It’s so easy to assume that on a tour, everything is going to be taken care that it’s easy to coast through the planning stages safe in the knowledge that the tour company is making great choices. But before you go, it’s worth skimming through your itinerary and flagging two things: any free time you’ll have and any meals not included on the tour. These choose-your-own-adventure moments are a great excuse to do a little advance planning to get you even more excited about your tour.
Is it the end of the world if you don’t plan for meals and free time? No, of course not. But it is a potential missed opportunity to find something great while you have the ease of a reliable internet connection. Another perk: While the someone-else-plans-it-all nature of a tour makes the lead up to vacation refreshingly stress free, you miss out on the anticipation-building that comes with researching a destination.
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Here’s my favorite approach to making sure I have fun activities for free afternoons and get great food experiences when I’m on my own for a meal during a tour:
- I print out the itinerary. I like having a paper copy (I keep them at the end and am amazed at how helpful it is, sometimes years later, to pull it out and be able to reference it when I’m offering recommendations to friends and family going to the same place).
- I go through and mark any free time and meals not arranged by the tour then research activities and places to eat.
- On the itinerary, I write down a list of promising options. Unless it’s something really special (in which case, I would reserve in advance), I like to keep things flexible at this point—my goal is to simply have some good options when the time comes so I’m not totally clueless.
- Once on the tour, I ask the tour guide or local host for ideas. These pros usually have amazing recommendations that also factor in things like how close it is to the hotel or how easy it is to get a table at the last minute. Often I find they recommend one of the spots I’ve already noted, which makes me more confident about choosing that spot.
I started thinking about this while preparing for Trafalgar Tours’ Costa Rica Eco Adventure.
As I looked through the itinerary, I noted the free dinners. For instance, the itinerary has a free dinner while we’re staying at Arenal Paraiso Resort. There’s a restaurant at the resort, which is good to know, but I also checked the map and found a whole cluster of highly rated restaurants about five minutes by car in nearby La Fortuna. In the process of this research, I learned about sodas, local family run restaurants that serve traditional Costa Rican food. This sort of research doesn’t take long since I’m not trying to become an expert, rather, it’s just to make sure I have a few options on hand if something doesn’t naturally bubble up.
With this approach, I’ve found that even on the best tours, some of my favorite moments end up being during these free meal times. It’s a chance to move a little more freely and choose things that suit my tastes and travel style. And the extra work it takes to decide on a spot, get there, and navigate on my own makes me appreciate the ease of the rest of the tour. So it’s really a win-win.
(Note: That photo at the top of the story? That’s an independent meal I had with my family in Cusco, Peru, on the Adventures by Disney itinerary for Peru. It tasted as good as it looks.)
