Can you offer custom tours or custom dates? We mostly offer special tours with specific dates to meet customer needs. Tours available are only limited by 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 open it up to the public. 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 also can 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 on 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 Ferarri 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 that are in poor health or have mobility issues. While we can research options to meet your needs this usually requires additional costs and usually only works for some sites. An example would be walking in Israel on uneven cobblestones with many steps. We can create a custom tour around your mobility needs which may require excluding some major sites. The cost can also increase if a mobility-equipped vehicle is required for the tours.
Covid Concerns. Covid had been very hard on the travel industry. We have had to reschedule many tour plans but we can assist in setting up private tours by request. We expect there to be continued off-and-on restrictions that may require vaccinations, testing, and mask-wearing at times at certain locations but we try to avoid that as much as possible. We will do our best to clean our vehicles and provide safe practices. It is safer to travel in small groups with us but there is still the risk of getting sick even in the best of times. Keep in mind that most travel insurance products do not cover pandemics. One of the advantages of setting a custom small tour for your own group is that it can increase the health safety within your “pod” and require less mask-wearing along the way. Due to the challenges related to Covid and the economy, we have moved more toward private tours with dates on request which allow us to customize your experience for your group or family. It actually provides for a better experience overall and is the way we started this business.
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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