Posted in Travel Tips on Feb 28th, 2008
If you are planning on taking a vacation or travel somewhere through a travel package offered by traveling agencies, consider the following travel tips before deciding on taking the trip.
This travel tips will help you choose a good travel package.
Before traveling anywhere or buying a travel package, the first thing you need to consider is your affordability. How much are you willing to spend for the entire travel or vacation? Decide and set aside the amount you are willing to spend before looking for a travel package.
Once you know your travel affordability, shop around by going through a number of travel agencies and the travel package they offer. Compare and choose the one you like most according to what you can afford.
You should ask these questions and be clear about it before making the decisions to buy the travel package:
What does the travel package comes with?
Does the package include accommodation? If yes, where will you be staying? What type of accommodation?
If hotel, what type of hotels, what kind of hotel will it be? Will it be a three star hotel, four star hotels or a five star hotel?
Does the travel package include meals? If yes, what kind of meal? Can you take the meal? If you are particular about food, such as perhaps you are a vegetarian, in this case, can they arrange for a special meal?
Does the travel package include sightseeing or guided tour? If yes, where will they take you? Is that the place you want to go?
Will the guided tour incur extra cost such as admission fee when visiting a museum? Does the travel package include the cost of this guided tour?
How about the transportation? During the guided tour, what type of transportation will they use? Will it be a bus, a limousine or a van? Will you be comfortable with the mode of transportation offered?
Does the guided tour include a tour guide? If yes, what is his qualification? Can he communicate the same language as yours? Will he give explanation on site or places you will be visiting? Will you have communication barrier with your tour guide?
How about payments? What type of payments do they accept? Do they accept credit cards or checks? What type of payment will be best for you? Usually credit cards come with some kind of bonus for using the cards. It’s good to use credit card when making payments like this.
How about saving? Will there be any possibilities to save money like sharing a room with other traveler or is it a compulsory for you to have a single room?
How about other travelers? How many people will be taking the tour together? Can you feel comfortable with such crowd? Will you still have your privacy? What’s kind of freedom do you expect? Will you have freedom during the travel?
How about compensation? Will there be any refund in the event they cancel any of the programs included in the travel package? Does the travel package come with travel insurance? How will they refund and how long will it take to refund?
How about if you cancel the tour? What will be their refund policy? Do they provide any refund? Usually they charge you some kind of cancellation fee. It is important for you to make sure they don’t overcharge you with cancellation fee.
How about your daily expenses? How much will be your daily cost on the average? Can you afford to spend that much daily? Are they included in your travel affordability?
If you decided to take their travel package, will the offer you and free gifts such as travel bag etc? What other benefits they can give you if you participate in their package? If they don’t, ask, they usually will have some kind of gift for you.
Finally, have you checked the company’s background? How old is this travel agency? How many years have they been operating? Do they have any bad records?
On the average, how many tours do they operate within a year? Can they provide you the contacts of some of their satisfied customer as a reference? Can they prove they are professional and well established travel company?
These are some of the things I ask whenever I am traveling through a travel agency. It is good to ask all this questions so that you will not regret after taking the tour. You need to be really careful when choosing a travel package through a travel agency because whatever they offer may not turn out to be true during the travel.
This is coming from personal experience. So choose wisely when choosing a travel package. What we want is a best travel experience. Something we will always remember.
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