What to Expect in the Week Before Your Insight Vacations Tour

Congratulations on booking your first trip with Insight Vacations. We’re so excited to welcome you on tour. But before we get there, you probably have some questions – from booking flights to arranging visas, packing the right essentials to connecting with your Travel Director. In this article we hope to answer them all – but if there’s anything you still want to know after reading, please leave us a comment and we’ll respond as soon as we can. Ok, let’s dive into the details on how to set up your first Insight Vacations trip the right way.

Pre-Register for Your Trip

Before your tour, make sure to pre register on the MyInsight Travel portal. Here, you’ll be able to personalize your tour with  customizations such as dietary requirements, allergies, and specific travel preferences. This is where you might request twin bedding or double, or mention a special event to your Travel Director, like a birthday or anniversary. This is also where you put in your passport, insurance and emergency contact information.

For Africa & Asia trips: Travel Directors don’t have pre-trip access to passenger details, but will find out everything they need to know upon the start of the trip.

Access Your E-Documentation

Approximately three weeks before your departure, your travel documents will upload onto the MyInsight travel portal. Make sure to head there in the week before your trip to check important documents, like your itinerary.

Check your visas

Make sure you look up what visas you need for your target destination. We’re able to help guide you through this process, but note that this service varies from region to region. If you’re based in North America, South Africa, or EU/UK, we’re able to help. However, we can’t provide this service if you’re based in Oceania. Make sure to contact us to check what’s on offer.

Check you’ve got travel insurance

Ensure that you’ve purchased travel insurance. It isn’t included in your trip package, so you’ll need to get it before the start of your tour. When that’s done, make sure to add your insurance details onto the MyInsight portal.

Choose the right carry-on luggage

Small rolling suitcases aren’t permitted inside the coach, for safety reasons. So opt for a soft-sided bag as your hand luggage, such as a backpack or duffel bag.

Our standard luggage allowance includes one main case not exceeding 23kg (50lbs) with dimensions up to 76cm x 45cm x 25cm (30” x 18” x 10”), as well as one piece of hand luggage not exceeding 30cm x 28cm x 14cm (12”x11”x6”).

Tips: Weight your baggage before traveling to ensure it’s manageable. Baggage allowances vary by airline, so check with your carrier beforehand (here’s a handy tool from Skyscanner). For internal flights on Insight Asia and Egypt tours, the allowance is usually 20kg (44lbs). East Africa safari vehicles require soft-sided bags or medium-sized suitcases.

You decide you’d like to extend your stay with extra hotel nights

Many of our guests like to extend their stay so they can soak up as many sights and insights as possible. If you book extra nights through us, you’ll get the same great rates at the hotels we stay in. All you need to do is book extra nights during the online booking process, or through the MyInsight portal. You can also just contact us and we’ll do it for you. If you booked wit ha travel agent, reach out to them and they’ll add these extra nights to your reservation. You’ll stay at the same hotel from where you start / end your tour, and can stay for extra nights both before and after your tour.

Arrange Your Airport Transfers

Insight Vacations offers complimentary airport transfers if your arrival and/or departure flights are as per the itinerary start and end dates. If your flights are outside these times, or you have booked additional nights accommodation with Insight Vacations, you may purchase transfers or make your own way from/to the airport.

Visit our Included Services page for more details.

If you booked through a travel agent, they can arrange transfers for you. For Travel Agent Partners, use the TAP to add details under the Extras Tab. Some transfers may require contacting us directly.

Look out for your Travel Director email

Around 48 hours before your group tour, you’ll receive an email from your trusty Travel Director introducing themselves, as well as giving their contact information in case of emergency. In this email they’ll confirm the start time, location and any other nice to know info such as what the plan is for that day/afternoon depending on what time the tour starts. This is why it’s so important to put your contact information into the MyInsight portal.

The last thing to think about? What will you wear for the wonderful Welcome Dinner – which always takes place on the first night of every tour. This is where you get to meet everyone: your Insight team and all your new friends.

We’re open 24/7

Is there something we haven’t covered? Remember that our support team is open 24/7. If there’s something about your group tour that’s bothering you, someone will be online to answer your call and question. We try not to contact you too much once you’ve booked, registered, and paid on time. However, we’re always available for you to contact us with any query you might have.

With these guidelines, we hope you feel well-prepared for your Insight Vacations tour. But if there’s anything else you need to know, leave us a comment below and we’ll try and respond as quickly as we can.