It used to be that a guided vacation meant a coach full of seniors and involved driving for hours on end. Nowadays, guided vacations are the key to experiencing the world in a unique and incredible way.

delicate arch group

Guided vacations allow you to travel in a small enough group that you can still enjoy travelling, but you receive all sorts of bonuses. With a guided vacation, you will be travelling with a guide: someone who will take care of all of the boring details during your vacation, such as what time to leave lunch to get to your next activity and figuring out how long it will take to travel between the museum and the restaurant. Your guide is also a wealth of knowledge of the destination you are exploring and so you are more likely to get a lot more out of your holiday.

Having a guide during your guided vacation goes without saying, but another perk to a guided vacation is being treated as a VIP without the VIP price tag. As a group, you would be able to take advantage of private tours of museums, where normally you would be in a large group, and you share these private tours with the group you are travelling with (and also creating friendships with). You don’t have to pay extra to have a private tour to escape the large crowds of tourists and you can enjoy a smaller group tour and you don’t even have to worry about picking up the tickets or figuring out where you have to be because your guide takes care of that for you.

cowboy monument valley

With guided vacations you are able to authentically experience a destination. The guides you travel with are often visiting the same destination over and over again and they build up a relationship with the locals for you. I visited the Grand Canyon on a guided vacation and we had so many experiences that we could not have created for ourselves, including learning how to lasso a steer from a real cowboy and listening to a Native American flute during dinner.

wild bill

The language barrier can be a huge obstacle for some people wanting to visit a foreign country. On a guided vacation, your guide eliminates the language barrier for you and you don’t have to talk loudly (still in English) while gesturing frantically in order to ask for directions. In countries that have a very different culture, your guide will make sure you are following customs and you don’t have to worry about offending the locals and being a bad tourist.

Guided vacations allow free time to do your own exploring and so, do not be fooled and think that every minute of everyday is spoken for and you are spending your holiday on somebody else’s schedule.

Now that I have guided you through the benefits of a guided vacation and debunked some of the myths, perhaps I have opened some doors and sparked an interest for you to visit a place that was always on your bucket list but you never thought was possible!

About the Author

Rhian Torontow is a Family Travel Consultant with Magical Family Adventures. Rhian creates travel experiences that foster connections in your family that will last a lifetime and transforms your children into open-minded, flexible, well-travelled people. During Rhian’s childhood, her father travelled for work constantly and it was always travel that brought her family back together. You can follow Rhian on Facebook at www.facebook.com/magicalfamilyadventures, Instagram @MagicalFamilyAdventures and you can also connect with her on LinkedIn ca.linkedin.com/in/rhiantorontow/