Independent travel and independent tourism. Independent travel or travel agency. Choosing a vacation spot

All about roaming and communication abroad: how to contact relatives from abroad.

Especially for those who want to join the orderly ranks of individual tourists, we have prepared a clear step-by-step instruction on how to organize your trip on your own.

Think about where you want to go and why

This is not such a simple question as it seems at first glance. Many famous resorts specially "unwind", while a kilometer from them you can find much more pleasant and little-known places. Perhaps one of the most odious examples is Pattaya. This Thai resort is popular as a family resort only with clients. Russian tour operators. In fact, it is the capital of dubious entertainment, and the nature there cannot be compared with the nature of the neighboring islands, which can be reached in a few hours. Be sure to read the reviews and discussions of the place on the Internet - for example, in our section "Question - Answer". Keep in mind, there are cases when organizing a trip on your own is completely unprofitable from a financial point of view. This applies mainly to mass beach destinations, where tour operators buy tickets and hotel rooms in bulk at a discount.

Think over logistics and make a route

Very often, a ticket directly from point A to point B costs five times more than to point C. At the same time, point C can be very close to point B. Of course, sometimes you have to sacrifice convenience for the sake of price, for example, change planes for buses. Let's take as an example the same Thailand beloved by Russians: the minimum price of air tickets from Bangkok to Koh Samui was about 15,000 RUB. At the same time, getting to Koh Samui by night train + ferry cost approximately from 1000 to 3000 RUB, depending on the class and level of comfort. In Europe, where distances are short by Russian standards and there is a large concentration of airports, it sometimes makes sense to fly to another country and get to a neighboring one by train in half an hour - say, from Spanish Girona to France. You can compare airfare prices using numerous online aggregators, such as www.skyscanner.com. Oh yes, guidebooks are a very useful thing, buy at least one and read it BEFORE you travel.

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Take care of safety

Buying insurance on your own, you have the opportunity to choose the necessary options, such as luggage insurance or liability to third parties. Just in case: we strongly recommend taking out insurance. It is now easy to buy a policy online in five minutes, and in which case this very little money will save you from big trouble. “If you are going to very far and exotic places, ask the insurance company which assistance company they work with, advises Intouch Insurance Director Valisy Busarov. - Assistance is an intermediary company, it is she who will resolve emerging issues and communicate with a medical institution if you need help. Assistance works only with certain clinics with which it is associated with an agreement, so it is necessary to clarify in advance whether there are medical institutions with whom the contract has been concluded. As a rule, there are no problems with this, but in places very remote from civilization it is better to be sure that there is such an agreement with the nearest hospital.”

Book your accommodation online

In addition to searching for tickets, the Internet and mobile applications provide countless opportunities for independent travel arrangements. You can book a hotel room at www.booking.com or sleeping area in a hostel on www.hostelworld.com, or you can rent a room or a treehouse from private owners from different countries on www.airbnb.com. Another interesting service is www.couchsurfing.com. It allows you to live absolutely free all over the world with volunteers who support the idea of such a friendship of peoples. In return, you are expected to host some other community member in your home when he travels to your city. True, free accommodation, as a rule, implies the need to communicate with the owner, observe at least minimal secular decency and experience all the delights of neighborly life.

“As part of the tour, the operator, as a rule, limits the choice to hotels with which contracts are concluded on good terms. Online agencies provide a larger range of hotels, as well as alternative accommodation options that are not available to the tour operator. These are, for example, hostels and apartments - and in combination with flights they are more attractive in price. In addition, you yourself choose additional services (transfer, excursions, New Year's dinner at the hotel, etc.) that you need, while the tour operator includes everything in the package, which, of course, affects the price, ”commented the commercial director of Svyaznoy Travel" Andrey Osintsev.

And in any incomprehensible situation, we advise you to remember this quote from Mark Twain: “In 20 years, you will be more disappointed with the things that you did not do than with those that you did. So depart from the quiet harbor. Feel the tailwind in your sail. Move forward, act, open!”

Perhaps all modern travelers can be conditionally divided into two categories - those who go to unknown destinations with the help of travel companies and those who organize their trip from and to on their own.

IN Lately there are more and more people traveling without intermediaries - both in the world and in Russia in particular. It's obvious that independent tourism gained its distribution due to the development of the Internet and electronic technologies that do not require, say, even a personal presence when buying air tickets.

The maximum simplification of paperwork, hotel reservations, and the purchase of tickets for all kinds of transport allowed people to expand the boundaries of choice. And if earlier a person had to go to a travel agency to find out absolutely all the questions about the upcoming trip, now we just need to enter any request into the search line on the Internet and get an exhaustive amount of information.

Interestingly, according to some data, employees of a number of travel companies are already talking about the fact that their business is on the verge of extinction. Of course, travel companies will not be able to completely disappear - lazy, rich and elderly people will always crave the caring "hand" of the tour operator, but the problems with the "passenger traffic" are increasingly and more clearly beginning to be felt by companies. After all, young people mostly turn away from them - they are not afraid of anything and know perfectly well how to find cheap air tickets, how to book the most suitable hotel rooms, how to get a visa and how to see the maximum sights at a minimum financial cost.

In this material, we will not debunk the uselessness of travel agents and praise independent travelers, if only because in the first and second cases there are both obvious pluses and minuses that are not so noticeable at first glance.

Here we’ll talk about how it’s cheaper to travel - through a travel agency or on your own, which country is better to go through a tour operator, and which one you can go “on your own”, and also look at an example - how to organize a trip on your own according to a similar travel agency offer, what time it will cost - what will be its advantages and disadvantages.

Let's start with the fact that the choice of organizing an upcoming trip depends on a number of circumstances and factors. These include primarily travel dates, choice of dates and days for a flight or move, financial opportunities for tourists, direction - that is, the country they have chosen for their vacation, as well as personal wishes for the level of the hotel, its location, and so on.

As practice shows, travel companies are usually contacted by people who do not want or do not have enough time to organize their trips on their own, citizens who have problems with foreign language and those in need of constant guide accompaniment, as well as those who are “greedy” for last-minute tours, that is, vouchers that can be bought, roughly speaking, a day before departure at a super-low price.

On their own to foreign countries, as a rule, people who speak English fluently, who can independently organize the best leisure for themselves and the conditions of stay in a foreign country, are not afraid self purchase air tickets, visa issues and so on, as well as those who do not want to rest according to the template given travel company.

And now let's look at the example of specific countries where it is still easier for our fellow citizens to travel through travel agencies, and where it is more profitable to travel on their own.

All statistics show that the most popular tourist destinations for Russians are Turkey, Egypt, Greece, China, Thailand, India and Spain. The sample of these countries is naturally supplemented from year to year by others, but even among those listed here it is clear that mostly in demand European states, or countries South-East Asia . neither Latin nor North America, neither Australia nor Middle and South Africa in this top you will not find.

The craving for Europe among our compatriots is most often explained by the proximity of countries, their rich history and saturation with sights smoothly interspersed with favorable mediterranean climate. As for Asia, Russians are most often attracted there by a thirst to get acquainted with the exotic, to expand spiritual knowledge, and also attracted by the cheapness of Asian life. However, first things first.

Where is the best place to travel?

To begin with, let's take such popular destinations among Russians as Turkey and Egypt. As a rule, these countries attract compatriots by their territorial proximity to Russia, resorts with access to the sea, warm climate and developed tourism infrastructure. Both countries, due to their popularity, are in good standing with Russian travel companies. That is why it is easy to spend a week in Egyptian Hurghada or Turkish Antalya with the help of a tour operator for 14-16 thousand rubles, with a flight, mandatory meals and all-inclusive drinks, in at least a 4-star hotel with a swimming pool and a water park on site.

Otherwise, the choice is up to the tourists themselves - to spend all 7 days in a hotel, relaxing and basking in the sun, or combine passive recreation with active trips to sights for an additional price. For example, at the very same hotel, you can easily take a tour and go on a real safari or to the ancient mysterious pyramids.

As practice shows, it is better and cheaper to go to the countries in question on a package tour. Independent trip for round-trip tickets alone, it will cost the traveler the price of the entire voucher from the tour operator. And if you add accommodation, food and entertainment to this, then you will need to overpay at least twice.

Of course, with a great desire to Turkey or Egypt, you can go on your own. However, if you choose a beach holiday, then it makes sense to overpay for it, using an individual search for hotels and good conditions they are practically non-existent.

It is known that such destinations as Thailand, China and India have also recently been widely developed by travel companies and, accordingly, by the flows of Russian citizens. At first glance, these countries are also easier, safer and more appropriate to visit on tours offered by operators. However, it immediately becomes clear that to fly, say, to sunny Thailand is many times more expensive than to plunge into the warm seas of Turkey.

Usually, the offers of travel agencies for holidays in Southeast Asia for two are full of amounts almost reaching 100 thousand rubles for a weekly vacation, and there is definitely no question of any all inclusive. Sometimes, of course, companies do a “throw away” of unsold vouchers and Internet surfers, thirsty for wanderings, catch a discount trip for 30-40 thousand, which, you see, is noticeably cheaper than 100, but still more expensive than Turkish “baklava”.

Which countries are cheaper to travel on your own?

And here tour operators are replaced by free travelers, those who are meticulously ready to tell you that it is best to travel around Asia on your own.

Firstly, it is important to understand that such resorts in Thailand as Pattaya and Phuket (the most popular among tour operators and, accordingly, tourists) are becoming exorbitantly expensive every year, not without the help of our compatriots. Secondly, even in these, which have become expensive places in Thailand, independent travelers find budget options for both food and accommodation, rather than what the operators offer.

For example, in the "kingdom of smiles" it is not necessary to rent a 4-star hotel with free breakfast at the fabulous price of a travel agency. At independent search you can easily find hotels or guest houses on the same Booking at two or even three times cheaper, with conditions practically no different from a 4-star hotel.

As for air travel, if you plan your trip in advance, say, three months in advance, you can buy the cheapest tickets, and sometimes even direct ones. Sometimes independent travelers manage to grab round-trip tickets for $500-550. And if we add here the rent of housing, an average of 500-600 rubles per room per day in a decent guest house, and daily meals for the same amount, then housing plus food will cost a maximum of 8 thousand rubles for one or 12-15 thousand for two.

At the same time, you will not be constrained by the schedule set by the travel company, you will be free to change the place of deployment in accordance with your preferences and budget, and you will also be able to easily travel around memorable places country without resorting to the help of guides and groups hanging around behind him. To implement the last point, it will be enough to arm yourself with a map of the area and a smile, even knowledge of English at a high level is not required from you.

If we talk about a trip to India on a tour, then it’s definitely worth saying here that the benefit of such a trip will consist only in the fact that the organizer will in some sense be responsible for you - for the round-trip flight, check-in at the hotel and what - something food. For the rest, you need to know that holidays in countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and, say, Vietnam are best planned on your own, since factors such as housing, food and hotel location, firstly, are more priority to determine on the spot , and secondly, all this in the conditions of the local market will cost you several times cheaper than the tour operator will offer.

Thus, in many respects, the countries of Southeast Asia will be cheaper and more interesting to visit on your own. Even despite the fact that the flight to this region far from central Russia takes a lot of time and costs an order of magnitude more expensive than the road to a clean and civilized Europe.

And what about Europe?

As for Europe, here opinions about how it is more profitable to travel - on your own or through a travel agency in each case are ambiguous. Actually, about European countries it cannot be generalized to say that they are all equally expensive, for example, as for Asian countries, we confidently assure that all these states are approximately equally cheap.

The paradox of Europe often lies in the fact that it is quite cheap to fly there from Moscow or St. Petersburg, but in the Schengen area itself, everything is not so accessible to our tourists. Let's say that many travelers - whether on a tour or on their own who traveled to Paris - note the high cost French capital, the inability to idly drink coffee in the mornings in coffee shops and allow yourself to have lunch and dinner in cafes every day. About Norway and Denmark, in general, only exclamations are heard about the incredible prices for everything, and not at all stories about the fjords.

However, our tourist still does not bypass old Europe, despite all its pretentiousness and high cost. There are also corners here that attract streams of Russians from year to year. For example, Spain, Bulgaria or Czech Republic.

Traveling to these countries in most cases will cost less independent planning. Unless you want to visit one of the designated countries and not several in a week on a bus tour.

For example, V Czech Karlovy On average, you can travel on a tourist package for 1000-1500 euros for 7 days, this amount includes flights, as well as accommodation in a 4-star hotel with daily breakfasts.

If you organize a trip yourself, then there is a chance to cut costs by half, that is, for 500-500 euros. All that is required for this is a plane directly to the capital of the Czech Republic - Prague, for an average of 120 euros for both tickets, from where you then need to go on your own to Karlovy Vary for about 50-60 euros one way, to a booked hotel of your choice for 240 euro for 7 days.

As for countries such as Spain, Italy, France or Greece, it is possible that it is slightly, but still cheaper to travel on your own. Among the pluses in such a vacation there will be absolute freedom in movement and plans, among the minuses - a complete organization of the trip - starting from self-registration visas to finding the best and cheapest hotel in an unfamiliar country.

By the way, it's time to tell you about all the delights of independent and organized travel intermediaries. After all, in the end, a tourist must clearly see the difference between the first and second, in order to choose for himself the most optimal plan for spending a vacation or another segment of his life in a foreign country.

First, let's take a look at the points advantages of traveling abroad through tour operators:

The minimum time spent on the preparation and organization of the upcoming trip, the purchase of a full package of services in a short time.
Right at the moment of rest, you do not need to take care of booking a hotel, meals and visiting attractions.
Any questions will be answered by the tour operator or his representative on the tour.
If you do not speak English - it does not matter, the tour will be organized using Russian-speaking guides, hotels will meet you with a speech on mother tongue, you will hardly have to communicate in broken English.
Organized excursions will take place in the order and speed set by the guides, there will be no time for tourists to think about anything superfluous. All decisions for travelers will be made at the moment when they pay for the trip in a travel agency in their home country.

As you can see, a trip through a travel company can be pleasant for those who are not ready to deal with some everyday problems during their vacation, as well as for those who love a clear, someone-set routine. In addition, people employed in everyday life, wealthy compatriots and other categories of people who, for some reason, do not want to plan their vacation on their own, will gladly use the services of a tour operator.

However, let's also see what are the advantages of solo travelers:

The ability to adjust the travel route, both before the start of the trip, and during the trip itself.
The ability to independently choose the most suitable level of hotel, food, transportation methods.
The chance to purchase tickets in advance at a discounted low cost and the ability to shift the date of departure or arrival, as well as an independent tourist, if necessary, always have the right to return a ticket by paying the airline a minimum fine. For example, it is a priori impossible to refuse a tour from a travel agency without tangible damage to the wallet.
A free traveler is completely on his own, so he can see the sights as much as he wants, change the route at will, return to the places he likes or study new ones more intensively. One can only dream of such freedom in organized tours.
Self-organization of travel with a careful approach will often cost an order of magnitude cheaper than a tourist trip.
In addition, when making a travel plan individually, a tourist, as a rule, truly penetrates the culture of an unknown country, expands his horizons, lives his journey from the very beginning to the very end consciously, independently, freely.

Usually young people who do not have money for organized tours and there is no desire to follow some kind of guide, to be limited in actions and aspirations. Also, individual trips are a priority for people who have been abroad more than once and "ate" organized tours, who are hungry for real adventures.

Among independent tourists you can meet middle-aged, even elderly people. As a rule, these are people who have not lost interest in life, striving to become more fully acquainted with the local flavor of the countries they go to, as well as understanding the value of their time and the fact that no one can organize a good trip for them better than themselves.

In principle, choosing how it is better or cheaper to go to distant countries is a personal matter for everyone. Because for some people, the thought of organizing a trip abroad on their own will seem like a nightmare, while for others it will open up a "second wind" and incredibly inspire.

Finally, I want to give you an example of how you can organize your trip cheaper than using the services of a travel agency, even taking into account the fact that you are planning to buy tickets and the whole trip in a short time.

As a direction, we will choose sunny and distant Thailand. Voucher for famous island Phuket, so beloved by Russian tourists, is sold for two by the first travel agency that came across in the search for 76,737 rubles. This price includes airfare, accommodation in a 4-star hotel for 6 nights from May 9 to May 15, free breakfast, insurance and transfer.

But let's see what price this trip will cost us if we organize it ourselves. Turning to the first low-cost airline that came across (sites selling tickets with discounts, cheaper than the airlines themselves), it turns out that flying from St. 29 643 rubles for one. That is, two tickets will cost 59,286 rubles, including fuel surcharges.

We go to booking and find desired hotel 4 stars. The price for a double superior room with taxes included and breakfast is 168 euros for 6 nights. We convert them into rubles at the current exchange rate and get 8370 rubles.

To sum up - tickets plus accommodation without a ticket on their own will cost us 67,656 rubles.

That is with an independent organization, you can save up to 10 thousand rubles! For some, of course, this is not money, but for some categories of citizens, even such a difference will seem tangible. In addition, it can be significantly increased if, say, you stay not in the designated hotel, but in a guest house with the same pleasant and comfortable rooms, but without breakfast included in the price. It is quite easy to find a decent guest house in Phuket with accommodation per day for 600 rubles for two, which will be half the price of a hotel in the end.

However, in independent travel, not everything is as cloudless as it might seem. Naturally, saving sometimes requires some sacrifices, for example, time. Unfortunately, I have no data on what kind of flight the travel agency offers to Thailand from Russia - direct or with transfers. But most often they try to organize such tours with direct movements. In the meantime, when planning on your own, the cheapness of tickets is usually formed due to the fact that you fly with transfers, perhaps even with different airlines.

In our example, you can see this. The flight to Phuket will include two transfers and will take an average of 20 hours in both directions. As you can see, you will have to sacrifice a few hours of restful sleep in order to save on travel. Therefore, choosing the best way to go on vacation, I repeat, is a personal matter for everyone.

Do not forget that when organizing a trip on your own, a lot depends on how far in advance you started planning your trip, as a rule, the earlier tickets are bought, the cheaper they are. In our example, the terms are really quite short, and the dates chosen are not the best in terms of cost, so the difference in price between the tour operator’s offer and an independent trip may not seem too noticeable. But even with such an organization, it is obvious, which means that going to Thailand on your own will in any case be cheaper than through a company.

Summing up, I would like to say that naturally there is no single opinion on how best to travel around the world. Each person has his own needs, his own comfort zone and his own financial possibilities. As for how it will be cheaper to travel abroad, I think that within the framework of the article I managed to show you that there are certain trends based on which you can plan your trip and know which country is better to go on your own, and which through a tour operator .

Are you on luxury resort, in an all-inclusive hotel, enjoy the sea, the sun and a tropical cocktail. And you are so cool and good that you can’t even believe that there are still two weeks of vacation ahead. But then suddenly you are asked to look at the hotel manager. He reports simply amazing news: the travel agency did not pay for the hotel room and you have two options - pay yourself or spend the next night under a fence. Two hours later, it turns out that the flight home was also not paid. You understand that those 3,000 bucks that you paid off for a trip for your family ended up on the accounts of a bankrupt travel agency. And you will have to find another bag of money to get out of this mess.

"Vietnam up and down with a small child ... Well, you are monsters! Yes, my tourists are afraid to go to Turkey in a five-star all-inclusive hotel on their own!". I received a similar comment from a blog reader. But really, where does this fear of doing something on your own come from? What makes people give money to intermediaries for something that is so interesting to do it yourself? Plan a trip, a real adventure - and instead of one resort town see the whole country!

Very soon we will go on a new journey of seven months. I planned it in just a few weeks. Everything is spelled out perfectly. For example, I know that on December 29 we will fly from Goa to Bangkok, and on March 20 - from Krabi to Kuala Lumpur, and then to the island of Java. Air tickets bought, hotels found. It is this precise planning and early booking allows you to save a lot of money. Now tell me how much would this cost? individual tour"to four countries and a dozen cities, ordered from a travel agency? A lot? A lot? So why are you paying a lot of money for a two-week vacation in which there is nothing to plan?

Three reasons to go on vacation without a travel agency:

You are sure that your tickets and hotel are exactly paid for, because you yourself bought a ticket from the airline and rented a room in a hotel room.
You may not be limited to standard and densely populated resorts, but instead of one city, see the whole country, or maybe even two or three.
By learning how to organize a small two-week trip, you have acquired skills that will last a lifetime, so next time you will not be afraid to go even around the world. Why not!?

Now I will teach you how to do everything yourself and absolutely free.

Choosing a vacation spot

If you just want to extend the summer and go to the sea no matter where, the main thing is inexpensive, then you can use the "Travel Map" service on the Aviasales website. This is how she looks.

You specify your data in the settings:

The city you want to fly from.
Holiday time: you can select exact dates, you can set a blurry filter, for example, "autumn", "October", etc.
Visa-free stay in the country, you need a visa or Schengen countries.
Length of stay - number of days.
Travel budget. Here you indicate the amount that you are willing to pay for a round-trip flight per person.

Then click search - and right on the map, see the options on the map where you can go. While searching for tickets on the map, I immediately recall my childhood, when I sat for hours with a globe and poked my finger at small islands in the hope that when I grow up, I will definitely go there.

Important clarification! If you do not live in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv or other major cities Russia or Ukraine, you may not see budget options flight. In this case, try to look for flights from neighboring metropolitan areas with large international airports. It will probably be much cheaper to fly from there.

How to buy a ticket online

In order to buy a ticket, it is not necessary to leave the house and look for a ticket office. Go to the website of the Aviasales ticket search engine and look for suitable option flight there. I have already written a very detailed search and purchase of air tickets. There are many screenshots, it explains what and how to do, so you can figure it out without difficulty.

If you are traveling within Asia, for example, from India to Thailand, then you do not need to know the websites of all Asian low-cost airlines by heart. It is enough to use the Makemytrip service, which finds the right flight and compares prices from all discounters and regular airlines. And in some countries there are such universal search engines that look not only for air, but also for train and bus tickets. For example, in India it is Cleartrip.

Of course, sometimes it is easier and cheaper to buy a ticket for a charter, which is ordered by tour operators. My friend, a very experienced girl, recently revealed to me a terrible secret that you can buy such tickets directly from a tour operator, bypassing intermediaries in the face of small agencies that wind up their percentage on this. I don’t know at all how the situation is in Russia, I will give a couple of useful sites for my countrymen - Ukrainians. So, catch burning offers at Pegas, Joinup, Teztur. By the way, there are also tours to Egypt for 300-400 dollars for two a couple of days before departure. I saw it with my own eyes about a month ago.

How to book a hotel online

In order to reserve a hotel room, 10-15 years ago you had to look for phone numbers hotels, call them, find out prices. Now everything is very simple. You go to the Hotellook website and choose from hundreds of options that suits you personally. There will also be filters, just like on the flight search site.

You will be prompted to choose:

The price per night you are willing to pay.
Whether or not you need WiFi.
If you need a hotel with breakfast, also do not forget to check the box.
Swimming pool, fitness center, restaurant and laundry... Choose the items you want.
If you do not want to live in a hotel, but do not mind renting an apartment or house, check the box next to the appropriate type of accommodation.

Detailed step-by-step instruction. Feel free to read this post. There are many nuances.

Or maybe an apartment instead of a hotel?

Rent an apartment even for a couple of days unfamiliar city It can be not only more convenient, but also more profitable than a hotel. Judge for yourself, if you are in an exotic country in Asia, then having a kitchen can be just a huge plus when traveling with children. No need to think about what to feed the child, because you can cook anything on your own.

An excellent service for booking apartments around the world is Airbnb. It is very comfortable. Enter the city, choose the price range within your budget and go ahead to look at the pictures. We are planning to rent a two-room apartment in Bangkok in NG for only 190 euros per week. And this is in a compound with a pool. Well, isn't it a fairy tale?

Just fill in the city in this form and choose the right apartment in any city in the world!

If you're not yet an Airbnb member, you can use our affiliate link and receive a free $15 coupon. to receive such a gift.

How to organize transfers from the airport to the hotel and back?

In many hotels, when booking a room, it is possible to order a transfer from the airport. For example, in our favorite in Bangkok, where we stay all the time, the transfer from and to the airport costs 2-3 times cheaper than a taxi, just a couple of dollars. But this is rather an exception to the rule. It is usually cheaper to take a taxi or take the airport bus to the city center. In most cities around the world, you can get from the airport in at least three ways: by bus, aeroexpress or taxi. Read the forums and decide which option is best for you. So score in Google: "How much does it cost to get from the airport to the center of Ho Chi Minh City", for example. There will be many answers.

If you want to plan everything in advance and not think about how to get to the hotel upon arrival, you can use the international airport transfer system. Fill in the form below with the city of arrival and destination and find out the cost and conditions of the trip.

How to organize self-guided tours?

Many tourists buy excursions along with tours in agencies. I want to upset and surprise you, but on the spot the same excursions are MUCH cheaper. For example, in Russian travel agencies in Moscow, an excursion to southern islands Nha Trang sell for $60 per person. On the spot in Russian travel agencies, it already costs $ 35. But if you buy the same one-day boat tour from the Vietnamese, you will pay only 7 bucks. Unexpected, right?! Yes, in expensive tour you will be given a free bottle of wine, and the food on the ship will be a little more extravagant. But think, is it worth $53 per person?

We organize all our excursions very simply. If the attraction is on land, we rent a scooter (I am writing about Asia now), stock up on a map and go to our destination. We buy entrance tickets on the spot, sometimes, when we really, really want some interesting story, we hire a guide. Believe me, this independent travel costs much less than a purchased excursion, where you are taken on a bus along with two dozen compatriots. At any moment we can turn around and go to another place or, on the contrary, stay somewhere longer. And if you're tired, go home. By the way, if you don’t drive a scooter, you can rent a car for a couple of days and drive around the whole country on your own.

If the excursion is by sea, you can always try to find a boat for rent or, in extreme cases, buy an excursion from local agencies. Experience shows that Russian-speaking guides are usually more expensive.

Quite another matter - author's excursions. For example, the guide lives in Bangkok, Nha Trang or Hong Kong and is ready to show you such interesting places that are hidden from view ordinary tourists. This service has many thematic excursions: you can look at architecture all day long, plunge into the culinary world of a new country or go to visit unusual people. Also, excursions organized by a guide make sense if you have little time, but there is a desire to see as much as possible. For example, only one day in Bangkok. If you try to see everything on your own, then spend a lot of time moving from place to place, looking for attractions on the map. With a guide, this issue is solved quite simply. He himself knows how to see more in a short time and get to the right place faster.

Car rental abroad

If you do not drive a scooter, but do not want to depend on dishonest taxi drivers, then car rental is good way drive further and see more. It is best to use an international booking service that monitors the health of your cars, arranges accident insurance and allows you to take a car at one end of the country and return it at the other. For example, you rented a car at Bangkok airport and returned it in the southern province of Krabi.

Yes, who cares. Personally, I hate organized tours.

Cons of organized tours:

Often they include unnecessary sponsorship trips to a jewelry or fur store (I encountered in Paris and Turkey);

You are partially dependent on other tourists in your group (they need to pee, souvenirs, they have a crying baby on the bus);

Tours are usually the most popular places for excursions for which you have already paid. And if you want to go to a non-tourist place, and you are going to Versailles with a bus, you are sorry to refuse, you have already paid.

Pros of organized tours:

No need to think about anything: what to do with yourself, how to get to the museum, where to eat, what to see. True, it is not a fact that all places will be good.

Usually it is cheaper due to the travel agency, hotels on the outskirts or those in which travel agencies have special prices, sponsors, to whose store you will be taken on a tour, etc. Also Bus tours, like 7 countries in 5 days, very cheap.

There are very cool tours that are not for everyone, but especially for you. For example, in Ukraine there are guys who take designers and architects on tours. They plan cool and with them you can get, for example, to the workshops of famous architects, where you yourself would never get. Or there photo tours. In short, highly specialized tours that will interest you. Or very expensive and rare tours, such as a cruise near Antarctica.

That is, you can enjoy the tour if planning makes you hysterical and if you don't care too much about what you see on the trip. Paris and okay, it doesn’t matter to you what exactly you see (you will see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre 100%). Or if you find a unique tour.

If independence and quality are still important to you, it is better to do everything yourself.

Pros of self-guided tours:

What you want, then you do - visit the places you want, plane or bus - choose yourself, choose the hotel yourself, everything is up to you.

Sites for selecting tickets, hotels, restaurants, establishments and entertainment give complete freedom (tickets.ua, tripadviser.com, hotels.com, anywayanyday and hundreds of other sites).

The guide (book) often tells everything you need, and if you choose it correctly, you can do without a guide on the bus, as in an organized tour. The Internet, again, knows everything.

You can get into tourist places, which you will find out about on some local site, and not in tourist mass-market places, where the quality is calculated on the fact that you will never return, and others will arrive tomorrow.

Many interesting routes are not subject to organized tours. Fuck would we see Scottish northern castles, would have ascended to the very high point Great Britain, would visit Glasgow, Edinburgh, Oberdeen, Inverness, Loch Ness, Isle of Skye in one organized tour. And on its own it is quite real.

Cons of self-guided tours:

You have to plan a lot and rely on yourself. Often this means buying tickets to the museum on the Internet, otherwise there will be a huge queue (Uffizi, Louvre);

You can get into a bad hotel with bedbugs (Paris :)), travel agencies usually choose trusted hotels, because of the reputation and all the cases;

Some places can only be reached with a group, or it is easier to get to with a group or an organized tour (in some collections, group-only excursions, cruises, etc. are most often an organized tour).

It's a little harder to find a guide. I don’t know, somehow we never had the practice of ordering a city guide from the Internet without recommendations. It is always either a blogger-guide whom I read long before the trip (London, Stockholm), or on the recommendation of friends (Tallinn).

In short, an independent trip is usually easier and more pleasant to organize for yourself in simple places (cities and countries in Europe and the USA). It is easier and safer to take a tour to exotic countries, as I understand it.

It's not the same for everybody. Last year my friend and I were looking for where to relax, looking for options where we can surf (I have dreamed of trying for many years). The newbies themselves did not know how. At first we wanted to get there ourselves, find a rental of boards and try it ourselves, but in the end we decided to choose a paid surf tour. And you know, we never regretted it at all! chose the surfvan camp at your own risk - thank God. everything went very well)))

Answer

Better solo travel. Get out of your comfort zone, improve your languages, ride local public transport, rent from locals, eat with locals, go to different places, watch what group guides don’t show, get into stories that will be interesting to tell. Take risks and discover new things. And you will be happy!

Traveling alone is definitely better, and here's why:

1. Self-planning is the way to travel on any budget. No one in the chain between you and the computer has their own margin for food, flights, housing and all that.

2. Self-organization is zen. No one but you is responsible for jambs, delays and failures. And since there is no point in blaming yourself, you will only have to accept the universe with all its surprises.

3. Absolute freedom movement. Nowhere and never will you feel so many emotions as at the Bangkok train station without scoreboards and signs.

Hold on, friends.

1) If it European city then, of course, self-travel. Book a hotel on one of the many sites, upon arrival, buy a "city name_card" (in many European cities such cards are sold for a period of one to 3 days, they usually give free travel on public transport and free or partially discounted passes to museums), up to the suburbs have public transport, you can take an audio guide there, and if you arrive before the opening, then walk through the sights in front of all the tourist crowds. Good things about such a trip: you don’t depend on anyone, you walk wherever you want, you eat wherever you want, you merge with the city, and not with the guide’s herd. But for this: you need to plan in advance what you will visit tomorrow, after tomorrow, etc., do not spare your feet, because there is a lot of walking, it is advisable to know English.

2) If this is a trip around the country, then the question is in the budget. Everyone writes about tours like huge buses filled with time-oblivious women, sober men and their squealing offspring (hello, typical Turkey). Of course, such a journey is comparable to a descent into Hell. Another case: a driver-guide in a good car for a small company or family (assume that you don’t drive / are afraid to get confused in the maps / can’t cope with driving on unusual terrain / take a break from the steering wheel and calmly look out the window) - this, believe me, is very well and helps to know the country from the inside. However, this is a tour, not a solo trip.

3) There are concept tours, that's another story altogether.

4) Destination: The difference between East and West is great, if you are not going to experiment by placing yourself in the condition of a newly hatched chick, then it is better to use a tour operator.

Better water or beer?
Here is the same thing. You need to ask yourself a few questions, in the spirit of "what do I want to get from the trip? what resources do I have (time, money, etc.)?", and accordingly, based on the answers, it will be clear what is better in this case.

If you want to lie on the beach for a week in Turkey, because the budget is limited, too lazy to organize, and besides, you don’t know languages and are afraid that they are needed (actually not) - then why not buy a tour.

And if you are interested in walking around Venice, then vice versa - there is no point in contacting the company - you will overpay for the tour, and the hotel will most likely be offered to hell knows where.

Depends on what you want from this trip. I will write about excursion trips, because I am not a fan of beach holidays.

When buying a ticket through a travel agency, you, of course, overpay, but you don’t bother with the route (you just pre-select from several presented), accommodation, excursions, guides, and mode of transportation. Sometimes you don't even bother with food. They just pick you up at the airport, put you on a bus and take you to where they planned. You just have to relax, listen to the guide's stories and buy souvenirs. And another bonus: most often groups go to museums faster than individual visitors.

When planning a trip on your own, you take it all upon yourself. You need to shovel a lot of information about the city or country where you are going to find out where and why you should go there :) You buy air tickets, look for housing, find out how you can get to this housing. If transfers are provided, you also need to buy train / bus tickets. But there are pluses here: you go wherever you want, you do not have to listen to the guides' ranting (if it depresses you) and make sure that you do not lag behind the group; you are the king and god of your journey, everything depends entirely on you; you can go to super-interesting, non-pop places; you lie down and get up at your convenience. And it's also much cheaper!

Personally, I went on tours and on independent trips. I love this and that. I mostly travel on my own, but when I have extra money and I don’t have the strength to explore the country on my own (previously waiting for travel planning), but I want to go on vacation, I go to a travel agency

For me, independent travel is preferable. Sometimes you start to prepare for half a year, and this is already a great pleasure. I buy a bunch of books, a map, watch historical films, read reviews from other travelers. Finding a place to live is a special pleasure. When traveling around Europe, we ignore hotels, we book accommodation on airbnb.com We always take country houses near the area we want to explore. Having a good kitchen is so important! It is very inexpensive to live in a real medieval house! But about the cost of independent travel, I do not agree with those who write that you can save money on this. Traveling in a rented car across Europe will still cost at least 2 times more than a package tour, although it is worth it.

There is no single answer to this question. Depends on direction and what you want.

Usually an organized tour, especially if it covers several countries or cities, allows you to free your head from organizational issues and put all your strength into the perception and development of what you see. For relative comfort and efficiency in terms of time, you pay here with standardization and a somewhat incubator approach.

Traveling on your own is more fun because you can completely tailor it to your needs, interests, budget, and pace of learning. However, this requires a lot of time, emotional and physical costs, which are rewarded interesting discoveries and adventure.

Some companies offer a combination of these two approaches, and this is probably the most advantageous option. Last year I had a chance to go on a two-week trip to Vietnam with the world famous company Intrepid. We had organized basic things, such as transfers between cities and overnight stays in hotels. Everything else was optional. optional excursions, entertainment, going out, dinners and so on. And we ourselves put together the most interesting and relevant program as if from Lego, while there was enough time and opportunities to explore the area on our own.

Country selection

Choosing a place to travel is a purely individual thing, I usually focus on several points when choosing a country for a new trip. Firstly, it is desirable that this is a new country for me or a place where I have never been, and secondly, you need to think about what you can do there, what attractions are there or what you can do there (I prefer leisure), and thirdly, you need to pay attention to various promotions from airlines, when the price of tickets to a certain place can be very profitable. Sometimes the choice of a country happens completely by accident: friends can invite, or get caught cheap ticket on a plane or I can read some interesting book about this country, there can be countless reasons, for me it doesn’t of great importance where to fly, the main thing is to make it interesting. You can find basic information about different countries on the website.

Flight search

The next step after choosing a destination is to find a suitable and preferably cheap air ticket. First of all, you need to check whether discount airlines (low cost airlines) fly in the chosen direction, for example, in Asia it is AirAsia, and in Europe Ryanair, such companies usually offer the cheapest flights, but this is not profitable in all cases. After checking low-cost airlines, you need to without fail it is impossible to check all airlines, so it is better to use search aggregators that collect price information from many airlines and ticket sales agencies and issue it in a convenient form. With the help of such flight search engines it is very easy to find the cheapest options (offers are sorted by price) on the right direction. There are several such search engines and for the most part they all have similar functionality, but I'm used to using it and have been looking for and buying tickets through them for 3 years now. Search cheap airfare very simple, just enter the direction we need and select the flight dates. (You can check out detailed instruction About, ). Promotions are also posted on the site. Special offers from airlines - this is very convenient for those who have not yet decided where they want to go on a trip. Sometimes you can fly to Europe for 5000 rubles with all round-trip fees for the promotion of some airline.

I have been buying tickets exclusively on the Internet for 4 years now - it's much easier and more convenient, the whole buying process takes no more than 5 minutes and you don't have to go anywhere. During this time, I have bought hundreds of air tickets via the Internet and have never had any problems with this. You only need to buy bank card which can be paid online.

Another tip, for those who do not live in Moscow or St. Petersburg - check the price of an air ticket with a departure (arrival) from Moscow (or other major cities closest to you), it can be much cheaper.

If you are looking for a flight ticket to a popular tourist destination, you can also check last minute flight deals at charter flights, this can be done for example .

Hotel search and selection

Different hotel booking sites work differently, some offer to pay for the hotel right away, while others book without advance payment, and you need to pay directly upon check-in, the first option gives more guarantees that the room will be booked for you, and in the second case it is easier to cancel the reservation.

The process of searching and booking hotels is similar to searching for airline tickets, the main difficulty is finding the most suitable option (in the case of hotels, reviews can help).

Getting a visa on your own

There are 130 countries in the world where Russians do not need a visa or a visa is issued upon arrival - this is more than half of the world! (WITH complete list visa-free countries can be found on Wikipedia)

At the same time, there are countries that represent big interest for travelers, but where you need to get a visa (USA, Europe, China, etc.), but the process of obtaining a visa is much simpler than it seems at first glance or as travel agencies want to present it. I independently obtained visas to the USA (2 times), Europe (to France), China, Myanmar, and in this case, in no case was there a need to contact a travel agency. All the work of travel agencies is to send documents to Visa Center And for that they charge quite a lot of money. When I needed a visa to France, I saw offers from travel agencies that reached 500-600 euros for assistance in obtaining a visa, this is just a robbery! I collected myself Required documents and went to the visa center of France in Moscow. After 3 days I received a ready-made Schengen visa, it cost me 70 euros (35 euros consular fee and 35 euros visa center services). You can contact the consulate directly, then the visa process will take longer, but you can save 35 euros.

The process of obtaining a visa is very simple and is described on the websites of the embassies (or consulates) of the respective country. All you need is to find the website of the embassy (or the nearest visa application center if there is one), look at the list of documents required for obtaining a visa and make an appointment (if necessary). Most often, a passport, air tickets, hotel reservations and insurance are enough to obtain a visa. After that, you just need to hand over the documents and wait for the visa to be given to you. There is nothing difficult in this. It is especially easy to obtain a Schengen visa on your own, given the fact that many new visa centers of European countries have recently opened throughout the country.

It is worth noting that in some countries (such as Japan) it is much more difficult to obtain a visa without the services of travel agencies, so in this case, contacting a travel company may be justified.

language problem

One of the main problems that stops people from traveling independently is insufficient knowledge of English (de facto English is international language) language. But it seems to me that most people overestimate the importance of this problem. Yes, not knowing English can make the trip a little difficult, but it cannot make independent travel impossible. I have been to places where local population did not speak English and then had to communicate with gestures - this is of course harder, but this makes it even more interesting. Often seen in Thailand Russian tourists who came to rest on a tourist package and do not speak English at all, so these tourists walk around the city perfectly, buy fruits in local markets, while they speak Russian, and the Thais answer them in Thai, and everyone understands each other perfectly . Sign language is a very universal language and can be used to explain almost everything. Let me give you two more examples from my own experience. In China, I once met an Irishman who was going to travel from Irkutsk to Moscow in a reserved seat, during our meeting, he learned five Russian words - that's all he knew in Russian. And another time, in a train compartment, I met a Swiss who was traveling to Tobolsk alone, not only did he speak English very poorly (but in Russia, knowledge of English can hardly help a foreigner, especially in the provinces), so he did not speak at all in Russian, but this did not prevent him from traveling from Moscow to Beijing by train, making stops in many Russian cities and studying them on his own. Upon returning to Switzerland, he wrote to me that he really liked this trip and he was simply delighted.

There is no language problem - there is only fear of this problem.

Search for information. What to do and what to visit.

If you prefer to go on excursions in an organized way, then in most popular tourist destinations such excursions can be ordered on the spot from local companies (with a Russian-speaking guide), most often it will be cheaper than ordering excursions from the travel company where you bought the ticket. In countries such as Egypt, Thailand, Turkey, there are many local companies that are happy to organize an excursion program for you, but I would suggest driving through the sights on your own, for this you just need to arm yourself with a guide.

But I would recommend hiring a local guide on your own for individual excursion, it may be a little more expensive than a group tour, but you can get personalized service and, for sure, very interesting experiences. Programs from independent guides most often more exclusive and you will be able to visit places that you might never see on your own or with a group. There are several sites where you can find and book a tour from independent local guides, I recommend the Russian site, which has already proven itself on the good side.

Travel insurance and security

Buying a ticket in a travel agency does not give absolutely no security guarantees. Your peace of mind is only in your hands, and the travel agency cannot provide any additional security. Most accidents happen to those who come on an organized tour, as they get a false sense of security and lose their guard.

When traveling abroad, always take out a travel insurance policy, this can be done quickly and inexpensively (less than $ 1 per day). To obtain a visa to Europe (Schengen visa) and to many other visa countries, the purchase of insurance is required. You can apply for an insurance policy in almost any insurance company or, even easier, you can apply for insurance via the Internet. You can compare the offers of insurance companies and apply for insurance online on the website, where you can choose the most advantageous offer from the largest insurance companies (you can find more details on the instructions for choosing and buying insurance in the article -). An electronic insurance policy has the same legal force as a paper policy. In the presence of insurance policy, in case of an accident, you will need to call the phone number indicated in the policy and they will give all instructions on what to do next, and if necessary, they will call a doctor. Take care of your own safety, no one will do it except you.

What are the advantages of independent travel compared to tour packages?

The main advantages of independent travel are freedom and cheapness. You are in complete control of your journey, you go where you want, not where your guide tells you to go. You don't have to live in the same place for your whole vacation, if you want to move to another place or hotel, you can easily do it. When traveling on your own, you will never find yourself in a situation where your tour company went bankrupt and did not pay for your hotel stay. I think everyone remembers when hundreds of tourists around the world could not return home and were not allowed out of hotels, demanding to pay for their accommodation - this is basically impossible with independent tourism, since only you control everything.

Traveling alone is cheap, the price of your trip depends only on you and your preferences. You don't have to pay for unnecessary services travel companies, you can always choose the best offer. Let's compare the cost of independent travel and tour package on specific example. Let's take one of the most popular directions - resort Pattaya(Thailand) and the largest tour operator TezTour. Let's say we want to go to Pattaya in early November for 7 days (departure on November 6th), one of the tour company's offers includes a flight from Moscow, transfer and 7 nights at the WELCOME PLAZA 3 * hotel with breakfast, the price for this tour package is 68086 rubles for 2 people. Now let's see how much it would cost if we went on our own. We go to the site and look for a flight Moscow-Bangkok with a departure in early November for 2 people, as a result we get a price of 42,880 rubles for two. Then we look for a hotel on the site, enter the name Welcome Plaza and dates in early November into the search bar, we get the price of 9035 rubles for 7 nights with double occupancy. The bus from Bangkok airport to Pattaya costs about 100 rubles per person. Thus, the total cost of the trip with independent planning is 52,115 rubles, which is 15,971 rubles cheaper than the tour package offered by the travel agency. It's simple math, it's up to you.

Or, for example, another popular destination - Cuba. At the beginning of October (departure 2.10.12) a package with a flight, transfer and accommodation at the Vedado 3 * hotel (reviews about the hotel, by the way, are not very good, but you won’t have a chance to change it) TezTour costs 113,256 rubles for two. If we conduct a search, as we did above, we get that the flight Moscow-Havana-Moscow to dovih for these dates is for 72381 rubles, and the same hotel for 7 nights costs 11311 rubles, which in total gives 83692 rubles, and this almost 30,000 rubles less than the offer of the tour company.

And if you take a non-standard route, which is very easy to organize with independent planning, then buying it from a travel agency can be many times more expensive.

In rare cases, it happens that there are no cheap air tickets for a particular destination, and then it turns out that it can be more profitable to use a tourist package. But this happens quite rarely, and over time it will be even less common, especially against the background of the fact that tour operators have significantly increased the cost this year. travel vouchers against the backdrop of bankruptcies of major travel companies and the appreciation of the dollar.

In fact, you pay travel agencies for the following services:

Flight. Often old planes with poor maintenance, but you can't change anything and choose an airline.
Hotel. You can't change the hotel if you don't like it or if you want to go somewhere.
Transfer from the airport to the hotel by shared bus.
Visa. If the country is a visa country (and there are not so many of them), then your documents will be collected and sent to the visa center, but they cannot guarantee the successful receipt of a visa.
Excursions. You may be offered excursions, but the price for them will be many times higher than if you went to the same places on your own or through local tour agencies.

This concludes the services of tour operators. No one will help you communicate with the store or the market if you do not know the language, you should also not wait for help from the guide if you have an accident, they are not obliged to help you, this is not included in the list of their services. Really, after reading this article, you will not be able to organize your trip on your own, making it cheaper and more interesting?

If, however, I still didn’t convince you that it’s better to travel on your own, and you still intend to go on a package holiday, then I recommend that you read the instructions - "" so as not to waste time traveling to travel agencies, but easy and convenient to find and book everything online.

Conclusion

The most difficult thing is to take the first step, but once you go somewhere on your own, you will never want to buy package organized tours again. Do not put it off until later, start planning your next trip on your own and you will see that it is much easier, cheaper and more interesting than it seems at first glance.

PS: If you have any questions or want to clarify something, ask in the comments, it is important for us to know whether this material turned out to be useful and how it can be supplemented. Share this article with your friends via social media, let them also learn how easy it is to go abroad on their own.