NETWORKING SESSION
To Tour or Not to Tour? Independent Travel, Fixers & Organized Tours
A relaxed, moderator-led conversation about one of travel’s quietly contested questions: when you head somewhere more or less demanding, do you go it alone, hire a fixer, or join an organized tour? Independent travel is often worn as a badge of honor — but what is the smarter, braver, or more authentic choice?
Drawing on years of traveling both solo and with operators ranging from more extreme group tours such as Lupine Travel and Rocky Road Travel to mainstream ones like Intrepid and G Adventures, we’ll weigh the genuine pros and cons of each style of travel. Expect an honest exchange about safety, cost, access, logistics, ethics, and the myth of the “cooler” independent traveler — plus frank talk about which companies are worth your money: who’s hot, and who’s not. Bring your own stories; audience participation is very much encouraged. Sharing is key here, so we can all learn from one another’s wins and mistakes.
BIO
Anne Rasmussen has been planning her next trip for as long as she can remember. She grew up in a Danish home where holidays abroad were unheard of — her first was a six-day bus tour to Austria after fifth grade, which she talked her parents into — and she has rarely stopped traveling since. She has now visited close to 100 countries, lived in seven, and made friends on every continent she’s reached.
A former board member of the Danish Travellers Club & active in EPS London, Anne travels both fully independently and with tour operators, from adventure specialists like Lupine Travel and Rocky Road Travel to mainstream outfits such as Intrepid and G Adventures — and she’s endlessly curious about why travelers choose one over another and what their experiences are.
By profession she is a Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London and at the University of Copenhagen, with earlier posts in, for example, Leiden, Bergen and Florence. The same curiosity that drives her research into how societies make decisions fuels her appetite for understanding people and places first-hand — and for comparing notes with fellow travelers.