Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Travel guide - What's the difference between self-help tour and group tour?

What's the difference between self-help tour and group tour?

Self-help tour and group tour are the two most common travel modes at present. If you don't familiarize yourself with the scenic spots, self-help tour will definitely be more enjoyable. If you are completely unfamiliar, then traveling with a group is the most worry-free and convenient. After all, you don't have to do everything yourself. Let's share the difference between self-help tour and group tour.

Choosing a self-help tour or a group tour has always been a hot issue for different tourists.

Speaking of the cost of both, intuitively speaking, traveling with a group is definitely cheaper. For example, for a 10-day in-depth tour of France, the total quotation for a group tour is definitely cheaper than free air tickets and hotels, and it also includes meals, scenic spots tickets, local transportation and so on.

This is understandable, because travel agencies, especially big travel agencies, have cooperative relations with airlines and hotels, and often buy out a large number of air tickets and hotel rooms, so the price is naturally much cheaper than individual ordering.

In addition, traveling with a group is more convenient and worry-free, and most people will still choose to travel with a group.

However, if you are a senior travel enthusiast, free travel is actually not expensive from the perspective of cost performance. The cost performance here refers to the ratio of the time and price of real travel.

You can't enjoy all the scenic spots in a group tour. I always go to a few scenic spots that I'm not interested in, or I don't go to my favorite scenic spots or I have to spend extra money. In addition, most tour groups also have shopping trips, which is also a torture for tourists who don't like shopping.

And it is strictly time-limited, because everyone should be considered.

Secondly, the hotels you stay in with tour groups are not necessarily what you like, and most of them are in the suburbs far from the city center, which is very uncomfortable in Europe. You could have stayed in your favorite small hotel in the city center and visited the bustling city at night, but after visiting the scenic spots during the day, you were dragged to a hotel dozens of kilometers away and had to go to bed early in the middle of nowhere, which in itself was a waste of time.

The catering is similar. In order to take care of most tourists, the general travel society chooses Chinese group meals (accounting for most of the whole trip). You have to eat some stale China home-cooked dishes every day, and miss many local specialties, which greatly reduces your travel experience.

In addition, going abroad with a group must also pay the daily tour guide tip, which is also a big expense. Therefore, the understanding of the cost is different, and it is necessary to decide whether to travel by yourself or join a group according to personal preferences.

Since 1998, I have been traveling with a group at home and abroad, and I have been to Xinjiang, Jiuzhaigou and Yunnan with a group in China.

; Foreign countries have been to six countries with the group.

I started a self-help tour at home and abroad in 2009, and now I have been to 30 countries alone. Recently, I am preparing visa materials, and I will travel to Spain and Portugal for two months from April to May.

Traveling with a group is simple and labor-saving, just follow the tour guide, the car and accommodation are arranged, and the travel expenses are acceptable to the participants. I met a tour group abroad last year and asked. Generally, a 14 day tour costs 23,000-28,000 yuan.

In fact, the cost of self-help tour is also decided by the travelers themselves. If you have the strength to like high-end, you can take first class, stay in five-star hotels, have high-end restaurants and charter tours.

As a retiree, I hope to go to more places with the least money, so I can only take low-cost airlines, stay in bed, take public transportation and go to the supermarket to buy food myself.

Last year, I traveled to Italy and Greece for a month and a half, Ireland and Britain for a month and a half, and New Zealand for a month and a half. The total cost of three trips does not exceed 23,000 yuan, which is a veritable poor tour.

Which is better, a group tour or a self-help tour? Got the answer from practice! First of all, talk about self-help tour: Last year 1 1 month, I went to Sanqingshan, Jiangxi by train. The local folk customs are simple, and the accommodation and catering expenses are not high. Two people will be satisfied with less than one day's accommodation in 200 yuan!

You can eat well for 40 yuan. The scenic spots make people feel great and linger. Clouds hovering between the peaks are spectacular. City parks are also many places to visit and clean and tidy. After staying for three nights, the scenic spot ticket, cable car, round-trip ticket and urban bus only cost 1000 yuan.

And there is no pressure when playing, just shoot as you want! Let's talk about traveling with a group first: According to the experience of traveling with a group many times before, if you sign up for a four-day package tour, at least two people need nearly 3,000 yuan, and the food is poor. A table for ten people is almost the same, not to mention the quality of the food.

Setting a time to see a scenic spot is like holding a fire drill. It is difficult for many people to take good photos, which makes most of their tourists feel bad! Travel agencies are profit-making units, and they have to make money to survive. From this perspective, we can understand which is better than group tour or self-help tour.

Which is more suitable for you? Just my own experience and opinion!

If the expenses are arranged reasonably, self-help tours are usually cheaper than travel agencies!

(Of course, it can't be compared with those zero-negative tour fees, such as the one that can be all-inclusive from your home to Yunnan 1500. You can think about the hardships with your toes. )

One: First of all, aviation:

At present, airlines are also vigorously developing self-help travel business. There is no difference between group tickets and buying tickets by yourself (travel agencies also look at where to buy tickets cheaply when issuing tickets, which is no different from buying tickets by themselves), and buying tickets by themselves is often cheaper; (Try to go to the airline official website to buy it, and the return and change are guaranteed.)

So in terms of air tickets, tourists have no disadvantage!

Two: Hotel:

Hotels with travel agency advantages are usually low-end hotels with relatively low positioning; Due to the poor geographical location, these hotels usually give travel agencies more favorable prices; I'm sure you don't like staying in a distant and biased hotel either!

Hotels with better locations or hotels with higher stars usually give travel agencies little discounts; Some older hotels will give travel agencies better preferential prices.

So in terms of hotels, travel agencies have no advantage!

I believe you don't want to be sent to a remote hotel as soon as you get off the plane. When you go out, you can see that there is either automobile trade, decoration building materials or darkness around you, and you can only see a bright light after a long walk.

There are many channels for booking hotels online, so I won't mention them one by one!

Three: attraction tickets:

Many people think that the ticket prices obtained by travel agencies are very cheap?

Only a few tourist attractions are very cheap, such as Yanoda in Hainan. Travel agencies can get about 70 tickets, but they need more than 100! But these scenic spots are usually remote and inconvenient to go; Or some scenic spots that can generate income, such as Sanya West Island. There are still some dirty spots, such as this village and that village.

These better scenic spots, with convenient transportation and great fame in the future, will gradually abandon travel agencies, such as Wuzhizhou in Sanya.

Some big scenic spots usually have no trouble with travel agencies, such as:

Yulong Snow Mountain, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Lugu Lake, Pudacuo and Shilin in Yunnan;

The ends of the earth in Sanya; Nanshan and so on;

The Forbidden City in Beijing, the Ming Tombs, etc.

Jiuzhaigou, Zhangjiajie and Lijiang in Guilin;

Large-scale scenic spots will basically not give travel agencies too many discounts. The difference is generally ten dollars and eight dollars, and there are dozens of dollars more. For example, Nanshan offers dozens of discounts. Of course, these travel agencies have paid a price for dozens of price discounts. Usually they will pay a sum of money to the scenic spot in advance and use this money to discount tickets, which is what travel agencies should get;

Four: transportation:

At present, there are basically buses in major scenic spots;

At this point, basically do not need to spend too much;

You can view all kinds of bus apps at any time.

Five: catering:

Needless to say, ten dollars can eat a bowl of rice noodles and a bowl of braised dishes, which can only be said to be rich and simple;

Compared with ten dishes and one soup with the group every day, a bowl of local dishes will not be bad there, but taste better; Unless you haven't eaten enough eggplant and pepper with the team.

Six: self-help tour gains more:

First of all, you can arrange your time freely without making strict plans in advance; You can go wherever you want.

No one will force you to get up at bedtime. You can hug your wife and lover until noon.

Filtered a lot of bad scenic spots, not all the scenic spots are worth seeing and taking pictures.

You don't open your eyes and complain about traveling every day.

No one will force you to enter the store again. No matter what you want to buy, you can basically find the truth and falsehood on X Bao, depending on your own eyesight.

To sum up, your expenses should be cheaper than those of group tours every time (because there are many invisible expenses in group tours, such as some self-funded expenses that you can't go, self-funded expenses that you are embarrassed to go, shopping and so on). );

The world is bustling for profit. The world is bustling for profit.

There is no business that loses money for no reason! Travel agencies are not charitable organizations; I can't figure out what kind of egg pain it is to scold unscrupulous travel agencies over and over again and re-register for travel.

What I'm talking about is the method of self-help tour in China.

Don't be extravagant, don't buy any medicine on the cheap road, don't ride a horse, don't eat in a sedan chair, don't go to a restaurant downtown, don't take a bus or drive by car, don't be curious, don't believe the rhetoric of passers-by in tourist areas, they are all indifferent, and no one is so kind to you for no reason.

By doing this, you can basically get a good self-help tour.

Generally speaking, if you want to play well, you can go for free. If you want to spend a little money, join a group in the shopping center. Of course, the final possible result is: no less money with the group, no good play.

I have been working in the tourism industry for six years. Looking around, the tourism industry is in a mess, and the problems all appear in the way of traveling with a group. In order to meet the needs of tourists, major travel agencies have launched these things, but how many travel agencies can give up their own interests and do pure freedom?

First of all, talk about tour groups! The best thing is worry-free, labor-saving and relatively low cost. I really don't see the benefits of others!

Why is the cost low? Because many travel agencies play a trap, the tour fee is relatively low, but he eats money from shopping and eats more, because the current tour guide is unpaid and relies on tourists to shop for a living.

Therefore, if there is a tour guide and a group tour, there is a shopping trap! Especially in the package meal, the food has been fixed, so tourists can't eat special things at all, and it's just a cursory tour to see the scenic spots with the group. If you are unlucky, you will be insulted when you meet a guide with low character.

Free travel is a trend in today's tourism development. I believe it will definitely replace the way of group travel in the future, but free travel means a little higher cost, but the benefits are much more. After solving the problems of accommodation and transportation, you can arrange your time freely and choose your food flexibly! You don't need a guide to play along the way!

In short, when you are free, you can take many things in your own hands, without looking at others' faces or quarreling with others. I'm in charge of my way!

Although our travel agency is also organizing a group, I personally advocate free travel!

Self-help tour can also be called free travel. Generally speaking, friends you know organize tours together, rent or charter at most, go wherever you want, book tickets for scenic spots, book hotels, eat and play wherever you want. It has a high degree of randomness, freedom and flexibility, and has a high game quality.

Traveling with a group is to report the tour group, hotel, car, route, time and scenic spots to the travel agency in advance! In terms of cost comparison, the biggest piece is the car, and the group tour uses a big car with more than 30 people, so the fare cost has dropped, which is no higher than that of a free commercial car. In the dining area, the standard of team meals eaten with the group is low and the meal fee is low.

Accommodation, team accommodation, travel agencies in order to reduce costs, the standard of living is also low, the cost is not high.

There is no comparability. For example, 1992 I was in a travel agency, and the quotation for a six-day tour from Taiyuan to Xi 'an was 3 10. Actually, I started one day in the afternoon on the first day, arrived in Xi 'an at 5: 30 the next morning, and then played for three days on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Free activities on Friday morning, return in the afternoon, and arrive in Taiyuan at 3 am the next day.

Hard seat ticket 27.5, ticket ***37.5, including Banpo Site, Huaqing Pool, Terracotta Warriors and Horses, Forest of Steles, Qin king Palace, Wild Goose Pagoda, Ganling, Princess Yongtai's Tomb and Prince Zhang Huai's Tomb. The price quoted to the travel agency is eight yuan a day, and the meal fee is 15 per person. In Xi 'an, you can pick up the tourist bus from the travel agency for several days. Basically, the cost is so much, and a group is generally around 40 people.

Air ticket 27.5, round trip 55, three-night accommodation 24, ticket 37.5, three-day meal 45, average per person 17.5.

All the money adds up to 179, and the tour guide gets it every day for six days 15, and 90 yuan is 2.25 yuan per person on average.

But if you want to play in go on road trip, not to mention180,200 yuan is completely impossible. The air ticket travel agency is a group ticket with a discount. In terms of accommodation, it takes at least 15 a day for individuals to go to the same triple room.

15 It's definitely not enough to go out for dinner alone, not to mention the travel expenses to various scenic spots. In addition to the dead price of train tickets, other aspects of travel agencies are more dominant.

Of course, at that time, the travel agency didn't go shopping, it was purely for fun. I don't know now!

I go out to play by myself, all by myself. However, perhaps because of this experience, I am better than others in planning routes and arranging accommodation.

In the past, every time I took my children out to play in the summer vacation, my friends would follow me and say that I don't care. The most exaggerated one, the Beijing Garden Expo, was originally just two mothers taking two children to Beijing. As a result, the news spread. Finally, seven mothers and seven babies set off, and three other mothers and children from Beijing went straight to Beijing to meet.

_ ah! Twenty people followed our Expo for a day, the National Science and Technology Museum and the Water Cube for a day, and then part of the Great Wall and part of the Summer Palace were divided. Finally, everyone else went home, and we went directly to Qinhuangdao, where two mothers were waiting with their children.

I dare not make too much noise these years. Sometimes too many people can't play well. Everyone has an opinion. 14 years, ten people, big and small, traveled all over Hangzhou, Hengdian, Xitang, Shanghai and Suzhou, and spent 19 days. Well, the accommodation is all chain hotels, and the room rate is prepaid in advance, which is basically not expensive. In Hangzhou, 145 days, we lived next to Quyuan Fenghe, and we were fine at night. Going out by basic bus and subway, the bus in developed cities is very convenient.

Some tickets will definitely be discounted online, such as Xixi Wetland, Pass 480 in Hengdian Cinema, Qin king Palace, Ming and Qing Gardens, Hong Kong Street, and the playground called Dream Valley.

Very good. But some websites are not necessarily cheap. The scenic room by the river I saw on Xitang.com was probably 220 yuan, but Ctrip didn't call the store, but through clues, I finally succeeded in bypassing the website and contacting the proprietress directly, and booked a room for one day at 180.

There is also sightseeing bus in Shanghai, and the tour group 100 yuan, but in fact, at the bus stop on Nanjing Road, 40 yuan is the only one who can buy tickets directly, and you can take it within 24 hours, including taking the ferry.

If it's okay, it's good to take this around. Everyone has a pair of headphones, and there are explanations in the car. Get off at the place where you want to play, wait for the next bus, and continue walking after the station. It's very convenient.

I think we can play more happily and casually. If you are tired, you can slow down your trip and have a rest, or stay in a favorite place for a while and eat something according to your own hobbies. You can't play with a group like this, food, accommodation and transportation are restricted, and shopping spots are really annoying!

The network is so developed that it is no problem to do your homework, plan and download the map on your mobile phone in advance. Especially now, there is no handling fee for bank cards, so it is more convenient and safer to bring a lot of cash!

With the increase of private cars, more and more people choose go on road trip. Why don't they want to travel with a group?

Go on road trip has brought people a lot of fun, such as freedom, freedom, no shopping and so on. Now many businesses have taken a fancy to this market. Various, varied, profitable, spontaneous, with friends, online carpooling and so on.

After all, people are keen on go on road trip, free travel and other tourism projects.

Today, Bian Xiao will tell you why many people choose go on road trip. What's the difference between group tours and go on road trip?

How big is the price gap?

Contrast 1. Cost comparison

Get rid of the burden of moisture and enjoy a "thin" life.

First of all, let's talk about travel agencies! The biggest advantage of newspaper travel agencies is that they are worry-free and labor-saving, and the cost is relatively low. Aside from the ticket price, close-range tickets and accommodation travel agencies can be discounted, which will definitely be much cheaper, which is also the biggest highlight of group tours.

Let's talk about road trip again. Many people think that "traveling on the road" is a game for the rich, and their consumption level can only be compared with that of tour groups. Is that really the case? Most people who say they are expensive travel with their families or friends, that is, 1-2 cars. They just found road books and related strategies on the Internet, so that the food and shelter, tickets for scenic spots are much more expensive, as well as gas, tolls, car repair and maintenance fees, of course, are all expensive. If you sign up for a professional go on road trip club, the cost will definitely be much lower. Generally, you can travel to road trip Club by more than five cars, and you can also enjoy the preferential treatment of scenic spots and hotels along the way. Let's take landing and driving as an example. The so-called "landing by car" is simply to fly to a destination and then rent a car in go on road trip.

Fare to road trip = (260/ day for ordinary car+400 for fuel and toll) ÷ 4 people/car, = 165 yuan/day/person.

According to the cost of bus, minibus or business car, the fare for group tour is generally between 150 yuan/person and 200 yuan.

The conclusion after comparison: The cost of group tour is actually similar to that of going to road trip, and going to road trip saves money in some ways.

Contrast 2. Service comparison

Don't worry about traveling with a group in terms of service. Everything has a guide. Your diet, daily life, itinerary and scenic spots all have tour guide services. The tour guide will take care of you and help you find help. Therefore, less worry is the characteristic of group tour. At the same time, it is worth noting that there will be some low-priced tours, whether domestic or overseas. Why is the cost low? Because many travel agencies play a trap, the tour fee is relatively low, but he earns money back from shopping and self-funded projects, and earns more, because the tour guide has no salary and relies on tourists to shop and self-funded projects to make a living. Therefore, if there is a tour guide and a group tour, there is a shopping trap! Especially in the package meal, the food has been fixed, so tourists can't eat special things at all, and it's just a cursory tour to see the scenic spots with the group. If you are unlucky, you will be insulted and resentful when you meet a tour guide with low character! In addition, in go on road trip, there are professional team leaders and pilot cars participating in the self-driving route of go on road trip Club. Similarly, your diet, daily life, itinerary and scenic spots are also arranged by the tour leader. It is worth noting that the tour guide service in go on road trip is more comprehensive than the tour guide service. In addition to the routine contents mentioned above, there are also safety issues when driving on the road. The pilot car should control the speed of the motorcade at any time, and undertake the rescue task if a car breaks down. It is also necessary to interact with the car through the intercom to prevent driving fatigue. In case of emergency, we should make timely judgment and change the route and itinerary. Of course, the tour leader has a service fee, so there will be no shopping and self-funded projects, and not everyone can do it. In addition to some services that tour guides should have, they must also have excellent driving skills, car maintenance knowledge, emergency handling ability and a certain sense of humor.

The conclusion after comparison: If you go to road trip, you can do what you can with a group tour.

Contrast three. Comparison between itinerary and scenic spots

The biggest disadvantage of traveling with a group is that you can't choose scenic spots at will. Even if you know that this scenic spot is not fun, you should go. Where to go and how to play are all planned by the travel agency. And getting up early is also a major feature of group tours. If you travel abroad, you may have to get up early. It is normal to get up at 4 or 5 o'clock. It's really early and late. I'm tired of saying that many scenic spots are just a cursory tour, because you have to go to the next scenic spot and spend time shopping. Moreover, the scenic spots that you go with the group are all well-developed tourist attractions. When people are crowded in the peak season, there are countless consumption traps.

On the other hand, going to road trip is a purely personalized way of traveling. You can change your itinerary and places you want to go at any time, and the stay time of various scenic spots is more flexible. Moreover, going to road trip is not simply changing the mode of travel to self-driving, nor is it simply driving around the scenic spots. "Self-driving" is a sport, such as self-driving crossing and self-driving mountain roads to experience driving pleasure. Although it is not a racing car, drivers also get pleasure from driving. Arrive at places that traditional tourism can't reach by car, and have enough time to experience and feel the local culture; Find and taste authentic food.

The conclusion after comparison: there are many traps in group travel, and there are many benefits in the in-depth tour and food tasting of go on road trip.

Bian Xiao's conclusion:

Many people think that "traveling on the road" is a game for the rich, and you can only join a tour group, which is economical and practical. Actually, it's not. As long as you travel, you must include airfare, car rental, gas, food, accommodation, attractions and other expenses. No matter how the merchants quote, these items are the expenses you have to pay for your business trip.

Whether you choose a tour group or go on road trip, you should carefully look at the cost inclusion and compare it carefully, such as how many stars the accommodation standard is, including meals, and if so, how much to eat.

Does it include scenic spot tickets and scenic spot transportation? Therefore, friends must ask carefully when choosing tourism products. Generally speaking, go on road trip is still a good way to travel.