a minibus, one guide, and eleven other people you did not pick
Small Group Vacation Packages: About Twelve People In All
Small group vacation packages held near twelve people, which is the size where a guide still knows everybody's name and a lunch stop still fits in one room.
Four trips at this size, from $2,190 per person.
Nothing here counts you and nothing here follows you off the page. One word can be written down, and only the word yes, so this strip stops coming back. What that means in full.
Twelve is not a marketing number. It is roughly the point at which one guide can still answer a question without a microphone, a restaurant can still seat everyone at once, and a minibus can still turn around on a track a coach cannot enter.
The cost per head drops sharply from the private size because the guide's day is now divided twelve ways instead of two. That is the whole of the saving, and it is the reason these trips read as good value rather than as a compromise.
What you give up is the morning. Departure is at a stated time and the day has a shape that was decided before you booked. Eleven other people paid for that shape as well, and the page for each trip says plainly where it will not bend.
What this size buys and what it costs you
- Capped near twelve, and the cap is contractual rather than aspirational
- A fixed route decided before booking, printed before you commit
- A steep drop in cost per head against the private size
The four trips filed here
- About twelveLofoten, seven nights with about eleven otherssmall group, one minibusShort northern days, hard granite and a group small enough to fit one boat.from $3,620per person, 7 nights
About twelveThe Outer Hebrides, eight nights in a small groupsmall group, one minibus and two ferriesIsland hopping by scheduled ferry, which is why the group is capped where it is.from $3,150per person, 8 nights
About twelveHa Giang, ten nights on the northern loopsmall group, one minibusThe lowest priced small group trip here, and the one with the most hours in a vehicle.from $2,480per person, 10 nights
About twelveAlbania, nine nights from the coast into the mountainssmall group, one minibusTwo hard driving days buy three villages a coach physically cannot reach.from $2,190per person, 9 nights