Travel Plans September 2016

[elusivek]

My usual travel buddies are P, who I went to London just in January and C. The 3 of us together are like the perfect travel combination. I usually do all the planning and the paperwork, P is the photographer, and both P and C research places and try to group them together, and then I'll verify these places and see if we have the transport coverage. It also depends where we are going. C is the Japan-holic so if our destination is Japan then she does all the planning. I like travelling with them as it's easy with them we have build a sort of camaradarie (lots of trial and error).

I have other travel buddies like R, who I just went to Japan with in March, and J... but J is a little difficult... she doesn't like walking much whereas I absolutely love walking around with no aim or destination. R is also a rather nice travel buddy. I did one trip to Osaka with J a couple years back and it was a disaster.

Anyway, J is itching to go on holiday and she asked me to go with her. She saw a group tour for the Balkans peninsula and she wanted that I go with her.

I thought long and hard. J is a good friend, and indeed I haven't gone on a trip with her for a long time. However, I loathe tour groups... but I guess I'll just have to suck it up and make this exception and go on the tour group with her.

J has her eyes on this 16-days Balkans Peninsula group tour thing (it's in Chinese, but the highlight sightseeing points have the English names in it too). I'll have to admit I'm pretty excited about visiting these castles and monasteries... I like visiting those. I also understand with a tour group it's going to be easier, as I do remember when we decided to go to Terezein/Theresienstadt when we were in Czech Republic and the transport thing was a little nerve-wracking... when you don't speak their language and they don't speak English.

So I suppose I'll just kick back and relax and go on this tour with J and just enjoy the itinerary. I'm quite chuffed about the Bran Castle, Jesus Christ's Nativity Church, Sofia, the couple of Old Towns in whichever city, so I'll see. Maybe a group tour isn't that bad after all. I should copy down all that info and make my own mini research of them.

Comments

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

We sort of do a group thing with cruising, but often we just strike out on our own once arriving at the location. Hopefully you will have some group free time to explore what you want to see.

[notte0.livejournal.com]

oh, a cruise! I'd love to go on a cruise someday!

I'm wary of the yucky tour-group restaurant foods and also of the general tour guides or escorts being mean if you don't shop at certain shops... It's very common here in Asia - group tour prices are really cheap but then they always take you to these shops where the tour guides and escorts earn by commissioned sales.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

We enjoy it. We've been on several and have one coming up next May for the Panama Canal. We tend to travel on the smaller ships, so it's not quite as bad as the 2,000+ of the others.

We went to a few of those shops when we did our land tour of China.

[katemacetak.livejournal.com]

I need a travel buddy. None of my friends seem able to make the commitment required of international travel. If they agreed to it I would gladly plan the whole thing though.

That tour looks fun...the pictures are beautiful! But I understand about not liking tour groups.

[notte0.livejournal.com]

it's really important that you click for travel buddies.

I've got a couple of really good friends - they are great as friends, but it's a nightmare to go traveling with them.

For tour groups, I don't really mind the being in a group part, I generally dislike the travellers themselves. I've met people in a tour group that have this absolute nonsense sense of entitlement that I feel sorry for the escort/guide. A tour group is also going to make the traveling easier (they arrange everything or you - no need to sweat about how to connect the transportation yourself), etc...

We'll see, I'm sure if I can't breathe I'll come ranting at night haha

[sayuri2023.livejournal.com]

The Balkan group tour looks terribly exciting, someday I will..

[notte0.livejournal.com]

actually I still haven't wrapped my mind around "I'm going to the Balkans!" thought. Once I start researching, then I might get more excited.

[carriea31.livejournal.com]

It sounds like it could be fun. It is hard to know in advance if a group tour is going to be good or not, but if it works out, then it is SO good! At least you are going in with an open mind!

[notte0.livejournal.com]

yeah, I believe as long as I have an open mind, I should be able to overcome most of the things I don't like in a tour group. Though I must say I'm really wary of the possible other-members-of-the-group. They're gonna be Hong Kong people, who have the worst sense of entitlement ever... I don't mean to discriminate or stereotype, but each and every Hong Kong tour group I've been on... it's always the same with the Hongkies...

[quirkycricket.livejournal.com]

I went on tour groups when I was high school to Europe. It wasn't that bad :D

[notte0.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I'll be ok about the escort from the travel agency, and the local guide at destination. I'm just wary of the other participants in the group...

[quirkycricket.livejournal.com]

In my experiences with tour groups I had pretty good groups. Of course we were in high school and encouraged to mingle. I still talk to one person that I went to Europe with.

[magic-treehouse.livejournal.com]

Last year I visited Croatia and I highly recommended it. We did quite a bit of travelling about around the south end of the country and did Dubrovnik, Budva, Mostar and Kotor of the ones on your tour. They are all beautiful and it made me really want to explore Eastern Europe further. Croatia has one of the most stuning coastlines I've ever seen, youwon't be disappointed.