I get to go on a lot of lesser expensive tours because my wife takes me! She gives me great cameras too. I love that woman.

That said, there are two kinds of people that can essentially ruin a tour. One is the selfish photographer that slows down the group. The other is the rude tourist that is always trying to explain that whatever it is, it is done better in their home county. I'm sorry to say that most of those are from my home country!

Regarding tripods, there is no argument that they are steady. However, with current camera stabilization any small handle will get you 90% there. I uses a Gorillapod. Normally it is folded together, held in my left hand and held close to against my chest. Tripods really do get in the way. Not only that, lots of the good tourist sites ban them!

Speed up you shooting. Use automatic! 90% of the time it gets it close and is so quick that you don't hold up the other travelers. See the shot, put the camera to your eye, shoot a short automatic burst. 2 seconds later you are moving on with the group.

Panoramas should be a 5 second event. Hold the Gorillapod to your chest, rotate at the hips, overlap the frames by about 20% and assemble them at home. Current software does the alignment, not a tripod.

For the hard core tripod, long exposure stuff, get up early and go shoot before the tour assembles.

Does that 5 seconds with the Gorillapod include the time it takes to remove it from your bag and then to attach the camera to it? I once read a suggestion that one buy a Leitz tabletop tripod and use it pressed against one’s chest.

By the way, no tour group has ever waited for me to take a photo. They’re not run like that. That’s the reason I solicited replies from people who take a tripod with them on a tour. I was wondering under what circumstances they were able to use them. Perhaps it’s as you say, that they get up early or go to bed late and take their pictures before or after the programmed activities start. I can’t do that. My tours are so activity packed that I’m really tired at the end of the day and all I want to do is lie down.

If you take a travel tripod on a small group tour, given the pace of such tours, when do you have the opportunity to set up a tripod and take pictures? The tours I have been on with Overseas Adventure Travel (small groups not exceeding 16) keep you moving from early in the morning to after dinner. I barely have time to grab shots which I do while the guide is talking to the group and sometimes I have gotten so absorbed that the group has moved on and I don't know where they have gone. In those cases (which I try to minimize, not wanting to be a pariah), I just remain where I am so I can be found. (I also explain to the tour guide at the beginning of the tour that photography is my main interest so don't be insulted if I'm not listening to the lecture.)

You may ask why I don't go on photography tours and the reason is that I can't afford them. Even in those cases where it's just me and my wife and another couple who are friends touring (India, Burma, Iran), it imposes a burden on the non-photographers to go around setting up a tripod. I probably don't know what I'm doing, but on the rare occasions that I've bothered with a tripod (Induro C214 8X CF and RSS B40 head) when on a field trip with my camera club, it is a major pain to get the tripod at just the right height for the shot, especially since I've been warned not to use the center column because it reduces stability. It just takes a long time fooling with the legs.

Does that 5 seconds with the Gorillapod include the time it takes to remove it from your bag and then to attach the camera to it? I once read a suggestion that one buy a Leitz tabletop tripod and use it pressed against one’s chest.

By the way, no tour group has ever waited for me to take a photo. They’re not run like that. That’s the reason I solicited replies from people who take a tripod with them on a tour. I was wondering under what circumstances they were able to use them. Perhaps it’s as you say, that they get up early or go to bed late and take their pictures before or after the programmed activities start. I can’t do that. My tours are so activity packed that I’m really tired at the end of the day and all I want to do is lie down.

I had the same problem and finally got smart. Buy a carbon fiber monopod such as the Sirui model P-326. It only weighs 0.9 pounds, is 60 inches high, holds 22 pounds and folds to 15 1/2 inches. Add a Arca Swiss style clamp to the monopod (don't waste your money on a ball head) and a Arca Swiss mounting plate and L-bracket to your camera and you will be in business. One thing you should be aware of when using a monopod is that if you fully extend all the legs, they are usually not 100% ridgid (even the expensive ones). By leaving about 3/4" of each leg retracted into the leg above, they will become very rigid and your camera will still be at eye level.

I have an adventurous friend who enjoys doing the things I hate on a trip to a place like India, for example. He will bargain with tuk-tuk drivers, go into dark, scuzzy shops to buy water, expertly find his way because he’s a terrific map reader, etc. My strengths, such as they are, lie in researching local tour agencies, hotels, restaurants, worthwhile sights and activities, train timetables, etc., so the two of us and our spouses have traveled with a local driver/guide to North and South India, Burma and Iran. I have traveled independently (no agency, no guide) with my wife to Italy (Puglia, Sicily, Naples, Venice, Bologna and a number of other places), to Germany, Israel, Scotland, England, France (Brittany, Normandy, the Riviera, Paris, Alsace), Prague, Dominica, and Mexico. Although I can survive (basic communication) in German, French, Italian and Spanish, having taken courses in these languages, I’m a perfectionist, so I feel very stressed while badly speaking these languages, especially in the anticipation of an interaction with a waiter, taxi driver, receptionist, gas station attendant, asking directions of a passerby.

Am I going to travel independently without my adventurous friend to China, Japan, Laos, Russia, and other places where I have never studied the language? Not on your life, Google Translate notwithstanding.

Don't get hung up on languages. Think more in terms of communication. I have been to many of the places you mention and never had a problem communicating. You need to free up your mind to include gestures, expressions, maps, pictures and simple international words. If necessary, look for any young person that looks reasonably educated and they probably have a good grasp of English. Lighten up - don't be such a 'perfectionist'. If you are as bad as you say you are I don't know how your friend puts up with you. I couldn't.

Don't get hung up on languages. Think more in terms of communication. I have been to many of the places you mention and never had a problem communicating. You need to free up your mind to include gestures, expressions, maps, pictures and simple international words. If necessary, look for any young person that looks reasonably educated and they probably have a good grasp of English. Lighten up - don't be such a 'perfectionist'. If you are as bad as you say you are I don't know how your friend puts up with you. I couldn't.