Solo Travel vs Group Travel – Why Small Group Tours Are Not Taboo

Solo Travel vs Group Travel is a regular conundrum. Here are the benefits of travelling in a group and why it might be your greatest choice.

Travelling solo vs. travelling on a small group tour? Depending on the destination, its infrastructure, political climate and level of accessibility, this can be a scenario to consider. A dilemma, even, for those who are staunchly independent. Yet it is also a decision that can change your entire experience. 

I’m adventurous, free-spirited, and prefer solo travel whenever possible. I’ve learnt to embrace change, appreciate my own time, and revel in the empowerment that comes from navigating travel logistics. The best feeling is being forced outside my comfort zone and into a wonderful sense of spontaneity.

Yet I started my backpacking life on a small-group tour when I was 24, and 20 years and 70+ countries later, I still embark on small-group adventures from time to time.

Does that make me any less adventurous? Does that mean I’m not a true independent traveller? Not at all. There’s a time when booking a small group tour makes perfect sense. Here are a few reasons why. 

The Advantages of Small Group Tours

A group tour is one of the best introductions to solo travel

From a young age and with restrictions on budget, I spent a lot of my holidays finding well-priced package deals to European sun destinations. When the day came to finally give in to my obsession with seeing Asia, I booked two weeks off work and had my heart set on Vietnam. With no one to go with and no prior knowledge of Asia travel or solo expeditions, I joined a two-week Vietnam roadtrip tour. It was the best decision I ever made.

A way to mix free time with group camaraderie, I was able to be on the road while breaking in my solo travel boots. While everything on a trip is pretty much organised, it is still deeper travel; a mix of slow travel, local encounters, and a dash of comfort here and there. Importantly, a tour gives you the chance to learn from others while also having the liberty of free time to test the feeling of independent travel.

While in Vietnam I had already decided where I would head to next, and returned home and booked a two-week trip to Northern India and the Golden Triangle.

A small group tour can minimise frustration and maximise time in difficult places

Just like my reasons for booking India, small group trips can be an essential element to minimising frustrations in countries deemed a little tricky to travel. That could be because of the huge culture shock, or a place where solo female travel is a bit riskier, or simply because of the size of the country and making the best use of time.

Before heading to China on a solo trip four years ago, I really wrestled with the idea of independent travel vs. a group tour. I’d heard from many people that outside of the Beijing-Xian-Chengdu-Shanghai route, it is very difficult to travel around China due to the language barrier and overwhelming size of the country.

I had met travellers who had simply given up after a few weeks due to limited patience levels and an inability to cope with the extreme differences in culture; while some happily chose tours to bypass the difficulty.

For others, with only two to four weeks of time, it can be hard to plan how to cross such a huge country unless you are extremely well-organised and have time to lose with sporadic changes in logistics and infrastructure.

In the end, I did a mixture of both. I traversed the main cities by myself and joined a tour to reach the mountainous areas and other regions including Dali and Lijiang in the Yunnan Province.

Small group tours can mean travelling with a local and giving back to the community

Sustainable travel, and understanding and appreciating a local culture is at the heart of my work. As is forcing myself to meet, interact with and learn from local people to challenge misconceptions.

If there’s one thing I love most about small tours, it is the concept of local guiding. The guide on your tour or the CEO (Chief Experience Officer) is often a local from that particular country or region, taking you to interesting places you wouldn’t normally find and giving you insights you might otherwise have had to dig for.

Your money goes directly to the community; both for your guide and the social enterprises and communities you visit along the way. For those looking for tours that visit specific sustainable initiatives and include visits to social enterprise projects, check out tours developed in conjunction with local non-profit organisations. 

A group tour can allow access to travel in destinations with restrictions

I travelled to Iran on a small group tour simply because I had no choice – my nationality restricted me from independent travel.

There are many countries where a long-standing history of coups, espionage, nuclear sanctions and everything in between could limit your entry because of nationality or a restriction on minimum numbers, such as with Tibet.

Joining a tour not only allows you access to countries you might otherwise have never seen, but it often helps with obtaining visas, authorisation codes and other logistics that are taken care of by the tour company as part of the package.

Adventure expeditions are better with the morale of a small group

Could I have reached Everest Base Camp with a private guide? Probably. Was it more encouraging and life-changing with the morale of a group? Absolutely.

I stood before the top of the world with a group of people I had just spent eight days with as we pushed our bodies and minds to the limit. There were times I could not have got there without the support. I booked on the 15-day Everest Base Camp trek – a small group tour that includes a 12-day trek and time to explore Kathmandu on either side. This also included the cost of the internal flight to Lukla, all accommodation and local sherpas.

I travelled independently around Nepal before and after this trip, and knew by booking this I was joining a reputable organisation and limiting the stress of finding and organising a trekking group on the ground in Nepal.

That group tour may lead you to find travel buddies to continue solo

Travelling long-term? Joining a group tour is a great way to meet like-minded people and to continue the adventure after your trip ends, just as I ended up exploring Nepal with one of my new trekking friends. Many people choose a small group tour to cut their teeth on travel in a new destination, with a view to continuing their travels across the country. 

Which adventure will you choose? 

READ MORE: My worldwide adventures by group travel

• Peru – Taking the Peru Hop bus around Peru 
• Kilimanjaro – Trekking on the Lesmosho route and ending with a Serengeti safari
• Tibet – A trip to a hard-to-reach country on an overland trip from Nepal
• Iran – If your passport limits your ability to travel indpendently, a small group tour grants you access to the country’s highlights
• Ecuador Amazon Rainforest – The experience of living with a local family in the Amazon Rainforest
• Colombia – Trekking to the Lost City and exploring Colombia’s scenic-ribboned Caribbean Coast
• Everest Base Camp – Tackling the EBC Trek with group morale on a round trip from Kathmandu
• Egypt – Taking in the highlights of Egypt with an Egyptologist as our guide