Early Decisions- Organized Tour or Independent Travel?

Your two largest expenses related to going to London, or anywhere for that matter, are your transportation to get there and your lodging. Big surprise. The major decisions to be made about these are centered around some basic questions.

Do you want to arrange everything independently, looking for the right deal for each component yourself? Note I didn’t say cheapest, though that could be your driving force. Do you want to have the freedom to decide what you do and do not see, when you do it, how much time you spend, etc? Alternatively, do you want to forego most of the decisions & arrangements to be made, allowing them to be arranged by a professional, ensuring that you’ll see the major sites and have someone else handle some of the more mundane and/or stressful aspects of the trip?

There is no right or wrong answer to this. It’s about your priorities, your needs, your preferences.

Arranging the trip all yourself and traveling independently gives you the maximum flexibility. It will in most cases also be the cheapest as you can hunt down the most frugal opportunities, and you are not paying someone else to do any of it for you. You will make your travel arrangements, and will decide where to have every meal, and on what budget. If you like to be spontaneous or in some cases perhaps need to be, then being the independent traveler is the only way to go.

Alternatively, you can go with a tour package that will probably provide flight, hotel, local transportation, tour services, and perhaps some admission fees. Some meals may be included. I’ve been on one of these tours in Italy and they certainly have their advantages. They are not the cheapest way to go, but you get a lot for your money, you get a lot of ASSISTANCE, and they take a lot of the pressures and decisions on location out of your hands. With various levels of Tours from somewhat frugal to quite luxurious, they can still be cost effective. If you are traveling with someone who needs special assistance, for example an adult traveling with children, seniors who can’t do a lot of walking or be responsible for their own luggage, or you want to see a lot of towns in a relatively short time, then the tour might be the BEST idea since you will have someone assisting with transportation, luggage, etc. I will say that as far as traveling with children goes, London is one of the easiest and friendliest cities so unless the children are very young, and/or the adult is “out-numbered”, you definitely do NOT have to take a tour just because you want to take kids. I’ve never taken a group tour to London so I can’t speak to a large extent about them and this blog is not focused on that option. I still might have some tips to assist you in what free time you are given and I think the “Highlights vs. Personal Interest” subject may help you decide if a tour is right for you or not. Clearly, tours focus on the Highlights and offer only a small amount of time for Personal Interests. Stay tuned!