Why You Should Book a Private Trip to Thailand

When you're booking a Thailand vacation, you're immediately confronted with a choice: do you opt for the group tour with a set itinerary or choose a private tour that matches your individualized interests and needs? While the predictability of a group tour can be comforting, there are many reasons to favour a private trip to Thailand as your next vacation. Private tours offer exclusivity and customization. They are built around your interests, favour your budget, and cater to your travel needs. In short, private trips are made just for you. If you need more encouragement, here are several more reasons why you should book a private trip to Thailand.

It Matches Your Budget

Budgeting is a big part of travel, even if it's the part we like to think about least. Now, conventional wisdom says that private tours are more expensive than group tours, but conventional wisdom can often be mistaken. The beauty of a private tour is that it's built around your needs and budget range, meaning that you can control the cost. Private Thailand tours are not automatically more expensive, nor are they inherently luxury trips; they're simply customized. The fact that you can choose the accommodations and tour options means that you can play it smart when balancing the budget. For instance, you can opt out of an afternoon visit to a fourth or fifth temple in Chiang Mai and instead add on a stay at a luxury hotel in the nearby hillside. This sort of flexibility and customization is only possible on private tours.

You Don't Have to Worry About a Fixed Itinerary

Part of the joy of customizing your private tour is that you don't have to worry about a fixed itinerary. Don't get us wrong, group tours can be great. But odds are there's one or two excursions or visits to temples that don't tickle your fancy the way other possible itinerary events do. On a group tour, you're stuck with the fixed itinerary, since the tour is not going to change the schedule of 20-plus travellers to accommodate one person who doesn't love seeing every single temple. But on a private tour, if you don't have an interest in that old historical monument or palace, you can easily skip it in favour of heading to another bustling marketplace and spending more time walking alongside the picturesque river.

You Get the Best Guides

When you head on a private trip to Thailand, you're guaranteed the best guides to show you the country. This isn't to say that group tours don't have good guides of their own, but private trips often attract the more senior and expert guides, as they promise more specialized itineraries and personalized service. These guides also give you their undivided attention during tours since there are no other travellers to be concerned about. They service you and you alone.

You Get Expert Insight and Can Ask All the Questions in the World

Ever worry that you're taking up everyone's time when you ask a question on a group tour? Well there's no need to worry about such things when you're on a private tour. Since your tour guide is there to service you and you alone, you can ask all the questions in the world and not worry about slowing down the trip. In fact, getting expert answers to your questions is part of the appeal of private tours. Your guide can fill you in on all the information on the places you visit on your Thailand vacation, and satisfy all your burning questions regarding this fascinating country.

You Can Indulge Your Passions

Group tours often give you an overview of the destinations you visit. You'll visit some historical sites like capital buildings and museums, you'll engage with the culture by visiting a market and a temple, and maybe get a taste for the food scene with a cooking class and visit to an outdoor strip of food stalls. Group tours are great at offering a balanced look at a destination, but they hardly indulge the specific passions of the people on tour. If you're a history buff or a foodie, you can go whole-hog on a private tour, customizing your itinerary in such a way as to see as many museums and temples, or marketplaces and restaurants as possible. If you love bartering, you can make sure your tour guide takes you to the best marketplaces around town. As well, because you're in the company of a local expert, you'll likely find yourself visiting some markets that larger tours never visit and you won't have the barriers of language to dissuade you from interacting with locals because your guide speaks Thai. A private tour on a trip to Thailand gives you access that travelling in a large group of foreigners never will.

You Get to Appreciate the History of the Destination

On a private tour, you'll get the historical lowdown on Bangkok or Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai in more ways than one. Firstly, you'll get expert insight into the textbook history of the sites you visit. Since your guide is an expert with a deep knowledge of the destination, you'll learn about the important historical events of each area. But beyond that, you'll also get the local history - the kind of insights that don't always show up in travel guides or in textbooks. Since your guide is usually a member of the local community, you'll get to see the destination through his or her eyes and appreciate the places you visit in a whole new way. You'll get local context and the unfiltered historical perspective from the people who've lived that history.

You Get to Decide What You Eat

When you're on a group tour in Thailand, the restaurants you eat at during your trip will be determined by whether the restaurant can accommodate a large group and offer a safe, palatable option for as broad a range of tastes as possible. You're rarely going to try adventurous dishes on group tours or be able to indulge your love of spicy food since the odds are the majority of your group will not want to scorch their tongues on that spicy mango salad. The beauty of a private tour is that you can dictate the terms of what you eat. You can give your guide your food expectations for lunches or dinners and they can plan your itinerary to incorporate these expectations. For instance, if you love spicy food and are worried that restaurants won't let you appreciate the local levels of spice, your tour guide can make sure you're treated like a local. Alternatively, if you don't have an adventurous stomach and want to opt for upmarket international cuisine, a private tour can easily accommodate that as well. Being able to decide what you eat while on tour is a huge bonus of private travel.

No Waiting Around for Other Tour Members

This reason perhaps isn't as significant as the others on the list, but it's still important. When you're travelling, you don't want to feel like you're wasting time. You only have a week or two to see the landmarks of Thailand and you've spent your hard-earned money to get there, so the last thing you want is to have your trip to that incredible rainforest or hill-tribe market affected by other tardy members of your travel group. Luckily, on private tours you are the master of your own schedule. You won't have to wait for other members of your group to catch up until you head onto the next destination or call it a day, whether that means waiting for folks to show up so your vehicle can depart at the beginning of the day, or waiting for the entire group to get back to the entrance-way of the museum before you can move onto the next destination. Not being beholden to others' quirks and paces is a huge blessing that'll make you very happy to opt for private travel. Choosing a private trip to Thailand is a great way to experience this incredible country. It's a way to ensure you get a trip built around your budget, tailored to your tastes, and offering the best insight and perspective of the places you visit. Whether you're exploring the bustling downtown of Bangkok or travelling through the picturesque hillsides outside Chiang Mai in the country's north, a private tour will ensure you have the best, most personalized experience possible. It's simply a great way to travel.