Go Backpacking

  • About
  • Travel Tips
    • Accommodations
    • Budgeting & Money
    • Adventure Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Gear & Gadgets
    • Packing Tips
    • Travel Blogging
    • Travel Insurance
    • Trip Planning
    • UNESCO Sites
  • Destinations
    • Africa
      • Botswana
      • Egypt
      • Ethiopia
      • Morocco
      • Rwanda
      • South Africa
      • Tanzania
    • Asia
      • Cambodia
      • China
      • Hong Kong
      • India
      • Indonesia
      • Japan
      • Laos
      • Malaysia
      • Nepal
      • Philippines
      • Thailand
      • Vietnam
    • Europe
      • England
      • France
      • Germany
      • Greece
      • Iceland
      • Ireland
      • Italy
      • Portugal
      • Spain
      • Switzerland
      • Turkey
    • North America
      • Canada
      • Costa Rica
      • Cuba
      • Guatemala
      • Mexico
      • Nicaragua
      • Panama
      • United States
    • Oceania
      • Australia
      • French Polynesia
      • New Zealand
    • South America
      • Argentina
      • Bolivia
      • Brazil
      • Chile
      • Colombia
      • Ecuador
      • Peru
  • Advertise
menu icon
go to homepage
  • About
  • Travel Tips
    • Accommodations
    • Budgeting & Money
    • Adventure Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Gear & Gadgets
    • Packing Tips
    • Travel Blogging
    • Travel Insurance
    • Trip Planning
    • UNESCO Sites
  • Destinations
    • Africa
      • Botswana
      • Egypt
      • Ethiopia
      • Morocco
      • Rwanda
      • South Africa
      • Tanzania
    • Asia
      • Cambodia
      • China
      • Hong Kong
      • India
      • Indonesia
      • Japan
      • Laos
      • Malaysia
      • Nepal
      • Philippines
      • Thailand
      • Vietnam
    • Europe
      • England
      • France
      • Germany
      • Greece
      • Iceland
      • Ireland
      • Italy
      • Portugal
      • Spain
      • Switzerland
      • Turkey
    • North America
      • Canada
      • Costa Rica
      • Cuba
      • Guatemala
      • Mexico
      • Nicaragua
      • Panama
      • United States
    • Oceania
      • Australia
      • French Polynesia
      • New Zealand
    • South America
      • Argentina
      • Bolivia
      • Brazil
      • Chile
      • Colombia
      • Ecuador
      • Peru
  • Advertise
search icon
Homepage link
  • About
  • Travel Tips
    • Accommodations
    • Budgeting & Money
    • Adventure Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Gear & Gadgets
    • Packing Tips
    • Travel Blogging
    • Travel Insurance
    • Trip Planning
    • UNESCO Sites
  • Destinations
    • Africa
      • Botswana
      • Egypt
      • Ethiopia
      • Morocco
      • Rwanda
      • South Africa
      • Tanzania
    • Asia
      • Cambodia
      • China
      • Hong Kong
      • India
      • Indonesia
      • Japan
      • Laos
      • Malaysia
      • Nepal
      • Philippines
      • Thailand
      • Vietnam
    • Europe
      • England
      • France
      • Germany
      • Greece
      • Iceland
      • Ireland
      • Italy
      • Portugal
      • Spain
      • Switzerland
      • Turkey
    • North America
      • Canada
      • Costa Rica
      • Cuba
      • Guatemala
      • Mexico
      • Nicaragua
      • Panama
      • United States
    • Oceania
      • Australia
      • French Polynesia
      • New Zealand
    • South America
      • Argentina
      • Bolivia
      • Brazil
      • Chile
      • Colombia
      • Ecuador
      • Peru
  • Advertise
×
Home » Features

5 Keys to Maintaining Your Inner Peace on a Group Tour

Modified: Aug 8, 2012 · Published: May 3, 2011 by Guest Blogger |

The following is a guest post by Pete Mandra. If you’d like to guest post on Go Backpacking, please read our submission guidelines.

Male African lions in Kruger Park, South Africa.
Male African lions in Kruger Park, South Africa.

When I returned from my recent extended tour of southern Africa, friends and family pressed me to know what aspect of my trip brought on the most stress:

Was it tenting in the African bush, surrounded by wild animals? The risk of contracting a deadly, exotic disease? All that time away from home, separated from loved ones and all things familiar?

Nope, I told them. Not even close. Because I couldn’t think of a single, hungry African carnivore, a mysterious diseases whose symptoms still stumped brilliant scientists, or any amount of solitude that compared, at least to me, to the sometimes challenging dynamics of group travel.

Don’t get me wrong - signing on with a group travel tour, just as I had to visit southern Africa (and later Egypt and Jordan), is an effective way to navigate across a country while taking in its highlights. You not only eliminate the hassle of getting from Point A to Point B, but it’s generally much more cost effective than if you were to attempt it by yourself.

The challenge, though, arrives when your tour takes you through a less-developed country, where personal safety, and few diversions like museums and shopping, dictates the group spending time together for seemingly every waking moment. It is then that a strange, almost magical transformation occurs – you stop acting like a group and start acting more like a dysfunctional, slightly manic family, filled with just enough underlying tension to drive one another crazy. In Africa, we fought over food, relaxed every ambition imaginable a little too much for comfort, and almost purposefully got on each other’s nerves. Though I can’t share all of the sordid details here, suffice to say I did start to wonder, after that whole experience, how any of us could once again function in normal, everyday society.

Camping in Botswana
Camping in Botswana

OK – so I exaggerate a bit. Then why, you’re probably asking yourself, after my trying experience traveling with a group through Africa, did I participate in another such trip shortly afterwards through Egypt and Jordan?

Because Africa taught me what I refer to as essential ‘mental survival strategies’ for group travel, essential to enjoying your trip and dealing with the sometimes difficult group mentality.

The following, then, are my 5 tips for mentally ‘surviving’ a group travel tour:

Table of Contents

  • 1. Stay connected with family and friends back home.
  • 2. Grab alone time (when you can get it!).
  • 3. Zone out.
  • 4. Protect that personal space!
  • 5. Go with the flow.

1. Stay connected with family and friends back home.

Receiving an email, video chat, or just hearing the voice of a loved one has a way of bringing you back to reality, especially when you need a break from present company. And best of all, you can find an Internet café in even the most remote places in the world (though you may have to deal with a dial-up connection).

2. Grab alone time (when you can get it!).

There’s nothing wrong with retreating to your tent or room for a little bit if you need a break. Don’t think that just because others always hang out that you are required to, also.

3. Zone out.

Bring that music-loaded Ipod for those long road trips when you don’t want to spend another 4 hours (again) talking to your seat mate. Or be really devious and only pretend you’ve fallen asleep.

4. Protect that personal space!

In Africa, the seat you grabbed on the truck that first day was yours for the next six weeks. It sounds crazy, but on group tours, your instinct is to protect all space in that immediate vicinity as your own, so you don’t feel too crowded and have room for your gear. Only remove gear from the truck that you need for that particular moment, using the rest as a personal space holder.

5. Go with the flow.

Will the group annoy you at times? Absolutely! So expect that you may not get along with everyone, and accept that you’re personal freedom may seem compromised from the outset as you (often) follow rigid schedules and full days to take in all the sites. A mantra may help, too. Whenever I wanted to strangle someone, I took a deep breath and repeated to myself you’re on vacation…you’re on vacation. It usually did the trick.

Hopefully, after reading this you aren’t scared off if you were considering signing on with a group tour in a less-developed part of the world. Following my own advice on my Egypt and Jordan trip proved extremely helpful, so I’m confident, if you have any such concerns, these same strategies can work for you, too.

Group experience aside, I wouldn’t trade the enjoyable experience I had traveling through Africa for anything. We slept under star-filled skies in the middle of the desert, navigated through the hippos and crocodiles of the Zambezi River in canoes, and joined an armed military convoy in Zambia through a patch of land contested by rebel fighters– if that’s not living life, I don’t know what is!

________

About the Author: Pete Mandra is the author of Overland, a humorous travel narrative (‘Bill Bryson meets Generation X’) chronicling his budget, six-week ‘overland’ tour through Africa with his wife and a truckload of strangers.

Photos Credit: David Lee

Related Stories

  • Trekking in Romania (photo: Andrei Tanase).
    10 Life Lessons You Can Learn From Traveling
  • Cala del Moraig beach in Spain (photo: Eduardo Kenji Amorim).
    Traveling to Spain? Here Are Some Things To Keep In Mind
  • Sailing Casco Bay, Maine (photo: Kristel Hayes).
    Choosing the Right Boat for Your Sailing Adventure
  • Sphinx and Great Pyramid in Giza (photo by Dilip Poddar, Unsplash).
    Kind Tourists Are Staying Away From Camel Rides in Egypt
19 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

About Guest Blogger

This post was written by a guest contributor. Please reference the author's byline in the post above for more information. If you would like to guest post on Go Backpacking, please read our submission guidelines. For information on advertising opportunities, go here.

Comments

  1. LisaD says

    May 03, 2011 at 8:32 pm

    I've done group trips (with all friends and all mostly strangers) and also many trips of traveling with just one other friend. In all cases I found that I too became annoyed/stressed/edgy at times. I think it's just me being set in my ways and liking some "alone time". Your mantra is a good idea that I will have to try in the future. Great post. (PS - what company did you use for your travels? Starting to think about extended vacations soon)

    • Pmandra says

      May 04, 2011 at 1:11 am

      Hi Lisa,

      Glad you liked the article! For Africa, we went through an outfit called 'Nomad', which was fine, but you have many choices because most operators on the popular routes stop at the same sites (even down to the campgrounds!). Comfort level (tents vs beds at night) and meals/food kitties tend to be the deciding factors impacting price.

  2. directory submission says

    May 04, 2011 at 7:46 am

    This is nice information share over here. its provide better guideline regarding to Maintaining Your Inner Peace on a Group Tour. really this is beneficial post to travel any place.

  3. serviced apartments in goa says

    May 09, 2011 at 5:25 am

    Nice post Pete.

  4. Forest of India says

    May 09, 2011 at 11:39 am

    Wow, what an interesting article. Your tips are wonderful and must be followed during group tours

    • Pete Mandra says

      May 17, 2011 at 1:32 pm

      Thanks, though I am very grateful for the group travel experiences because it provided matrial for my novel! 

  5. Marquita Herald says

    May 11, 2011 at 12:42 pm

    I used to travel for a living in the hospitality industry so I developed a taste for hitting the road as a single. The one time I took a group tour was on a trip from Rome to Pompeii - a trip I'd been dreaming about. Sadly, I woke up that morning sick as a dog with the Italian version of montezuma's revenge - but nothing, nothing was going to prevent me from making that trip. Turned out the people on my tour were absolutely awesome - they gave me the bench in the back of the bus and everyone let me know when to sit up if there was something I should see on the road trip, and made sure I was ok walking around Pompeii. I really lucked out that day, and it's a trip I'll never forget.

Dave at Ahu Ko Te Riku on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile.

Hi, I'm Dave

Editor in Chief

I've been writing about adventure travel on Go Backpacking since 2007. I've visited 68 countries.

Read more about Dave.

Footer

back to top

About

  • About
  • Archive
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

Contact

  • Contact
  • Work With Us
  • Submissions

Copyright © 2025 Go Backpacking

19 shares
  • 14
  • 5