Why a Private Tour?
While traveling with a large group can be fun, we believe traveling on your own, or just with your friends and family can provide a much better travel experience. Here are some of the reasons why:
1. Our itineraries
Most of the tours we run are based on customized itineraries. The itineraries are tailored based on your interest, budget and number of days you wish to spend on the trip.
You don’t have to adjust your schedule to join one of our tours (such as finding the right flights), we adjust our tours to fit your schedule.
On bus tours, it very often happens you have to be there for something you don’t care much about (such as extensive time spent for shopping, for example), just because it is an included feature. No such thing on our tours. You get to do exactly what you choose to do, and see exactly what you choose to see.
Eat what you like, when you like it. Having local food can be a source of great experiences when you travel. But then, if you are on a group tour, you have to eat what everybody else is eating (since it’s a set menu) and you might miss some great local specialties, simply because they might not be suitable for the “general tourist”. Not to mention that you might not even be hungry, but the meal is in the itinerary, so you have be there.
Increased flexibility: last summer, two ladies that were traveling together were in Northern Romania, with one of our guides, visiting a local market. They approached a lady who was selling plum brandy made by her husband. A conversation started, and the ladies ended up having lunch in the lady’s home, who was very excited to have guests that had come from the “other end of the world”, as she put it.
Such on the fly changes to the itinerary are not a problem, and they are only an option on a private tour.
Customizing a route comes at no extra charge, and we will work on it for as long as it takes, so that we can offer you the perfect itinerary.
2. Our guides
Having an excellent guide is central to the success of a trip. On bus tours, even if you have a great guide, who has deep knowledge of his country, you might not get to ask the questions you to want ask, simply because he has to be available for some 40 passengers, and his time is limited.
On our private tours, you have daily opportunities to get your questions answered. Our guides are all licensed, speak excellent English, and what is more important, they are passionate about their countries, and happy to show you around and share their knowledge.
Our guides also do thorough research before a tour, to be able to offer quality information, based on the interests of the upcoming client. Are you a history or architecture buff? No problem, we have just the right guide for you.
3. Meeting the local people
When you travel, admiring buildings and learning history is one of the ways to learn new things about the places you visit. But getting to interact with locals, seeing their homes, eating home cooked food, this is the true learning experience that a private tour can offer you.
Sure, bus tours also offer “home stays”, and “home cooked” meals, but when you sit at a table with 10 more people you have just met as you first boarded the bus, how much time do you actually get to interact with your host?
Our “home hosted” experiences offer you the chance to go where no large group could ever go (such as an isolated fisherman’s home in the Danube Delta, or a Gypsy Home in Transylvania) and since the host will only have to deal with a small number of friends, you will have a much more profound learning experience, not to mention that it will be great fun!
Home cooked meals are not the only chance to see “real life” as it happens. Animal markets in Northern Romania, for instance, are a great place to go to, and see the locals as they bargain for local products, or try to sell some of their home grown vegetables. Such a place is not accessible by bus, since in most cases, such markets take place in rural areas, with no proper roads.
4. Tour price
Many clients we have had on our tours have said they never thought they could afford a private tour. They were surprised to find out that the price of a private, customized tour was comparable with the price for a bus tour, which offers almost no flexibility.
There are a few factors that decide the final cost of a private tour, such as the accommodation type, the number of people who will join you on the tour, or the time of the year when you decide to travel.
Contact us and ask for details regarding a tour you are interested in, and you might find out escorted private traveling is not as expensive as you thought.
See you soon!