What comes to mind when you think about taking a tour? A flag carrying leader moving you from massive buses to cheesy tourist attractions leaving you feeling like herded cattle?
While this does still exist, these days there are a ton of amazing family travel tour options focusing on adventures for the whole family that are worth investigating.
My travel style has always been staunchly independent. I enjoy the excitement of exploring off the beaten path locations as much as the difficulties of being lost or trying to find my way around a city.
However now with a child, I find that I don’t always have the time or flexibility to be as independent. And while historically, I’ve not been a fan of tours, I have found myself moving towards family travel tours more and more these days. With an only child, it’s become apparent my son enjoys traveling with other families as a way to have instant playmates and to share his travel experience with a peer.
This summer I set out to explore what it means to travel on a family focused tour with two different companies in two different parts of the world. One was organized through a small local company on the Amazon River in Brazil orchestrated through Our Whole Village which is part agent part operator. The other was through the large international tour operator, Intrepid Travel.