Smart Travel: Escorted bus tours can take stress out of travel

Linda and Dr. Don Overend are principals in The Travel Group, a full-service travel agency.

When escorted tours are mentioned, many travelers envision endless hours on a bus, being herded around to sightseeing and general regimentation. But tours have changed and they now offer first-time and seasoned travelers a variety of options and features. We'd like to dispel some of the misconceptions about tours that.

The buses that are used by the better tour companies are luxury vehicles. Comfortable seats with generous leg room, on-board bathrooms and huge picture windows are designed to provide travelers with a pleasant journey. Driving in foreign countries varies from difficult to almost impossible due to left-hand driving, difficult signage and center-city congestion. Skilled drivers take away the stress of traffic, narrow streets and one-way streets.

Tours are carefully planned to include frequent sightseeing and refreshment stops, and often feature other modes of travel such as trains, cruises and ferry crossings. They also offer more free time for clients to do what they want to do, whether it's nonstop shopping, museum visits, or relaxing by a pool or at an outdoor caf.

Tours also do away with language difficulties that some travelers fear. Multilingual guides will conduct their commentary in English and be available to clients for translation if needed. Meals at hotels and restaurants are planned to appeal to American tastes while also offering local specialties.

Another myth is that tours are only for seniors. In fact, on tours you'll also find families with school-age children, young adults and baby boomers. Nearly all tour participants mention the great people they've met on a tour and often they correspond after returning home, and even plan future trips together. Families will appreciate the generous seating (buses are seldom completely filled by tour companies so there is flexible seating available) and the attention and courtesy to family members.

Finally, tours are a real bargain compared to attempting to pursue the same itinerary on your own. Often the cost of a day's tour is less than the cost of just a hotel room for the night. And tours will typically include the services of a professional tour director, accommodations, sightseeing, some meals, porter services and taxes. Mid-quality tours such as a Globus tour, will cost from $56 to $83 per person, per day depending on the countries visited.

There is such a great variety of tours available, (including theme tours like art tours, wine tours, music tours) and to almost unlimited destinations. You will find a tour to be a delightful, relaxing and comfortable way to travel, whether domestic or overseas. You should let your professional travel agent help sort through the available tours and find the tour that's tailor-made for you.