TRAVEL SPECIAL...…Self planned holidays or packaged tours?

Self planned holidays or packaged tours?

There’s no clear winner, but we’ll tell you how to make a sensible choice.

SIX TIMES out of 10, building your own itinerary will work out cheaper than a packaged tour, especially if you can bypass all intermediaries and deal directly with travel service providers. For instance, a check on the same 10-night Cambodia-Vietnam itinerary showed that OTAs like Expedia worked out at least 30,000 cheaper (per person) than heavyweights like Kuoni and Thomas Cook. But if you used metasearch engines to book flights, booked hotel rooms directly with the front desk after asking for a discount and called local players for sightseeing tours, your savings quotient would zoom up to 70,000.

    Moreover, with tour operators now levying a 3% service tax on international packaged tours, not just on air tickets but also hotel bookings and sightseeing, a do-it-yourself itinerary is kinder on your wallet.

    However, tour operators promise a wealth of knowledge—much more than guidebooks—along with long associations with travel vendors. Convenience and accountability are their two biggest USPs. “If you want a complicated, multi-country itinerary, an organised tour is the way to go,” suggests Sharat Dhall, president, Yatra.com. Factors such as handholding with visa formalities and the services of a tour manager are a benefit. If the template itinerary includes destinations and activities you can do without, ask for replacements or a shorter version at lower rates. Also, pay heed to terminology, cautions Karan Anand, head (relationships), Cox & Kings India. “For example, a panoramic tour is very different from a ‘visit’. In the former, you will view the sights from the window of your coach, with perhaps few photo stops, but in the latter you get to actually enter the place in question,” he explains.

    The DIY variety comes with its own share of risks. You may find the ground reality very different from what you had been promised, and chances of a refund will be slim. This option is good only for experienced, discerning travellers.

ETW 121105