| rev:text
| - What's in a letter? In the case of G Adventures, the letter G stands for giddy. Or at least it is where my travel experiences are concerned with this tour company. G Adventures was first recommended to me over 2 years ago by my Aunt who had used them for one of their more luxurious tours back in the day. I was completely new to the tour group concept so I honestly didn't know what I was getting myself into. I've wanted to travel more, but wasn't necessarily interested in doing it entirely on my own. I wanted to do it as part of a relatively structured plan. And maybe make some friends along the way. Two years later, I've now done three separate domestic tours with G & I'm looking to do my first international one in 2017. How do I love G? Let me count the ways.
Tour groups certainly aren't a new concept & the opinions I've received on them are wide ranging. For some of my friends & family, they'd prefer to just grab a backpack, venture out on their own & get lost, confident any problems along the way would work themselves out. Others I know prefer a big group of people with 5-star treatment all the way in the ultimate lap of luxury & relaxation. But most people I know just simply haven't tried it. Depending on where you go, what you do, & how much you do, the cost of a tour can vary. I'd compared G versus other well-known tour companies like Tauck, Globus, & Contiki and found the prices & experiences (at least on paper) seemed to be competitive.
So in early 2015, I decided to dip my toes into the G experience by booking a 9 day U.S. east coast tour. The tour included places I'd been to (Boston & Philly) & a number of places I hadn't been (Washington DC, Pennsylvania Amish country, Niagara Falls, New York's Finger Lakes region, & of course New York City). I decided to go with a Classic tour which typically is a good mix of structure with flexibility & at a pace that works for most age groups. Among my first tour experiences included a ride on the Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls, a tour of Hershey's Chocolate Factory, seeing the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, a tour through NYC's Ground Zero, the Freedom Trail in Boston, and a delicious culinary experience at Philly's Reading Terminal Market. Yeah, we covered a ton of ground in nine days. Some of these stops were setup by G while others we were free to explore ourselves at our own pace. Our accommodations included 2 and 3 star hotels (Comfort Inns, Days Inns, etc.) & our group was relatively small at just 12 of us. On my first trip alone I met people from Austria, Belgium, England, New Zealand, Columbia, & Germany. Truly a great whirlwind first experience.
For 2016, I pushed myself into less familiar terrain including a 9 day U.S. tour of the Deep South (a region I'd never been to before) which included stops in Charleston, Savannah, Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis, Jackson, & New Orleans. Later in 2016, I added a trip to the U.S. Pacific Northwest including stops in 5 national parks. That trip was 15 days long & included the cities of Seattle, Coeur D'Alene, Kalispell, Bozeman, Jackson Hole, Boise, Bend, Eugene, & Portland. The National Park stops included Mount Rainier, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, & Crater Lake. For 2017, I'm looking to book a G tour of Ireland sometime in the summer. This will mark my first trip to Europe.
I assume I now have your attention about this company after all of that. Each of the tour guides I had on these trips were extremely knowledgeable about the terrain they took us to & were super flexible about letting us craft out the days to our liking. The tour guides have generally been in their late twenties to early thirties and have all spoken English & often two or three additional languages. If you're young & want a faster pace at a cheap price, the Yolo tour style might be up your alley. For those who prefer tours on the water via cruise ships, the Marine style might work for you. And for those looking to slow down & travel in comfort, the Comfort style is comparable to Tauck's tour style.
I have been immensely impressed by G in the 2 years (& 3 tours) I've used them. I've most definitely caught the travel bug ever since I started using them & every tour makes me more excited for the next. Their customer service department has always been quick to respond to any questions I've had and their website does a great job laying out every tour option in full. Admittedly their mobile app could use some work, but small potatoes in the big picture. So yes, I recommend G Adventures if you're looking to dip your toes into the tour group concept or looking to dive in head first. The options are wide ranging, the experiences are well planned out, and the tour guides are full of the energy and enthusiasm necessary to make sure everyone has the best tour possible. See the world, make some friends, and create memories. That's travel as it should be if you ask me.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)