WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF TRAVELING ON A GROUP TOUR?
If you’re a sociable person who enjoys meeting new people and discovering and exploring new places for the first time with others, you’re a candidate for traveling on one of Legacy’s group tours. Through the years experienced travelers have found group travel offers many advantages. Here are a few they mention most often.
Experienced Staff Legacy’s tour planners, tour managers and drivers have operated group tours for Iowans since 1954. They have the knowledge, experience and travel partners around the world to make your travel dreams come true. Legacy’s ground operators in foreign countries, hotel, restaurant, attraction and entertainment venue partners work closely with our staff to ensure you get exactly what you want (and pay for) from your vacation.
Well-planned itineraries Getting the itinerary (tour plan) right is the critical first step in every successful tour. We’ll listen carefully, then work closely with you to plan an itinerary that’s exactly right for your group’s interests, time and budget. We’ll use our knowledge and experience of each destination to ensure your group gets exactly the experience you want, expect and have paid for. The best advice we can give to any group leader is put in the necessary time researching and planning your tour itinerary with your Legacy planner; you(and your travelers) will be richly rewarded on your tour!
Great coaches, hotels and meals Comfortable, reliable, safe, clean motor coaches are at the heart of almost every tour. We use only Hawkeye Stages coaches on tours departing from Iowa, and carefully selected coach carriers elsewhere in North America, Britain and Europe. It’s our business to know where to stay and where to eat in every destination on your tour and we leave nothing to chance. In fact we’ve probably booked a tour group at all hotels and restaurants specified in your itinerary; in many cases one of our planners or tour managers has visited the site personally in recent years. There’s a lot at stake in your group’s travel experience, so we get the important details right.
See and do more than traveling on your own for the same length of time If you drive or fly to your destination yourself, you’ll very likely waste time trying to find your way, locate hotels, attractions and restaurants, and a maddening amount of time just finding a place to park! We make the most of your time on the road with careful planning and 50+ years experience in group travel. Finally, you’ll enjoy experiences on a group tour not available to individual travelers (an experienced local guide who steps aboard your coach for an in-depth city tour is one example).
Know what your vacation costs BEFORE you leave home With Legacy group travel you carefully control the budget for your tour by controlling what goes into your tour. Since you know what’s included (and what’s not) and pre-pay for your total travel experience (transportation, lodging, meals, sightseeing, local guides, etc.) before you leave home, there are no unpleasant surprises.
Safety, comfort and companionship Group and personal safety are our first and most important priority in planning and operating your tour. If you have first-time travelers in your group, they may feel safer and more comfortable exploring new destinations in the company of a congenial group. In the most successful travel groups it’s the friendships that develop on the road that make the best memories and result in more tours together in the future. It all adds up to what we call a “good group feeling,” and it starts with good people who make a great travel group.
Opportunity to buy travel insurance at a fair price You have an investment in your tour and we encourage you to protect it with special travel insurance. You’ll be offered the option of comprehensive trip cancellation & interruption insurance provided by an established, reliable, fair insurer at good value rates. Buy policies individually, or for greatest savings, as a group as individual travelers make reservations for your tour.
Options for individual travelers It may be possible to plan your tour so that individual travelers can make their own choices in sight-seeing, meals or entertainment, either before departure or at the time of service on tour. This may appeal to travelers who enjoy seeing and doing things in smaller groups or independently. Due to the wide range of tastes in food and diet among today’s travelers, we include help-yourself buffet breakfasts and entrée select dinners wherever possible.
The S.E.P. Factor When something goes wrong on your tour (as they sometimes will, despite our best planning) you can rely on your Legacy tour manager, tour planner or driver to take responsibility for making it right with your travelers. We call this the S.E.P. Factor – Somebody Else’s Problem – and it allows you to focus on the enjoyment and fun of your group, not the gritty details of transportation, travel and luggage.
Fair value for money Your travelers are looking for good value for their travel dollar. We never forget they have many other places and opportunities to spend money on travel and always appreciate your patronage of Legacy and Hawkeye Stages.
We plan carefully and negotiate hard on your behalf to get the best value for money. Our experienced tour planners know many ways to help you manage and reduce the cost of travel for your group and will gladly share these with you. Once on the road our tour managers, drivers and travel suppliers will welcome you with their best facilities and service. We want you to come home from every Legacy tour feeling you were treated fairly and achieved your group’s travel objectives. More than anything else we want you to come back and plan another tour with us. We know you’ll return to work with suppliers who treat you fairly and this guides everything we do at Legacy.
