I'm not a big fan of taking tours. Cramped up on a bus with a bunch of people you don't know while you snap photos of the landmarks you speed by? No thanks. Be on someone else's time table and risk being left in a cloud of dust if you're late getting back to the bus? No thanks. Forgo activities and sights that interest you because they aren't on the itinerary? No thanks. Save a bunch of money and let someone else do the planning and booking for you? No th--wait, what? Uh yeah, that sounds good.
I was given a tour book today with this company's tours for the rest of the year. And there are some good prices in there. The one that looks the most fun to me (and the best cost) is a trip to the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Vegas, and Zion National Park for just over a grande. That one I can guarantee you would cost me way more on my own. Plus this way someone else gets to do the extensive driving between all these locations.
But at the same time I remember the Great Switzerland Tour of 2009. I would have loved more time in Lucerne. Plus, the entire time I was there I was so wrapped up in getting back to the bus on time, that I'm sure I missed things. And I forgot to get a nutcracker, one of the only things I wanted from Switzerland. And we couldn't eat or drink on the bus (maybe those were crazy Swiss rules). We couldn't even have phones on (that was a crazy Mercedes rule). Or these rules were all made up by the possibly and probably crazy Swiss/German woman who was our tour guide.
The tour in Switzerland is the only one I've taken, and it was just a day tour. So...who out there has toured. Anyone? Anywhere? Is the frustration of being on someone else's schedule worth the money and time savings?
Anyone seen My Life in Ruins? I would undoubtedly end up on a bus full of those people, in a hotel with no elevator where I'm staying on the 32nd floor, and a bus driver who nearly drives us off a cliff.
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