Customized Tours Offer Freedom --and Some Hand-Holding Too

At 6 a.m. one August morning, on a ferry bound south through Alaska’s Inside Passage, I met a woman leaning at the prow like a carved figurehead, the wind whipping through her hair. A recent widow from Arkansas in her early 60s, she was taking her first extended trip in many years--on a group tour.

Even so, she wasn’t happy. Everyone else in her party was from Texas, and her assigned roommate cared more about clothes than humpback whales. When I told her I was dawdling down the Inside Passage on my own, she grew excited, bombarding me with questions--proof positive that inside her breast beat the heart of an independent traveler.

I’m no tour-lover either. But planning an independent trip isn’t exactly a vacation. And women in particular can’t go flitting around the world without a care. In the past, I’ve struggled with both these problems, heading away to places I probably shouldn’t have visited alone, then giving in and taking tours.

Fortunately, there’s ground for compromise between the two approaches: a customized tour. Arranged by a tour company, customized trips are easier than planning your own itinerary. But because you are still an independent traveler and not part of a group, traveling still feels like an adventure. There is freshness and serendipity in your encounters with people, be they locals amazed at the phenomenon of a woman striking off on her own, or fellow travelers giving advice and sharing stories.

I discovered customized touring a year and a half ago while planning a solo trip to China. I consulted guidebooks for information about how female travelers fare, and faxed tourist bureaus and hotels--without hearing back. Then one night at about 3 a.m., my bedside fax droned into action, delivering a message from someone I’d contacted, an agent named Irene Peng at the China International Travel Service in Chongqing.

All I’d requested was basic tourist information on the mountain city at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, and on the Buddhist sculpture grottoes in nearby Dazu. But in her fax, Peng outlined a complete, customized, five-day tour. The price was right: $591, including accommodations, airport transfers, meals, a private car and the services of my very own guide. So I booked it, saw sights in Chongqing I wouldn’t have found on my own, and never for a minute felt lost or threatened.

I tried the strategy again last fall when planning my first trip to India, where travel can be challenging for anyone but especially for women. In fact, the prospect seemed so daunting that I considered taking a group tour to the fabled state of Rajasthan from a company called Myths and Mountains. But the three-week trip lasted too long and cost more than I could afford, with accommodations at luxurious Rajput palaces.

Fortunately, when I called I happened to reach the company’s president, Antonia Neubauer. She impressed me with her firsthand knowledge of India and set about designing a tour of Rajasthan that fit my budget and schedule exactly: $1,262 for 10 nights, with stays in Jaipur, Udaipur and the Thar Desert bastion of Jaisalmer.

I didn’t have a guide, but in my fanny pack I carried a thick, reassuring packet of tickets and hotel ‘To see out-of-the-way places safely and easily on your own, customizing with a small, specialized tour company can be an excellent way to go.’ vouchers, and at every train station where I alighted I was met by a Myths and Mountains-affiliated agent.

Neubauer says that customized trips like the one I took in Rajasthan don’t generate as much revenue for her company as group tours do. Still, she sees them as a labor of love and enjoys designing trips for people with special needs and interests. One was an 80-year-old woman, who embarked on what she termed her “last trip” all over northern India, in a wheelchair with an Indian guide. Neubauer knows personally the agents she works with, which is why travelers on her customized tours rarely get off a delayed flight to discover that the guide has left them in the lurch, or that there’s no room where they had reservations.

The woman on the ferry and I aren’t the only ones who like to travel on their own. About 10 years ago, big tour companies noticed a surge in the number of independent travelers. They responded by building self-guided travel options into their catalogs (often short stays in major cities, booked before or after longer group tours, including lodging, airport transfers and a little sightseeing). Now many companies offer self-guided choices to suit travelers with specialized interests, such as cooking or bike tours, or the delightful (and economical) six-day train tour I took four years ago around the North Island of New Zealand, arranged through a company called Inta-Aussie.

To see out-of-the-way places safely and easily on your own, customizing with a small, specialized tour company can be an excellent way to go. Judi Wineland, co-owner of Thomson Safaris, a tour operator that offers group trips to the far reaches of Tanzania, says she loves to get calls that start with “I don’t think you can do this for me, but . . .” Custom-made trips cost about 20% more than Thomson’s groups safaris, but half of Wineland’s business involves customizing. People call her instead of a generalized travel agent because, as co-founder of the tour company and a regular visitor to Tanzania, she knows the country well.

Reaching someone who’s an authority on a destination is key to customizing, according to Pat Ballard, sales director at Journeys, a Michigan company. Journeys offers small, ecologically minded group tours all over the globe, but has particular expertise in the Himalayas. “Travel agents don’t always know about specialized trips like ours,” she says. “So if you call them, they may just contact us, with important questions and information lost in translation.”

Ballard’s company often customizes by offering the same tours and treks listed in its catalog--which have set itineraries and dates--to independent travelers and small parties at any time, season permitting. And the price isn’t much higher. For example, if you book a three-week Everest Sherpa Country Trek with a group of 12, the cost is $2,095 per person, (not including air fare). Those who take the trek solo pay $2,395 (also land only).

I can do Alaska’s Inside Passage on my own and could probably handle Rajasthan now that I’ve been there once before. But the next time I plan a trip to Nepal or Tanzania, I’m going to call a tour company that customizes, because even independent types like to have their hands held once in a while.

Journeys, telephone (800) 255-8735 or (734) 665-4407; Thomson Safaris, tel. (800) 235-0289 or (617) 876-7314; Myths and Mountains, tel. (800) 670-6984 or (702) 832-5454; Inta-Aussie Tours, tel. (800) 531-9222 or (310) 568-2060. The Chongqing branch of the China International Travel Service is at 175 Renmin Road in Chongqing.

This new column about women’s travel will appear weekly. Spano, who joined the Travel staff recently, is a seasoned traveler who has freelanced widely. She will also write destination stories for Travel.