Pro departure tours

One of the best examples of interesting tours is the Dominican Republic. Two months ago, a weekly trip for two cost this: tickets — 230 thousand rubles, and a hotel — 64 thousand rubles. If you buy all this in the form of a tour, then the final cost was 114 thousand rubles. Third of the price of an independent trip. The main reason is that there was no direct flight there. The tour operator collected a sufficient number of tourists for charter, hired a plane - and everything turned out more profitable. Now there is a direct flight, and if you look at the dates of November 20–27, the hotel costs 41,000, the ticket is 118,000, and the tour is 121,000. There is a difference anyway.

Where else can she come from? Now I will tell how it works.

The tour operator earns that collects travelers into clusters. Historically, many years ago, tour operators earned on their services for organizing trips, guides, and so on. Today, the main profitability is a cheap flight and a cheap hotel. The rest is already being applied.
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Does it make sense today to buy tours? Often - yes. Because it is usually a combination of tickets, transfer, insurance and a hotel, which is cheaper than just traveling on your own. No one bothers to get out of the transfer bus in the destination city. And just go back to the flight home. You will also have a guide who, if anything, knows what to do with medical insurance, and so on, and if you lose the documents, he will testify that you are you, which will make the situation much easier.

In our experience, tours are ordered either by those who do not know the language (for example, for elderly relatives, so that everything is fine), or those who simply want to get the most advantageous offer.

When I say "profitable" - not the fact that it is "cheap." Just at a fair price.
For example, there are some rare direct flights that are possible only as part of a charter, and you need a tour to get there. No tour - you have to fly in the fly.

Example: there are simply no direct flights from Russia to Sri Lanka, and there are direct charters. Often it is one and a half times cheaper. Charters to Thailand from Moscow and other major cities are formed long before the season, so a tour can cost less than a flight. By the way, the same Hainan Island requires a special group visa. On Hainan, this is due to the military airports in the region.

More nuances

• Living together is cheaper than alone. Two double rooms are sometimes cheaper than a large quadruple room. In Turkey, single men are not accommodated in some hotels. In Tunisia, you cannot live in the same room as a man with a woman who is not his wife, but this applies mainly to the locals. Similarly, in Uzbekistan: valid for both locals and visitors, but visitors often turn a blind eye. There are situations where the “third place in the room” is a mattress on the floor (many are surprised), for example, this is the norm in India.
• In Thailand, the Emirates, expensive hotels in Europe and China need deposits in the hotel. Moreover, if you give a deposit of $ 100, for example, they can be returned to you in local currency (this is especially important for China). If possible, always give cash deposits: in case of errors with a card transaction between countries, you will go crazy to solve it. I also advise you to ask the hotel to call the bank during an eviction: this will speed things up a little.
• Since the charter is not a ticket for a regular flight, the group is declared before departure. This means that you can book a tour without full passport data.
• The time of departure of a charter flight may change significantly, since charter flights depend on regular, and at the airport regular flights are a priority for departure. This means that you need to have a telephone guide and call him one day before departure, if you “beat off” from the group: he usually can orient like “Fly out four hours earlier” or “Fly out in the evening instead of morning”.
• Tourist can be easily changed. For 20-40 dollars of additional payment it will be possible to change the tourist for foreign destinations and for 500 rubles - on tours in the Russian Federation.
• When making an online reservation, the client does not sign the paper contract, instead he agrees with the offer contract, which has the same legal force. Payment for the tour is made through online cash desk services. You do not need to take the documents personally, you can print them yourself.
• Our holidays - increasing the cost of tickets and queues at the airport. Their holidays - increase the cost of living and queue at the border control on arrival. Therefore, look at those and other days. Prices for them and for our holidays always go up. Also pay attention to arrivals on Sunday (many shops and banks may not work or close quickly, you will be left for a day without food, currency exchange and an adapter for electricity), as well as local stories. For example, in Russia there are days of mass migration of a demob in which in some directions it is better to use airplanes rather than the railway. We are now analyzing patterns in an array of our own data in order to learn how to predict them. It is not yet known whether it will work out. The November holidays with us is a good time for a short trip.
• Half a day before departure, go to Instagram at the place of arrival and see what people are wearing. While the method did not let.
• Here are the directions where it is usually better to change rubles: Abkhazia, Belarus. In other countries, take dollars or euros, which is more convenient for you. Please note that it is only here that its rate does not depend on the quality of a banknote: in a number of countries (for example, in Cambodia) its condition is very important. Old-style banknotes are cheaper than new ones. Faded cheaper still crispy. Many smaller ones are cheaper than a similar large one. In many countries, small bills are not accepted for exchange. For example, in Thailand may not take below $ 50 (or take with an additional commission). To reverse the exchange at the airport often need to keep a check from the first exchange.
• Find out before the trip whether it is customary to leave a tip at the hotel, give them to drivers and waiters. This is often useful, because $ 20 or a chocolate bar can provide you with a better number than in a package, for example, in Turkey, Tunisia, and Egypt. And in India they will not understand. In Thailand, they will not ask, and even if given, there will be no effect.
• The insurance is valid for the duration of your stay in the country, regardless of whether you have a guide or not. But in Turkey or Egypt, the risk of “divorce” is really high, so the guides try to convince tourists to take the proven. In addition, this you can hear in any country in the case when the guide simply does not want you to go to competitors. The general rule is that excursions “on the side” are cheaper. Carefully read the paper in the hotel: most likely, there are the necessary sites or phones. Please note that if you play sports or ride a boat during an excursion, this is beyond the standard conditions of insurance, for such cases you need a more expensive sports. Perhaps the guide told you about it.
• Alcohol adventures are never covered by insurance. If your colleague fell drunk from the balcony of the 78th floor, then even the repatriation of the body will be paid. In case of an insurance case, first read the policy or call: not all hospitals can be contacted with insurance.
• Reservation is made upon payment. That is, the lag at several hours will still be: during this time, the cross-rates of currencies may change.
• A quick procedure for obtaining Schengen is in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, and Finland is also suitable for St. Petersburg. For the long term visas for Russians can be obtained from Greece, Spain, France, Italy and recently suddenly - from Germany (before the Germans were very tough in this regard). It is better to avoid the northern countries: they often give a visa for a trip without backlash. If you don’t enter the country that issued the visa, you may be banned from entering the country for several years in the worst case (the next Schengen will be “All of Europe without the right to visit Finland”, for example).

Where should I look tours?

Package tours are always good to Vietnam, a similar story - Thailand. To India: you will be very cheaply taken to the point of a beach holiday, from where you can, as from a base, start off on a journey around the country. More Cuba, Mexico, Mallorca (Spain), Morocco.

Almost the difference is this (data for yesterday, prices could already change, they float within 20 minutes): Mexico, a tour to a good hotel (9.6 out of 10), two adults, includes flights, fuel surcharge, hotel, food “all inclusive ", Transfer to the hotel and to the airport, medical insurance. Visa is not included. 7 nights with departure December 15th. 140 thousand rubles. Hotel on the second line, 10 minutes to the sea. The only thing - there is no Wi-Fi (more precisely, it is paid). The cheapest flight for the same dates in the morning cost 135,000 with one transfer. The hotel will cost 58 thousand. Plus transfer and insurance. Link


Now the market moves to the fact that tour operators want to teach people to buy tickets in advance, so they give more interesting conditions for those who are planning a trip correctly. Buy even the most "burning" tour cheaper than early booking is not so impossible, but it is extremely difficult. Early booking is best done before the start of the season, that is, conditionally until April for the summer and until September - for the New Year holidays. My example: I booked a tour to Tunis in May on September 13 for 70 thousand, in a week and a half it cost 85 already.

"Burning" tours do not happen on holidays. For all our practice of such abandoned tours for the holidays less than a dozen were caught.

What is tourist tax?

This is when the country earns from tourists directly. Arriving in Greece, or Italy, or the Emirates, you may not know that you pay tourist tax. But you pay it on top of the cost of a hotel room: for each top - from 1 to 6 euros per day. The tour operator does not include this payment in the package, and the tax is paid on the spot upon arrival. Here are the countries:

• Italy (price depends on the city and stars: from 1 to 6 euros per day per tourist);
• Montenegro (1 euro per day per tourist, usually included in the tour package);
• UAE (only in Ras al-Khaimah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, from 2 to 6 dollars per day per tourist, depending on the star hotel);
• Spain (only in Catalonia, from 1 to 3 euros);
• Greece (from 2018 too: from 25 cents to 5 euros).

We will soon be the same. In the four regions of the Russian Federation (in the Crimea, Krasnodar, Stavropol, Altai Territories) plan to introduce a resort fee. In the Krasnodar Territory, he began to act from July 16. This is up to 100 rubles per day, which are not included in the price of hotel accommodation, but will be taken from you.

But at the same time, these regions have their own specifics. It is best to look before leaving Sochi, the Crimea and the cities nearby and in the tickets and tours. There are absolutely fantastic conditions like a tour with a hotel, meals, transfer and a guided tour of the price of a one-way plane ticket.


Well, that's all for now. So, if you are going somewhere for the New Year holidays, then know that sometimes you can find a better option in an not quite obvious place.