Guided tour vs. friend tour

Richy

I'm thinking of a trip to China (possibly with a few other Canadian friends). My options are:
1. Organized tour.
2. Contacting some friends I have in China and having them guide me (or us) around.

I'll stick with the singular form for now, to keep things simple and because my travel buddies haven't confirmed yet.

So I don't know what to pick. The way I see it:

Having a friend guide me around would be more fun. But they're not travel experts so we might miss out on cool important stuff. And if my friends can't make it, I'm stuck. But if they do make it, they can take me to real authentic Chinese places that an organized tour would never go to.

An organized tour is a safe bet - guaranteed to be there and to know stuff to see. But it's so commercial and touristy. They'll make us stay in hotels and eat in restaurants they have deals with and won't give us too much of a cultural shock, while we're going to see the real thing, not the westerner-friendly version. I'll also be stuck in a larger group instead of being with my friends.

They'll also make us rush from place to place to make us see everything: some tours switch places each day or two days, and they'll make us rush during the day to see all the attractions. But that might be good; after all I want to see as much as possible in a short period, and I don't know everything there is to see or where it is. When I visited Chicago with my friends we were also rushing from place to place to see everything - but at least we had control on where to go, which was nice.

I could also try to get an organized tour then move the flight back by a week to see my friends. If it's possible, I don't know. So let's assume it's not an option for the sake of this thread.

So, to people who have been faced with a similar dilemma: what option did you pick? Did you enjoy or regret it?

To other people: what option would you pick, and why?

BoomShake

I think the best of both worlds would be to do some research, find out significant/historical/entertaining points of interest that people, and then go with that knowledge to your friends. You'll then be able to have fun with your friends and get their local flair while still (friends willing) hit up some of the important stuff a standard tour would hit.

Iruka

My suggestion is research the tour as thoroughly as you can (the places they stop, the restaurants, all of that if you can sniff it out) and just make a list/map and do the tour yourself with your friends. You might not get the same deals, but you can move at your own place, and mix and match locations.

If you cant get good research done, and this is more about seeing the country than seeing your friends, then maybe the tour would be better. Generally I would opt for friends, but I'm not a tourist as much as I am a foodie who likes to eat with friends.

edit: boom shake beat me too it. Outside of people having specific experience with specific tours, though, I think you laid out the pro and cons of both pretty well. You just have to decide what matters most for your trip.

CorcoranCadet

I've always tended to stay away from the group tours. If you do your research ahead of time you will be able to do everything they do at your own pace. I honestly wouldn't worry about missing out on important stuff. In most cities there are about 2-3 really must see locations, the rest are kind of secondary.

matt has a problem

The group tour is going to show you a pretty sanitized version of where you are. Sure, you'll get good picture opportunities, but it will stick to the touristy places and (as it's China) the official version of anything that may have happened there. There's no reason you can't see the same places on the "friend" tour, but I'm guessing it will be a bit more relaxed, with much more opportunity to go off the usual touristy path.

President Rex

From a general 'whole vacation' perspective, I've always gone with friends or by myself. I haven't taken a "go to [A] and see [X], [Y], and [Z] while staying at fabulous !"-tour. They do tend to keep you safer as you're moving with a group, but as matthasaproblem points out) you may end up with an incomplete or sanitized portrait of the country. But you're the only one who will know what you're interested in.

Of course, you can't know about everything, so having friends to consult always helps. They'll know what you like and can help you find it. Group tours tend to focus on catering to a very general audience, so - unless you're very easy to please - you'll visit a bunch of stuff you have little interest in.



However, for individual locations or cities in general a tour guide can benefit you immensely. Generally locals have very incomplete or misinformed knowledge of local histories (I've heard people tell the legend of my city's name as actual fact many times). For instance, if you talk to someone from Brno they might talk about the Soviet occupation, but won't go into details like Nazi occupation of the castle, the town's stalwart defense during the Thirty Years War or the city's fairly popular race track.

Of course, the opposite is also true: tour guides (and museum/memorial translations) occasionally dole out misinformation. In Amsterdam our tour guide mentioned that one of the plaques near the sea had two completely different texts in Dutch and English. Or a tour guide in Budapest who lied about events taking place in certain places (probably confusing legend with history).

I guess the basic gist is learn about what the stuff you like and want to see so you can learn more about it and potentially sift through bullshit when it comes your way. That way you can improvise when necessary (i.e. when a tour isn't available) and also supplement your friends' (lack of) knowledge.

DodgeBlan

going with local friends is always, always better anywhere. Doubly so for China. I've travelled a lot and any time I've had a local friend to show me round I've had a much better time.

Arivia

Go with your friends. If you're concerned about missing out on the big things, just grab a Lonely Planet/Frommer's/whatever and do what appeals there.

An-D

I'm living in China atm, and I'll go ahead and saying: GO WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

I'm not sure what kind of tours your looking at (or where exactly), but the tour is probably going to try to rip you off. You're a weiguoren (foreigner) and if you have white skin, they assume you have money and they want it SOOOOOO bad. They'll make deals with "famous restaurants" (protip: They're not famous) where you'll get charged extra for food (but you won't know better), they'll make deals with "traditional Chinese gift shops" (weiguoren tax, HO!) and 8/10 times, their English will barely be passable (even if it says 'English Guide' on the brochure).

Friends are the way to go. They know the places, they know the cities, they know the best places to eat and they know what they should pay for shit (you should be able to get at least 50% off EVERYTHING in any buying-gifts market).

There is a word that starts with 'S' that mights gifts you buy in different countries to remember them. I can't remember it.

But seriously, friends are the way to go. The only benefit a guided tour can get you is in the cities where they probably have a bus/some kind of mass transit. Tax drivers will almost always try to take the long way to get you places and the public transportation is confusing. Having a friend to guide you through it will make it super easy.

Also, at least in Beijing, hostels are pretty nice (365 Hostel is the bomb). And if you don't stay in hostels, staying at friends' places is always free.

I painted a kind of grim picture of the Chinese up there, and I'll go ahead and put a disclaimer saying that the Chinese people (especially in smaller cities) are some of the kindest people I've ever met. They're helpful and will a lot of the time, go out of their way to make sure you find something you need/want.

Chinese people in bigger cities are not as amazed with foreigners, it is assumed that you have a lot of money and they will try to get it. Avoid traveling by yourself (you won't get mugged, but probably harassed to go with people) and don't trust over-friendly Chinese people with perfect English (I totally fell for the Beijing Tea Party scam because the nice people in Changchun (where I live) made me super trusting of the Chinese. I got out of paying most of it, but lesson learned.

Having friends with you will help you get out of those situations. I wouldn't be surprised if tour guides had deals with some of these scammers.

Another protip, learn a little bit of Chinese. Just having the basics like 'Ni hao' and 'Xie Xie' will be super appreciated and detract from the weiguoren tax. Its super flattering if you try to learn the language, and they really like the American-Chinese accent.

Zoolander

There is no question at all in my mind that you should go with your friends. Obviously you should research the stuff out before going, and make sure that you are able to go to the places that really catch your eye, but you will find it much more rewarding to experience the cool things that your friends have discovered and want to show you. Organized tours are fine for their purpose, but if you have (dependable) friends in a country I can see zero reason to take one (except random Kontiki tour group sex? I dunno).

oldsak

Friends + solid guidebook is the way to go.

Shazkar Shadowstorm

Go with friends. Get a good guidebook. If you want to see a certain historic cite or see an overview of the city, you can always hire a quick tour guide / go on a tour for a day and not be committed. (e.g. when travelling Europe with friends, sometimes when we got to a city we would do a half day tour of the city or of something cool, and then do the rest on our own).

Go with your friends.

And long organized tours.... blow most of the time. Really. I've done that before. Blows. Good for old people maybe.

finral

Having lived in China recently, I would say don't go on the organized tours there. Not only do the tour groups tend to rip you off, a Chinese tour company will take to you to do things that don't necessarily appeal to your average western person. You would be way better off doing some research and figuring out where to go. You can always hire a guide in specific areas. Any tourist attraction will have hordes of people more than willing to show you around.