By Carol Sottili
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 3, 2005; Page P01

When my mother suggested we take a trip to Sicily along with two of her friends, it didn't take long to decide that an escorted tour was the way to go.

Our group was admittedly older, ranging in age from 49 to 81. But between us, we had traveled to six continents within the past few years. We were all comfortable maneuvering in foreign airports and cities, and could walk all day without tiring.

But none of us speaks Italian, and I knew from experience that Italians rarely speak English. None of us had been to Sicily, and Sicily has a reputation for being somewhat difficult to navigate. No one wanted to spend a fortune, and the dollar was dropping like a rock. We had only a week to spare, and we were not interested in poring over maps and choosing restaurants, especially with four different personalities involved. An escorted tour would resolve all these issues.

We weren't alone in making the decision to go with a group. According to the National Tour Association, a membership group that represents the packaged travel industry, North Americans spent $71 billion on group tours in 2001 and packaged trips accounted for 30 percent of all international trips. Most of those who go on escorted tours head for Europe, with Italy, Spain, France and the United Kingdom being the most popular countries, according to Robert E. Whitley, president of the U.S. Tour Operators Association.

But tour operators are facing an uphill battle as AARP-card-carrying members of the Greatest Generation are being replaced by more finicky baby boomers, many of whom equate European tours to the movie "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium," in which a group of hapless tourists visit nine European countries in 18 days.

"The word 'tour' is highly negative," said Whitley, adding that several tour operators and organizations have gone as far as taking the offending word out of their company names. "People who have never been on a tour, especially men, don't want people in charge or telling them what to do."

Whitley noted, however, that the industry is evolving. "The old image of the little old ladies with blue hair crammed into a motorcoach, up at 5 a.m., running off to a cathedral and eating rubber chicken has changed," he said. "Baby boomers have entered the equation. Ten years ago, they were not going to take tours. But now they're 55 or 60 and they're tired. They want everything done for them."

Hank Phillips, president of the National Tour Association, said special interest tours, such as cooking or wine tasting, and escorted tours that promise a unique experience, such as a theater-focused trip with post-performance backstage access, are the newest trends. "Many tour operators are offering more flexibility and more options," he said. Traditional tours are also drawing greater numbers of multigenerational travelers, such as adult children with their senior parents or grandparents and grandchildren.

Janice Kimmelman, 49, of Burke, who recently went on a Perillo Tour in Italy with her sister and mother, said, "If I was doing it with my husband, we would not do a tour. But it was great to do with my mother. It was nice having everything arranged."

New tour flavors are constantly being added to the mix. The best-known larger companies that offer general tours designed to appeal to a wide-ranging demographic -- including Globus, Collette Vacations, Trafalgar Tours and Tauck World Discovery -- are facing more competition from smaller specialized firms that cater to a specific age group, a particular interest or an out-of-the-way destination. Want to ride horseback in the English countryside? Cross Country International specializes in equestrian vacations. Don't want to travel with anyone older than 35? Contiki markets exclusively to ages 18 to 35. Want to learn more about Flemish artists or World War II battles? Smithsonian Journeys offers educational tours.

But the majors are fighting back. Globus, for example, has two tours based on "The Da Vinci Code." Itineraries at Tauck Bridges, a division of Tauck World, are specifically designed for families. Collette has partnered with Smithsonian on 17 trips.

Escorted tours to Europe have also gotten a shot in the arm as the dollar has dropped in value against the euro. Tour prices are set at the end of the year for the following year. And while a few tour operators have raised their prices in midstream to cover the constantly increasing cost of doing business in euros, most have stayed the course. Even as the dollar is losing value, the price remains the same.

"With a tour, you know what the price is going to be before you go," said Whitley. He recalled a conversation he'd had with a president of a deluxe tour company who said a typical two-week tour of Europe involves 300 financial transactions. "To do that with the weak dollar is going to be very costly," said Whitley, who estimated that an escorted tour typically saves between 20 and 40 percent over going it alone.

Once the decision is made to go the escorted tour route, choosing the right one can be difficult. When I started researching tour operators to Sicily, I assumed that differences between companies would be clear-cut and easy to discern. Instead I was soon down the rabbit hole, frustrated by how difficult it was to truly compare the various offerings. Some tour companies published itineraries that detailed exactly what was included in each trip, but many left some questions unanswered. (For a list of questions to ask, see Page P6.)

And without all the details, it was often a struggle to figure out how two tours with seemingly the same itinerary could be thousands of dollars apart in cost. Up for grabs were such items as number of meals, size of the bus, hotel amenities, size of the group, inclusion of tips, entrance fees and myriad other variables.

Rod Fernandez, co-owner of Affordabletours.com, an Internet travel agent based in Texas that specializes in selling packaged tours, agreed that the landscape gets very confusing, even for professionals. "The itinerary has to be read very carefully," he said.

There is some basic structure to the world of tour operators that can help narrow the field. Fernandez explained that most firms specialize in a specific price range -- budget, first-class, deluxe and luxury. Travcoa, for example, is known as a luxury operator, while Cosmos offers budget tours. But even this differentiation has blurred in recent years as some of the bigger companies have started offering budget versions of their more popular tours.

Athough there are no hard-and-fast rules, consumers can expect certain types of hotels, transportation and meals based on the tour level. A budget tour, for example, will offer a clean room with a private bath, but there will be very few amenities. A first-class trip will usually include sightseeing admission fees, while a deluxe trip may include admission prices and an insider's tour. A luxury tour will offer not only the best accommodations in premier hotels but also such extras as helicopter sightseeing tours or hot-air balloon rides.

Whitley said many tour operators go to the same destinations, but that the similarities often end there. "I tell people to look at what's not included," he said. "Many won't include admissions to the attractions. If you have to pay for a ticket to the Louvre and stand in line for an hour and a half, that's a big difference from having your ticket included and going through the side door without waiting in line. Or they won't include three meals a day. Or, if meals are included, is it a standard plate that everyone on the tour gets or can you order off the menu?"

Looking back at my own tour to Sicily, it was a good deal for the price: $1,500 for a seven-day fully escorted tour that included round-trip air from D.C., lodging at serviceable hotels, three decent meals a day and sightseeing entrance fees. But I may have been willing to pay extra for an English-only tour or better hotels or a week outside the rainy season. One lesson definitely learned: Next time, I'll ask a lot more questions.

Carol Sottili will be online to dis- cuss this story at 2 p.m. Monday during the Travel section's weekly chat at www.washingtonpost.com.