The days of purchasing a ticket, travelling abroad, and depending on the goodwill of the locals, traveler’s checks being accepted, and intensive sign language over the next three weeks are long gone. Oh, no! In today’s prepackaged, pre-booked, and planned world, all you need to do is check the appropriate boxes, enter your credit card information, and schedule your yearly leave to ensure that you and your needs are met while on a fully guided tour of New Zealand.
There are currently 35 distinct types of tourism available to tourists, ranging from agritourism to flashpacking to the far more menacing-sounding “black tourism.” An escorted tour in New Zealand is likely to fall into one, all, or a combination of the following categories: active, adventure, and sustainable tourism.
The Oriental Escorts three categories, which range from rough to low-impact, are all appealing to tourists who want to combine adventure, nature, and cultural tourism with a focus on low-impact and sustainable tourism and the use of local guides.
Depending on your needs for privacy, your budget, and the size of your party, escorted tours in New Zealand may accommodate anything from huge buses to smaller family groups. Because so many people go on and off the buses, visit all the tourist attractions at once, and don’t always use local guides, some tour operators claim that guided coach tours fail to take into account the active, adventurous, and sustainable tourism characteristics.
The term “luxury” conjures up images of pampering and stress-free travel and is used in accordance with many smaller (maximum of 12 people) guided New Zealand trips. These high-end (expensive) trips take care of all the planning aspects, and they come with a guide who, if they’re skilled, will have everything under control and deal with any little issues swiftly, which might otherwise make your vacation less enjoyable.
An escorted trip is no different from any other circumstance when a group of strangers is brought together for two to three weeks. On the smaller escorted trips, you’ll often travel with experienced travellers with comparable incomes or active retirees who have been longing to take this trip. The guide’s job is to use their magic and control the many personalities so that everyone feels cared for, unique, and motivated to participate.
An escorted tour’s details are never left to chance since reservations have been made well in advance, and the guide will double-check everything and make alterations as necessary. But none of this is visible to you, which is one of the great things about these excursions. Phone calls, altered plans because of the weather or group requirements—all of this is out of sight and out of mind.
What obligations do you, as a tour participant on an escorted trip, have? Simply arrive promptly for meals and activities, listen to the day’s schedule (often the night before), make sure you are wearing the appropriate footwear and clothing, and always, always carry your camera! Naturally, it is completely up to you how much engagement with the other guests you want and how diplomatically you want to stop some of them from giving you their whole life story.
The New Zealand guided trip is definitely unsuitable for you if you’re an obsessive planner, hate surprises, and want to know every little detail. This trip is intended for tourists who wish to meet people, learn new things, and experience new things while blissfully oblivious to the tedious travel preparations.
