6 Reasons To Take A Guided Tour In Europe – Travel Italy & Greece

Travelling independently, and on a budget, has always been a point of personal pride for me.

I spend hours, days, weeks ahead of a trip, researching what to see, how to get there, and where to eat (or drink!).

Having just completed my three week, European wine pilgrimage and luxurious wine-down with Mr Wino, I broke the independent & budget traveler rule – I tried some guided tours.

So, for independent travelers, are guided tours really worth it?

From my experience, the answer is yes, when chosen carefully.

Why Take A Tour When Travelling?

There are some key benefits you will get out of a tour that you cannot achieve by travelling only independently. The best reasons to take a tour on your holiday are:

1.Put Down The Guidebook

Planning a holiday is a mammoth task.

My planning takes months!

Thursday night inspo for #WinoEatsItaly in 2015 w @VasseFelixWines Theatre Shiraz 07 #BackyardSessions Thanks dad for the bottle!

A photo posted by Louise Rhodes @ Willunga Wino (@willungawino) on Oct 9, 2014 at 1:14am PDT

One benefit of taking a tour is that you can breathe a sigh of relief, put down the guidebooks and laptop, and trust that for those hours, you will have a curated glimpse into your dream destination, hand-picked from someone who knows the place like the back of their hand.

That mental peace that comes from not needing to stress about seeing the best should not be underestimated, travel can be as mentally exhausting as it is physically. Given the expense of reaching your destination, pressure can build on oneself to make sure it is “the trip of a lifetime”.

In this instance, a tour is worth its weight in gold!

2. Speak Your Language

If you want to find a special something in the shops, if you need help reading a sign, confused about a term, or looking for a place, your tour guide is a wealth of knowledge – all in a language you can understand.

6 Reasons To Take A Guided Tour In Europe

It’s all Latin to me! Photo: Willunga Wino

Listening, and even trying out your local language skills can be a highlight of your trip, but when it comes to detail, unless you are fluent in listening, speaking, reading and writing, a bit of your native language can cut through the static and immediately solve your dilemma and enrich your trip.

A familiar language is a great reason to take a tour!

3. Heartfelt Love

Locals love their region. Locals know their region, and want to show it off. Tapping into this local knowledge by taking a small group tour, means you will get to see your holiday destination deeper than most tourists who just “do” the big sights.

Unlike the box-tickers, you will get to know your destination like a local does.

6 Reasons To Take A Guided Tour In Europe Travel Italy Greece

Local Lives Here. Photo: Willunga Wino

How it feels to live there, what the rent is like, how they spend their time, what they like to do.

Now doesn’t that make a tour useful?

4. The Human Touch

Admiring in awe and reading information signs works.

Researching your trip with guidebooks, Google and TripAdvisor arms you with plenty of information about what you will see.

But shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow with reams of other tourists isn’t my idea of fun. Big crowds of tourists feel claustrophobic to me, queuing a waste of limited time, and taking the same photos as thousands of others a waste.

Admiring the view with one or two friends. Photo: Willunga Wino

And sometimes, there are more stories behind what you are looking at, stories that only people who have lived and breathed the city could know.

This is when a tour is useful.

5. Extra Local Tips

No matter how good a planner you are, you don’t know your destination like a local does. Just like someone visiting your town can’t know your secret spots by consulting Dr Google alone.

Want to know the hottest nightclub in town? The best coffee shop near your hotel? Best place to eat? That is something a tour guide can rattle off with no problem at all.

Where’s the best local market in Mykonos? And how do I get there? Photo: Willunga Wino

One highlight for me, was at the end of the tour, when our guide noted on a map some of their favourite places to eat and drink, near where the tour had ended. We visited one of them right after the tour and had an amazing first meal to kick off our holiday with a bang!

Forget TripAdvisor – go to the source, what locals love and not just other tourists. That’s one more thing a tour can be fantastic for!

6. Directions

Unless you have planned in a local SIM card or WIFI router with a big data package, chances are you won’t have access to that everyday Mr Fix It, Google Maps. Some of the most desirable destinations, have the most complex and tricky streets (hello, Venice!!).

Paper maps are fine, but the touristy (free) ones tend to be fairly zoomed out, and not featuring all the streets. That doesn’t help much.

We’re not in Kansas any more, Toto. Photo: Willunga Wino

So what can? Your tour guide!

Looking for that special little trattoria you have the name and address of? Ask the tour guide for directions!

Tours – worth their weight in gold for finding what you want!

What Tours Do I Recommend?

Short (Few Hour) Tours

Walks Of Italy Highly educated local guides (ours had five year art history degrees), passion for their subjects, passion for their work (these are career tour guides, not uni students looking to make a few extra bucks on the side). Tours vary from a few hours, to all day, and run at different times of day and night.

Longer (Multi Day) Tours

Gypsian Boutique Tours if I wasn’t on the cruise, and had more time to explore Greece (boy did I get hooked visiting Mykonos) I would love to do one of Gypsian Boutique tours small group journeys around Greece. Three whole weeks of adventures, with organic food and wine, island exploration, soaring chalk cliffs, it just sounds like heaven!

We also met a group from Italian Village Tours by lucky coincidence while we were in Umbria, home of Sagrantino and the Green Heart of Italy. Having met the hosts, and those on the tour, they would be amazing.

I was sponsored by Walks of Italy on two tours with a discount for Mr Wino. I was sponsored by Gypsian Boutique Tours for this post.