PHOTO: Phnom Penh, Cambodia – the more exotic the destination, the more important it is to have professional guidance. (photo by David Cogswell) 

The word is slowly getting around that tours are not what they used to be. The old If-it’s-Tuesday-this-must-be-Belgium tour of the 1960s and 1970s has gone into the proverbial dustbin of history, along with the Pontiac Wide Track and Cadillac rocket fins. Today’s tour operators are a different breed and what they offer is geared to a different world.

“The fact is that today's tours have evolved right along with travelers,” said Steve Born, VP marketing for the Globus family of brands. “You'll find the basis of most tours is now two to three nights per major city, centrally-located hotels, just the right balance between scheduled activities and free time to explore on your own. It's not too much structure, it's just the right amount of structure.”

There is a new world of tours offered in a tremendous variety out there, and there are tours that are perfect for you. Many people who once thought any kind of group travel was not for them have discovered the advantages provided by tour operators. If you are at that point, here are five keys to help you find the perfect tour experience.

There is no one perfect tour, there is only your perfect tour.

Today’s tours are focused on the individual. They are designed to provide unique experiences, immersion in the destination, encounters with local residents. It’s all about authenticity, creating a fine balance between the expert guidance and support of the tour operator, a.k.a. destination management expert, and the freedom and flexibility to shape your experience to fit your own personal specifications and needs.

The perfect tour fits you like a glove. And a luxurious glove is what a good tour operator provides you, with tough leather on the outside and soft, cozy fur on the inside. The tour operator provides a protective envelope to ease you into your chosen destination and point you in the direction you need to go to get what you want out of the trip and the destination. And then sets you free.

“As for ‘the perfect trip,’ we find that we are able to create that by listening carefully to what the passenger is seeking,” said Marilyn Downing Staff, founder and president of Asia Transpacific Journeys. “The most perfect trip is personalized carefully to the traveler. My perfect trip and theirs can be two very different things. We listen carefully and dig deep into their hopes, dreams and requirements for a trip and build one that works to satisfy their desires.”

The best tour operators will smooth the rough edges of travel for you, the transfers, the transportation, the entrances, all the un-fun parts of travel. You’ve experienced airport hassles enough. You’ve probably been lost before, ended up in the wrong place. Sure you learn from such experiences, but you don’t need to add experiences of that kind to your memory file. The tour operator’s job is to take that stuff off your plate and let you get right to the good stuff, the reasons you travel in the first place.

So finding the perfect tour comes down to first reckoning with yourself to get clear on what it is you want to do, what rings your bell, how you want to spend those precious vacation dollars and moments, and then finding the one tour operator out of hundreds that best fits your needs.

Do some research on the Web.

While you’re considering the possibilities, take a dreamy cruise around the Web to survey what is out there and see where your inclinations and impulses take you. You can use the associative properties of search engines and the landscape of the Internet to gauge your own reactions to what you encounter there and to guide you through the great labyrinth of possibilities to what you have a natural attraction for.

There are many questions to ask yourself.

“How important is group size to you?” said Dan Austin, president of Austin Adventures. “How active do you want to be? What range of accommodations are you looking for, three, four or five star? It’s good to ask about price points and available dates and such important details as: do you have a passport? Do you have special dietary needs?”

Most operators agree that the most important questions are: “Where have you always wanted to go?  Where have you traveled in the past? What did you like and not like?”

Do you want to go into the African bush and encounter elephants and lions? Or are you more inclined this time around to enjoy an afternoon at the Louvre and an espresso in an outdoor café in Paris? There are tour operators who specialize in practically anything you can think of. The range of variation is practically infinite.

In fact, there is so much to see on the Web that it may blow your mind and exhaust your sensibilities. That brings us to the third key to finding the perfect tour experience.

Seek out a good travel agent.

At this point a plug for travel agents is unavoidable. A good travel agent can help you sort through what it is you want to do, how to do it and then help guide you to the right tour operator who can best meet your needs.

Sure you can do it on your own. But a professional travel agent who works in the ever-changing field of travel day after day year after year can cut right to the chase and save you a lot of trouble and possibly some painful, costly or even dangerous mistakes.

Most tour operators recommend working with travel agents. There is no conflict there. It works for them. Travel agents and tour operators are natural partners. It’s the proverbial win-win. Tour operators provide the necessary expert destination management, pull together all the disparate elements of a trip into a package and provide what you are looking for readymade, designed to fit just what you need. Travel agents work with you individually and make sure to guide you to a tour operator that fits.

Matching clients to the right tour is “a big part of the added value an experienced travel advisor provides,” said Pamela Lassers, director of media relations for Abercrombie & Kent. “Qualifying the customer requires a needs assessment to recommend the product best suited to the clients’ needs and abilities. Although budget is a factor, many clients are prepared to spend more on a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

The travel agent is your champion, your backer. The good travel agent knows the field, knows what is out there and can point you toward the right tour operator for you. If something goes wrong at the airport and you are left hanging without a flight, you have the support of both the travel agent and the tour operator to fall back on. If you’ve ever been out there when a flight is canceled, you know how important that can be.

Choose your tour operator.

Choosing the right tour operator is the most important decision you can make in the process of finding the perfect tour. Once you have gotten to that point, you are almost finished with preparations and ready to jump into the experience itself. If you have chosen well, it will be mostly just the fun and enrichment of travel from there forward.

If you have done some research in advance, then bounced your ideas off a travel agent and received his or her counsel, then you have the best chance of making the right choice, a tour operator who knows who they are and whose mission resonates with your purposes.

Today’s best tour operators are proud of their history and their profession. “We are realizing that we should be true to your roots,” said Jennifer Tombaugh, president of Tauck. “We are a mainly inclusive operator that delivers the best return on dollar and value. That doesn’t mean the cheapest price, it means the best experience. Our mission is to change people’s lives in a positive way. You can’t return a vacation, so we want to give them what they pay for and then some. We want to maximize the value of the experience, so you are sure you’re getting the most for what you invested.”

What you get is what you take.

Choosing a tour operator, while it is the most important step and the step all the other points lead up to, is by no means the last step. It is only the end of the beginning.

Experienced travelers know that a great trip starts long before the departure and lasts long after the return. A great trip lives forever in your heart. A great tour operator will lead you to the threshold, provide everything you need and more, introduce you to the destination and to the guides and teachers who will open it up to you. But they can only do so much. The rest is up to you.

The depth of your experience will depend in large measure on what you bring to the experience. You can greatly deepen your experience by preparing, by reading, studying, researching, watching films and talking to people about the destination in the weeks or months before you depart.

The more you learn and absorb, the more what you see will mean to you. It will give you a window into the history, the soul of each building, each natural wonder, each artifact you encounter on your trip. Travel is the stuff of dreams and the dream begins right now.

Likewise, when you return from your trip, you have the rest of your life to absorb it, relish the memories and continue your explorations into the destination and everything you learned about it.

The memory will live in your mind and heart forever and no one can ever take it from you.

“Experiential travel is about inherent value,” said Jean Fawcett, media relations manager, for Abercrombie & Kent, “a balance between authenticity, flexibility and the sense of well-being. This is travel for people who define luxury not so much by the degree of elegance, but by the quality of the experience.”