Intrepid travel –  conjures up a vision of adventurous exploration of travelling the world, exploring new places, meeting locals and generally experiencing travel off the beaten track.

When planning your travel you may be wondering whether book a tour for part of your trip or maybe you think this will take some of the adventure and the intrepidness out of your journey.

The general rule I use when planning to travel is to work out how much time I have and how much I want to see. Although I tend to avoid organised tours as much as possible on the road, there are some circumstances where a tour can be a good idea. If you don’t have a great deal of time for your adventure, booking an overland tour can help to pack in an awful lot in a short period of time.

Tours are also great for meeting people as you are thrown together to travel. Generally you will usually meet like-minded travellers and have a great time.

Now for the downside.

Tours are generally quite expensive. Compared to intrepidly exploring a country yourself, you’ll pay a lot more. Obviously this covers many of your costs as well as your guide but it will work out cheaper to go it alone.

takes away a huge part of the whole intrepid travel experience that is to be adventurous

It can be great to sit back, relax and let your guide organise the travel whilst you get to experience local culture, local food and public transport. However, for me this takes away a huge part of the whole intrepid travel experience that is to be adventurous and to put yourself in situations that you wouldn’t normally have to deal with. To put yourself out of your comfort zone. This could be attempting to communicate in a foreign language, ordering food or buying a bus ticket. It could be trying to navigate your way around a foreign underground train system. Not only this but travelling with a tour takes away those random experiences that makes travel such a memorable experience.

I remember landing in Beijing, China meeting other travellers and peddling a bike though the crazy bustling, winding Beijing Hutongs, on to the main roads, just managing to survive and make it to a scenic moonlit park. Travelling by tour and in a bubble doesn’t quite allow you the freedom to experience travel on a whim.

So whilst tours have their place from time to time, real intrepid travel comes from the freedom of going it alone and occasionally throwing caution to the wind.

Photo by flickrfotografer