travel agents – Mystery, fantasy and romance at the dangerous ends of the earth

What to consider when considering a tour:

By Karen Abrahamson | March 26, 2019

Recently a friend and I took a tour in India. Now first of all, a disclaimer from me: I am not a tour kind of person. I prefer to travel on my own in most situations, however I have done tours in the past that were some of my most memorable travels for all the right reasons.

The India trip left me and my travel companion thinking that there was more that we should have done to do due diligence before booking the tour. The following list of questions/considerations is intended to help travelers to gather complete information before booking a tour so that you aren’t surprised along the way. These questions are in no particular order.

Is this a tour provided by a large company or a small one-person operation or something in between? Large tour operators are more likely to have many resources on the ground in your destination, but are less likely to have the flexibility to shift itineraries to meet your preferences. Small operators offer flexibility, but also may not have the network and knowledgeable guides that you want.
How many times has the guide led this tour? Is he/she from the country in question? What are the guide’s credentials (e.g. do they have training in the culture/history/natural history and geography of where you are going? In other words can you ask them the name of a local tree is and get an answer instead of a shrug.)
Ask whether the guide usually caters to a particular clientele, such as seniors, women, men, LGBTQ? Consider whether the guide’s experience could conflict with what you expect on a tour. For example, if the tour guide has mainly dealt with Seniors, but you enjoy high levels of physical activity. Be clear about your expectations and make that clear to your guide before the trip.
Does the guide/operator use local guides at certain destinations? When was the last time they were in touch with the local guides? Do they have a backup should the intended local guide not be available? Are the local guides affiliated with an established local company that can be easily contacted?
If you can speak to the tour guide, ask them to tell you about the culture that you’ll be traveling in. Get a sense of whether the guide respects or even likes the local people.
If you can speak to the guide, ask them about visiting a historical site. How will this be handled? Will they:
- shepherd you through like a flock of sheep,
- go in with you and be available for questions and to ensure that you see everything, or
- will they send you in and stay outside to do the newspaper crossword puzzle?

Consider what you want from your guide.

Ask what types of restaurants you will eat in and what meal times will be kept. Will there be three meals a day at regular times, or will it be catch as catch can between breakfast and dinner? Consider your meal requirements and discuss with the tour operator/guide whether they can be accommodated.
What types of transportation will be used? Consider that in less developed countries overnight trains, even in first class sleeper cars, may not provide comfortable sleeping accommodation. If these are very long trips, how will meals be accommodated while on the train?
What types of hotels will you stay in? Will they be in areas where you will feel comfortable going out walking? If not, will the hotel be such that you will be comfortable staying in the hotel? E.g. is there a pool or something else to do and are the rooms clean and large enough to feel comfortable rather than cell-like. Be clear about what you need, because if you expect 5 star and only get 2 or 3 star (or expect 3 star and get one star or no star) accommodation, you won’t be happy. Ask whether the guide has stayed in these hotels before.
Ask what will be done if you arrive at accommodation and it is clearly unacceptable (e.g. the room has bugs.)
Consider how many days are spent in travel versus in individual locations. Is there enough time to see the location and to settle in a hotel, or are you forever going to have bed-head from sleeping on railway cars or buses?
If something falls through – e.g. a location is closed – does the tour have a backup plan for activities?
Before the tour, ask whether there is openness to adjustments to the itinerary. Is the guide willing to research possible changes and present choices to the client? For example, are there alternative ways to accomplish transportation? Do you have to do a round-trip boating trip, that then requires a driver to take you to the next destination, or could the boat actually take you to the next destination instead of returning to its point of origin?
Are there any identified or potential extra costs? For example, would the boat trip to the new destination cost extra? If there is an extra guide for the trip, is there any additional cost for that additional guide? Clarify that all costs are included in the price agreed to at the start of the trip other than the tips for the workers and guide(s).
If the guide is going to make recommendations regarding shops or products, what knowledge does the guide have of that type of shop or product? For example, if recommending a tailor shop, does the guide know enough about sewing to judge whether a bespoke item is well made or even sufficiently finished (e.g. no raw edges inside, not so poorly measured and cut that they have pieced together portions of the garment and tried to hide it?)
Consider past reviews of the guide or contact past users to ask about appropriateness of guide language and conduct such as inappropriate sexual comments, respect for country’s culture, consumption of clients’ alcohol, consuming illegal substances, respect for restaurant/hotel workers, drivers etc.
Ask whether there will be consultation with all clients about changes in itinerary.
Ask for guidance about appropriate tips for the variety of people who will help you along the way, including drivers, hotel staff and subsidiary guides. Gain a sense of whether there will be any suggestion/expectation of patronage (e.g. special support like immigration assistance or money) for guides/workers along the way and whether this is condoned by the company.
Recognize that you will not see everything or do everything that you want to during a tour. There is never enough time.
Be prepared to be exhausted at the end of a tour. A tour excels at cramming a lot into a short time. Don’t expect to be rested, but do expect to your head to be filled with a tremendous number of adventures.

Choosing an Agent (Or why any agent may be the last thing you want)

By Karen Abrahamson | January 24, 2011

Okay, I’m headed off to Peru to climb the Inca Trail. The only problem is the Peruvian Government now only allows 500 people a day on the trail and ONLY if with a sanctioned guide. This is a problem. This means I must decide who is going to help me climb that mountain. Do I just go to a travel agent and have them book the trip? Do I just choose the first guide off the internet? Do I talk to one person and make a decision?

No. And no. And no. I want to plan my own trip, so first I have to decide what I want in an agent.

I’ve had this discussion many times with my parents who also like to travel. They like a travel agent who they can visit. They tell the agent generally what they want to do and the agent makes all the arrangements. Which means that the agent also makes all the decisions. Which has resulted in some pretty stupid oversights over the years – like my parents being stuck in veritable monsoons in Portugal unaware that their plane tickets gave them the privilege of escaping anywhere else in Europe at no cost. Or arriving for a second honeymoon in a beachfront hut in Tahiti, only to find that beach front and ocean view are two different things entirely. (They had a lovely view of the manure filled beach stables, however.)

So I tend to opt for taking a little more control in the travel situation.

For a trip of this nature I know there are plenty of agents to choose from. Go on-line and search Machu Picchu Tours and your search engine will indicate there’s 588,000 results. Not exactly how I want to spend my evenings. So I develop criteria. This is where you need to be self aware enough to know what you want. So my criteria are (in no particular order):

1. Experience delivering the service – how long have they been in business.

2. Client feedback

3. Local Peruvian connections

4. Size of group they usually take

5. Type of group they focus on

6. Knowledge of the area and culture

7. They speak English.

If you look at this list you are going to see a lot of similarity to considerations you should make when searching for a literary agent. If you want a literary agent (and this is an ‘if’ in this day and age. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about I direct you to a blog here).

So how long has a potential literary agent been in that line of work? Too long? Are they about to retire? Or are they young and hungry, but likely to drop out of the business when they find out how tough it is out there? You need to balance both these issues to find someone who might be appropriate to represent you. If you want an agent.

What are prior customers saying? Sure, you can depend on what the company posts, but look elsewhere as well. Editors and Predators, for writing, but also search for tour company recommendations.

For this trip I want a company that is locally based, instead of European or American. Yes, an American company may be well established, but does it give back to the local economy? Is it run environmentally and does it help the local people? A company with these sorts of links is also likely to meet my need for the guides to be culturally-based, because this is important to me. I want to hear what they think. I want to hear their stories and hear what they know about the environment I’m travelling in.

From a writer’s perspective considerations of this nature mean does the agent have New York connections? Sure the internet means anyone anywhere can make contact with New York editors, but if the agent is New York based, they are going to know the publishing culture – at least their part of it. (For more on this, see here, and read the comments as well)

Knowing who they usually serve as clients will help you know whether the tour group will fit you. I don’t want to travel the Inca trail with people who want to party all the way, but neither do I want to hike the trail with people who are going to complain it’s too hard. So I need to check the ages of people who travelled with a company. I need to check the photos on their websites.

With agents you need to know whether their model of agency works for you. Are they agents who provide editorial services, or are they agents who focus on sales. Your choice about what you prefer, but be clear about what it is you want and ask about it. (If you don’t understand, why, read that blog I mentioned.)

Size of group gets at whether I’ll be travelling with a group of 4-8 or a group of 17. Guess which size I’d rather travel with as an independent traveler? Smaller group means it might be a trifle harder, I might have to carry more, but it also means more opportunity to do what I want, instead of being dragged behind a larger group.

With an agent, it’s important to know how large their client list is and who their client list is. If they have a large list will they have time for you? If they have a NY Times best seller client, will they have time for you? Think about this. You shouldn’t need to have your hand held, but you should be able to get electronic correspondence from your agent in a timely fashion.

Lastly, I’ve listed English speaker. Why? Because I speak English and part of my reason for travel is to speak to people of another culture and learn. Yes, I should learn Spanish, but I won’t be fluent by the time I leave, so this is the next best option.

For an agent you need to be sure that you speak the same language. You need to be certain that you both have the same understanding of what you want from your agent—or not.

So I’m down to two possible companies to choose from. One is LlamaPath and the other is United Mice. Both fit my Peruvian criteria and both have been around for a few years. Both were professional and sent information to me quickly after I queried. Tonight I make the final decision and commit myself to my faithful guide.

But only because I have to have a guide.