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My friend told me he was going on an EF break tour in Greece. I didn't have the time to join him for the whole trip so I just met up with his group a quarter of the way through and stayed an extra day. I picked my own hotels. because their hotels get revealed at the last minute. I saw their hotel choices and stuck with mine because I felt my hotels were better options (newer and nicer). His trip duration was 14 nights and mine was 9. He booked a solo room and his own flight. He told me he paid $5000 for the convenience. What he got was 2 free meals, transportation, a full time tour guide, ferries booked and some meal discounts. Extra excursions cost him extra such as a 65 Euro boat tour. I did the bookings myself and I spent $1600 on hotel (2 of which were less than 2 years old, one was 5 stars and I had a Jacuzzi on the balcony, one was the Far out Spa which was nicer than the Far out Beach club they booked and the last was the same hotel in Athens they booked). My ferries were $190 total some of which where the same ones he was on. I booked my flight with miles and used the metros,
(1.5 Euros) buses (1.6-3 Euros each ride), rented 2 cars (250 Euros in busy season of August). In the end the cost savings were astronomical. My hotels were so much nicer that my friend even asked if he could spend the night at my place instead of the horrifying hotel they booked since their original hotel canceled on them one week before. I rode the public bus once and ran into the group on that same bus because their private bus canceled. Their discounted meals only gave them fixed menus. The tour guide actually let me join in their extra activities as long as I paid the same extra amount they had to. Honestly I also noticed that the extra excursions can be booked outside the group for a cheaper price.
Hotels I booked:
Tamarix hotel - Santorini
Far Out Spa - Ios
Sandom Hotel - Paros
Avra Hotel - Mykonos
Airotel Alexandros - Athens
His hotels:
Arkadi - Chania
Olympic Hotel - Crete
Blue Sea Hotel - Santorini
Far Out Beach Club - Ios
Galatis Hotel - Paros
Alkistis Hotel - Mykonos
Airotel Alexandros - Athens
Granted I had less days and locations but the price difference of booking my own adventure vs having EF take care of everything was vast. You can make it cheaper sharing a room with up to 3 other people which...half of the group was under 21 years old. Even then I think its about $3900 to share rooms with no flight booked. There is a peace of mind when it comes to having someone else book everything for you but if you do your research, plan ahead of time and make your own bookings its way cheaper with much more freedom. There might be some scenarios where I could be wrong. Does anybody know if there are any tours that are better than solo bookings?
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