See More, Experience Less – The Problem with Large Tour Groups

Does anyone enjoy being ferried early in the morning from a small van to a large bus for a few hours to multiple destinations without getting to experience them in depth? I have done so and it is far from enjoyable. To me, the large group tour can sometimes be necessary when you’re on limited time and don’t want to deal with the hassle of public buses or having to plan out your day in an unfamiliar setting. It can save time and maybe a bit of money, but I’ve found that these large group tours are largely not worth the hassle of doing them.

You would think that you’ll be able to meet people, bond easily with each other, meet some locals, and even be informed by the tour guide but it’s usually the opposite. When these packaged tours bring you on to that bus, you’ll likely only get to really know the person next to you, the tour guide will be busy trying to fill time with his or her words to make it easier for people to leave a good tip and an even better review, and you’ll likely spend more time on the bus than roaming around where you’ll actually get some free time. It’s a ‘necessary evil’ for some of us but it shouldn’t be the default setting when traveling. These excursions or large tours are just not what travel should be about in 2026.

What should you, the traveler, be doing instead? Well, there are a few alternatives to entertain when you’re on the road. I increasingly enjoy small group tour experiences of 8-10 people maximum that focus on food, culture, or a museum. The private experience for a tour is often expensive and can lack availability, but I found that the connections are better with smaller groups, the tour guides are more engaging, and time is usually better well spent.

More small group tours are popping up around the world, and I think it speaks to the fact that most travelers want to connect more deeply with the locals, the culture, and the experiences without being just another face in a sea of tourists. There are many group tours of smaller sizes that last a week, two weeks, and sometimes longer that have better reputations than those megatours where you’re packed in with 40-50 or more people.

On these large group tours, especially the one-day experiences, you often don’t get enough time in these places, you often end up alone as a solo traveler, and it’s not conducive to meeting fellow travelers. Usually, I’ve only done these kinds of tours where I was on a tight schedule or wanted to have a specific guide-led experience like hiking up to a volcano summit or watching a tango performance.

Small group tours tend to be deeper in terms of getting to know the guide, the places, and the people you’re there with, especially if it’s more than a single day’s excursion. When it comes to tours, you should optimize for more time spent exploring the destinations with less people rather than exploring less destinations for less time with more people. While tours in general have their pros and cons, I do think it is good for a solo traveler to leave their preconceptions behind and be placed in an environment where you can more easily meet people in a shared setting.

While your independence is curtailed in group tours, at least in small group tours, you have a bit more liberty to explore, to question, and to have an overall more fulfilling experience. You also may want to save yourself the mental tax from having to plan your transportation, your payment(s), and meeting people without having something in common for that day or even longer. I think it’s great to explore on your own but if you’re jetlagged, hungover, tired, or just not up for planning out all the logistics on a particular day or even trip, small group tours are the way to go especially if you have similar backgrounds, interests, or from a similar age bracket.

If the goal of traveling is supposed to wake you up and not lull you into a scheduled nap between bus stops, then the goal should be to have connection over convenience. Big tours move people efficiently, but small group experiences move you emotionally. The future of meaningful travel isn’t about checking off ten landmarks before lunch; it’s about lingering longer, asking better questions, and remembering where you were and who you met when you are back home after the experience. The next time you’re tempted by signing up for the Megabus big tour experience, ask yourself this question: do you want to see a place…or experience it firsthand and in-depth? The difference isn’t just in the itinerary; it’s in how present you’re able to be. Often, that comes down to choosing depth over density when traveling.