From Lois Friedland,
Your Guide to Adventure Travel.
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Some folks find planning a trip almost as much fun as taking the trip. Others don’t want to be bothered and would rather make one call and book a package. Which suits your vacation planning style?

Choosing Package or Independent Travel

Your choice may depend, in part, upon how much work you are willing to do and how comfortable you are creating your own travel package. If you just want to travel in a group and let someone else handle all of the details book a package vacation. Some of the best tour operators have enticing trips planned so all you have to do is enjoy the vacation.

When it comes to multi-day hiking, trekking and river trips, unless you are an experienced rafter and camper, it might be smarter to go with outfitters such as Western River which offers 3-, 4- and 6-day rafting trips through the Grand Canyon.

If you want to vacation on a dude ranch, take a multi-day trail ride into the wilderness or join a cattle drive, it might be smarter to book a package at a ranch or let an outfitter plan the trip. Equitours offers riding vacations in North America and more exotic locations such as India, Morocco and Mongolia.

Create Your Dream Trip from Scratch

A growing number of travelers, especially ones who love to surf the web, prefer to plan their own trips. Savvy ones may even be able to create a trip similar to those offered by luxury tour operators but at a much lower price, although you will have to do all the planning. For example, suppose you’re this type of traveler and you want to visit Vietnam.

• Guide books on the region help, but you may get farther via the Web. You might start by visiting the Vietnam Tourism website and exploring the country on your computer screen.
• You will need a local travel agent, but there are dozens? To choose, look carefully at the websites and see if they list any packages they have put together for Americans. Some, such as Trails of Indochina will actually list some of the American groups and individual travelers for whom they have customized trips.
• Next you discover that the company has an office in the U.S. and others in the major cities you want to visit, so there’s someone in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi or Hoi An who can handle any problems that might arise when you are in that city.
• Finally, you learn that Trails of Indochina will arrange such experiences as meeting with a local historian who lives in the home of a former princess and will tell you about the imperial era in Vietnam. This is the type of in-country tour operator that you want to work with if you are visiting any third world country.

Hire a Travel Consultant

Another approach to traveling independently, if your wallet is reasonably fat, is to work with a travel consultant (think fee for planning the trip) who will do background work for you. These consultants interact with tour operators in foreign countries that they know well. Established agencies such as International Travel Management do charge a fee for planning your trip, but they have personal contacts around the globe. These contacts are used to ensure you have one of the best rooms in a hotel, are picked up at the airport when you arrive in a foreign country, and all of your whims and needs are addressed. If you are interested in archeology while traveling in Peru, for example, they can arrange for a local archeology professor to take you to Macchu Pichu on an in-depth private tour. This Travel + Leisure A-List includes some of the creme of high-end consultants.

The preferred way to plan an adventure travel vacation definitely depends upon your personality and the amount of time you’re willing to give to pre-trip planning.