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There are many reasons to choose group travel:

• Don’t even contemplate alternatives
• The company matters more than the destination
• Alone I get lost even at home
• Wanting to make new acquaintances while traveling
• Economic savings
• Complex destination to organize
• Dangerous country
• Having to manage a particular traveling companion

Some trips I went on as a group, leaving alone, others as a couple. For example, the Nile cruise, at that time it was only done through an agency, but still you are in a group even if you don’t want to.

One trip that seems very sui generis among what I have done is the singles cruise. We were basically in a mini group within the larger group. That time I don’t deny that it was also to meet people, but not only that. In fact it was also a way to check out places that interested me but where I wouldn’t want to spend too much time, like Santorini and Mykonos.

I probably have a temper even though it doesn’t seem like it. However, I also listed the personality types I can’t stand on the road.

Pros of group travel

I have done a few, and I have done them mostly for the last four reasons I listed. Of the first three I’m not going to say anything, it’s a character predisposition and there can be no right and wrong.

Some destinations, if done independently, and even more so solo as I often do, reach exorbitant costs. I am referring especially to African safaris, where in the parks you pay for car entry and then if you are in a group, much less. I am told that an intermediate solution, is, to look for a tour locally, but I would only consider doing that if in a couple or already with other people. A private tour, me and a guide with whom you are obliged to converse for days, I would absolutely not do it; it already cost me a lot to do it a few times for day tours.

I chose to do a group experience with agency for the trip to Guatemala, Honduras and Belize, because it seemed complicated to organize by public transportation having numbered days and wanting to see many things. While for Peru I was concerned about the altitude issue; I suffer from hypertension and knew that, as it happened, I was in danger of getting sick. I had believed that being in a group would help me. It was partly true, because the coordinator bothered to notify the medical insurance company, but then when I returned to the Andes, I had a great time on my own, avoiding really getting sick thanks to a less classic but more gradual itinerary.

While in Russia I chose this option so that I would not have to constantly urge my brother, who is a much slower pace guy than me, to move; the organization would take care of the timing.

Cons of group travel

As I mentioned above, I visited Bolivia by choosing an itinerary different from the classic agency ones. Of course, one has to inform oneself about planning and wasting time, which, however, I like. But that way I avoided any health problems and also avoided going to places I was not interested in. I saw others that were less beautiful, but at my age I think it’s normal to prefer something non-touristy and very authentic, rather than biking down the carretera de muerte. To me, I thought the evening in Cochabamba watching Wolverine in a Bolivian cinema was definitely interesting.

In Tanzania I went as a group to limit the cost of the safari, but I so regretted the freedom of itinerary choice. We did 5 endless days in Zanzibar, instead of doing at least one easy hike on the mythical Kilimanjaro, which we skimmed.

The composition of the group

In my experience, during the first week of the trip the companions all seem super, then you get to know each other better and problems pop up. I am talking mostly about agency trips that offer at least theoretically adventurous travel, where you would expect to be with people who are knowledgeable, open to diversity, and ready for discomfort. In reality, the ways of traveling and experiencing travel are many, and it is not easy to find someone totally in tune, at least for me.

Before departure I am very curious and tend to have silly fantasies, which are punctually disproved by reality. Once I had christened a male couple as gay; instead they were father and son. Another, noting the high number of women, I had imagined that they made great conquests, but instead they were almost all lesbian couples. The coordinator plays a key role and is expected to be a trained one. With some agencies it is someone who has never been where you will travel. By far the best coordinator I ever had was one who spoke neither English nor Spanish.

The characters I would gladly avoid

• The know-it-all that claims to explain to the world how it works, even to a bartender how he should make tea
• The well-off woman in the hut in the middle of the jungle demands chicken cooked the way her personal cook does at home
• The gift fanatic and souvenir hunter who loses hours in markets and ponders every detail, despite the fact that they are all the same for 2 weeks
• Sensitivity to the poverty of those who live in the country she visits, who do not want to tip the driver who has been escorting her for a week because her backpack got buried
• The one who risks breaking his neck to be a spectacular sefie
• The chick who gets a thousand photos taken for each pose and then considers for hours which one to post on her profile
• Those who ask to take a group photo (with a thousand attempts) at every half-new panorama
• The super negative that starts every sentence with a no
• Those looking for pasta all’amatriciana on a Caribbean island

Links

Below are the homepages of the group trips I mentioned in this article:

Tanzania

Russia

Cruise for singles in the Mediterranean

Nile Cruise (Egypt)

Guatemala, Honduras and Belize

Peru

These are the generic links with the large divisions by which I grouped the blog articles.

Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent

Countries visited in my travel stories

Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives

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Fabio Viroli

Ho sempre avuto tante passioni, ma da sempre più o meno latenti, le principali sono viaggiare e scrivere. Tra le altre cose ho una laurea in psicologia; ho fatto per più di 30 anni l’allenatore di basket; leggo tanti libri; sono stato molto appassionato di sport e di musica rock; e faccio improvvisazione teatrale. IL mio primo romanzo, che non parla di viaggi, si chiama LE TUE GAMBE SONO BELLE COME LE TAGLIATELLE

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