Everyone loves going on vacation … but not everyone loves planning a vacation. And that’s okay! That’s what tour companies, like ours, are for. You just need to sign up for your chosen tour, book your flights, and we’ll take care of all the logistical details like booking hotel accommodations, reserving tastings and meals, and getting you from point A to point B on our itinerary.
Private tours can be just as easy to plan – you select your itinerary, choose your preferred dates, and gather your group. Unfortunately, some private tours can hit a snag with that last step, gathering your group.
In my own experience, people love to talk about going on vacation to an exciting destination but when it is time to put a deposit down, the reality of their financial situation, work schedule, or other personal factors set in. It’s hard to not get swept away talking about a destination that you’ve dreamt about visiting.
If you’re interested in organizing your own private tour, here are a few tips to help it be successful from the get-go from my own experiences of organizing trips for Taste Vacations as well as my own family and friends:
- Before I start getting into the specifics of a trip, I like to reach out to the people I’d like to travel with to see if they would be interested in joining me on vacation. When possible, I like to do this in person as it is a lot of fun to chat about all the possibilities. When an in-person get together isn’t possible, I like to text people, again just to see if they would be interested.
- Once I have a good handle on who is interested, I do more research and if it hasn’t been identified already, select a specific destination. I then email everyone who had expressed interest in the trip with my preliminary thoughts on the destination, activities, and even potential dates and costs. I explicitly ask for everyone to respond letting me know if they are still interested and given the information I’ve provided if it is feasible for them to join me on the trip. I purposely do this in email as I believe people are more likely to be realistic with their situations if they have to put it in writing – this is not to be mean or cold, it is just to see who can actually join you on the trip this time around.
- With the positive email responses, I now have an idea of what the minimum number of people for our group will be. It’s okay if someone responded as a Maybe – leave some wiggle room for those people to join in later but I would not include them in your numbers at this point so you aren’t disappointed later. You can now start contacting potential tour companies or resorts or wherever you are planning on going to see if there is availability and to start discussing details.
It may not sound like much but I have found that taking these initial steps when I’m organizing a private tour or vacation can make a world of difference in the success of the trip.
