Thoughts on vacation types, tour groups, and the like. You know yourself the best, so obviously go with what you like.

For myself I've always found tour groups to be limiting, and frustrating, and you spend a lot of time dealing with the tour group rather than experiencing the place. So I try to avoid any group tour if at all possible. The only time I do them is with relatives who book them and insist on them, and I just grin and bare it. I did a bus tour of Yellowstone, with a huge group of Chinese travelers, the tour guide spoke Chinese, my Chinese is terrible. Did not have a good time do not recommend. But my relative was happy so that was that.

My preferred mode to travel is to rent an inexpensive place to live, for at least two or three weeks, a couple months if I can swing it, and just seeing what daily life is. Just going with the ebb and flow of the city. Taking time slowly exploring, not trying to fit in a huge activity list. I'm more interested in seeing how people live, operate, cultural differences, than seeing things that have been built.