Photographic Holidays for the single traveller

Jwar1976

Jwar1976

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Hi all,

Last year I went on a fantastic holiday booked from RSD, with my Father to Izmir, in which we got taken to different locations on a daily basis. Sadly a month ago my Father suddenly passed away & so I have decided to do a similar holiday possibly September / October time, but was wondering what the best way of doing this would be. Over the years I have travelled abroad alone many times, but always stayed at backpackers as I never had a decent photography equipment to take with me. Now that I am wanting to go abroad again in the near future with my equipment, I was wondering what suitable tour operators there were for this kind of holiday. I did ask my partner if she wanted to join me, but she said it wasn't her kind of thing, so will be a single traveller.

Has anyone here ever booked a holiday with tours to locations all in the one fee, or booked things individually ?

Many Thanks
 
Sorry to hear about your loss.

Not sure who/what RSD are. If you want to be shown different locations then I'm sure there will be others along who may have been on that kind of trip who may have some recommendations.

I prefer to find things out for myself, and travel alone on my holidays, which are mainly to take photos. I find the flights and accommodation(s). I normally choose one city for a week and for the most part stay in and around that city. Last year for a change I went for 10 days and split the time between Corniglia (Cinque Terre), Florence and Pisa. Looking back I didn't enjoy the travelling between towns and it was just time wasted when I could have been out taking pics. Plus the added stress of packing for each move was a 'pita'. It was also in August and very busy as you would expect, especially between Florence and Pisa.

Sept/Oct is a good time for southern Europe, still very warm, though locals may think differently. You get a few funny looks when you are in t-shirt and shorts, and the locals have coats on. ;) :LOL: Numbers of tourists are normally lower around that time too. There were about 1/4 the number of tourists in October than August in the Cinque Terre last year. I was very surprised by the difference in numbers just a couple of months apart, and the weather was still very nice.

I choose the airline which is cheapest to where I want to go if there is a choice. Pisa is a good location which many airllines fly to, and you have many towns in Tuscany within easy reach, including Florence. Lots of airlines fly to Venice and Rome too.

For accommodation I try AirBnB and HomeAway first, and then if I can't find anything with them, I do a wider search for cheap places to stay.

For pictures I recommend Venice or Rome if you have never been before, lots of opportunities/locations for pictures.

If that is not what you are after then fine, but if you would like any more info on any of those locations, then ask away. :)
 
Sorry about your loss.

About holiday for taking photos/explore... It is up to you and where you want to go.
Also how long time do you have.

February last year I discover Thailand.
Single travel.
Since then I am in love.
Went there 3 times (from London) and will go again October.

I know that it sound very far away, but it is very easy.
And cheap. Very cheap.
Return flight could be found around 400 pounds with a good company and I use booking.com for accommodation - around 10 pounds per night for a good room.
Lovely weather, nice people and endless locations.
Not a single problem anywhere in Thailand so far.

Of course there a lots and lots of places to go - just pick one, listen to your heart and go :)

P.S. Any other questions about Thailand and travel there - welcome.

Regards,
Kalin
 
Personally I just book a flight somewhere, do a bit of research and then just do what I felt like when i got there. Normally I book the first thing so in Vietnam I booked trekking in Sapa and then you pick up tips from other travellers and ended up doing a few things that weren't in the books.

Nowadays it is pretty easy to find local photo tours although I've never really been into that kind of thing, preferring to explore myself, but I can see the value in some circumstances.

Actually, I would highly recommend Vietnam if you have a few weeks spare or the world is your oyster really.

edit: another thought is that nowadays I have become a big fan hiring a car as you can get to all the tourist places (which are touristy for a reason so worth visiting) without being tied to a coach full of other tourists which, if you're into photography is a godsend.
 
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Personally I've always gone with On The Go. Not photo holidays, but use local guides who can help organise things on the ground. There are some things which, whilst possible to organise yourself, are hard, e.g. canoe camping in the Okavango or camping on the banks of the Nile.
 
redhed17 said:
Sept/Oct is a good time for southern Europe, still very warm, though locals may think differently. You get a few funny looks when you are in t-shirt and shorts, and the locals have coats on. ;) :LOL: :)
Click to expand...

lol. i went to Italy in November and that's exactly what happened, ha ha.

@Jwar1976 sorry to hear of your loss. what kind of places are taking your fancy? there are lots of organised photo trips to Iceland (my go to recommendation :-) )
 
Thanks for the replies & kind words everyone, I must admit that Iceland is pretty appealing especially with the possibility of the Northern Lights. However I have never been to Thailand and so that sounds an exciting prospect as well. I have been to various places over the years like Tenerife, Netherlands, Italy, Texas, and 3 times to Australia, but never with a proper camera. So am thinking of another trip to Oz as have got quite a few friends out there in regions like Perth & Adelaide that I have never been to before, as only ever been to Sydney & Brisbane. So am going to put Australia on the list first, followed by Thailand & Iceland. Thanks again for all of the replies, it is much appreciated. :)
 
Have a look at G Adventures, not photography holidays but they do some great tours, some off the beaten track.
 
The beauty of SE Asia is that it is just soooo easy to be a tourist, everything is set up for it, I prefer Vietnam to Thailand but both are absolutely amazing or if you really want something to take photos of go to Cambodia and do Angkor Watt (Cambodia is one of my favourite places).

We used G Adventures (previously Gap Holidays) for Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti and would use them again for such things as they are less about luxury and more about getting in the local spirit of things.

For Peru we used Journey Latin American to arrange our Machu Picchu trip who were fab - a little bit more pricey which keeps the gap year students out but the service was fantastic and well worth it. We winged the rest of the trip, just pre-booked the Inca Trail, but Peru is super easy too. In fact most places are, we've been all around the world and I can't recall anywhere that I would call difficult - even getting through Nairobi airport having to collect baggage and transfer to a different airline in 30 minutes is possible if you just talk to people nicely.
 
you say don't know what to take. First of all tink of where you are going, Take a big camera and huge lens in some countries and very well may get stolen.
I know this is a bit different but when I was in Egypt I used mainly My panasonic HC-X900m camcorder. Why? well it takes both still and video, obviously, but the big advantage is it fits into a trouser pocket yet has the mm reach for almost everything.

see whole video below
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zocBr0JOGUk


Apart from that you can get a single frame shot if wanted from the video as well

So just a thought if you want something small-light- easily hidden- takes good pictures Do have a look at panasonic camcorders
 
To add, I've taken camera gear all over the world and only ever once felt like it was causing unwelcome attention and that was in Barcelona of all places. All the places mentioned so far a very very used to people wandering around with posh cameras.

If I were going somewhere I thought was photo-worthy then I wouldn't hesitate to take any gear I had, just don't look like a victim.
 
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