What a women's small-group tour actually costs

Nobody publishes this properly, so here it is.

A women's small-group tour runs somewhere between $160 and $850 a day, and almost everything that matters about the price sits inside that gap. At the lower end you are looking at a well-run trip through South-East Asia with a local guide, decent hotels and a group of ten. At the upper end you are looking at a specialist operator in a difficult place, doing something logistically complicated, with a group of eight.

To make that concrete: One of my trusted partner’s ten-day trip visiting Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand is less than $1000 AUD, a nine-day Wellness retreat in Bali around $1,959 and an eleven-day women's trip to India sits at roughly $4,781 AUD. A premium operator's eleven days in Portugal runs about $8,424 AUD. A huge difference in price and something to fit everyone’s budget.

Same idea, same group size, five times the price. So the question isn't whether a tour is expensive. It's what you're actually buying. In the name of transparency, I receive a small commission from my trusted partners.

What's in the number

Nearly every operator includes accommodation, group activities, local guides and internal transport. What varies, and what you need to check line by line:

Flights — almost never included. From Australia this is frequently a third of your total.

Meals — "some meals included" can mean breakfast only. Ask how many dinners.

Entry fees and permits — sometimes included, sometimes a long list of extras that adds hundreds.

Tips — often a recommended amount you're expected to hand over at the end. On some tours it's a few hundred dollars.

Insurance — mandatory on most tours, never included.

Add those up before you compare two trips. The cheaper tour on the website is not always the cheaper trip.

And then there's the single supplement

Here is the part that makes women furious, and reasonably so.

Tour prices are set on two people sharing a room. Travel alone and you pay a single supplement — an extra charge for occupying a room by yourself. On group tours it typically runs 15 to 60 per cent of the trip price. On cruises it can double it.

So a $5,000 tour becomes $6,500. For the same trip. Because you came alone.

The industry's explanation is that the room was priced for two and somebody has to cover the empty bed. There's some truth in that and a good deal of habit. In one survey, 78 per cent of women named the single supplement as the single biggest obstacle to travelling solo — which tells you it isn't a minor pricing detail. It's the thing stopping women going.

My trusted partner does charge a single supplement but as a very cost effective alternative, they provide SOLO ROOM SHARE, so that if you are travelling alone they will match you with someone of the same gender, so you don’t have to pay the Single Supplement. They also run promotions or features select itineraries that waive the single room supplement entirely, so join our mailing list to hear about those when they come up here

Four ways not to pay it

Book with an operator built for solo women. Some now guarantee single rooms on every departure with no surcharge at all, because nearly all their travellers are solo and pricing for couples never made sense.

Ask to be matched with a roommate. Most operators will pair you with another solo woman and drop the supplement. It isn't for everyone — you're sharing a room with a stranger for two weeks — but it's free, and plenty of people end up glad of it.

Book early. Several operators release a small number of supplement-free solo places on each departure, and they go first.

Just ask. Smaller operators will sometimes waive or halve it on a departure that hasn't filled. Nobody advertises this. Phone them.

Is it worth it, against doing it yourself?

Honestly, it depends on what you're short of.

If you're short of money and have time, do it yourself. Every itinerary I write can be done independently for less, and the planning is half the pleasure for some people.

If you're short of time — and at our age most of us are — a tour buys back the forty hours of research a good trip takes. It also buys you a guide who knows which day the market runs, a group to eat dinner with, and somebody else's problem when the bus breaks down.

What it doesn't buy is a better trip. It buys an easier one. Whether that's worth two thousand dollars is a question only you can answer, and the answer is allowed to be different in different years.

Before you pay a deposit

Two questions, and ask them in writing:

What is the single supplement, and can you match me with a roommate to avoid it? An operator who won't answer plainly is telling you something.

How many people are booked on this departure right now, and what's the age range? Not the maximum group size. The actual number, today. There is a large difference between a trip of eight and a trip of twenty-four, and a larger one between being the only woman over fifty and being among friends.

The 10-Day Escape Plan — six trips costed out in full, so you can see exactly what you'd be paying a tour operator to handle. Free. Take a look…