Chauffeured vs Guided Tours - What's the Difference?

With travel opening up again, many people will be thinking about booking a trip. If you’re one of them, you may be wondering if you should choose a chauffeured or guided tour.

Here, professional chauffeur Kuldip Rait of White 7 Bedford shares his insight into what you should know about chauffeured vs guided tours.

What's the difference?

With chauffeured tours, you are given an itinerary and have the option of going along with it or not. With guided tours, you have a tour guide to supervise your entire trip, which is perfect if you're unsure of an location and wish to follow a crowd, rather than explore yourself.

Chauffeured tours can be a more bespoke option, which is suitable if there is a small group or you and your partner, if you're looking for a romantic trip away.

Your chauffeur may arrange some of the logistics for you, which may include convenient drop-off and pick-up points, as well giving you plenty of time to roam around at your leisure.

With guided tours, you can expect to have some free time to explore on your own, however your trip will factor in the timings of the other guests you're touring with.

Reasons to go 'Self-Guided'

There are two main reasons to choose a chauffeured self-guided tour over a guided tour. The first is flexibility. This takes many forms. You can choose your own dates for departure and return. You decide how long you want to spend in each part of your destination. You choose what activities you want to do (and not do).

Even when your itinerary has been set out for you, you will usually have the ability to make changes to it. In fact, you can ignore it completely if you want to. Alternatively, you can contact your tour organizer and ask them to update it to suit your new plans.

The second is independence. In particular, you’ll be able to choose your own company. You can choose to spend time with other travellers. Equally, you can choose to spend time with locals or do a bit of both.

If you really want to get into local culture, self-guided tours may be the better option. This is particularly true if you want to learn the language.

It also has to be said that mainstream tourist destinations tend to be pretty well set up for self-guided and independent travellers. They also tend to have easy access to the internet where you can access even more sources of information and support.

Reason to go 'Guided'

Most of the benefits of guided tours can be summed up in one word - convenience. You might also want to add reassurance. With guided tours, literally everything is taken care of for you. What’s more, the fact that you’ll usually be travelling in a group can bring extra, practical benefits.

Although a less 'bespoke' service, guided tours can offer a completely different experience altogether as you meet new groups of people with similar interests.

For example, with guided tours, you’ll either have a tour guide escort you on public transport or be transported in a private vehicle with an experienced driver.

What’s more, your transport will be organised to make the best use of your time. This can involve setting schedules and choosing routes not covered by public transport.

Similarly, guided tours can often get fast-track access to key attractions. Firstly, they will almost always book in advance, regularly and in quantity. Secondly, the best tour operators will typically build up good relationships with the staff who run attractions. This can help them to get better deals.

Which choice is more cost effective?

This question really depends on your budget. If you're looking for something luxurious and don't want to worry about driving, parking or getting back to the guide bus on time, a personal chauffeur is the way to go.

Not only can you enjoy the privilege of your own driver for the day, but all chauffeurs travel in style, with modern vehicles offering you plenty of amenities as part of the travel.

As guided tours are generally done in groups, this means that you can often qualify for group discounts and save plenty of money to spend on gifts and experiences around your destination. These can offset the cost of hiring the guide.