It never occured to me to take a tour. I always assumed that if I limited myself to tours, I wouldn't be able to affort to travel!

I must admit one thing though, I do often go through tour catalogs to get routing ideas for trips. I always at least double the time in each place, and modify the route depending on my interests, but I find them to be a good staring point for planning a trip.

Yep! I get this all the time too! And I've been to over 25 countries, all self-planned.
I've never been on a "tour" with the exception of 3 nights in Beijing purchased in Hong Kong. That that was only because we were short on time and it was the cheapest option!
Even my last trip, to Paris, people have asked me how I planned the apartment, airfare, etc on my own. Internet, darling!
My next trip will probably be to Turkey with my mother. Initially, she insisted on a more structured "tour" type trip. But, armed with a little more info, she's starting to relax and see that we can do most, if not all on our own. Not that we might not do some day tours while we are there, I just absolutely refuse to spend a week on a bus with the same people, being herded around, eating in restaurants set up just for tour groups.

I work in a restaurant, and you should hear the utter shock in people's voices when they find out I've been to Europe AND planned it myself!! It is automatically assumed if you work behind a bar you are an idiot. In addition, I have to deal with "how do you afford that working here?", to which I want to reply (but don't) "How can you afford to go out drinking 3x a week?"....I guess it all comes down to priorities!!

Yes, kamahinaohoku, it is about choices, but what struck me when I was a travel agent was the vast - I do mean vast - number of people who wanted to travel independently, but who had been frightened off doing so by well-meaning friends telling them it's too hard, what about the language, what if you get lost, how will you know what to do, why not go on a tour first and do it independently next time, and all that rot.
Because I responded to these wishes I developed a nice little specialty in my agency, of itinerary planning for those clients who wanted that but who'd had their confidence destroyed by their less adventurous friends.
Which I suppose is why I relate to so much that I see on this forum.

twoflower, I couldn't agree with you more. As I said, I'm an independent traveler myself, and when I was an agent I would encourage clients to go on their own, as did many of my associates. That being said, the point I was trying to make was this: Not everyone wants to travel that way. Not everyone is as adventurous as the majority of the people who respond to this website. And those people who ask questions about THEIR preferred method of travel (tours, etc) should get honest answers about them, not just the "oh, you can do it on your own, just look all the info up" responses they seem to get here. That's all I'm saying. Would I encourage them to do it on their own? Absolutely. But if they were dead set on doing it their way, I wouldn't circumvent their request and start telling them how to look things up on their own. I'd give them the information they asked for.

I love this thread! I too have gotten a lot of questions about my self-planned trips (to Italy for 3 weeks last year, and to Central Europe for 2 weeks this May). Last year people (including my fiance, who came with me to Italy) were amazed that I planned the whole trip myself, down to hotel reservations and itinerary planning). Probably even more amazed because I am only 23 and had been to Europe only once before, on a tour when I was 17. And this year my 3 girlfriends who are coming on the trip to Central Europe have left me to happily plan the logistics of our trip (accomodations, trains, and daytrips) and repeatedly have said "where would we be without you?" and thanked me profusely for taking on this task. The funny thing is, I really don't see trip planning as a difficult thing to do, maybe just time-consuming, but with the internet and wonderful places like this forum, it's so much easier. I'm even planning my mom and grandma's trip to Italy this year for them, and they too are very grateful. But truly I love it, and wouldn't ever consider a tour, especially for Europe. Planning is too much fun!

I have a slightly different point of view. I know various people who've travelled independently to much more exotic and/or difficult places than I have. How about the India-Pakistan border, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Zanzibar...the list goes on. Frankly, I'm not sure how many of those places I'd like to visit solo and unescorted. Perhaps those folks look down their noses at me and my piddling solo self-planned trips to Europe which have never gotten much more remote than rural Hungary. But I don't think travel is a competition, regardless of whether I'm being "braver" or "less brave" than other people.

Hi

Glad to hear you did the planning yourself, and it worked OK.

Those of us who live in Europe always plan it for ourselves.

I also planned a 3 month trip to NA myself.

We are not talking rocket science ?

Peter

Congrats to you, ktyson, and with your daughter in tow to boot! I used to get the "Weren't you scared?" thing a lot, especially because I travel alone quite a bit. Actually, despite my independent & adventurous nature, an ideal trip for me would be one in which half was done thru an agency and half done by myself. There are many things you miss, either way, so I like having the best of both worlds.

Most of the odd questions and shocked faces come from people who live sheltered lives and don't travel, much less order something different off the menu when they go out. (I have a friend who almost ALWAYS orders lasagne when we go out, no matter where we go.) I used to find it funny to get these kinds of responses from people as you mention. But now I simply drop down on my knees and thank God that I'm able to travel like I do.

When my husband and I made our first trip to Europe, there WAS no internet (1964). We just took off with our Europe on $5. a Day--no reservations, very little knowledge of what we were going to see, just 12 glorious weeks ahead of us (the summer before the final year of graduate school and the commencement of "real life&quot. It really was $5. a day then--we actually got by on $7. a day for the two of us. Our hotel in Paris was $3.40, near the Sorbonne. Out cheapest hotel was somewhere in Andalucia: $.80 for the night. We shared the bed with bedbugs! Out most expensive was a bread-and-breakfast near the British Museum for $6.60. London broke our budget.

Anyway, I've always had a horror of tours. Our worst booboo on our first trip was driving from Lucerne to Interlaken to Berne without exploring the Interlaken area. We knew nothing of the Lauterbrunnen Valley and the villages clinging to the mountainsides. Other than than, we did a good job of getting an overview of Europe from Portugal to Vienne and Berlin (behind the Iron Curtain then) and from Rome to Copenhagen.

We've since been back to Europe only twice. Lack of money and responsibilities with jobs and children have interfered, and now health problems. I'm planning a trip with my sister, but not this year. SHE hasn't been to Murren (or Wengen) yet, or to Switzerland, for that matter. She "lets" me do all the planning.

I much prefer to book all my own arrangements. (I live in Germany right now so things are a little easier from this end sometimes.) I have taken some overnight bus tours to get familiar with an city but it usually turns out not to be a very enjoyable experience. You're crammed on a bus with time limits that hinder your ability to explore.

I usually do research online looking for customer reviews and buy or check out travel guides at the library. My family and I have had wonderful experiences in all the places we've traveled such as Rome, Paris, West Coast of Ireland, London, Czech, Poland, etc. If we opt for tours, it's usually a self-guided tour with an audio device or guide book. You can take your time and enjoy things at a more leisurely pace. You can discover and explore little alleyways with quaint shops and hidden cafes or restaurants or take a road that looks interesting and maybe even find a town fest taking place.

Ever since we started going abroad in 99', I have planned everything myself - like ktyson said, guide books, Fodor's site, internet, even an occasional Globe Trekker or Rick Steves on t.v. has helped. I do have a long time travel agent in our town of 32,000 who doesn't charge much at all, and I do like to let her get us the best airfare rate and car rental. Otherwise I research the rest myself. Even she has said that so many of her clients only take tours, and basically want to have their hand held throughout Europe. In 1998 we went to Newfoundland,Canada, and we actually had people asking us, "what language do they speak over there?", and "what side do they drive on?" I couldn't believe it! Now, when we go to Europe, people do seem to be impressed that we just jump in there and do things on our own. We get all of the same questions that the rest of you have mentioned. These are usually from people who say they could never see themselves doing what we have done. We figure that if you have to try to sometimes understand the locals, learn how the trains work for the first time, find a good restaurant, B&B, pub, cafe, etc.,follow the foreign road signs, and so on, this is just part of the wonderful experience of travel. It's what helps one become a savvy traveler. I really feel sorry for the people we know who will never have the courage to give it a try!

I find it sad and quite peculiar that anyone on this board would have this reaction to "someone" asking questions regarding their travel experiences.

Most disturbing to me in the original post was the comment "And the dumbest question of all, weren't you scared?"
It is obvious to me that they respected and admired you, not everyone can plan and carry out a European trip. Or as another post put it, not many even want to.

These people that bothered you with all their petty questions, perhaps are not adventurous travelers, instead of accepting the respect they so willingly gave you have labeled them, and were rude enough to regard one of their questions as dumb.

I, for one, can state that the first time I traveled to Europe by myself I was a little afraid, indeed it was exhilarating and adventurous, but in the beginning I was a little afraid, especially when there is another language that could be a barrier.

When you wrote in your post:
"I planned this all myself with the help of fodorites, guidebooks, and the internet."
I am quite pleased that no one here regarded your initial questions as dumb.

I shutter to think that when I was dreaming of traveling to Europe, I could have been broad sided by arrogance. I am pleased that my traveled friends never thought of my questions as dumb, but rather gave me inspiration to venture out on my own.
Indeed, I am a better person for it.