How Should You Travel? Plane, Train, Boat, Car or Coach!

What's Your Pleasure?

Plane

Train

Boat

Car

or Coach

My wife and I have done a fair amount of traveling.  We have taken land based group coach tours in  Europe, Japan, and the USA.  We have done extended independent European jaunts by rail.  We have traveled on water through the Alaskan Inside Passage aboard a full sized ocean liner and  hugged the Costa Rican coast down to and through the Panama Canal on a small ship.  We have also experienced river cruises on the Nile, the Danube, and the Rhine.  

As we look back on them it is clear that travel options are influenced by your age, health. work, family status, personal preferences, and above all your budget.  We know that older travelers often have more time and disposable income to spend on creature comforts than a college student with a backpack and a full plate of education loans. On the other hand If you are young, single, and healthy you can consider travel options that may not be open to a seventy year old retiree with bad knees and a heart condition.

So what are some of the pros and cons of different travel strokes for different folks?  Think about each of these questions as you consider your travel plans for next year.

1.   

   How much money can you afford to spend?  Ship cruising is not cheap in comparison to most land or rail tours.  However, when looking at cost, remember that land tours may not cover all meals or as much sightseeing or tips. Road Scholar tours are an interesting exception and  whether land or sea they build in all gratuities in their base price. That can make a major difference in hidden cost.  Land itineraries will be also be booking you into multiple hotels and though they may be of apparent equal quality there will be differences in rooms, locations, services, and staff.  Developing your own itinerary can often be the cheapest and most exciting way to travel, but it does add more uncertainty into the mix. The rule here is to look carefully at what is included and what is not in a price because the extras can mount up rapidly and make the more expensive offer a better buy.   

2.How much uncertainty and stress are you prepared to deal with when you travel?  All other things equal a cruise will produce the least stress.  All your meals will generally be included and their quality will be reliably good. Once you reach your cabin it becomes your hotel and it travels with you not the other way around. There is no packing or unpacking until you leave. Twenty four hours a day for the next week or two you have a private space to retreat to if you need some quiet time or extra rest.  You can decline to go on stated excursions and stay on board to lounge on deck or in any of the public spaces.  Experienced service is available day and night and all  your additional needs can be charged on one account payable at the end of the trip.   No fuss, no muss, and limited bother.  This does take out some of the sense of adventure and exploration that travel ought to bring to your life, but our experience tells us that age is a primary determining factor in how much more “adventure” you are willing to tolerate.  We bought a rail pass in the 1960’s and spent an entire summer roaming Europe spontaneously.  It was a blast and we still talk about the night we arrived with no reservations for the first time in Paris in a blinding rain storm only to find the Metro shut down and taxi lines hours long. Today we fully realize that even the best and most costly travel arrangements can go south in a hurry, but that doesn’t mean that we are eager to pre-build in the tensions associated with searching for a hotel after  dark in a town where you don’t speak the local language.

3

.  How much space do you need to keep from going bonkers?  On a ship your cabin will be small, but it is yours and in addition you have plenty of deck and lounge space to roam.  On a train your seat will be fairly roomy and you can get up easily to traverse the aisles or go to the bathroom. Traveling from place to place on a coach tour is an extension of getting to your starting point on an airplane. You will spend time in a narrow aisled space with a group of other people many of whom you will not know. Your fellow traveler’s warts will be more visible and getting away from them more difficult.  A coach will offer you a more restricted view of the scenery with smaller windows.  You may also have to jockey each day for a window seat.  And finally a bathroom, if available, will be one step above a porta-poddy.

4. How much of a photographer are you?  In your own vehicle you can stop to take pictures wherever it moves you.  A coach tour or a train generally stops only at prescribed points.  In between you must take photos on the move.  From experience I can tell you there is no such thing as a decent picture taken out of the small tinted window of a moving bus.  A train at least has bigger windows and you can move to between the cars so you can access both sides.  A ship doesn’t stop at your command either, but it does moves at a stately speed and you can take excellent photos from the decks without the interference of windows or reflections. Don’t get me wrong. On a cruise you will still be taken by coach on extra excursions or to drop-off points, but your time spent in transit on a restricted space conveyance will seldom be as much as on a land based tour.

5.How tolerant are you of older or younger people?  Leaving aside the specific choice of a targeted tour for families or for special interests, it is clear that cruising attracts an older clientele. The average age on our most recent river cruises was sixty and above.  We even met some folks in their eighties who were still going strong, but only occasionally anyone under forty.  Indeed,  some cruise lines will not even accept passage for children under 12 or 14.   Land tours tend to attract younger people with more of them still working as opposed to being retired. Again you will probably find few children on the average coach tour.  There is, of course, no real exclusivity on a train and you will find yourself interacting with all ages from infants to the elderly.      

6.How much company do you want?  Land tours are generally going to be limited in size to what can be held in a coach. Ships of course vary immensely in size.  Large cruise ships may hold as many as 3000 passengers and since they may be spending more time on open water with not much to see, they will be equipped to entertain you on board. There will be live shows,  movies,  casinos, swimming pools, climbing walls, saunas, fitness programs, educational and craft sessions, along with a wide variety of restaurants and food choices. Know that this kind of ship is like a small floating city and you will not get to know very many people while on board. There will often be already formed groups who are traveling and eating together. A solo traveler or couple you may feel more out of place on a large ship.  If anonymity is your bag, then definitely choose the megaliner.  A small coastal ship or  river cruise vessel will typically hold no more than 150 passengers and some canal tours may go as low as 10 to 20.  If you are the gregarious sort, you will definitely get to know more of your fellow passengers on the smaller ship or land tours.

7

   What other differences are there between a small and large ship?  Sailing on a river boat involves no worry about sea sickness or waves. You need not worry about cabin position on the ship.  Every movement is smooth; there is virtually no engine sound, and for the most part you will not even know you are moving.   On our Costa Rican Panama Canal trip in a small boat we did have some open ocean crossings and there was a night or two when we rocked and rolled a bit.   Other than that minor qualm, a small ship has the advantage of being able to port in smaller less crowded harbors or even anchor off shore while you have a snorkel or swim.  The larger ships must have bigger and often more crowded deep water anchors.  A further point about smaller ships is that there will be little difference on a given route in the general layout of a ship between competing cruise lines.  Most of the boats look pretty much the same. Their drafts must remain shallow and they all must fit in the locks that occur on a lot of the rivers.  They also must fit together for the double docking that must occur at many of the more popular sites. Going along with the size component is the simple fact that river cruise companies sell the destinations where you dock and not the entertainment opportunities on board while traveling. On a river cruise you can expect preparatory travel lectures, a small library, and a piano player in the cocktail lounge, but little other on board entertainment.

8. What are your food requirements or preferences?  On a ship, you will get elaborate, high quality, consistent food (and probably more of it than is good for you).   A land based tour is susceptible to more variation in quality and service as you will have most meals in different cities, different restaurants, served by different staff, and cooked by different chefs.  This also means that if you have special dietary requirements, you have a better chance of getting them served if you are eating in the same place most of the time.  Smaller ships generally accommodate everyone in one sitting in the dining room. Breakfast and lunch are often buffet style.  Dinner is served and more formal.  You will need to arrive at the stated time.  None of the three river cruises we have been on had assigned table spots or took reservations for tables. None had tables smaller than four or larger than eight.  Food on a train can be markedly inconsistent ranging from excellent to disgusting.  Coach tours will confine themselves to supplying you with snacks and water.       

9.What kind of service to you desire or require? On board a ship you will get to know and can count on young multi-lingual staff who will speak good English and will seem eager to assist at every turn.  Yes, they do want a tip at the end, but whether in the dining room, bar, or cabins the staff always performed admirably on all three of our cruises.   Again the land based tour will probably have more variations in service as you change hotels and restaurants. Most land tours will have at least one guide who travels with you and we have always found those individuals to be helpful and knowledgeable.  

10.  Most tour companies today, whether on land or sea, offer knowledgeable local guides when needed and accompanying travel directors.  If problems develop you will generally receive excellent help from these folks..  

I hope this discussion has helped you as you consider that next trip.  Let me know if I have missed a point or if you think I have unfairly characterized some of my points.   Happy traveling no matter what conveyance you use.