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Even though I generally like to travel independently, I’ve taken quite a few tours as well over the years. But, while I’ve been aware of G Adventures for a decade, I’d never toured with them. That was until I went to Laos, so allow me to share my experience in this independent G Adventures review.
Laos was one of the last countries left in Southeast Asia for me to visit. To help me visit for the first time I decided to take this Laos tour, which would take me from Vientiane through the country, over to Chiang Mai in Thailand, before finishing in Bangkok. It’s actually part of a larger tour through Southeast Asia, but my interest was squarely in seeing Laos and Northern Thailand. This is how I found it.
(This review is not a collaboration/sponsored post with G Adventures. I paid to travel on this tour, just as you would. And yes, this article does have affiliate links.)
Why take a tour?
Among the broad community of travellers, you have a full spectrum of opinions on taking tours. For some travellers, it’s the only option, especially in places far different from home. Others would never take a tour and don’t see the point.
To me, tours are worth my time when they do a few things. Tours are a good idea when I want someone else to handle logistics such as transport and borders. This was my first visit to Laos and it seemed like getting around the country was slow and complicated. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought, but I didn’t have the bandwidth to plan it, I was still planning my time in Thailand.
Besides making a visit easier, a tour should make a trip richer or deeper by providing access. I’ll get into all of the activities taking this tour allowed me to do later in this G Adventures tour review. Safe to say, I would have had a very different experience going on my own.
Oh, and it shouldn’t be unreasonably expensive. Tours are rarely the most affordable way to travel, but the right ones – like my G Adventures tour – make the price worth it through the logistics and experiences they offer.
Why did I pick G Adventures?
With so many options for tour providers online, it can be tough to decide who to go with. But I didn’t have much trouble picking G Adventures for multiple reasons.
I’ve always heard good things about G Adventures and seen glowing reviews of G Adventures from other travel bloggers. So, I welcomed the chance to try them for myself.
But also Laos isn’t that common of a destination. G Adventures has one of the more extensive tours of Laos for my budget. You can find other tours of the country, but they cost a lot more and only cover a little more of the country.
One perk that sealed the deal for me in the end was the variety of ways I could construct my tour. I could choose to finish in Chiang Mai, travel straight to Bangkok, or spend several days hiking in the hills of northern Thailand. That last one sounded extra special and it was.
The types of G Adventures tours
If you’re not familiar with G Adventures, they offer small-group tours for every budget. This means you often will find multiple tours to the same country or region, each with a different price point.
Tours are also classed by their theme, so you’ll find categories like Active, Family, Marine, and Wellness. The different types of G Adventures tours are:
- 18-to-Thirtysomethings: budget tours with younger travellers in mind
- Classic: mid-range all-ages tours that focus on the destination
- National Geographic Journeys: High-end tours with a strong focus on culture and wildlife
- Geluxe: Premium tours for active adventures
My Laos tour was an 18-to-Thirtysomethings tour. But this Southeast Asia tour is the nearest equivalent for those seeking the classic, all-ages tour.
How does G Adventures compare to Intrepid?
Intrepid is who I’ve toured most frequently with before. Both Intrepid and G Adventures are global tour companies that offer a diverse range of tours. A lot of the time, they often run similar tours. On my travels in Central America (with Intrepid), we met the same G Adventures group day after day.
Tours from the two companies are similar and so are their prices. I looked at both for this trip, but only G Adventures had the overnight Mekong River cruise included in its budget option. That alone made G Adventures the clear option for me.
One practice both companies employ is local tourism efforts that allow communities to benefit from tourism in sustainable ways.
This work generally comes in the form of homestay experiences. During my Laos tour, we stayed in a village along the Mekong rather than the tourist town of Pak Beng. We also stayed with local families both nights on the hill tribes trek in Thailand. Intrepid do the same thing, as I experienced in Cambodia.
These efforts by both companies are of great value. But I felt that through G Adventures, I learned more about the prospects of people in these communities and the arrangement felt a little less performative.
Things I would have missed without the tour
The best way to sum up the value of a tour is by looking at the experiences you wouldn’t have had without it. I try my best to do as much as possible when travelling, but a group tour can make some things easier.
Tours lower the friction for doing activities.
For one you have people to do things with, which is always more fun. Kayaking at Vang Vieng and taking a cooking class in Chiang Mai were way more enjoyable because I was doing them with people I knew. It doesn’t hurt that the activities are organized for you, removing that barrier.
Of course, even budget tours have included activities and the G Adventures tour of Laos and Thailand is no different. Some activities included in the tour were bamboo rafting on the Mae Taeng River and hiking to Vang Vieng’s Nam Xay Viewpoint.
Having core activities in a tour helps too. The Mekong Cruise and hill tribe trek are the two features activities of the tour. They would have taken a bit of effort to arrange on my own, so I’m not convinced I would have done either without G Adventures. And without them, my trip would have been very different and far less memorable.
What does a G Adventures tour include?
Experiences are a big part of a multi-day tour, but they’re not the only part. Let’s look at what comes with a G Adventures tour.
- Accommodation: On the budget tour, sleeping arrangements are all twin-share, four-bed dorms, or in the case of the homestays, everyone together. Most nights were at mid-range hotels, often the same used by classic tours, only they stay in the more expensive rooms.
- Transport: Apparently after COVID-19, G Adventures has opted for all private transport. This meant a private minibus and a private boat on the Mekong. The included overnight train back to Bangkok was obviously not private.
- Meals: Breakfast is provided most days and meals are included for the homestay/trekking experiences.
- Certain day trips: Several core activities are included in the tour, such as the day trip to Kuang-Si Waterfall, the night market tour in Luang Prabang, and the Nam Xay Viewpoint hike.
A key thing to understand about the budget tour is that very few activities are included in the price of the tour. That way, budget travellers can choose whether they want to spend more money to do things. You pay extra to do things like kayak on the Nam Song River or go to the Doi Suthep temple outside Chiang Mai.
Pros and cons of a G Adventures tour
As with most tours, you’re asked for feedback at the end of the tour. So everything I’m saying in this G Adventures review, I already provided directly as feedback to the company. Yes, the good and the bad. No tour is perfect, so let’s look at the pros and cons of my G Adventures tour experience.
What worked
On the whole, there were a lot of positives from taking this G Adventures tour. I’ve already mentioned how many fantastic experiences I would have missed without it, so let’s look at the other pros:
- Guides/CEOs: The biggest positive takeaway was our two guides or CEOs (Chief Experience Officers), Sonny and Frida. Both were attentive, informative and really engaged with the group in an open, endearing way. A highlight on their own.
- Local guides: G Adventures pairs their guides with local guides on their multi-country itineraries when their guide is from a different country. Having a local Laos guide was a great touch and added even more to the experience.
- Transport: Throughout the trip, we benefited from safe and stress-free transport. It was private transport almost the entire time but for the overnight train back to Bangkok, which was a welcome surprise.
- The Group: We had a relatively broad mix of people. The groups were mostly solo travellers with a healthy mix of genders, backgrounds, nationalities etc.
- The Age Range: While I was the oldest on this 18-to-Thirtysomethings tour, I wasn’t the only person in their 30s. There were people right across the age range, from 18-year-olds to 30-somethings like myself.
What didn’t?
No tour is perfect and even the concept of taking a tour has its limitations. I think many of my gripes with my G Adventures tour relate more to my habit of travelling solo than anything. Looking at other G Adventures reviews, many of the complaints also relate to unavoidable tour- or destination-specific issues and not the company.
Still, you may find them useful:
- Too Little Time: The pace of the itinerary meant we had limited time, honestly too little time, in certain places. I felt we needed more time in Luang Prabang and Chiang Mai, as it was a rush to see much in either place. I’ll be going back.
- Some Accommodation: Our accommodation was generally fine, if a bit basic. Our hotel on the Thai/Laos border was mediocre, with things like an exposed balcony between the bedroom and bathroom.
- Twin-Share, 1 Key: The budget 18-to-Thirtysomethings tours are all twin-share, with no option for a single supplement. It’s not the worst thing, but sharing one hotel key with young people who go out every night leads to disrupted sleep.
- Night After Night: There’s a somewhat heavy focus on nightlife for the budget tours, which will suit many people. But if you don’t drink, like sleep, or only like the occasional night out, you can feel a bit left out or get over it quickly.
- Group communication: G Adventures has an app that they encourage you to use. It is buggy as hell, so tours often don’t use it, despite it holding the official itinerary. Instead, they use WhatsApp with a rundown each evening about the next day, which is fine if your phone has roaming, but when you don’t you’re often late to the party.
My verdict, would I recommend G Adventures?
Yes!
The G Adventures reviews you see on their site/internet are legit and they really are worth travelling with.
I’m glad I trusted them with my trip to Laos. It was a destination I had been really looking forward to, but knew there’d be some challenges to explore on my own. The experience was much more eventful and enjoyable than I could have anticipated, making it worth spending more money for a tour, rather than organising it myself.
Have you ever taken a G Adventures tour before? What questions do you have that this G Adventures review doesn’t cover? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
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