Travel Tip 172
How to advocate for yourself on a group trip
After flying from Lima to Tarapoto, this pottery workshop was one of two activities squeezed in before lunch.
Group trips with set itineraries are great – until they’re not.
Having somebody else make the itinerary and do all the reservations and planning can make traveling somewhere unfamiliar much easier. However, even the best planned itinerary won’t work perfectly for everybody in the group.
We started in the east at Tarapoto and went through Moyobamba on the way to Chachapoyas, near Kuélap.
Solo travel vs. Group Travel
If you’ve read some of my travel tips and blog posts, you know that I mostly do solo travel. (Read my solo travel tips here). My group trips are generally press trips, which is what I did last week. This press trip somewhat replicated a trip I did on my own last year, starting with a flight from Lima to Peru’s northern jungle city of Tarapoto, driving to Moyobamba for a few days and then driving to Chachapoyas before flying back to Lima from Chachapoyas.
I was happy to see on the itinerary that we would get to visit several places I missed last year, like Aconabikh, and also go back to a few of my favorite spots, like Kuélap. Tarapoto and Moyobamba are in the San Martín region and Chachapoyas is in the Amazonas region, though both have jungles and rivers that flow into the Amazon.
Three people in this group flew from Europe the day before we started our itinerary of long days.
What if a group trip goes too far?
Unfortunately, the execution of the itinerary was not ideal and each day ended up being too long. Everybody else in the group had to sit out an activity at some point, from exhaustion or because they got sick. They all flew from Europe the day before and were jetlagged from the start. I did go to all the places on the itinerary, but I had to give the guide feedback on how unrealistic their expectations were of our ability to get so little sleep. Several days we got to the hotel late and left early, with less than 8 hours total at the hotel.
Leaving the hotel at 4am, we arrived at Aconabikh at 5am, half an hour before this sunrise and far too early for birdwatching.
Early mornings - without breakfast
The first morning we left the hotel at 4am but didn’t get breakfast until 8:00. The second morning we left the hotel at 5am and didn’t get breakfast until 9:00. Early mornings are normal for birdwatching, though the lack of breakfast did not seem normal to me. I tolerated the first morning without complaining but the second morning I balked at getting on the boat at 7am when I was told we’d be on the tour for two hours before breakfast.
I took the guide aside and told him that planning two early mornings in a row without anything to eat was unacceptable. He had to provide at least a snack or cup of coffee before I would get on the boat. He managed to find a small bag of banana chips that I devoured in a few minutes.
We left Tarapoto at 5am, arrived at Santa Elena at 6am and then had an hour tour of the interpretive center. We should have been given something to eat before the boat ride 7-9am.
Was my feedback effective?
I tried to give specific feedback with a solution to the problem, which is how I recommend advocating for yourself on a group trip. I identified the problem as being a lack of breakfast two mornings in a row when we had early departures from the hotel. I suggested the solution was to give us food before we started the two-hour tour.
That worked in the short term and got me some food, but it didn’t change the overall structure of a tour that got us to the hotel late every day and departed early. The itinerary give to us beforehand did warn that we would have early mornings, but it didn’t say that we would be getting back to the hotel so late each night.
The afternoon of the second day, half the group stayed behind after lunch because they were too exhausted for a hike in the rain. The first and second days were simply too long, especially for people suffering from jet lag.
What to do?
I still think that giving specific feedback, along with a solution to the problem that you’ve identified, is the best way to advocate for yourself. However, I should have asked for the phone number of a manager or somebody higher up than the guide when my feedback to him didn’t lead to any overall change in the way he ran the tour.
New blog posts!
Birdwatching at Aconabikh was a highlight of the trip, despite arriving at 5am, because I saw several endemic species that were new for my life list.
How to visit Tarapoto
For all my complaining of the organization and lack of food, the places we went were fantastic. Here’s my guide for what to do, where to eat and where to stay when you go to Tarapoto.
I felt right at home back in Moyobamba and saw monkeys in the forest just past the Bosque Alta Vista sign on the far side of the pool.
Return to Moyobamba
I absolutely loved Moyobamba when I first went there in 2025, so it was a hard act to beat. However, I’m happy to report that I loved Moyobamba just as much as last year and stayed at a better hotel this time. Here’s what to do, where to eat and where to stay in Moyobamba.
