Guided Tours vs. Booking on Your Own: Which Option Is Better?

08.10.2024 - 18:49 / travelpulse.com / South America / Holly Johnson

Even seasoned travelers can find planning trips to certain destinations overwhelming, even if they're accustomed to experiencing new cultures in countries they have never visited. This is especially the case when traveling somewhere incredibly remote or if a trip itinerary requires a ton of moving parts.

My husband and I found ourselves in this exact situation when deciding when and how to visit one of the seven wonders of the world — Machu Picchu in the country of Peru. Not only is Machu Picchu located in a remote part of Peru that's only accessible by a specific train and bus (unless you hike the Inca Trail), but you have to book separate time-stamped tickets for entry into the site, a bus ride through the mountains, the train to get there and more. Plus, we didn't know what else to do in Peru, or what kinds of additional sights we should pack into the same trip.

Ultimately, this is one of the reasons we opted for a guided tour of Peru called "Highlights of Peru," which is available through a guided tour company called Trafalgar. This specific tour included a range of sightseeing and activities throughout Peru, including a visit to Machu Picchu, a journey through Peru's Sacred Valley and a few days in Cusco, Peru.

One interesting fact I discovered about guided tours is their overall affordability, especially when you compare booking all the different components of a trip yourself. For example, the Highlights of Peru trip from Trafalgar is available for $2,630 per person over some dates, and this particular trip includes eight days of activities and personalized tours, a week of hotel stays, visits to four different cities, domestic flights, seven breakfasts, four dinners and two lunches.

Some of the inclusions of the trip were difficult to quantify in terms of cost, but I came up with the following estimates to see what the price would be to book some aspects of the trip on our own. 

Hotel stays: 

Flights: 

Meals:

Total: $2,380

When you add those components of the trip together, the total reaches $2,380 - about half the cost for this specific Trafalgar tour for two people ($5,260). However, the trip also included other luxuries and "extras" that were hard to price out, including:

These additional aspects of the trip were definitely worth the additional funds to me, especially considering the trip came with several intensive and interesting guided tours throughout Peru. Our tour guide had so many interesting stories to tell and insights to share. Plus, there were experiences we couldn't have possibly set up on our own - like when we learned how to make Peruvian corn beer and the visit to a remote llama and alpaca farm high up in the mountains above Cusco. The visit to Machu Picchu itself was also seamless,