Bus Tour Self-Defense

By Rick Steves

I've spent months on typical big bus tours and have some hard-earned advice. (And this is not leading to a plug of my tours.) If you follow these tips, even a big bad bus tour can be a good value.

When calling tour companies, here are questions to ask:

Nail down the price

* What does the price actually include? (How many nights and days? How many meals? Admission to sights? Exactly what kind of transportation?)
* If the dollar drops, will the tour price stay the same or will a supplement be charged?
* If the tour doesn't fill up, will the price increase? Are prices lower for off-season tours?
* Do you take credit cards? (If you're dealing with a tour company that's not well established, pay by credit card. A credit-card company can be a strong ally in resolving disputes.)
* Do singles pay a supplement? Can singles save money by sharing rooms?
* Are optional excursions offered? Daily? Average cost?
* Is trip interruption/cancellation insurance included?
* Will the guide and driver expect to be tipped? How much? How often?
* Are there any other costs?
* Do customers receive any freebies for signing up?

Find out how much the guide guides

* Is the guide also the driver?
* Does the guide give talks on the cities, history, and art?
* What are the guide's qualifications (education, experience, fluency in languages)?

Run a reality check on your dream trip

* How many tour members will be on the tour?
* Roughly what is the average age and singles-to-couples ratio?
* Are children allowed? What is the minimum age?
* How many seats on the bus? Is there a bathroom on the bus? How much time is spent on the bus each day?
* Is smoking allowed?
* Roughly how many hours a day are spent shopping and watching product demonstrations?
* How much free time is usually allotted at each sight, museum, and city?
* Are all the hotels located downtown or are they on the outskirts?
* What's the average length of stay at hotels? One night? Two?
* Does each room have a private bathroom? Air-conditioning?
* What percentage of included meals are eaten at the hotel?

Let's get personal

* How many years have you been in business?
* Roughly how many tours do you run a year?
* What is your policy if you have to cancel a tour?
* What are your refund policies before and during the tour?

Request

* The detailed itinerary and location of hotels.
* The names and phone numbers of satisfied customers, though these aren't always given out.
* Written tour evaluations, if available (may be posted on their website).

How to Enjoy a Bus Tour

Keep your guide happy. Independent-type tourists tend to threaten guides. Maintain your independence without alienating your guide. Don't insist on individual attention when the guide is hounded by countless others. Wait for a quiet moment to ask for advice or offer feedback. If a guide wants to, he can give his entire group a lot of extras — but when he pouts, everyone loses. Your objective, which requires some artistry, is to keep the guide on your side without letting him take advantage of you.

Discriminate among optional excursions. While some activities may be included (such as the half-day city sightseeing tours), each day one or two special excursions or evening activities, called "options," are offered for $30–50 a day. Each person decides which options to take and pay for. To make sure you're not being ripped off on excursion prices, ask your hotelier the going rate for a gondola ride, Seine River cruise, or whatever.

Some options are great, but others are not worth the time or money. While illuminated night tours of Rome and Paris are marvelous, I'd skip most "nights on the town." On the worst kind of big-bus-tour evening, several bus tours come together for the "evening of local color." Three hundred Australian, Japanese, and American tourists drinking watered-down sangria and watching flamenco dancing onstage to the rhythm of their digital camera bleeps is big-bus tourism at its grotesque worst.

Your guide promotes excursions because she profits from them. Don't be pressured. Compare. Some options are cheaper through your tour than from the hotel concierge. Some meals are actually a better value with the group. Keep an open mind. While you are capable of doing plenty on your own, optional excursions can be a decent value — especially when you factor in the value of your time.

But don't let bus tour priorities keep you from what you've traveled all the way to Europe to see. In Amsterdam, some tour companies instruct their guides to spend time in the diamond-polishing place instead of the Van Gogh Museum (no kickbacks on Van Gogh). Skip out if you like. Your guide may warn you that you'll get lost and the bus won't wait. Keep your independence (and the hotel address in your money belt).

Be informed. Tour guides call the dreaded tourist with a guidebook an "informed passenger." But a guidebook is your key to travel freedom. Get maps and tourist information from your (or another) hotel desk or a tourist information office. Tour hotels are often located outside the city, where they cost the tour company less and where they figure you are more likely to book the options just to get into town. Ask the person behind the desk how to catch the bus downtown. Taxis are always a possibility, and, with three or four people sharing, they're affordable. Team up with others on your tour to explore on your own. No city is dead after the shops are closed. Go downtown and stroll.

If you shop...shop around. Many people make their European holiday one long shopping spree. This suits your guide and the local tourist industry just fine. Guides are quick to say, "If you haven''t bought a Rolex, you haven't really been to Switzerland," or "You can't say you've experienced Florence if you haven't bargained for and bought a leather coat." Any tour guide in Europe knows that if she's got Americans on board, she's carting around a busload of stark raving shoppers. In Venice, as I orient my groups, merchants are tugging at my arm and whispering, "Bring your groups to our glassworks next time. We'll give you 15 percent back on whatever they spend — and a free glass 'orse!"

Don't necessarily reject your guide's shopping tips; just keep in mind that the prices you see often include a 10–20 percent kickback. Tour guides are clever at dominating your time, making it difficult for shoppers to get out and discover the going rate for big purchases. Don't let them rush you. Never swallow the line, "This is a special price available only to your tour, but you must buy now."

Remember, as your cruise ship docks in Turkey, that some cruise companies don't even hire a guide. They actually rent their groups out to the highest bidder. That "scholar" who meets you at the dock is actually a carpet salesman in disguise. He'll take you to the obligatory ancient site and then to the carpet shop. The demonstrations (by carpet sellers, glass merchants, and so on) are usually interesting. Use your newfound knowledge from the demonstration to shop around; you may find an item of equal quality for less elsewhere. Bargain.

Spend time with locals who never deal with tourists. The only natives most tour groups encounter are hardened business people who know how to make money off of tour groups. Going through Tuscany in a flock of 50 Americans following your tour guide's umbrella, you'll meet all the wrong Italians. Break away. One summer night in Regensburg, I skipped out. While my tour was still piling off the bus, I enjoyed a beer — while overlooking the Danube and under shooting stars — with the great-great-great-grandson of the astronomer Johannes Kepler.