6 Reasons to Join a Tour Group if you are Travelling Solo
Whether you are studying abroad and don’t know your classmates or you are taking a solo trip, I have one recommendation for you. Go with a tour group targeted at your age group!! Seriously, I did this and it is the way to go! I am a planner. I knew I wanted to go to Greece at the end of my study abroad trip and I was worried I would not meet people in my study abroad group that would want to do a trip. Instead of playing it by ear or not taking my dream trip, I signed up for a tour group. I also took a solo weekend trip to Croatia with a tour group when I could not get my study abroad classmates to agree on a weekend. These were the best decisions and here is why:
1. You will make amazing friends
The biggest fear I had travelling alone was not having friends. I can’t even go to a restaurant by myself nonetheless on a solo adventure. By joining a tour group I got a social travel experience! On the first night of my trip to Greece, I enjoyed drinks on the rooftop bar of my hotel and immediately bonded with my fellow travelers. I was surprised most of them were Australian, so I asked them a ton of questions about Australia and secretly loved listening to their accents. Only one other person was from North America (Canada) so we had a lot to chat about.
A lot of the other people were solo or with a small group of friends. Everyone was so friendly and willing to make friends. By the end of the week, I had a group of eight or so people that I became really close to! There is something about travel that makes for easy friends and this allowed the opportunity to take advantage of that.
2. It is a small world – you don’t know who you could run into
On my solo trip to Croatia, I joined a tour group targeted at students studying abroad. I arrived at the train station at Florence where we got on a bus to go to Croatia. As we are boarding the bus, I could not believe my eyes. A guy from my high school in Oregon who I hadn’t seen in years was on the same tour group, in the same country, at the exact same time as me. I ended up spending the whole weekend with him and his buddies from college! I know the odds of that ever happening again are astronomically low, but hey it can happen!
3. You will have people to do every activity with
This goes hand in hand with my first point, but you will never have to do anything alone. You will have a group of 50+ people all doing the same thing as you. Going out to eat, going to bars, and sightseeing all of a sudden becomes a lot more comfortable. I am all for going out of my comfort zone, but being able to enjoy these experiences with other people made it that much better.
4. You have a guide that knows exactly what to do
The tour guides were only a few years older than myself at the time so they knew exactly what we wanted to do. They tailored the trip to the young and adventurous. The guides could recommend places to eat and lead the group to different bars at night. Most of the time there was group activities during the day that they would take responsibility for leading.
5. The tour groups target your age group
This was a huge point for me! When I thought of a tour group, I imagined museums and the elderly. This is nothing of the sorts! You have to be 18-35, but most of the groups will be more lower 20’s. It is more the vibe that is completely directed at my age. They knew exactly what we wanted and they provided. The itinerary’s are go-go-go with lots of adventure and a focus on going out at night. This is exactly what I wanted! I never got bored and yes I drank lots of Redbull, but hey I slept when I got home.
6. You don’t have to plan a thing.
I loved not having to plan anything. While I do love planning in general, when it comes to the details of planning an adventure in a foreign country in which I know nothing about, it is hard. It takes enough planning just to decide what country you want to go to. The tour groups planned everything down to the T for you. Getting between places they booked the bus, train tickets, or ferry tickets. We stayed at the best hotels. Our days were planned with fun activities or highlights of sightseeing. They knew the best spots to go party until 6am.
While in some cases I would want some say, because the tour group targeted my age, they did exactly everything I wanted! Now even when I am planning a trip apart from a group tour, I will check the tour group itineraries to see what the experts do!
Suggested Tour Groups
- Contiki – I went to Greece with Contiki. I had the best 10 days of my entire summer on my trip with them. The trips are longer, typically one week to a month. They are an Australian company which I didn’t know before I showed up and everyone was Australian.
- EF Ulimate Break – I never took this tour group, but they have similar trips as Contiki. I would check both out when you are tour group shopping.
- Bus 2 Alps – This tour group has a lot of weekend trips in Europe perfect for the study abroad student. I took this tour group to Croatia.
- Florence for Fun – Similiar to Bus 2 Alps, they focus more on the weekend trips for study abroad students. The trips leave from the Florence train station so it is more specific for people studying abroad in Italy.
