Follow the leader

By PATRICK SORAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 20, 2000

For tourists roaming foreign territory, there is safety in numbers, led by a well traveled tour guide. The wild adventurer, though, may feel a little caged.

It is easy to be a great travel company when everything is flying right; it's when the plane has gone missing that the real test comes.

Thirty weary travelers, at the end of an 18-day, five-country, escorted jaunt through South America, were hunkered down in the international lounge of the airport in Lima, Peru. The flight to Miami was an hour late. Then another hour. And another.

Most of us were dozing, but a few alert travelers noticed that our guide, Adrian Janovici, was not napping: He was chatting up the American Airlines personnel. Suddenly he turned from the desk and stepped into the lounge filled with 200 or so people.

"Yoho!" he barked.

As if pulled by a common string, 30 heads, trained for 18 days to jump at "Yoho!" -- our look-lively call -- looked very lively indeed.

"Let's go!" Janovici called.

One of the drawbacks to bus tours is that while most meals are included in the rate, that means the group usually eats together, sometimes with no variety of foods to choose from.

Were we finally boarding? No. In fact, the flight had been canceled, but the ever-attentive Janovici was the first to know. Consequently, we were the first people discharged back through immigration.

Janovici guided us to another lounge, and 45 minutes later a chartered bus was waiting, as were rooms for the night and breakfast and lunch the next day.

As we strolled toward our bus, we could not help but notice the hundreds of other people standing in line in the airport, looking weary and abandoned.

Having a guide who knows how to get things done -- fast -- is one of the big advantages for the estimated 2.5-million people a year in the United States who buy a package vacation of more than seven days.

Security is another advantage, said Bob Whitley, executive director of the United States Tour Operator Association.

Part of that security is knowing that your rooms, meals, flights and transfers are taken care of. Then there is the knowledge that all the minutiae of visas and other paperwork have been addressed.

Plus there's convenience. Travelers on a group package conceivably may make as little as one phone call to arrange a major trip; the tour operator takes care of all those time-consuming, mind-numbing details.

"All you do is pack and go," Whitley said.

Add in the fellowship of other travelers, often of similar background, age, income and interests.

"Then there's the "hidden treasures' aspect," said Mo Moorman, public relations representative for Globus & Cosmos, the nation's largest package operator. He was referring to those little extras such as touring a private home, or jumping to the head of a long line, or having a local guide to separate the wheat from the chaff in those baffling capitals.

Into this category must fall the many small recommendations of the guides themselves. For instance, on a stroll among the cascades at Iguacu Falls, where the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet, our guide Janovici stepped up alongside me. "Tonight for dinner," he said, for we would be on our own for dinner that night in Buenos Aires, "you might try Fabos."

He had spotted me, I thought, as someone who enjoys good food in an upscale atmosphere with a lot of local color -- in short, Fabos.

But as it turned out, he had given each participant on the trip an individual recommendation. And the next morning, everyone was ecstatic about their dinner the night before.

But with all that upside must come a downside, right? Possibly the most trying aspect of packaged tours is their extremely structured nature.

On many days, every moment is allotted. On some days, bags must be packed and ready for pickup at outlandishly early hours: 5 or 6 a.m. If the route includes several countries, be prepared for long waits at airports, ferries and border crossings. Sometimes, when you want to spend hours exploring a favorite location, the itinerary allows too little time.

And all that companionship may have a downside as well. If you do not hit it off with another couple or two, the socializing aspect of your getaway may be gone. Every package trip I have taken has included a Chamber of Commerce cheerleader, a merry widow and a happy drunk.

Then again, every trip has included many new-found friends, too, and some have become post-tour pals.

But if the guide is bad, you will feel as if you are careening out of control. I have taken several bus tours (motorcoach excursions, the industry likes to call them) -- to China, Colonial America, Egypt, Ireland and England -- and guides don't always measure up.

I think our man in China was CIA. He would mumble cryptic remarks and go off into a corner and smoke cigarettes with the Chinese. In Egypt, we spent an hour at the pyramids and three hours shopping at a bazaar owned by the guide's cousin.

But at their best, tour directors more resemble Janovici: full of spicy dish on the local history and politics, hilarious anecdotes and accurate shopping and restaurant reviews.

And the cost? Well, you do get what you pay for. Rates for land-only trips run from less than $100 per day to well more than $500 a day. But read the fine print. On the budget end, little is provided but a room and a bus ride. On the high side, depend on being in a small group with your every wish being the tour operator's command.

Many of the bigger operators continue to offer hurried romps, but most also offer lingering looks, for example Globus' LeisureStyle vacations. These two-dozen itineraries offer three-night or four-night stays minimum in the major cities of a region. A "get-acquainted" city tour is invariably included, conducted by a knowledgeable local.

The rest of the time -- roughly half -- is on your own. Other major companies, such as Travcoa and Tauck World Discovery, offer similar packages.

"People born before the end of World War II like to have every minute organized," said Janovici, who has been guiding for more than 20 years. That is his polite way of saying they sign up for all the optional tours, no matter where they go, what the cost or how many hours on the bus each entails.

At major destinations, an hour or so of free time is often provided. Here, there was time to climb above the ruins at Machu Picchu, Peru.

"They don't want to be on their own in a foreign country: They find it intimidating."

"Baby boomers," he continued, "love to go out on their own in foreign countries; they're more spontaneous."

In truth, what most "younger" folks chafe at is being on that bus all day, every day, if they take the optional trips offered on free days.

"Over the last 10 years," said the tour association's Whitley, "the average age of people purchasing packages has dropped from the mid-60s to the mid-50s."

The industry response has been to restructure formerly hurried itineraries into longer, more leisurely stays. Globus & Cosmos anticipates adding options that will give younger people the freedom they crave.

"Boomers want to get off the coach and gain a sense of really dipping into the culture and nature of a destination," Moorman said.

To that end, his company is considering cooking classes, historic tours, bicycle trips and day hikes.

What's offered now is a mixed bag. An open-air jeep romp through a rain forest near Rio de Janeiro one morning fell strongly into both the educational and fun categories. However, another tour that afternoon involved four hours of bus time, leaving barely an hour to explore the destination, a lovely and historic Brazilian hill town -- bus touring at its worst.

Patrick Soran is a freelance writer living in Denver.

IF YOU GO

Globus & Cosmos is the largest escorted travel operator in the world, offering more than 12,000 departures annually on more that 300 itineraries. Contact a travel agent for information on this company or hundreds of others, many of them offering specialized tours on specific topics.

Before booking, ask questions

To help cut through the fine print in all those colorful brochures, ask these questions before booking. Bear in mind that answers, both positive and negative, are clues to selecting a trip that will suit your own desires.

• How much time will you be spending at the sites you are most eager to see?
• How many meals are included? Do you order a la carte or are menus fixed? Is wine included?
• Are the activities you want -- museum visits, shopping -- highlighted?
• Are entrance fees into parks, museums, etc., part of the package?
• Who carries your bags?
• Tips for the escort are rarely built into a base price, but are tips for drivers, waiters or secondary escorts covered?
• Is all air fare within the itinerary included in the price?
• What is the refund policy? Is trip insurance offered?
• What's the maximum group size? Some folks want the exclusivity of a small group, but for others a larger number offers more companionship.
• Just as importantly, what is the minimum number of participants who must sign on to "guarantee" departure? If the trip is canceled, you could be left holding air tickets. How many days before departure will the operator decide to go or not?
• How much experience do the guides have? How long have they been with the company? How long have they been guiding this itinerary?
• What is the Mobil or AAA rating of the accommodations? Is it consistent with the price?
• What is the ratio of guests to guides? The lower that number, the more attention each customer receives, and the higher the price.
• How fixed is the itinerary? Does the group have any say in the day's activities?
• What is the single-person supplement? If the company cannot book you a roommate, do you still have to pay the supplement?

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright