Financial protection, first and always

If the operator fails while you are on the trip or before you travel, what gets your money back and what gets you home.

In the United States, look for membership of the United States Tour Operators Association, which requires participants to maintain consumer protection arrangements. In the UK and Europe, ATOL and ABTA serve similar purposes.

Paying by credit card provides an additional layer of protection in many jurisdictions and is worth doing even when a discount is offered for other payment methods.

Booking through a travel advisor also means there is somebody accountable who is not the operator, which matters more than people realise on the day something goes wrong.

Who actually runs the trip on the ground

Many operators do not run their own tours. They contract to local ground handlers, sometimes the same ground handler that three other brands use.

This is not necessarily bad and it does explain why two very differently priced tours are sometimes identical on the ground.

Ask directly. Do you operate this yourself or through a local partner. A straight answer tells you what you are paying for.

Operators with their own guides and their own vehicles generally deliver more consistent quality and charge accordingly.

Group size, and the maximum rather than the average

Operators advertise average group size, which is a marketing number. Ask for the maximum.

A tour advertising an average of sixteen may have a maximum of twenty eight, and you might be on that one.

Ask specifically how many are currently booked on your departure. Any decent agent can find out.

The cancellation and change terms

Read the schedule of cancellation charges before you pay a deposit, not after. Some operators move to substantial charges much earlier than people expect.

Understand what happens if the operator changes the itinerary or the hotels, which they reserve the right to do. What compensation, if any, applies.

Check the minimum numbers clause. Many tours can be cancelled by the operator if they do not sell enough places, sometimes quite close to departure. Ask how often that happens on this itinerary.

And understand what your travel insurance actually covers, which is rarely what people assume.

Reviews, read properly

Ignore the five star reviews and the one star reviews. Read the three and four star ones, which are where the specific and useful criticism lives.

Look for patterns rather than incidents. One bad hotel is bad luck. Four reviews mentioning the same hotel is information.

Look at how the operator responds to criticism. That tells you what will happen when you have a problem.

Recent reviews only. Operators change ownership and management, and a company can be transformed in either direction within two years.

Questions worth asking before you commit

What is the maximum group size and how many are booked. Do you operate this yourself or through a partner. How many meals are included and which. What are the optional excursions and their prices. What is the recommended tipping and to whom. What is your financial protection. What happens if minimum numbers are not met. What is the average age on this departure. Is there a family departure of this itinerary.

A good operator or advisor answers all of those quickly and without defensiveness. Hesitation on any of them is worth noticing.

The thing nobody tells you

The guide makes the trip. Not the itinerary, not the hotels, not the brand. A brilliant guide rescues a mediocre itinerary and a poor one ruins a perfect route.

You cannot choose your guide and no operator will guarantee one. What you can do is choose operators who employ their guides directly, train them properly and retain them, because that is the closest thing to a guarantee available.

When somebody tells me a tour was wonderful, they are almost always telling me about a person.

Questions people actually ask