Can you offer custom tours or custom dates? We mostly offer special tours with specific dates to meet customer needs. Tours are limited by the capacity in our schedule. Custom tours/dates work best for groups of 5 or 6 to keep the cost per person the lowest; however, if you only have a few people, we can try to fill your small group with other like-minded travelers. Contact us and we’ll work to meet your needs. We do many tours, but only list publicly available tours on the tour dates page.
Can you book our flights or other travel needs? We are partners with a travel agency that can get you a good deal and arrange flights for our tours. We do not profit from airfare, so we offer this as an added service. Our partner agency, Dream Vacations, can also do customized tours, cruises, hotels, safaris, or other trips. We can also offer advice on what are the best flight deals for cash or frequent flyer miles from your city and then adjust the tour dates to help reduce overall costs.
What is included on each tour? We try to detail this in the description of each tour we offer. Unless otherwise stated, we include all hotel rooms during the tour overnights, most of the meals as described in the tour description, and ground transportation during the tour. We include all entry fees for attractions that are part of the tour. Many of our tours will have flexible lunchtimes and leave lunch up to our guests, “on your own”.
We do not accept tips as we do this as a labor of love; however, you might run into individuals at hotels or restaurants you might wish to tip on your own. Extras are usually provided, like bottled water and snacks in tour vehicles, depending on the itinerary. We can certainly add additional items to meet your needs.
What is not included? Some meals as shown in the tour description. Air transport to tour start or end sites (we can help arrange this). Travel insurance is suggested and not included (we can recommend sources for this or provide coverage at a slightly additional cost). Additional alcoholic drinks beyond what we included with dinners. Some other examples are personal expenses like some snacks, souvenirs, and other personal expenses, of course. Some automotive-themed sites have expensive add-on experience excursions, such as driving a Ferrari or a Porsche. We can arrange time in the tour for this, but it is an additional cost to that vendor.
What clothing should we bring? Some tours, like factories, require closed-toe sturdy shoes. Religious sites can require that shoulders, arms, and legs above the knee be covered. Good shoes are generally required as most tours require a good deal of walking, even if just inside a museum. Tours that include religious sites usually require that men and women wear long pants or skirts. Women sometimes add a pashmina or scarf to help cover up as needed, even during warm weather. Most of the other sites, restaurants, etc., we chose are fairly casual. Resort casual with good walking shoes is a good overall choice.
A note on mobility or ADA needs. Many of our tours include walking over uneven ground in older cities that do not have wheelchair access or even good walking surfaces. Most of our tours are not recommended for people who are in poor health or have mobility issues. While we can research options to meet your needs, this usually requires additional costs and only works for some sites. An example would be walking in Israel on uneven cobblestones with many steps.
Still have questions? Contact us at dan@freestatetours.com and we will try to answer them. We promise not to bug you or hard sell you anything.
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