Quinty

A question to Suze...<BR>Why do you loathe the tours so much?<BR>Perhaps you are a world historian (if so I am envious) so you easily understand the culture you are observing, or maybe you do not care about history?<BR>I am just wondering, not attacking in any way.<BR>I will explain my point of view, so you know why I would ask this question.<BR><BR>I don't take the organized tours that are fully guided, but I do enjoy the commentary on the hop on/off types of tours, as well as tours at attractions. Although I am educated, history and world studies just did not &quot;stick&quot; for me (as most of the rest didn't either). History is an interest of mine, however, when visiting places. <BR>That is why I take tours, to get the &quot;run down&quot; on what happened and the significance of the attractions or landmarks.<BR>I also enjoy people watching. Especially the slight differences you can find in other cultures. <BR>So Suze, is your viewpoint greatly different than this, or do you just despise the perceived cattle-herded environment of a guided tour?

Cal

Is there wildlife in the cities of Europe? <BR>I mean besides pigeons.

suze

For Quinty, Since you asked so nice, I'll try to explain.<BR><BR>Yes, my problem is the everybody-on-the-bus cattle-herd mentality and scheduling. I'm not opposed to what I might or might not learn from the various presentations. But without sounding like a nit-wit, no I really don't care about the history of a certain place so terribly much.<BR><BR>Also I wasn't considering the hop on/hop off bus set up which would suit me better than a full-blown 15 cities organized tour, certainly.<BR><BR>Especially on vacation I'd have a *real* problem with being told what time to be up in the morning and ready to roll, where I'll be going that day, what I will see, where I'll eat, etc.<BR><BR>I just like to *be* in new places and experience them for myself, as I see them, walking down the sidewalk, hanging out in the parks, I'm not looking for a historical education.

Quinty

Suze, <BR>Good points about &quot;when to get up, where to eat&quot; etc. That would drive me crazy too!<BR>Thanks for the input.

suze

Always happy to lend my opinion ;-)<BR>

Ms. Tourist

I disagree that anyone who's away from home is a tourist. Anyone who's away from home is a traveller, but a tourist is a particular type of traveller - one who's primary purpose for a trip is leisure/tourism. A business traveller or a religious pilgrim, for example, is not a tourist. Neither is an expat worker, a exchange student, or a refugee although any of these people canalso enage in tourism a any given time.<BR><BR>However, lesisure travellers - regardless of whether they hitchhike around wth a backpack and sleep in a tent, or book small local hotels and take the train, or rent an SUV and stay at the Mariott, or take an all- inclusive guided tour - are &quot;tourists&quot;. Nothing wrong with it, it's just a word.