HOW TO PICK A TRAVEL TOUR COMPANY

I recently finished my first true guided tour in Morocco, and it was a great experience, but a bit different than expected in terms of pace, participants and activities.  When looking for a tour company, the most important factors to me were the tour dates, the places covered on the tour and the budget.  I ended up choosing an inexpensive tour with Explore Worldwide who has many Morocco tours, but the “Highlights of Morocco” trip I selected was brand new.  Looking back, there are a few other factors I could have looked at more carefully as well as things I wouldn’t have known to ask about.  So now that I’ve had the experience in Morocco – as well as after speaking with many people on my tour who have been on similar trips in the past – I have put together a list of tips to help you select the right tour to get the most out of your holiday.

First of all, is a guided tour right for you?

I wrote out the pluses and minuses of taking a guided tour that could be helpful in answering this question.  A few other thoughts… For me, the extensive hours on the bus took away from the experience at times.  When we stopped it was often for short tours or photo breaks and didn’t balance the time spent on the bus.  But on the other hand, Morocco is a big country and there is really no other way to get around and see it all.  Also, there were drives where the scenery was stunning and was part of the tour experience. 

Additionally, some of the organized stops we made included some kind of shop (carpets, leather, etc.) where we were told about the craftsmanship and cultural importance of the items… but then we were given a hard sell to buy.  I was not happy with that technique.  

What type of holiday are you looking for?

• Active / adventure e.g. hiking, biking, rafting
• Site seeing / covering a lot of ground in a country or region
• Nightlife / partying / younger crowd
• Niche e.g. culinary or equestrian

How do you know if a tour company is good?

There are a couple of well-known tour companies that have different reputations, and then there are smaller, more niche companies that may be lesser known.  For example:

• Contiki – Geared to 18-35-year olds
• Intrepid – Quality tours at a higher price 
• G Adventures – Attracts younger crowd but also offers family tours at a cheaper rate
• Explore Worldwide – UK-based, budget-friendly
  

But in order to find out if a company is “good” for you, I think it is important to get two types of reviews – the company you are looking at and the specific tour (or a similar one) that you are interested in.

Since everyone has a different experience on these tours, we are lucky that in this day and age that there are reviews for everything.  I recommend looking at the reviews on tour company websites with a grain of salt – often those reviews come from the evaluations filled out at the end of a trip and are taken out of context (or the negative ones are not used).  Instead, TripAdvisor is a great resource for reading reviews and forums about tour companies as well as posting a question to expert travelers.  Also, Googling reviews of your tour or tour company will likely bring up some responses.

What kind of budget / accommodations are you looking for (hotels, transportation)?

• Luxury (comfortable coach bus or train, expensive hotels, etc.)
• Mid-range (basic hotel with limited amenities, small bus) 
• Roughing it (hostels, budget hotels, camping and basic transportation)
  

And finally, my biggest recommendation is to contact the tour company by email and/or phone and gauge their knowledge, customer service and answers to your questions.  You can ask things like the age range of people who are signed up, male-to-female ratio, how many hours on the bus per day, etc.).