Too often people go ahead with buying a vacation package without fully understanding the details. If you really want your vacation to live up to expectations, then you should know what you are buying. The following guidelines will help you to get a good overall understanding of the product you are looking at. I recommend you consider all these factors when dealing with a prospective travel company.

Group Size
This one factor is probably the most important aspect of a group tour. The difference between 20+ people and 10, is immense. With 20 or so people, you are basically going to be “handled” on tour.

Do you want to get to know your guide and his home country? Are you looking to meat locals on your journey and interact with them? It is very hard to have an interpersonal experience with your guide when the group is so large.

Groups this size will also mean that you are limited to staying in large hotels etc. The more people in your tour group, the less flexibility you are going to have.

• 20 + People: Tours which take over 20 people, are quite simply, bus tours. You will stay in hotels, and your guide will be more of a driver than guide.
• 15 – 20 People: This is quite a large group for a guided tour. You will find that you will be staying in small hotels and will have reasonable interaction with your guide.
• 10 – 15 People: With a group this size, you are able to stay at some of the smaller Bed & Breakfast lodges and will be assured of some good interaction between your group & guide.
• < 10 People: Groups of less than 10 people will give the ultimate in flexibility & interaction between guide and travelers. You will be able to stay in small Bed & Breakfast Inn's, and will have access to more personal experiences.

I would recommend groups of no more than 12 people. 16 Years of experience has led me to believe this is the optimum number not to be exceeded. With a group of 12, you are still able to spend ample time (1 on 1) with your guide, as well as get all the extra benefits of traveling in such a small group such as; smaller and more personal accommodations, meals in restaurants, not traveling in a bus etc.

Meals
Do you want to eat the best local cuisine? How important is food on your vacation? The quality of meals on vacation is definitely important if you are like me! I would recommend asking the tour company, who prepares the meals? Are guides preparing all your meals? Or, are you eating in restaurants? Are clients expected to help to prepare meals? The quality of food will vary quite a lot between companies, so these questions will give you an accurate idea of what to expect.

Accommodations
How comfortable do you want to be on vacation? Are you happy to share a bathroom with others? There is a wide variety of accommodations available in New Zealand , and I would strongly recommend that you find out what type of accommodation should expect. Are you going to be staying in motels and campsites, or hotels and B&B's? The difference between each style of accommodation is quite big.

Vehicles
The size and comfort factor of the vehicle you have on tour can be very important. How many people can the vehicle seat, compared with the maximum number of people on the tour? What type of vehicle is it? Will there be refreshments & reading materials on board?

So, what's next?
Okay, now that you see there are a number of factors to consider when choosing a tour. The next step is to try to compare the tours offered by different companies. This can be quite hard.

In order to compare "apples with oranges", you need to know what questions to ask. In order to help you do this, I have written a couple of E-books to guide you through this process. If you are interested in reading and using these E-books to help you choose the vacation that is right for YOU, proceed to the page entitled "Selecting A Tour & Company" or click here.