Differences between independent travel and vacation on a voucher

What is more profitable: tours or independent travel?
Many are afraid to travel independently. And they choose trips with a tour or on a voucher. But what is more profitable, to choose the services of a tour operator or to plan a trip yourself? And what are the pros and cons of each type of travel?

Regarding benefits and savings. The cost of the trip depends on the direction and which tour you choose. If you are planning a vacation at a popular resort and you have the opportunity to purchase a hot tour, then it may even work out cheaper. During the season, tour operators wholesale rent hotel rooms and charter flights, thanks to which a low price is formed. You can also find cheaper offers for 2-3-4 people than for a single traveler. You can always persuade one of your relatives to go on a trip or find a fellow traveler on a traveler’s forum.

There is often an obvious benefit in all-inclusive hotel packages. But again, such lazy rest is not suitable for everyone. And in order to understand the real benefit and monetary difference between independent travel and vouchers, you need to calculate the budget of a vacation planned personally.

If you have a trip in which you want to change several locations, visit different countries or cities, it will be cheaper to organize the trip yourself.

Features of independent travel
What are the pros and cons of traveling independently?

Time. If you don’t have time to plan a trip, route, search for tickets, accommodation and interesting locations, then of course, an organized vacation from a tour operator or travel agency is more suitable for you.
Ability to control everything. If you are not satisfied with the hotel, food or beach according to the conditions of the voucher, you cannot change them. Or pay for everything separately and look for a new place to rest. And if you plan everything yourself, and something in your vacation does not suit you, then you can rent other apartments, move to another area or go to eat in another cafe.
Clear budget framework. With a vacation organized by a travel agency, you will immediately know how much money you will need. All you have to do is bring extra money for souvenirs and pocket money. With independent planning, which can take a lot of time, the question of the budget can be open for a long time. And in any case, you need to count it yourself.
Routes and locations. With a planned independent vacation, you yourself choose the places you want to visit and the time for this. That is, you can avoid the crowds of tourists and crowds to see interesting sights.
Originality and adventure. Most likely, you will not be served some original local dishes at the hotel. Standard safe food awaits you there. And for some extreme experiences, you need to plan a vacation yourself. The same applies to entertainment. This has its plus, it is safer, you won’t get lost and you won’t get poisoned. But an individually selected route for a trip can leave more vivid impressions.

How much money do you need for a trip?
The advantages of a ready-made tour are that you immediately know how much you will have to spend. But in order to plan your trip, you need to solve several key questions.

Decide where you would like to go. Different destinations cost differently.
The duration of the trip also plays a role. If the trip is long, then it is more important to pay attention not to the price of air tickets, but to how much accommodation, food, leisure, etc. will cost. In short trips, say for a weekend, internal costs are not as important as the cost of air travel.
Leisure. If you want to travel a lot, change locations every few days and do extreme activities, then you will need much more money than if you just want to soak up the color and live the life of local residents, walking the streets of the city and getting inspired.
How to find out how much a day off costs in different countries
Also, vacation in different countries is a significant difference in the budget. Let’s take several different tourist destinations as an example. It:

USA;
Europe;
China;
Africa.
For our country, only Europe is suitable for a weekend trip, for example. Compared to Asia, housing and transport prices are high in Europe. But you can buy tickets to Europe cheaper than to Asia. To fly to Asia, as well as to the USA, is quite long and expensive. But the prices in Asia amaze even the most frugal tourist.

While vacationing in Asia, for example, in Thailand or Bali, you can not even look for non-tourist markets and shops, because even in them, with inflated prices for tourists, you can buy everything very cheaply. Sometimes even cheaper than in our country.

You need to book a hotel in advance to save money
By the way, even if your vacation falls on the peak of the tourist season, you can book accommodation in advance. If you book early, you can find a lower price and more interesting free hotels and apartments, because most people still book accommodation before the trip.

Although if you are not going to the metropolis, but to the province, and if you are sure that on the days of your trip, various competitions and festivals are not held here, because at such a time usually all hotels and apartments in the city are booked, then you can find accommodation on the spot . Why so? Many small hotels do not have websites and do not cooperate with aggregators. And you can rent a room from them only on the spot. Plus, during personal communication, you can bargain or ask for a discount at the reception.