We used guides and also been on our own. Depends on the auality of the guides. One of the losers we experienced was in Helsinki, where we were in a Swedish-English group, many more Swedes than English-speaking - and with two Japanese who spoke neither. The guide would go on and on in Swedish with exchanges and laughter and intereaction. Then we would get one or two businesslike sentences in English. Quickly back to the friendly discussions in Swedish. We would have been better off by ourselves.

On the other hand, we've had wonderful guides but have done OK with just the pages from guide books. In Beijing, we latched onto someone else's tour through the Forbidden City and benefited. Often I like to go quicker than the groups or look into nooks and crannies not on the tour. In Egypt, we had engaged guides for ourselves so could wander off base with expert explanations.

This next trip, I'll be going with a group (Imaginative Traveler), so we'll see how that goes. Did do a B/B Rick Steves tour and that worked out pretty well as we all had time to wander about on our own.

Cheers!

Jo, from nice and warm Sunnyvale.