meals not included, PCR/other Covid tests that may be needed, a sim card for your phone, and airport transfers.

You may think that the tour cost is low for everything that is does include, but I promise you, if you add up the individual costs of these items, there is still a huge fee you are paying for being a part of a tour company as well as the additional costs it does not include, the major one being the cost of your plane tickets.

Another disadvantage of group travel is the lack of flexible dates for some running group tours. If you have a specific set of dates that you must travel during, due to work or school restraints and limited vacation days, a group tour’s limited or set tour dates may not be the best option for you. 

Honestly, group tours can just be exhausting! You are constantly on the move changing hostels every night and jam packing 100 activities into a short two-week itinerary. You may still be having the time of your life, but there is almost no spare time to relax, hangout, and just soak up the atmosphere of the special place you are in.

Make sure you are someone with a lot of energy if you are joining a tour as you will come out sleep deprived and needing a whole week just to sleep and recover. This may not be the ideal vacation for those wanting to just relax and chill out. If you have made it this far into the blog post, then you should be able to conclude now

if doing a group tour is the right way to travel. I absolutely loved the prior group tours that I joined, but as a long-term budget traveler and university student, joining a group tour is not always possible without breaking the bank.