Inexpensive holiday: last minute tour or independent travel? What is cheaper: Tour or On Your Own? Is it better to buy a tour or go on your own?

As the time for vacation approaches, many people have a lot of questions that concern not only the immediate preparation for the trip, but also the most favorable organization of the vacation. In this article we will try to figure out the question of how to travel cheaper: on your own or through a travel agency? So, we carefully analyze all the nuances and little things.

Advantages of self-organized travel

The advantages of traveling independently are very significant. Judge for yourself:

Freedom of choice. Firstly, you decide when to go, which means that you have the opportunity to purchase tickets for those days that suit you. Secondly, with this method of travel, the tourist decides for himself how long he will rest. The route is also compiled independently, it can be changed at any time. Thirdly, absolute freedom is provided in choosing where to live. There is no need to stay at the hotel. The list of accommodation options is huge; everyone can find the best option for themselves, for example, a hostel, camping, apartments.
Saving. Agree, this is an important component that is decisive for many. Many people believe that a tour organized on their own is more expensive than a trip arranged by a travel agency. This is true, but only if you purchase tickets for a regular flight, which is always more expensive than a charter flight.

If you're lucky, you can save money on cheap tickets to charter flights. It’s difficult to “catch” such inexpensive tickets, but it’s still worth a try, because if the tour is not fully sold, tickets are sold much cheaper.

You can save money by staying in a hostel or apartment, where prices are significantly lower than in regular hotels.

You can also achieve significant savings by cooking your own food, because all hostels can boast of having their own kitchen. Those who are not eager to cook while on vacation can find an inexpensive cafe. This option will in any case be cheaper than the restaurant prescribed by the travel agency.

Independence is exactly what many people lack. There is no need to focus on the excursion group, wait for someone and visit only the planned places. It is much more interesting to get together and go on your own to comprehend the unknown.

A self-organized trip to another country is a truly breathtaking adventure that begins from the moment you step onto the plane or enter the train carriage.

Disadvantages of Independent Travel

When going on an independent tour, it is important to remember that this method also has its drawbacks.

Responsibility. Organizing an independent trip is a troublesome task, because all the preparation worries will fall on your shoulders. You need to take care in advance about finding accommodation, buying tickets, taking out insurance, and planning a route. All this takes a lot of time and effort.

To make your trip comfortable, you will need to study a lot of information, because it is important to think through every detail. Operators will help citizens traveling through a travel agency in solving problems that arise. If the trip is organized independently, then all issues will have to be resolved independently.

To ensure maximum protection from unforeseen situations and complications, you should take care of the most comprehensive medical insurance in advance, as well as carefully familiarize yourself with the basic laws and requirements of the country to which you are planning a trip.

No transfer. Learn all the secrets transport system another country will have to without any help. Not always everything in this matter can be immediately clear to a tourist.
The language barrier. When organizing an independent trip, it is important to know at least a few of the most common expressions and phrases in English. English language. Otherwise it will be very difficult to explain.\
Limited access to attractions. When choosing a route, you should take into account that there are places where single tourists are not allowed. To some museums or National parks You can only get in as part of an organized group.

What are the benefits of a vacation organized by a travel agency?

So called package tours have many advantages that can significantly make the life of travelers easier, for example:

All unforeseen problems that may arise during the trip are resolved by the travel agency. To resolve issues related to air travel, accommodation, transport, and service personnel, it is enough to contact a representative of the travel agency.
Tourists will be met at the airport and taken to the desired hotel. Thus, the question of how to get to the right place is resolved by itself.
Package tours include all kinds of excursions and activities. The traveler can choose at will what he wants to visit. Tickets for such tours are more expensive than those purchased on the spot, but they are safe and will be conducted by a Russian-speaking guide.
When going on vacation through a travel agency, it is not at all necessary to speak the language of the country you are going to visit. Hotel staff and guides will speak your language, which is very convenient.
You can save on flights, because the cost of charter flights is much lower than regular ones. In addition, there is almost always the opportunity to purchase a last-minute tour, which means that you can count on quick processing and an attractive price.

Disadvantages of package tours

However, not everything is as smooth as it might seem at first glance. And package tours have their downsides that you should be aware of.

The tourist pays exactly as much as indicated on the invoice. There is no way to carefully study what exactly they take money for.
At first glance, it may seem that travel agencies offer a lot of vacation options in any direction. In fact, this is an illusion; the choice is not that great. Travel agencies use charter flights, which are organized in the most common destinations.
As for the tour dates, they are always set in advance. Therefore, the tourist has to adapt to the dates offered by the operator.
The dates of charter flights are not defined by clear deadlines, but are focused on tours. The exact departure date will be known 2-3 days before the flight. The inconvenience is also associated with frequent postponements, cancellations and changes in the schedule of charter flights.
Only those hotels with which the agency has an agreement are offered for accommodation. The situation is similar with meals, which will be organized only in the cafe or restaurant provided by the tour operator.
You need to be prepared in advance for the fact that all services are organized for a whole group of tourists. You should not expect that everyone traveling in your group will be well-mannered and organized. Situations can be very different, you need to come to terms with this in advance.
A trip organized by a travel agency shows only the facade of the country, its most popular routes and famous sights that can only be seen briefly. But you can count on an interesting and complete story from a Russian-speaking guide.

Choose what is closer to your concept of have a good rest. We wish you a pleasant trip!

Hello friends! Today I’ll tell you how to buy it yourself cheap tour online, compare prices for all tour operators and purchase the most profitable option without leaving your chair. Read, apply, and may an inexpensive vacation be with you!

In many cases, traveling on a tour may be cheaper than traveling on your own. It happens that the price of tickets alone comes out as a ready-made package with round-trip flights and accommodation. This is especially true for popular tourist countries, where there are many charter flights - Turkey, Thailand, Vietnam, Black Sea coast Russia, Bulgaria, Montenegro.

Anya on Railay Beach in Krabi (Thailand)

For example, for the two of us to fly to Thailand on our own from Siberia to short trip for two weeks it will cost at least 70,000 rubles, most of of which will be spent on tickets (and even then, not direct ones). For relaxation, it will be more convenient and profitable to buy right away ready-made tour. After all, the tour operator buys charter tickets and hotel rooms in advance and a lot at once, so it turns out cheaper. Not to mention last-minute tours, when seats on planes remain unsold, and the tour can be very cheap.

Let's now look at several ways to buy a tour cheaply.

How to buy a cheap tour: ways to save

1. Search and purchase a tour online

It’s gratifying that now you no longer need to travel to travel agencies in the city in search of the optimal and inexpensive tour, all information is available without leaving home - online. In addition, buying online is often cheaper than buying in the office, because the agency bears the costs of renting premises, salaries for managers, and consumables.

It is especially convenient to buy last-minute tours online, because places on them tend to run out very quickly. By the time you get to the office, there will be nothing left, but I saw it, decided, paid, and flew off to rest.

Prices for tours abroad change very quickly and depend on exchange rates - another argument to buy quickly, because the ruble falls every now and then. All information on vouchers on the sites I indicated is always up to date.

2. Advantages of buying tours online:

Cheaper than in the office, or the same price.
Fast: you don’t need to go to the other end of the city or go to the nearest, but not verified agency, the purchase process takes place from any place convenient for you.
Reliable: more than 120 verified tour operators, and payment occurs only through secure protocols.
You choose everything yourself (and some travel agents can recommend exactly the hotel or tour operator where they have a higher commission, and not where it will be best for you to relax).
Reviews of hotels and destinations, as well as photos, will help you decide which vacation spot to choose.
Convenient price calendar, you can select the date with the lowest price.
All tours are available from your smartphone on the way to work or home, on your computer at home or at work: look and choose where and when it is convenient.
All documents at once: we pay by bank card and all vouchers, air tickets and other documents are immediately sent to your email. We eliminate the notorious human factor, when a manager may forget something.
The tour can be purchased in installments.
If you need a visa, the support service will tell you what documents are needed, and within the Moscow Ring Road, a courier will pick up the documents and deliver ready-made visas for free.
Online consultants will help you make your choice, support is available around the clock.
The service department will help you resolve all issues at any time if something goes wrong.
Bonus programs, promotions, discounts.

3. Search all tour operators

Search engines look for options and compare prices across 120+ tour operators at once, so not a single tour escapes your attention. All this works on the principle of the airline ticket search engines that you probably know well. When choosing a tour, I recommend looking at all three services at once, so you definitely won’t miss anything.

4. Search for nearby dates

It’s good if you can shift the start or end of your vacation by a few days - this often allows you to save a lot of money. The calendar will help you understand which dates the tour is cheapest for. low prices.
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Tour to Thailand for the price of a flight, the price is for two

It is believed that traveling through travel agencies is expensive and inconvenient. In fact, this is not always the case. We decided to study this issue in detail and find out what you should pay attention to when buying a tour.

Travel agency and tour operator

When choosing where to purchase a ticket - from a tour operator or a travel agency, it is important to understand the difference between them. A tour operator is an organization whose task is to think through and organize a tour: its specialists negotiate with hotels, select a transfer, calculate the route and program. Whereas a travel agency or travel company is an intermediary between tour operators and the client, who, as a rule, sells tours of different tour operators, receiving a commission for this. Recently, travel agencies often act as consultants, providing tourists with all the necessary information on various destinations. The most important role in both the tour operator and the travel agency is played by the manager who communicates directly with the client - often it is to him, and not to the company, that people entrust their vacation. It is worth considering that a number of tour operators do not work with tourists directly, preferring to develop their agent network. Therefore, often under the sign with the name of a famous tour operator there is actually a travel agency that operates as a franchise. Each Russian tour operator has its own individual number in the Unified Federal Register of Tour Operators - it can always be viewed in the corresponding section on the Rostourism website (russiatourism.ru/operators). It must always be specified in the contract. If you are afraid that a travel agency is offering you a tour at an inflated price, you can call the office of the tour operator that organizes the trip and check the cost there. It should match the one the agency gives you.

Why take a tour

Booking package tours (which may include flights, accommodation, meals, transfers, excursions and/or treatment, as well as health insurance) always makes sense according to popular, mass directions. In Europe these include, among others, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Croatia and Spain, in Asia - Thailand, Vietnam, India and Sri Lanka. Actually, the benefit of the package tour offered by the agency depends not on the destination, but on the volume of bookings, thanks to which hotels make concessions and offer special prices and conditions. This applies, in particular, to group transfers and flight programs - blocks of seats on both charter and regular flights. Costs in this case are divided between big amount person and become low in relation to those carried by the individual tourist. In addition, tour operators and travel agencies have a clearly established process for processing all documents in these areas, which means you don’t have to waste extra time. Finally, it is the travel agency that will save you if your vacation turns up unexpectedly - here you can find last-minute offers at very attractive prices.

Do it yourself

If you don’t want to spend your vacation on the beach, but like to travel on your own, at your own pace and according to your own program, then excursion package tours are clearly not for you. Although sometimes they can come in handy, because the cost of a package with flights and a stay in an inexpensive hotel can be lower than the price of a ticket on a regular flight (separate tickets for charters are not sold so often). In addition, some companies offer direct charters to destinations where you cannot fly directly from Russia. The most convenient way to “catch” profitable flights is by subscribing to updates on the destinations you are interested in on specialized sites such as aviasales.ru, expressavia.ru, momondo.ru or skyscanner.ru, as well as on yandex.avia and google.flights. The availability of hotel rooms and prices should be looked at on the websites booking.com or expedia.ru, prices for rented apartments - on airbnb.ru, for hostels - hostels.com. The more complex and lengthy your route, the more likely it is that it will be more profitable and convenient to organize such a trip yourself. After all, only you know how much time you need to spend exploring the city, and how much time for relaxation or shopping, what you can save on, and what, on the contrary, requires additional investment.

Visa issue

Travel companies often act as assistants in the preparation of documents for obtaining visas, saving clients from filling out an application form, and in some cases, from visiting the consular departments of embassies. Yes, in this case you will have to pay more, but you will save time. And if you are going to travel, say, to Japan, you cannot do without contacting a travel agency. The fact is that to obtain a visa to this country, you need an original invitation from the company that will act as a guarantor for you. Hotels and hostels, as a rule, do not issue such invitations, and the only option to receive one is to contact one of the accredited tour operators. Previously, it was possible to order a Schengen visa from a travel agency, but since September 2015, you can get a Schengen visa only after submitting your fingerprints. This must be done in person at one of the visa centers. The good news is that fingerprints are stored in the system for five years - during this time you do not need to come to the visa center in person.

Cancellation of a trip

When buying a tour, even from a trusted company, you should pay attention to those places in the contract that are written in fine print. The most important of them is the clause regarding the cancellation of your already confirmed voucher. In case of trip cancellation, the tour operator has the right to demand from the travel agency (and therefore from you) reimbursement of expenses already incurred, which, depending on the date of departure and the moment when the cancellation occurs, can amount to up to 100% of the cost of the trip. In the contract it is written something like this: “The client is informed by the Travel Agency that the actually incurred expenses of the Tour Operator for the booked tourist product can approximately be: 25 or more days before the start of the tour - 10%, from 25 to 16 days - 50%, from 15 to 5 days – 75%, less than 5 working days before the start of the tour – 100% of the cost of the booked tourist product.” Often, the contract separately specifies the conditions for cancellation of “special” tours, for example, New Year’s, Christmas, or those that include visits to certain attractions. Good idea– take out travel insurance for yourself, which will help you get back the money spent on the tour. In this case, you must have all contracts and checks on hand.

Departure postponement

The next issue, which may not be specified in the contract, is the specifics of charter flights. Many tourists, when booking a tour, believe that the stated departure time and airline are some kind of constant, while the fine print in the contract states that the flight can be rescheduled. Let’s assume that the flight was initially scheduled at 8:00 from Domodedovo by UTair airlines, and when documents are issued 2-3 days before departure, it turns out that the tourist will fly at 3:00 (that is, five hours earlier) or at 17:00 (that is, nine hours later) from Sheremetyevo by Orenburg Airlines. The transfer of flights is permissible within a day, and the fact that a person loses half a day does not formally solve anything, because he will spend the night paid for with the voucher in a hotel in any case. At the same time, charter tickets included in the tour package are difficult to return or exchange - and this is one of the reasons for their low cost.

Hotel replacement

There may be another tricky clause in the contract. It sounds like this: “The tour operator (host party) has the right to unilaterally change the hotel.” This is a common practice: it happens that the hotel is closed for reconstruction or is overcrowded. Something else is important here - the above line must be followed by another: “Replacement is made only for a hotel of the same or more high category. Replacement with a hotel of a lower category is not permitted." If it is not there, you risk getting a two-star hotel instead of a five-star hotel. And even the court will not help - after all, you yourself signed an agreement that includes the possibility of such a replacement.

When to buy a tour

If this summer you are planning to go on vacation to such popular countries among mass tourists as Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, Montenegro or Croatia, you should book your tours from February, and best of all - in March or April. Starting in May, prices for these destinations traditionally increase by 30–40%, and tours to Montenegro become twice as expensive. For those who want to relax in the Alpine in winter ski resort or meet New Year and Christmas in one of the European capitals, it is worth visiting a travel agency no later than October–November. To India and countries South-East Asia Traditionally, people go on vacation in November–December, so it is best to purchase trips there starting in September.

At the last moment

If you don’t need to prepare for your vacation in advance and beg your boss for vacation on specific dates, you can try to catch a last-minute tour or special offer. It is best to look for them on the websites tury.ru, sletat.ru and tourdom.ru. When an agency experiences problems with the sale of tour packages, it is often ready to sell it even at half price, just so as not to remain in the red. For example, immediately after the May holidays you can find budget tour to almost any country in the world. Also, prices decrease significantly (by 20–30%) at the very end of August - from the 25th to the 31st. This can be explained by the fact that planes are filled for flights to Russia, and not from it. In past years, many special offers for tours appeared on the market at the end of the January holidays, but now, due to decreased demand and reduction in flight programs Russian airlines, their number has decreased significantly. In addition, there are destinations where prices for tours are approximately the same at any time of the year - these are bus travel, sightseeing trips in Europe and places deprived of mass Russian tourists - for example, Japan, countries of Africa and South America.

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What's better: organized tour or independent travel? Everyone asks this question sooner or later. Some people prefer organized tours, others like independent trips. I'll tell you about my own experience. I had to go on both independent trips and those organized through travel agencies. Both cases had their pros and cons.

Pros and cons of an organized tour

The most important advantage here, in my opinion, is the ease of booking a trip. Collected everything Required documents, paid money to the travel agency - and after a while a trip was issued, visas were issued (if traveling abroad), tickets were purchased. You can go. However, this plus is offset by many possible minuses.

Plane or train tickets can be purchased for a very inconvenient time and, if there are several airports in the city, at the most inconvenient of them. Instead of a regular scheduled plane, you may get a charter flight, and depending on your luck - sometimes it will be an old plane with very unfriendly flight attendants and a cabin crowded with passengers.

So, I live relatively close to Moscow Sheremetyevo airport. And getting to Domodedovo or Vnukovo can be very problematic. In addition, charter flights often take off early in the morning, and you have to leave home late at night without getting enough sleep. Because the public transport there is no service at this time, and leaving your personal car in the parking lot at the airport means paying extra money, you have to order a taxi or ask family and friends for a ride.

Often on organized tours you can overpay for a hotel and get a worse room for more money. Not to mention the fact that you may be provided with a hotel that is inconvenient in terms of location and service.

Another disadvantage could be your travel companions. Unfortunately, not all tourists behave politely, are ready to listen carefully to the guide and not be late for the bus. So, when I went to Spain - to and, on the way back I cursed everything: the passengers demanded a movie. Not only was the sound very loud, but the quality of the films was low. Because of this, the impressions of the trip were somewhat blurred.

In addition, organized tours are often limited by time. This is especially true for tours in Europe, when in a few days you visit several cities, or even countries. As a result, there is practically no time left for independent walks.

On the other hand, it may turn out that you are lucky with a hotel, a guide, and fellow travelers. I remember my trip this summer with fondness; everything was organized almost flawlessly.

If you choose last minute tours, then the cheapness of the trip can compensate for all the possible disadvantages, which, however, may not exist.

It is also necessary to keep in mind that there are places where you can only go as part of an organized group and accompanied by a guide. For example, in National parks, some museums.

Pros and cons of independent travel

Independent travel involves much more freedom than organized tours. You find tickets and hotels yourself. Now, with the development of the Internet, it has become simple. I usually use a search engine Aviasales, through which you can select and book airline tickets and hotels, and rent a car.

Online great amount information on cities and countries both on special travel websites and in travel blogs; various guidebooks are sold in stores; you can download them from the Internet to your tablet. Well, then whoever likes it: some need to plan the entire route in advance, others prefer to navigate on the spot.

Perhaps the only negative (if we're talking about about a trip abroad) can be a matter of obtaining a visa: sometimes queues line up at embassies almost overnight. However, recently this has been happening less and less, many embassies and consulates are organizing special visa centers, where you can call in advance and sign up for certain time. There are also special services that deal with this independently.

For some, poor knowledge of a foreign language can be an obstacle when traveling independently. However, if you approach this issue creatively, then the language barrier We will completely overcome it.

♦ These tips can be used not only in China:

In general, it seems to me that with the development of the Internet, the share of independent travel is increasing. In most cases, they also turn out to be very budget-friendly and affordable for almost everyone.

I prefer independent travel, except in cases where the amenities of the tour outweigh its possible disadvantages. However, often the cost of a tour can be cheaper than traveling on your own. I talked about this in the article.