Europe Trip Costs: Planning Fees vs the Packaged Trip or Travel Agent Model

London (Europe) Trip Costs

The “Total Trip Costs” line shows the real total costs of this trip if you booked everything yourself. So that means no markups, no middlemen, but also no one helping you make decisions and offering advice. No one doing the research and booking the trip for you – you would do all this yourself. For this trip, the costs add up to $3204 for two travelers.

When we add our Sapphire Planning fees ($250 per trip day) of $1500, the total cost of working with Euro Travel Coach for this exact itinerary is $4704 or $2352 per person for a 2-person trip. And, since our fees include up to 6 travelers, per-person costs go down if there are more travelers.

The tour operator is selling this trip for $2395 per person, which is MORE than your custom itinerary designed just for you!

Are we comparing apples to apples?

It’s important to note that comparing a packaged trip to a custom Euro Travel Coach trip is not comparing apple to apples. As mentioned, the tour operator I am using for comparison states that participants will be traveling as a part of a group with 24-28 other people, half the size of most tour groups.

Many of the travelers we work with prefer not to travel with a group of this size. They are well-traveled or able to work well with the preparation and advice Euro Travel Coach shares with them. They don’t want a group leader directing their time. They also value our custom itineraries and deep destination expertise. They are independent travelers.

Nonetheless, it is important for me to note here the differences between the package trip and our itineraries.

·       The packaged trip is a group trip where people buy a spot (or four) on an existing tour, scheduled to depart on a specific date. At Euro Travel Coach, we create only private trips, although we do lots of families, friends and private groups. You depart on the date that you choose yourself.

·       The packaged trip also includes a tour leader – someone who is with the group 24/7. People traveling on one of our custom itineraries do not have a tour leader with them. They do, however, have front desks, local guides and drivers to help, and we have given them a great deal of personal guidance in preparation for their trip.

·       The packaged trip cannot be customized. Our trips are all created based on the interests, pace, and budget of our travelers.