Independent and individual tourism - what is important to know about it. Independent tourism in modern conditions Independent tourism and travel

Group tours are far from the only service that modern industry can provide to the traveler.

Today, he has many alternatives in the form of independent or individual tourism, allowing you not to be tied to either popular routes, or to certain modes of transport, or to fixed departure dates for a wide range of clients.

What you need to know about the features of such a vacation and the options for organizing it in different countries, we will analyze in detail.

It is customary to call such tourism independent, which provides for the complete or partial refusal of the services of tour operators. However, in most cases, tourists, especially beginners, do not refuse completely from the help of specialists.

Most often, this type of tourism is used by travelers who want to visit thematic festivals, concerts of their favorite bands, as well as other events for which group tours are not organized.

Such tourism can be organized in different ways. In particular, it includes:

• Backpacking - travel that involves the minimum spending of money on movement, as well as accommodation.
• Hitchhiking - moving around the selected area by passing vehicles.
• Booking is an independent tourism, which does not involve the assistance of tour operators at all. The traveler independently books hotels, buys tickets, and receives a visa.
• Autotourism is a type of travel in which a personal car is the central means of transportation for a tourist.
• Traveling through guest networks. The most popular amateur tour in recent years.

The advantages of this particular type of tourism include the ability to shape a trip to suit your own budget, preferences, and schedule. That is why today it is developing so quickly and productively in various countries.

Amateur tourism is a type of independent tourism, which involves the use of personal transport to move along the routes. It can be either a personal or a rented vehicle. Most often it is a car, although it can be a yacht, an airplane, or any other kind.

The assistance of travel agencies in this particular type of tourism consists in booking hotels, additional services, including obtaining a visa, drawing up a route (especially if a person is going on such a trip for the first time), sometimes even booking the vehicle itself.

Also, a travel company can negotiate the services of local guides for their wards. However, in general, amateur tourism shifts to this type of organization only the most difficult issues of departure, taking maximum responsibility for organizing the trip.

It is this tourism that allows a person to enjoy all the advantages that specialized agencies provide, and at the same time freely choose the route, the type of hotels in which he wants to stay, as well as other parameters of his own vacation.

Unlike alternative tours, it provides for the full provision of organizational aspects of departure by the travel company itself. In this case, it must provide:

• Advice on choosing a route for your individual tour.
• Booking tickets for the dates required by the client. This category includes not only international routes, but also domestic ones, if the client is expected to move from city to city.
• Selection and booking of hotels.
• Booking tickets for the type of events chosen by the client - visiting exhibitions, theaters, entertainment venues, water parks and other similar places.
• Providing additional services, including renting a car, equipment for extreme tourism or other individual means necessary to ensure the tour is in your case.

We can say that individual tourism occupies the same golden mean between group and independent tours. It actually fully adapts to the needs of the client, but does not provide for the imposition of all the hassle of organizing the departure on him.

Those who like independent tourism can choose ready-made routes for themselves, developed by their predecessors, who chose Poland for themselves. Among the most successful and really interesting are the following:

• Lublin, Krakow, Warsaw - an independent tour of the major cities of Poland, which have a record number of historical sites of interest to tourists.
• Poznan, Warsaw, Krakow, Lublin, Wroclaw - an extended individual tour of the most popular Polish cities, designed for those wishing to learn more about the history or culture of Poland.
• Krakow, then Wroclaw, Warsaw, cozy Poznan, as well as small Gdansk and Gdynia. The tour brings together the most striking historical cities of the country, as well as new small towns built in this country after the war.

These tours can be adapted both for a regular excursion trip and for religious and cultural tours.

The traveler only needs to choose in advance the direction he is interested in, but it will not be difficult to adapt it.

In such trips, the calculation of the time spent in each city is 1 day-1 city.

Tours can be easily adjusted to the wishes of the client, for example, he can increase the time spent in one location up to 3 days or more, adjust the program of stay, add visits to seasonal exhibitions, performances, festivals and other events.

Also in Poland it is not difficult to organize amateur tourism by type of activity. Especially often this proposal is used to organize extreme tours. Among those:

• Horse rides. It is one of the most dynamic areas of amateur tourism. Developed in Lodz, Bronszewice.
• Boat trips in Gdynia or Pruszkow.
• Rafting, as well as rafting in Yasvila and Karpach.
• Kayaking trips to Pshekhlevo.
• Walking tours. Since this direction in Poland has recently been very popular, amateur tourism of this type is organized in various places: Zakopane, Jaslo, Bronszewice.

Whatever amateur tourism a traveler chooses, going to these parts of Poland, he can always count on the opportunity to book equipment for his sport here, as well as to take good apartments for living.

You can go here at any time of the year. All that is needed for this is to properly organize the trip and obtain a visa to Poland. Fortunately, this is not so difficult to do today.

The complexity of organizing a trip as part of an individual trip or an independent tour depends directly on how actively a person engages travel agencies in this task.

After all, it is they who can take over the preparation of most aspects for a person's departure. The simplest thing in this regard is individual tourism. After all, here the client just needs to choose a route for himself, the agency does the rest. The rest of the types have a lot of nuances in the organization.

Fans of such a direction as amateur tourism should be given special attention to obtaining a visa. As you know, those who go to the Schengen countries on group tours are given it out much more willingly.

Self-travel and self-tourism are not much different from organized travel through travel companies.
There are many reasons why people choose independent recreation.
Some people like that the same vacation can be organized cheaper than through a travel company.
Others, that there is confidence that they will not be deceived, and if it is necessary to refuse a trip, the loss of small commissions will not be a reason for disappointment. Agree that flying to a country in the midst of an epidemic or, where it has become, is not calm and terrorist attacks have become more frequent, just because refusing a ticket is too expensive, it is not reasonable.
Third, independent travel opens up the opportunity to see more in one vacation, experience completely different sensations and get real pleasure from independent rest.

The first independent travel is most often thought of in the next tour, when there are vacationers who are resting on their own.

What to look for when thinking about independent travel

Safety
Travel safety should always come first when choosing a country (holiday destination).
Buying travel insurance is a must and essential part of a self-guided tour. You don't have to go somewhere to buy insurance, everything can be done via the Internet. Here you will find an article on where, how and for how much to buy travel insurance.
But if insurance is an opportunity to reimburse funds for medical care, then common sense is a chance to prevent insured and non-insured events.
In addition to the savage's preference for choosing a safe country for travel, it should be borne in mind that in any country there are local risk factors.
You should not tempt fate once again, walking at night on deserted streets, drunk.
The city center and the outskirts are two sides of the same coin. Outskirts and slums, this is not the best place to get acquainted with national customs.

Country selection
The choice of a country for a vacation is more about the type of vacation, it will be a beach vacation, sightseeing or with the possibility of both. I think that everything is simple here, and the choice depends only on you.

Residence
Finding a hotel or accommodation can seem like one of the hardest things to do when planning. travel on your own, but in fact, this issue can be solved quite simply.
The closer to the city center and the higher the class of the hotel, the higher the price of accommodation will be. For an economical stay, it is worth looking for a 3-star hotel or accommodation on the outskirts of the city.
Accommodation is a matter of price and quality of service, and if you can save money on this, then why not take advantage of it.
For this, there are special services that help you find and book a hotel room or apartment via the Internet.
Here you will find articles about hotel search and accommodation booking services:
- book a hotel in Booking;
- booking hotels in HotelLook;
- search for housing all over the world.

In some cases, booking accommodation can be not only convenient and comfortable, but also cost-effective.
Read these articles, and you will understand that finding and booking a hotel and apartment is not as difficult as it seems.

The language barrier
Knowledge of English will only help in English-speaking countries; in other countries, ordinary people know it as well as in our country, by a C. Knowledge of English is no longer required when buying air tickets and booking a hotel, for this we use sites with Russian language support. But knowledge of the language may be required in the hotel itself, and independent travel is the best way to improve this knowledge. In other cases, everything can be solved using a notebook, phrasebook, fingers and gestures.
Be sure to keep a notebook and a pen with you, because after the questions - How munch? or Quantum Costa? they will be very useful to you.
Believe me, there you will have a second wind that will help you find a common language and understanding with the local population. And this is what will give you unforgettable impressions and memories of the rest of the savage.

Visa
In most countries, where tourists are loved and expected, a permit is not required, a visa is opened upon arrival, and some European countries are allowed to stay on their territory without a visa for up to 72 hours.
The list of these countries is subject to change and therefore for each country it is worth checking the websites of these countries at the time of choosing a country for recreation.
But there are countries of entry that require a visa. On the websites of consulates, embassies of these countries, or the visa center nearest to you, there is all the necessary information about the documents and fees that will be required when applying for a visa. Gather all paperwork and make an appointment if possible. In some cases, it is enough to have tickets for transport, a passport, a hotel reservation and insurance, but sometimes they ask for a certificate from work and call back for verification.
In this article you will find information on how to get Schengen on your own.

Also, I recommend using Google maps where possible. Look in advance online at the streets, houses and sights, this will help you navigate the terrain, and not get lost on walks in a little-known city.
This is what the Palace of Westminster and Big Ben clock tower looks like on a Google map.

How to start a self-guided tour

To feel confident on an independent tour abroad, try first independent rest Houses. Buy air tickets to Crimea and book a hotel, or choose any other resort in the Krasnodar Territory or Abkhazia.
Then, plan an independent holiday in Bulgaria. Buy cheap air tickets to Burgas and book your hotel.
You can also advise to spend a few days in Prague, here you can compare the prices of air tickets to Prague. In Prague, accommodation can be cheaper than a hotel room.
In Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, they understand Russian, and this makes communication easier.
When you are already comfortable with independent travel, you can safely plan an independent vacation in Greece, Italy, Spain or Thailand.
Independent tours to Turkey and Egypt, with rare exceptions, will be economically profitable, so it is better to go to these countries to rest through a travel company.

We plan an independent vacation

An independent vacation can be planned in advance or you can fly out immediately after buying cheap air tickets. Here you will find an article on unplanned travel.
If you managed to buy cheap air tickets for a promotion or on the charter flights exchange, then the rest will be adjusted to the purchased air tickets. You just need to find a hotel or accommodation and book it, buy insurance, etc.

Self-catering planning starts in 2-3 months, this allows you to find cheap air tickets in the direction where you would most like to go on vacation.
If you can't decide on a vacation spot, go to a travel company and ask what they can advise you. When they have found a tour for you, use their suggestion to plan a self-guided vacation.
According to the calendar of low prices, find a day of cheap plane tickets, through the search for hotels, find out the cost of living, in general, take into account all the expenses that will be associated with a vacation in the proposed hotel by a travel company. If the hotel has a choice of a boarding house, then the issue of food will be resolved, if not, then calculate the food based on how much is spent on food at home. Food products in our country are the same, if not more expensive, than in many countries. Having calculated the approximate costs of an independent travel, and comparing them with the cost of the tour, you can decide how it will be more profitable to relax.
If an independent vacation suits you, then proceed to buying air tickets and booking a hotel or accommodation.

Why independent travel is great:
- This is a completely different kind of recreation, which is perceived differently.
- The difference in the cost of travel on your own is not significant, but cheaper by 20-30% of such tours.
- For you, every day becomes a new one, which you completely plan yourself, starting with breakfast and ending with spending the night, maybe you will already be in another hotel. Traveling through the cities, you will always discover something new - previously unfamiliar.

The most difficult thing is to decide on the first independent trip, but you should do it at least once, and you will understand that independent travel is much more interesting than ready-made tours, and easier than it seems at first glance.

You can choose the direction where to go to rest on our website.

If you decide on a vacation that does not depend on travel companies (on an independent trip), then you should familiarize yourself in advance with the place where you want to go.

For the safest travel, be sure to find out about the rules and norms of behavior of your chosen holiday destination, because different countries have their own laws and customs, violation of which can lead to not very pleasant consequences.

The absolute pluses in independent tourism are that the choice of places, attractions, excursions depends entirely on your decision. You do not have to follow certain routes offered by various travel agencies, and limit yourself to visiting only the most famous, remarkable places. Visit all the places that attract you, even those that are not very popular, but no less beautiful and interesting.

It is impossible to say unequivocally whether independent travel will be more economical. All of this will depend on where you are heading.

You will have to take care of the tickets yourself, for this there are special sites where you can sometimes find great deals.

There are also sites for booking hotel rooms. Or you can look for hotels, hostels when you arrive, but it can take a lot of time and nerves, especially if you are still inexperienced and for the first time in this business. And there is also couchsurfing- a great option for an original tourist, it is free and allows you to make new interesting acquaintances. You will be received, fed, told and shown everything, provided that you also undertake to provide your accommodation to tourists free of charge if they go to visit your country and choose you as an intermediary. Everything is provided for your convenience, so don't be afraid to get started!

You may need knowledge of languages ​​in order to be able to contact the local population if any problems arise, so first learn a few basic phrases, be sure to take a phrasebook with you.

Look for information and read reviews about sights, architectural buildings, interesting shops, cafes, purchase a route map - this will help you find your way better.

Thanks to the travel \ "savages \" you are given complete independence from time, and you can get to know better the culture of the area, inhabitants, traditions, discover something new, useful for yourself.

If you have enough money, then do not limit your freedom, have a rest at your pleasure! Of course, you can save up for a minivan and drive it around the world in search of adventure, but that will be a completely different story ...

Here are a few countries that are considered the most convenient for the first independent travel: Thailand, Czech Republic, Malta, Greece, Bulgaria.

They have a relatively inexpensive service, a developed industry, and many beautiful, noteworthy places.

And remember that independent tourism is to some extent extreme, but having tried it once, you are unlikely to want to return to regular travel.

Self-guided tourism

5 (100%) 1 votes

Long gone are the days when a person, going in search of new lands, expected to see only unknown animals and unknown types of landscapes. The South American continent, not counting the icy Antarctica, was the last inhabited by people and this happened at least twelve thousand years ago, and all the great geographical discoveries are such only for European civilization, whose representatives explored new lands with the help (voluntary or involuntary) of local tribes and peoples ..

Surprisingly, even now, when the world is rapidly shrinking to the size of a daily flight, the successful outcome of any serious expedition largely depends on the people met along the way and provided all possible assistance. Moreover, going on such a trip, we first of all strive to get to know the life and life of those who, by the will of fate, found themselves on our way. In the tourism business, a fashionable trend has even appeared - "deep tourism": when, for example, a shaman is presented as the most real, and not an aboriginal on a part-time job; the setting is the one that has been here for more than one hundred years; guides are all researchers and local historians, solely for you (and only for you, of course) discovering the secrets of this particular universe.

I would like to believe, but, in my opinion, the very fact of having a travel agency nullifies all the "depth". Because an agency is a stream. And the people living in this stream are just doing their job. And what used to be life becomes part of the work. The same shaman puts on an outfit not because he felt like it or someone came from the lower world, but because he has to go to work in an outfit. Otherwise, tourists will grumble disgruntled faces and will beg the guide for “the most natural” shaman, and not this common man who pretends to be him. In the same jungle, watching the wild Waorani, I realized that it was just a job. Because every day the old man-waorani takes another gringo and drags them through the forest, showing the dexterity of climbing trees, shooting with a blowpipe and weaving baskets. For him, this is work and nothing more. You will never know what is behind his soul. You will not understand how they live, their way of life, their concept of the world. Because this is not the case at work.

Deep tourism is not an attempt to get there, where no man's foot has stepped. There are simply no such places on Earth. Maybe at the bottom of the ocean, but you can't step there. This is extreme, but there is no "depth" here.

“Depth” can lie side by side. Literally, under the nose. Crowds of tourists harnessed to agencies can rush by. Guides can point left and right, but not see the place. Because it is not in brochures and catalogs of agencies. Because there are no advertisements about him on every corner. Because this place is outside the stream. Ordinary people live there and lead an ordinary life. For them, the usual, of course. And the only difference is that they let you into their life. Let it not be long, let it be a bit: but you start to see the world through their eyes, you dive. The stream comes from above, and it doesn't care about you. You become one of those “local” people who do not see an object for promotion, a stuffed wallet or a simpleton for profit. You are in the depths. And this is where the success of the trip lies.

Is this possible? Certainly. And South America is a very fertile place for Russians in this respect. Visiting the vast majority of countries on the continent does not require a visa, the mentality of Latin Americans is close to us and understandable, and the attitude towards our compatriots is, for the most part, positive. Moreover, the latter arises from the coinciding distrust of the United States as the hegemon of the modern world and, oddly enough, thanks to Hollywood action films. Yes, yes, it is thanks to the image of the Russian Ivan in the invariable sheepskin coat, hat with earflaps and with a bottle of vodka, able (even at the cost of his own life) to repair the space station with one sledgehammer and thereby keep the promise he once made.

Therefore, I was not very surprised when I asked Sandro, our Ecuadorian guide on the Napo River, about how to send an advance payment for preparatory work for the trip, and received an original answer: “You are from Russia and we have agreed on prices and terms - no prepayment is required ... Upon arrival, you will pay. " Just think about it! After all, the guide prepares the boat for an autonomous journey in advance by purchasing provisions, fuel and spare parts - investing his own efforts, funds and refusing possible orders for the duration of this trip.

When planning an expedition along the route of the discoverer of the Amazon, we did not book hotels or redeem travel packages. We were just looking for ordinary people who share our views on the world and are ready to help us in implementing our plans: thanks to the World Wide Web, anyone can do this. In this respect, couchsurfing service is ideal. Well, in fact, where else can you get to know the country from the inside, if not in the house of a local resident who just let you live?

System CouchSurfing at the moment it unites more than three million people around the world who are ready to provide each other with free accommodation for the duration of their trip - the ideal way to go deep. After all, upon arrival at the place, you find yourself in a ready-made social environment and immediately get a circle of friends. No hotel or agency will provide such an implementation. Plus the opportunity to spend the night for free becomes a catalyst for the whole process. By and large, in order to receive guests at home, you only need to have the right to dispose of a place to sleep. It could be a floor, a bed, a room, or even a house. In a word - "couch" or "viska" - a place to spend the night that the owner offers to travelers.

Ah, registration, registration. An alluring word from the times of the Soviet Union, when turnouts and passwords of possible overnight stays were transmitted by word of mouth, when communication with the owner of an impromptu hostel of travelers began at times with the question: “Uncle, you don’t have some water, otherwise you want to eat so much that there’s no place to spend the night? " Now everything is much simpler - praise the Internet. So we, without hesitation, flew to Bogota and went not to a hotel at all, but to a residential condominium not far from the airport, where, in the company of an Iranian Mahdi and a Colombian Ingrid, they began to discover Colombia from the inside.

And in Ecuador such a “deep” place was known to me from the time of my first trip to this country. Literally 800 meters from the road leading to the tourist “Mecca” of the country - Lake Kilotoa, in the crater of the volcano of the same name, there is an ordinary hacienda, where an ordinary family lives. Marco and Margarita. There is a modest sign by the road: La Posada de Tigua. By the way, the word "posada" means, literally, "private property, where you can stay for a while."

Asiende is over one hundred and twenty years old and was built by ... a Russian emigrant. But, soon, it passed to the ancestors of Marco, who is already a representative of the fourth generation of owners. The lands of the hacienda once occupied the entire valley, but in the 60s of the last century they were nationalized, so that now only a small part remains. But even this small area was profitable to engage in agriculture until the government of Ecuador carried out dollarization in 2000. The standard of living fell sharply, it became completely unprofitable to engage in agriculture, and the owners of the hacienda found the only way out: to make a settlement. Himself. Outside travel agencies and advertisements. Just as it is. Six years ago I was the second person from Russia to stay here. Of course, we dropped in to see Marko and Margarita this time too. Over the years, of course, a lot has changed: the agencies found out about the "tidbit" and my old acquaintances had to hire workers and build a couple of houses to provide for everyone who wanted to stay. But for independent travelers in the posad there is always a secluded corner - and this, as before, pleases. Pleases, if only because there are few independent travelers.

Of course, it is much easier to contact an agency and, without getting involved in organizational problems, devote yourself to relaxation or discovery. Then why, after all, there is independent tourism? What pushes people to do this?

The reasons are different, the essence is the same. The first part of people obeys fashion. It is fashionable now to travel by yourself. "Look, look, Mikhalych has traveled half the world himself, but what, is it weak to me?" On the "weak" and are. The second part is looking for alternatives to vacation through agencies. Alternatives for those who have been tricked or framed. And only a third, small, part of people are not looking for reasons for independent travel. Because for them the journey itself is the reason.

What's the point? What people expect from the trip and how they imagine it. And only those who clearly know the answers to this do not experience disappointment.

- And I, count up, was on the Amazon!
- Interesting! Tell!
- Well, heat, monkeys. We took a couple of cases of beer ...

- It's horrible! We arrive in this Tmutarakan, but there are no hotels.
We found some kind of hut, and there was a toilet on the street. And this is rest?

- I thought: we will come and see the beauty - and there is nothing unusual there. Only in vain we were running back and forth all week.

I am both sad and funny to hear these dialogues. Of course, there is nothing unusual about travel and other places. No Martians with three heads, no living dinosaurs. No and never will. Anything unusual should be in your head. This is the essence and highlight of all travel. Learn to be surprised and then in the most ordinary things you will see what you wanted.

Only when the understanding comes that you see the world yourself and with your own eyes, and it doesn't matter that you were shaking for three days on the road, the toilet is outside, and there will be food on Tuesday - only then there will be no disappointments, only then are you ready for the trip. Are you still confused by something? Then it's better to contact the agency. There, embarrassment will be removed, and you will get what you wanted.