Select Traveler November December 2017 by The Group Travel Leader, Inc.

THE MAGAZINE FOR BANK, ALUMNI AND CHAMBER TRAVEL PLANNERS

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To contact the Scenic groups department call 1.844.279.6124 | scenicusa.com Terms and conditions: Our vacations are subject to availability. 2019 groups at 2018 pricing expires December 31, 2017. Up to $400 per couple based on sail date. Port charges and taxes are included in pricing. The deposit required is $500 per person and is due at the time of booking. Full payment is required minimum 90 days prior to departure. 2018 itineraries, hotels and inclusions are subject to change. For full details on our Groups program contact scenicusa.com. Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours | One Financial Center, 4th Floor | Boston, MA 02111 Ad Code: 17_SC358 November 2017

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For more information call our Groups Department 844.857.6021 Email: usgroups@emeraldwaterways.com | Visit emeraldwaterways.com Terms & Conditions: New 2018 bookings on July-August sailings only. Value of free cabin for 7th passenger is based on category E, Emerald Stateroom, for 1 traveler only. Book by December 31, 2017. A non-refundable initial deposit of $500 per person is required at the time of booking, with full payment required 90 days prior to departure. These offers are not combinable with any other offer or promotion except for Travel Show & Agent Training vouchers. Not combinable with other group discounts. Taxes & port charges are included in the price. On the Liberte Star-Ship The Terrace is slightly smaller and will not be used for Al-Fresco dining. 17_EW381, October 2017

THE MAGAZINE FOR BANK, ALUMNI AND CHAMBER TRAVEL PLANNERS

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VOL.25 NO.6

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NORMANDY:

HONORING OUR HEROES

contents checking in:

KATHRYN HOYT

toolbox: conference: marketing: MUSEUM EXTRAS

TOURS & GROUP SPEAKERS ENGAGEMENT

Pointe du Hoc in Normandy, photo by Marcheta Sparrow

ON THE COVER: The sculpture called “Les Braves” by artist Anilore Banon stands on France’s Omaha Beach in memorial to the lives lost on D-Day. Photo by Francesco Carovillano.

career:

BICYCLE TOURS

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MAC T. LACY CHARLES A. PRESLEY BRIAN JEWELL ELIZA MYERS HERBERT SPARROW DONIA SIMMONS DAVID BROWN ASHLEY RICKS CHRISTINE CLOUGH SAVANNAH OSBOURN KELLY TYNER

STACEY BOWMAN

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ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR

STACE Y@ BANK TR AVELMANAGEMENT.COM

Founder and Publisher Partner Executive Editor Associate Editor Senior Writer Creative Director Art Director Circulation Manager Copy Editor Staff Writer Director of Sales & Marketing

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EXPERIENTIAL

D E L I G H T S

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TA P T R AV E L

Select Traveler, the Magazine for Bank, Alumni and Chamber Travel Planners, is published bimonthly by The Group Travel Leader, Inc., 301 East High Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40507 and is distributed free of charge to qualified travel program directors throughout the United States. All other travel suppliers, including tour operators, destinations, attractions, transportation companies, hotels, restaurants and other travel-related companies, may subscribe to Select Traveler by sending a check for $49 for one year to: Select Traveler, Circulation Department, 301 East High Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40507. Copyright The Group Travel Leader, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of editorial or graphic content in any manner without the written consent of the publisher is prohibited. NAME OR ADDRESS CHANGES: If your copy of Select Traveler should be mailed to another manager in your organization, or if you personally know another travel director who is not receiving Select Traveler, please send your correction to: Select Traveler, 301 East High St., Lexington, Kentucky 40507, or call (859) 2530455.

perspective P U B L I S H E R ’ S

y wife and I are headed to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic tomorrow with two other couples to spend a week at an all-inclusive resort. By the time you read this, we will have returned. I’ll be writing about our experience in the January issue. It’s been more than 30 years since the two of us did an all-

inclusive vacation. Seriously. For years, I’ve had this mind-set that to have interesting vacations or trips, you must do a little work — or a lot of work. I’m not sure I’m ready for a week on a beach with waiters eyeing me to see if I’m ready for another drink. The other couples we’re going with do this twice a year — always somewhere in the Caribbean. It’s what they do. Their idea of a vacation is unpacking at an all-inclusive and getting to know the poolside bartender on a personal basis for a week. It doesn’t sound bad; in fact, it sounds good. But I’m beating myself up because it seems like we’ll be spending a week doing nothing when we usually spend a week doing everything. I’m used to trips where you spend a day hiking in Petra or an afternoon canyon jumping into a gorge in Queensland, New Zealand. The most fun I had on a Mekong River cruise vacation was careening through late-night traffic in downtown Phnom Penh in an open-air tuk-tuk. Even in the United States, we gravitate toward hiking or maybe a nice hot-air-balloon ride. You get the picture. When our friends brought up this idea, I thought about how many of our Select Traveler Conference planners said they were doing group trips to all-inclusives. I read that a lot — it seemed to be a trend at our last breakout session. So I thought, “Why not? Let’s go see what all the fuss is about.” I draw the line at tropical drinks; I’m a craft beer guy. But I have my two books, and I have my linen slacks for dinners in the fancier restaurants. And I’ll be honest — as soon as I see one guy in one of those eateries in jeans, I’ll be back in my Levis, where I belong. I’ll let you know how it turned out in the January issue.

Email me anytime with your thoughts at maclacy@grouptravelleader.com.

Mac Lacy 6

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KATHRYN HOYT CO-OWNER OF TRAVELKATZ

CHRISTIAN CHAMBER

OF COMMERCE TAMPA BAY C L E A R WAT E R , F L O R I D A

checking in W I T H

With over 100 members, the Christian Chamber of Commerce Tampa Bay focuses on “unifying Christian businesses for the glory of the Lord.” The chamber offers members networking opportunities and training and ministry opportunities. Kathryn Hoyt and her business partner, Sandra Holder, began planning trips for the chamber when their TravelKatz travel agency became a member three years ago. The chamber’s travel program is open to all members, friends, family and anyone wanting to learn more about the Christian Chamber of Commerce. Born: St. Louis, Missouri Employment: Hoyt worked several jobs as an office administrative assistant before becoming a travel agent 11 years ago. In 2013, she started TravelKatz with Holder, who also came with several years of experience as a travel agent. Family: Two sons and two grandchildren Hobbies: Golf, bridge, football and NASCAR

ith the wind in her hair and sweeping views of the rolling Mississippi River before her, Kathryn Hoyt felt like she could spend the rest of her days on a river boat. Since her father worked as a towboat captain, she practically grew up on the river. Though she dreamed of becoming a boat captain as a child, once an adult, she felt her calling wasn’t limited to voyaging up the river but in helping people explore the world. In 2013, she and Sandra Holder started TravelKatz, a travel agency that specializes in group travel and plans the travel for the Christian Chamber of Commerce Tampa Bay. “We’re living out our bucket lists through the trips we prepare for our clients,” said Hoyt. “It’s been a unique experience. When we found the Christian Chamber of Commerce, we knew that was where we should be.”

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H O Y T

Multi-generational group trip to Table Mountain in South Africa

BY ELIZA MYERS

K A T H R Y N

After having taken a risk together to start their own travel company, Hoyt and Holder continue to embrace the unknown with creative chamber group trips and innovative marketing ventures.

DIVING IN

Hoyt long held hopes of becoming a travel agent but couldn’t find the right timing. “As a young mother, the money wasn’t there, so I lived my life and went on to other things,” she said. “So when Sandra introduced me to a host travel agency company, I seized the moment and became a travel agent.” When Hoyt and Holder attended the same seminar with cruise marketing specialist Lou Edwards, they learned about the benefits and challenges of planning group travel. “That’s when Sandra and I came together as a company,” said Hoyt.

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“We weren’t doing as well as we wanted separately, so we thought maybe it was time to work together. There were things she could do that I couldn’t and vice versa. We started CruizeKatz, which became TravelKatz when we started planning land tours a year later.” Edwards helped the pair write a book on group travel called “Group Travel Made Easy” to teach others how to work with travel companies to plan group trips. The book tells Hoyt’s and Holders’ personal stories and includes travel ideas and tips for group leaders.

“We thought, this might be kind of fun. We’ll try it for a year. The radio show has been a blast. We are into our second year now.” After a while, the radio show led to such an increase in business that Hoyt plans to hire help to run the website and the radio show. “Marketing travel is really a lot of fun when you think about it,” said Hoyt. “You go on all these trips, and then you come back and talk about it. This is a dream come true for me.”

C HAM BER M E M B E R S H I P

Hoyt and Holder had sought chamber membership ever since they started TravelKatz, so when they found the Christian Chamber of Commerce, they felt as though their prayers had been answered. They shared the chamber’s mission to keep their faith intertwined with their business. The bulk of TravelKatz’s business comes from the chamber’s membership base. Hoyt plans both individual and group travel for the chamber, though the chamber’s group preferences took some trial and error. The chamber found a European river cruise too expensive but loved the idea of faith-based domestic trips, such as a recent trip to Kentucky. Hoyt didn’t rule out a future international trip, since the agency has planned numerous overseas group trips to places like Australia, South Africa and Italy. “It’s a matter of longevity,” said Hoyt. “How long have you been around and what is your customer service? When people got back from our trips, they raved about them, which led to more success once confidence in us grew.” Hoyt chooses new destinations for the chamber based on various factors, such as travel conferences like Select Traveler. In 2015, she attended a FAM tour in Nashville, which opened her eyes to its potential. “My family lives in Nashville, so I would visit my family there,” said Hoyt. “At the FAM tour, we went to touristy places that I don’t go when I visit with my family. I saw a different side of Nashville. Nashville is a place I would like to bring our chamber of commerce because of that FAM.”

B RE AKIN G IN T O R A D I O

One Saturday morning, Hoyt’s phone rang. Hoyt almost didn’t answer since it was her day off, but on a whim, she answered and talked with Barb Yoder, the general manager of the radio station in town. Another travel agency had backed out of providing a grand prize for the radio station’s contest, and they needed another agency to step up quickly. “I thought, we are a young company, and I don’t know how much money we can expend on our own,” said Hoyt. “I talked with Sandra. She said, ‘Let’s do it and see what happens.’” After offering a Norwegian cruise to the winner, the pair were given some airtime for advertising. Seeing how natural Hoyt and Holder seemed on the radio, the station offered them their own show, Vacation Nation, for a small monthly fee. “The people at the radio station knew we had done a few radio spots and were becoming familiar with chit-chatting on the radio,” said Hoyt.

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T R A V E L

tips

• Get personal. Find out about your client to learn what they like, who they are and where they are vacationing. • Stay in touch. Don’t let your clients go too long without hearing from you. The same goes for your suppliers. • Give them the vacation they want within budget, and don’t give up until you do.

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T R A V E L

T O O L B O X

beyond the exhibits

BY B R I AN JE W E LL

ometimes tour groups suffer from the museum blahs. You’ve probably seen it before: The group is traveling in some fabulous destination, and your itinerary includes an afternoon at a museum that, by all accounts, is one of the best attractions in town. But when you arrive, nobody seems excited about it. A few might halfheartedly wander through the galleries while others skip the exhibits and go straight for the gift shop. By the time you’re scheduled to leave, the entire group has been sitting around for half an hour or more, just waiting for the museum visit to be over. Museums can be great components of a group tour, but if they’re not integrated into your itinerary the right way, they can fall flat. Whether it’s travel fatigue or simple disinterest, group members often don’t feel like spending an hour or more on their feet listening to docents drone on about exhibits. To make museum visits memorable, smart travel planners arrange for special experiences. Here are five suggestions for eliminating the museum blahs from your trips.

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G O B EHIND THE SC ENES Sometimes, the things that happen in the background of a museum are just as interesting as the exhibits, if not more so. To satisfy the demands of curious visitors, many museums have begun offering behind-the-scenes tours that showcase storage areas, artifact preservation techniques and other things that most museum visitors never get to see. Some even include the opportunity to put on white gloves and hold historic items or pieces of artwork that aren’t on public display. Many museums will offer these tours for groups with advance notice.

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D I NE O N-SI T E Your memories of eating at museums may consist primarily of cafeteria-style food served on school field trips, but museum dining has come a long way in the last 20 years. Many prominent museums now have equally prominent restaurants on-site, offering locally sourced, chef-inspired food and upscale ambiance. Many such restaurants feature menus and decor designed to dovetail with the curatorial mission of the museum, and some even feature special food items that help guests taste the culinary culture of the groups highlighted in the exhibits. Adding a lunch or dinner in one of these restaurants can elevate the museum experience for your group.

P LAN PER S ONAL ENC OUNTER S It’s one thing to look at a static piece of artwork on a wall; it’s another to watch art created before your eyes. Even better is making some yourself. Inventive museum directors have begun to see the value in helping people connect with their subject matter through personal experiences, and as a result, many museums have artists in residence, professional storytellers or other experts on hand to help bring the museum visit to life. Groups can watch artists create in on-site studios or even schedule hands-on workshops for some hands-on fun.

VIS IT AF T ER H O UR S One reason your groups may not respond to museum visits could be that you’re taking them at the wrong time of day — or during the day. Though every museum has normal daytime operating hours, many also offer a schedule of special programming and opportunities that happen after normal closing time. You can plan your museum visits to coincide with special evening concert series, lectures or events that include appetizers and cocktails. Some museums will even let groups plan their own afterhours visits, complete with food and beverage and private exhibit tours.

H AV E FUN WITH PHOTOS If the museum you’re visiting doesn’t have any special experiences or options available to liven up your visit, you’ll have to take matters into your own hands. One great way to do that is by planning some photo fun. Since all your travelers are likely to have a camera or a smartphone on hand, set up a photo scavenger hunt through the museum. Or you could hold a photo contest, offering a prize to the traveler who can take the funniest or most creative photo at the museum. Show all the photos at the end of the visit, and let the group vote on the winner. This also creates great material for sharing on social media.

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C O N F E R E N C E

connection

A BLUEGRASS PREVIEW CONFERENCE FAM TOURS WILL EXPLORE KENTUCKIANA Evan Williams Bourbon Experience

BY DAN DICKSON

he annual Select Traveler Conference is a threeday event, but FAM tours before and after the conference will give delegates the opportunity to stay a while longer and explore the highlights of the region. Louisville, Kentucky, which will host the 2018 Select Traveler Conference February 4-6, has plans for great tours before and after the conference.

PRECONFERENCE FAM

The preconference FAM trip will begin Thursday, February 1, with departure from Louisville to nearby Oldham County and a visit to Hermitage, a world-class Thoroughbred operation that has produced Kentucky Derby and Breeders Cup winners. That will be followed by a ride to Covington, Kentucky, just south of Cincinnati. Friday, February 2, will bring a visit to the Creation Museum and its journey through biblical history featuring many exhibits. Saturday, February 3, is reserved for a trip to the Ark Encounter, a full-size Noah’s Ark built according to the Bible’s measurements: 51 feet high, 510 feet long and 85 feet wide.

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Guests will tour the ark and imagine life as it might have existed for man and beast. That will be followed by a visit to Old Friends, a retirement farm for Thoroughbreds whose racing and breeding careers have ended. The preconference FAM group will return to Louisville in time for registration at the Select Traveler Conference. The Louisville CVB has a fun event planned for all delegates the first night of the conference. “We’re planning a Sunday opening-night Super Bowl Party to be hosted at Tavern on Fourth at the Fourth Street Live! entertainment complex in downtown Louisville,” said the CVB’s Susan Dallas.

POSTCONFERENCE FAM

Right after the conference ends, postconference FAM tours will begin. On Tuesday, February 6, the group will visit famed Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby Museum, with a walking tour of the grounds. Next will be a visit to Speed Art Museum on the campus of the University of Louisville, followed by a tour of the historic Old Louisville neighborhood nearby. Dinner that night will be at the AAA Four Diamond

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C O N F E R E N C E

SPEAKERS TO SHAKE THINGS UP

Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory

M AR K LI N DQ UI S T

Photos courtesy Louisville CVB

English Grill in downtown Louisville’s Brown Hotel. Stops on Wednesday, February 7, will include Louisville Stoneware, which has produced decorative pieces for homes and kitchens since 1815, and the Evan William Bourbon Experience, a minidistillery and museum on downtown Louisville’s Whiskey Row. Next will be the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, where world-famous Louisville Slugger baseball bats are produced. Lunch will be across the river from Downtown Louisville in southern Indiana at Joe Huber’s Family Farm and Restaurant. Locals say the fried chicken is to die for. Next will be a stroll through the historic Culbertson Mansion in New Albany, Indiana. That evening’s dinner and entertainment will feature the Derby Dinner Playhouse for a buffet meal and Broadway-style show. Thursday, February 8, will bring a stop at the Vintage Fire Museum, where historic fire trucks and artifacts are displayed. Then it will be on to Falls of the Ohio, along the Ohio River across from downtown Louisville. The trip will end with a stop at historic Schimpff’s Confectionary in Jeffersonville, Indiana, for a live candy-making demonstration.

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S TEVE H A FFNE R

eed a spark of enthusiasm to jump-start your day or even your life? Mark Lindquist may be the answer. This motivational speaker and entertainer, who speaks to audiences about 90 times a year, will get your attention. Be sure to catch Lindquist at the next Select Traveler Conference scheduled for February 4-6 in Louisville, Kentucky. “As with this conference, organizers bring me in to give their people a little jolt, a little kick in the pants,” said Lindquist during a recent phone chat. “I talk about passion and the passion you had that brought you into your career field in the first place.” Lindquist said CEOs depend on him to “bring a breath of fresh air” to a gathering of employees, some of whom may have gotten stale in their work duties and need a pick-meup. He hopes to bring some sparkle to the Select Traveler delegates. “If you have a big dream for the next level in your life, I’m a guy who is out there showing you that it is possible.” Lindquist’s talk will focus on how to recognize the mental roadblocks that hamper our progress and the need for companies to foster a workplace culture that plays to the strengths of employees. Lindquist said this session may be the only time all year that attendees stop to reflect on the things they must do to reignite their career passion. Lindquist, a native of Korea who was adopted and raised in the United States, is also a professional singer and has performed the national anthem numerous times before tens of thousands of spectators in huge stadiums and arenas. (continued on page 14)

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C O N F E R E N C E

SPEAKERS (continued from page 13)

PLAYING MIND GAMES

Keeping with the motivational theme, the Select Traveler Conference will also present Steve Haffner, a corporate entertainer and mentalist. In his interactive “Conquering Virtual Mind Blocks” presentation, Haffner will show conference attendees how our primitive subconscious can produce misinformation and influence us in negative ways. He explains how we can use the “veto power” of our conscious brains to overcome these mind blocks that may be hindering our personal growth. Don’t fret; there is also a fun element to his talk that reveals our subconscious mind’s biases, shortcuts and hidden impulses. “I use psychological illusion, which is a lot of fun,” said Haffner. “My audience participation includes things like mind magic, virtual mind-reading, prediction, insights into subliminal influence and lie detection. My goal is to make people more aware of these subconscious influences so we can make better decisions. The audience has fun while learning about all this,” he said. Haffner combines fascinating insight and psychological wizardry to keep audiences engaged with his intelligent humor and demonstrations. Haffner spent 30 years working in the corporate world before embarking on his career as an entertainer, so he possesses a deep understanding of corporate cultures.

CORRECTION In a feature we ran in our September/October issue, we included a general phone number for Anderson Vacations. The correct toll-free number is: 866-814-7378. We apologize for the error.

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P L A N N E R S

T A L K

B A C K

what was an immersive cultural experience that your group enjoyed? JAY WOLZ

DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI RELATIONS SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY CAPE GIRARDEAU, MISSOURI “During our most recent tour of southern Ireland, our travel group spent half a day with a local family on their working dairy farm. The experience not only gave us great insights into Ireland’s dairy industry, but also helped familiarize us with the typical lifestyle of a multigenerational family in rural Ireland, away from the popular Irish tourist destinations. Six months later, people who were on the trip still describe the morning we spent on the dairy farm as one of the highlights of our trip.”

WENDY NORTHCROSS

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER | CAPE COD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE CENTERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS “We took several groups to China, a place most of the travelers never dreamed they would ever visit. Walking the Great Wall was a very special experience. Once home, the members told their friends and family about the trip, which generated requests for us to take additional groups. Of all the destinations we’ve offered, China has been the most popular.”

Travel ☼ Thoughtfully Designed ☼ ☼ Delightfully Executed ☼

DIANNE DE WIT

SIGNATURE & REGIONAL EVENTS COORDINATOR | DORDT COLLEGE SIOUX CENTER, IOWA “Our group traveled to South Africa with a stop in Mozambique, which is not an ordinary tour destination. We chose to include Mozambique because we had alumni involved in a chicken-growing operation designed to lift the people of Mozambique from poverty and improve their food supply. This endeavor reflects the mission of our college. Allowing our alumni and friends to tour this operation and hear how it has impacted communities is a priceless way to show how our educational mission impacts people around the world.”

AMBER CUSHMAN

NEW ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT SUPERVISOR AND TRAVEL COORDINATOR | BUENA VISTA NATIONAL BANK CHESTER, ILLINOIS “Our trip to an Amish community in northern Illinois was a cultural immersion experience. During this trip, a step-on guide gave us the history of the area and explained various day-to-day Amish activities. We enjoyed a meal at an Amish home as part of this tour. Sitting together at a table with an Amish father who also happened to be a preacher was a moving experience. He said the Lord’s Prayer in German and then repeated it again in English for all to join in. All the voices coming together before the meal was quite inspiring. His wife and daughters prepared the delicious meal and served our group.”

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888-55-TRIPS

www.gotripsinc.com selecttraveler.com 15

EXCLUSIVE

extravagance

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A couple soaks in the luxury experience on an upscale tour of Switzerland.

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Courtesy Luxury Gold

TRENDING in

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modern group tours combine experiential activities with luxury accommodations BY RACHEL CARTER

here are different levels of luxury and different expectations for luxury travel, but it’s fair to say the idea of luxury has shifted in recent years. “It used to be all about thread count and all the amenities,” said Jean Fawcett, media relations manager for tour operator Abercrombie and Kent. “Now that’s sort of expected, and people want that experiential aspect — taking that luxury and turning it into an experience.” Small group travel delivers the luxury of experience because smaller groups can do things and get into places larger groups can’t. It also provides the luxury of time because small groups aren’t bound by strict schedules and minute-by-minute itineraries. Here are some companies that specialize in one-of-a-kind experiences for smaller groups.

ABERCROMBIE AND KENT

Abercrombie and Kent offers a range of luxury small group itineraries. Its Connections Boutique Journeys have a maximum of 24 guests who stay in boutique, local accommodations. The properties aren’t necessarily four- and five-star — or even rated, for that matter — but are high-quality. “So it’s not super luxury, but it’s very authentic and caters to the traveler who likes those boutique hotels as opposed to the Four Seasons,” Fawcett said. Abercrombie’s Luxury Small-Group Journeys, though, are “luxury from top to bottom,” with stays at the Ritz or Four Seasons, for example. Each departure has a maximum of 18 guests and a resident group leader who is with them 24/7. In addition to the group leader, local guides in every city provide in-depth local insight. Abercrombie also has 52 offices around the world, “so we have our own staff on the ground,” she said. Trips to India and Peru and African safaris in Kenya and Tanzania are perennial favorites, and Egypt has been making a big comeback for Abercrombie, which never stopped traveling there. Itineraries include insider access, such as getting into the Hermitage before it opens to the public. In India, groups stay in former and, in some cases, current palaces, such as the lavish Taj Lake Palace in Udaipur and the grand Rambagh Palace in Jaipur. In Peru, the group stays at the only hotel on-site at Machu Picchu and mingles with farmers and children of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Abercrombie’s Wings Over the World program flies groups of 12 to

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20 on private charter aircraft, which allows them to spend more time at their destination and less time in airports, Fawcett said. WWW.ABERCROMBIEKENT.COM

EXPERIENCE PARK TOURS

There’s no need to rough it when exploring some of the nation’s most spectacular national parks. Experience Park Tours offers multiday, small group luxury itineraries that showcase the best of America’s national parks and scenic areas. The company never takes more than 20 people per coach, which are limo-liners with leather-couch-style seating, flat-screen TVs, Wi-Fi and charging stations, as well as an on-board chef, a photographer and destination expert guides. Experience Park Tours always uses four- and five-star accommodations that also offer amenities such as golf, spas and shopping so that “everyone gets to have a good time, everyone can curate their own best day,” Goss said. Traveling with small groups allows the luxury of making unplanned stops and enjoying spontaneous events. Once, while driving through a park, a group spotted some bears tumbling down a hill, so they pulled over and pulled out a bottle of wine and watched, Goss said. The same applies when a group stumbles across a raging waterfall or a local farmers market that isn’t on the itinerary. Experience Park Tours offers 11 itineraries but also customizes trips, either off-season in spring or fall or in-season, when a group has 20 people to fill a bus. The company’s departures in the Canadian Rockies and Pacific Northwest have become very popular, Goss said, in part because of the variety guests experience: whale-watching in the San Juan Islands, wildlife spotting in Yellowstone National Park or wine tasting on the Columbia River Gorge. New for 2018, the Wine Tasting in Northwest Grandeur itinerary takes guests through wine countries in Washington and Oregon, pairing tastings with meals and with views of and visits to Puget Sound, Palouse Falls State Park and Lake Coeur d’Alene. WWW.EXPERIENCEPARKTOURS.COM

LUXURY GOLD

Luxury Gold offers small-group journeys to all of Asia; to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa; and to other destinations. Trips are limited to 24 travelers.

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Relaxing in Agra, India Courtesy Abercrombie and Kent

Varanasi, India

A luxury tour of Italy Courtesy Abercrombie and Kent

Courtesy Luxury Gold

ODYSSEYS UNLIMITED

When traveling on a small-group escorted journey with Luxury Gold, “the main focus is making sure there’s unique VIP experiences and these really authentic personal encounters,” said Amber Boyle, group sales manager. In Memphis, Tennessee, groups enjoy a private dinner in Elvis’ Graceland after it’s closed to the public. One Hawaiian departure uses a charter jet, so guests “travel in a luxurious manner between destinations,” she said. Nine new itineraries for 2018 include Great Britain, Croatia and Montenegro, Scandinavia, France, Japan, South Africa, New Zealand and India. In Japan, the group meets a survivor of the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bomb and has an exclusive meeting with a samurai warrior after watching a samurai performance in front of Aoba Castle. Luxury Gold’s Chairman’s Collection is also new for 2018. Stanley Tollman, chairman of Luxury Gold’s parent company, tapped his personal connections to offer over-the-top experiences on select departures. Guests can join Count Francesco Mazzei for dinner at his Tucson estate, meet the Duchess of Northumberland at Alnwick Castle in England to visit her gardens or attend a cocktail reception with Princess Anita von Hohenberg at Artstetten Castle in Austria. Itineraries may include overnight stays on the ultraluxurious Venice Simplon-Orient-Express train or the boutique Uniworld River Countess ship. Accommodations feature five-star properties such as the Hotel Jules César in France and the Hotel D’Angleterre in Switzerland. Trips can follow the preset itinerary or be customized for groups, and guests travel in reconfigured luxury coaches with business-class legroom, Wi-Fi and state-of-the-art sound systems. WWW.LUXURYGOLDVACATIONS.COM

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Odysseys Unlimited doesn’t use the term “luxury,” even though their itineraries fall on the upper end of the spectrum. That’s because “luxury connotes something that we are not, which is more the trappings than the experience,” said Sue Bonchi, vice president of marketing. And the company’s small group departures, which include 12 to 24 guests, are all about the experience. Odysseys uses well-located hotels in the city center so guests can easily walk around, but the accommodations vary depending on the region. In Vietnam, hotels are deluxe first class, and in New Zealand, the group may stay next to a glacier in a national park. They stay in “paradores” in Spain and in “pousadas” in Portugal, which are large, historic buildings, such as monasteries, fortresses and castles, that the government converted to hotels and inns. They’re too small for a typical tour group of more than 40, “but for our 12 to 24, it’s been enormously popular,” Bonchi said. While visiting Machu Picchu in Peru, guests stay at the Belmond Sanctuary Lodge, the only hotel on-site. In Japan, they spend the night in a “ryokan,” a traditional Japanese inn, and go with a chef to a morning market to gather ingredients to prepare lunch. Groups do some sightseeing in Vietnam on a sampan, a traditional small flat-bottomed riverboat. Odysseys returned to Egypt about 18 months ago, and the destination has been growing. After a cruise on man-made Lake Nasser, groups visit some of the monuments that were relocated, brick by brick, before the reservoir was flooded. The company also uses only local tour directors, which “is a real key to all of our tours,” Bonchi said. In Egypt, the tour directors “are like professors, they have such incredible knowledge and experience.” WWW.ODYSSEYS-UNLIMITED.COM

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UNCRUISE ADVENTURES

UnCruise Adventures, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, now owns eight ships that carry only 22 to 88 passengers. “For groups, it makes it extremely intimate,” said Kate Hudson, group and charter sales manager. “By the time you’re off, you’ve made lifelong friends and possibly added additions to your family.” UnCruise’s Alaska Awakening departures take people into Alaska in April and May, well before other ships start cruising there for the season. In early spring, people will likely see the northern lights, baby bears fresh out of hibernation foraging for food by the shoreline — and a lot fewer people. In Panama, a recent addition for UnCruise, groups take dugout canoes into the Darien Jungle where they visit an Embera village, watch traditional dances and see the villagers’ handicrafts. Children greet the group to lead them to the village. Hudson said a young girl grabbed her hand, and they smiled and giggled and never spoke a word. “It was a magical moment that you can’t re-create anywhere else, and that’s luxury,” she said. Another luxury is freedom. Because UnCruise’s small ships don’t have to be in port or follow strict schedules, they have the freedom to stop to watch a pod of whales or to snorkel through a shipwreck that one of the trip’s expedition guides discovered. “It’s a luxury that you don’t have a strict minute-by-minute itinerary,” she said. “We just go where Mother Nature takes us.” UnCruise’s Blue Hull vessels tend to be a little more high-end, but all its itineraries are all-inclusive. UnCruise also offers private charters, which “puts it up another notch” because the group can fully customize itineraries. WWW.UNCRUISE.COM

Snoqualmie Falls in Washington Courtesy Experience Park Tours

A ceremonial welcome in Peru

A hotel in Egypt

Courtesy Abercrombie and Kent

ANDERSON VACATIONS GREAT CANADIAN VIA RAIL ADVENTURES Explore Canada’s coast-to-coast landscapes, cultures and cities by rail. Enjoy fine dining, and great service on overnight and daylight rail tour adventures. Experience Toronto, the Rockies and Vancouver on VIA Rail’s iconic Canadian. Board the Ocean and relax on a meandering journey through Quebec and Atlantic Canada, and view rugged Northern British Columbia on the 2-day Jasper to Prince Rupert route. Anderson Vacations will craft an once-in-a-lifetime VIA Rail adventure for your travel group. All Aboard!

Call our group designer specialists

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Phone: 1-866-814-7378

Email: sbrand@andersonvacations.ca

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History Lessons in

Normandy++++

This WWII tour centers on stories about the resilient human spirit

“W

BY HERB SPARROW

e did not choose resignation, but resistance, despite the risks.” Colette Marin-Catherine, still feisty and defiant more than 72 years after the end of World War II, was speaking of her family’s activities in German-occupied northern France, when actions as benign as placing wreaths on the graves of resistance fighters “was strictly forbidden, punishable by death.” “But then, everything but sneezing was prohibited. Ours was a tactic of annoyance, just like bees,” she said. The 88-year-old captivatingly spoke for more than an hour before dinner on a recent tour called “D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy and Liberation of France” that my wife, Marcheta, and I took with the National World War II Museum. Marin-Catherine, proudly wearing medals and pins denoting her part as a teenager in the French resistance and in aiding wounded Allied soldiers, put a personal face on the Allied effort to defeat Nazi Germany that began with the landings on Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944. The National World War II Museum in New Orleans uses firsthand accounts from people such as Marin-Catherine, along with visits to the sites involved in the massive invasion and subsequent threemonth battle of Normandy to present a vivid, emotional and educational tour. “It was a truly authentic, visceral experience that brought it to life,” said Marcheta Sparrow, whose father was wounded in the effort to break out of Normandy and liberate France. “It was very emotional.” “I had heard what the infantry had experienced, and I wanted to see it,” said 92-year-old Harvey Pearson, who was a young waist gunner in a B-17 flying out of Italy during the war. “I could never get the ones I knew to talk about it. I had to come over here and see with my eyes. “I was so impressed with what those troops went through. I understand it so much more,” said Pearson, who was accompanied by nine members of his family. “Everybody needs to see it.”

BATTLEGROUND INTRODUCTION

Our tour had begun three days earlier as we gathered at the airport in Paris and took a motorcoach to Bayeux, our home for the next five nights. During the ride, our guide, Pierre Natanson, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the invasion, gave us an overview. “D-Day was the largest combined operation ever attempted,” he said. “It was extremely complex.” The first stop the next day was appropriately at the Pegasus Bridge over the Orne River, where the first shots of the invasion were fired by British troops flown in by gliders to capture two key bridges. We walked across the current bridge and saw stone monuments that marked the spot where three gliders, led by Maj. John Howard of the Ox and Bloods, landed within 130 feet of the bridge. The original bridge is across the road at the Pegasus Museum. “This is the real thing; it is not a copy,” said curator Mark Worthington. “There were only two bridges between the city of Caen and the coast. Both were captured within 10 minutes.

A memorial on Gold Beach

Photos by Herb Sparrow, except where noted

Opposite page: Army Rangers scaled this 100-foot cliff at Pointe du Hoc in one of the memorable operations on D-Day.

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OS TRIP H

E’D LIKE TO THA S•W NK • OUR

WE’D LIKE TO THA NK • RS • U O T

L WORLD WAR II TIONA MUS A N EU THE

By Kneiane

ONAL WORLD WAR II MU NATI SEU THE

A tank on Gold Beach

Colette Marin-Catherine

“If you take out the signs and cars, everything looks as it did then.” Our next stop, a large five-story concrete German bunker at Ouistreham, was part of the Atlantic Wall that Hitler erected to protect against an invasion. “It was not actually a wall,” said Natanson. “It was a series of strong points consisting of radar stations, defensive nests and coastal gun batteries. Le Grand Bunker is a unique example of the remains of the Atlantic Wall. There was only one bunker like this.” The huge bunker’s rooms are filled with artifacts and mannequins that give a sense of what it was like for the German soldiers who manned the bunker. Our first day concentrated on the three beaches — Gold, Juno and Sword — where British and Canadian troops landed. During a lunch stop at the village of Arromanches, we got a fascinating look at the remains of the innovative artificial Mulberry harbor at Gold Beach that played a key role in supplying Allied troops. In the afternoon, we visited a German gun battery at Longues-SurMer, the only battery along the coast with its original guns, which gave a good feel for the firepower the invading Allied troops faced.

SERENDIPITOUS EVENTS

The next morning at the Chateau Bernaville, owners Dorothy and Simon Bernaville discussed pivotal events that happened around the chateau early on the morning of D-Day, when a small contingent of American paratroopers accidentally encountered and killed German Gen. Wilhelm Falley before the landings. Falley was on his way to his communications center, which was hidden in trees behind the chateau. Many historians believe that if he had reached the center to direct his troops, it would have had a major impact on the American landing at Utah Beach. “It was an extraordinary story of luck and paratroopers who know what to do. They were highly trained and attuned to their task,” said Dorothy Bernaville. We drove down narrow rural lanes past the infamous hedgerows that were an initial bloody and deadly obstacle for the Allies to La Fiere, a small but strategic bridge the 82nd Airborne captured and defended during numerous German counterattacks. A herd of cows grazing in a nearby verdant field was in stark contrast to the chaos, death and brutality that took place there 73 years before.

Chateau Bernaville

St. Mere Eglise

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A window in St. Mere Eglise

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G E R M A N

cemetery

he morning sun, filtered through trees, cast a soft light on the flat stones, each marking the graves of two soldiers killed in fighting in Normandy during World War II. Rows of five Latin crosses, representing an officer and his men, stand watch. The large trees are scattered throughout the manicured cemetery, designed to blend with the natural surroundings. A narrow opening in a stone wall leading to the cemetery, through which only one person can pass at a time, symbolizes the individuality of death. The cemetery, one of six in Normandy where German soldiers are buried, was our first stop one morning. Although there were many dedicated Nazi soldiers among the dead,

At Ste-Mère-Église, an important crossroad town, we stopped in the town square where some American paratroopers inadvertently landed early in the morning in the middle of German troops that were watching townspeople fight a house fire. A model of a paratrooper with his chute caught on the roof, who was made famous in the movie “The Longest Day,” hangs from the church on the square. “The town, as you see it, hasn’t changed. Most of the buildings were there,” said Natanson.

MEANINGFUL AFTERNOON

The Airborne Museum at Ste-Mère-Église has a C-47 airplane like those used to drop American paratroopers on D-Day, surrounded by mannequins of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and members of the 101st Airborne Division, and an American glider that you can walk through to get a feel for how cramped it was. The main exhibit combines sound, light, dioramas, artifacts and film in innovative ways to replicate what it was like during the invasion. During lunch at Le Grand Hard, a hotel and restaurant nestled in the countryside outside town, Jean Baptiste, who was 13 on D-Day, talked about his experiences following American troops, who adopted him as a mascot. “They called me Bobby,” he said. “The troops were already on the ground when I woke up. I moved with them and followed until the end of the war. I washed linens for the medics. At the end of the war, I was brought home. I cried a lot. I had lost all my friends.” After lunch, Charles Vallavielle, owner of Brécourt Manor, took us to a field on his farm where a key action depicted in “Band of Brothers”

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there were also many young and old men with family and friends involuntarily caught up in the chaos. The morning light and serene setting provided a moment of reflection about the deadly costs of war.

German Cemetery at La Cambe By Marcheta Sparrow

had taken place. We stood along a fencerow where four German gun emplacements hidden in the trees had fired on Utah Beach. Twelve men from Easy Company had worked their way along the side of the field and were able to disable the four guns. On the way to the field, we had our best close-up look at the hedgerows; the slanted embankment upon which they were built was taller than we were. “They made for a very slow advance,” said Natanson. “Each field had to be attacked separately. They were known as Green Hell.” Our final stop was Utah Beach. “It is considered the easiest landing, but I don’t like that language,” said Natanson. “But it did have the fewest casualties.” We walked to the beach in a pouring rain, past a replica of an LST, then dried off in the nearby informative Utah Beach Museum. We got a good look at the beach when we left, and the rain had stopped. Marcheta and I had coffee across from the beach in Le Roosevelt Memorial Bar, where Pearson signed his name on the wall among those of many other veterans who have visited there.

PERSONAL ACCOUNTS

After a free morning the following day and an early afternoon tour of the Bayeux Tapestry and Bayeux Cathedral, we drove to Caen, where we visited the Memorial de Caen, the largest museum in Normandy, before heading to dinner at Café Mancel, located in the ruins of a castle, and our delightful encounter with Marin-Catherine. “You had to keep quiet and learn how to lie,” she said. “That was very important.” Marin-Catherine gave a detailed, emotional account of how she and

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Normandy American Cemetery

A gun emplacement at Longues-sur-Mer By Marcheta Sparrow

Omaha Beach memorial

A historic plane at the Utah Beach D-Day Museum

her mother searched for her 17-year-old brother after the Gestapo arrested him. After one brief glimpse of him being herded onto a train to a labor camp, they never saw him again. He died just weeks before the liberation. Our first stop the next day on the way to Omaha Beach was Pointe du Hoc, a strategic German gun emplacement high on a cliff overlooking the English Channel that Army Rangers captured after scaling the 100-foot cliff. The site has the remains of German bunkers and numerous large craters caused by Allied bombing, giving it an eerie green moonscape appearance. “The way you see it is pretty much way the Rangers left it,” said Natanson. “That is why you can see the craters. It is the only place you can see craters today. You have to think whole areas looked like this.” Our first stop at Omaha Beach was through Exit E1 at Vierville, one of five openings or exits from the beach the Allies had to capture. Hundreds of metal barriers, many topped with mines, have been replaced with tourists walking the now peaceful sand. The only manmade structure on the beach is the iconic metal sculpture “The Brave.” Our final view of the beach was from the American cemetery at Colleville, the most sobering and emotional stop on the tour. Long rows of white marble Latin crosses and Stars of David high on a bluff overlooking one of the bloodiest stretches of Omaha Beach mark the graves of 9,387 men and women killed in the Battle of Normandy. The World War II museum gave each tour participant a white rose to place on a grave. We placed roses on the graves of two soldiers from Kentucky, including one from the division in which Marcheta’s father served. Pearson placed a rose on the grave of the brother of the best man in his wedding.

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RETURN AND REFLECT

As we headed back to Paris the next day, we stopped at sites associated with the Allied push inland and the German breakout at the Falaise Gap, “basically where the Battle of Normandy ended,” said Natanson. We visited the small town of Tournai, where 1,500 Germans surrendered behind the town hall after the intervention of a local priest, and walked a narrow path to Le Gue de Moisy, a small ford in the Dives River, one of only two ways the Germans had to escape through a narrow gap between encircling American and Polish troops. Our final stop was at the Memorial Montormel atop Hill 262, a key point in the fighting, with sweeping views of the countryside and the gap. “This beautiful Norman countryside was pure hell on earth,” said Natanson. We had a picnic lunch and visited the museum, which has a lot of personal artifacts found after the battles and informative multimedia presentations. On the final ride back to Paris, I reflected on what I had seen and experienced. Although I have read much about the D-Day invasion and watched many of the movies and documentaries concerning it, seeing the places where this monumental event occurred brought it into better focus and helped me appreciate even more the sacrifice and courage of the men who helped free Europe from the totalitarian grip of Nazi Germany. I was also struck by the way the French have recovered over three quarters of a century amid reminders of the past. In addition to many monuments, there were the cows grazing near the La Fiere Bridge, a television antenna in Ste-Mère-Église attached to a chimney pockmarked with bullet holes, the Mulberry harbor skeletons offshore at Arromanches, a German artillery piece decorating a farmer’s garden and, most of all, the vivid memories of Marin-Catherine and Baptiste. As Natanson said, “The great thing about spending this time in Normandy, you not only see history, but history is still alive.”

THE NATIONAL WORLD WAR II MUSEUM TOURS

877-813-3329 WWW.WW2MUSEUMTOURS.ORG

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2017

Featuring “Churchill’s London” a three-day optional pre-tour extension program SAVE $1,000 PER COUPLE WHEN YOU BOOK BEFORE FEBRUARY 28, 2018*

MAY 20–JUNE 1 • JUNE 2–14, 2018 • SEPTEMBER 9 – 21, 2018 • OCTOBER 6 – 18, 2018

EASY COMPANY: ENGLAND TO THE EAGLE’S NEST Based on the best-selling book by Museum founder Stephen E. Ambrose, and the award-winning HBO miniseries Band of Brothers The National WWII Museum provides vivid insight into the war that changed the world, but nothing can tell its story more dramatically than a visit to the actual places where victory was fought for and won. Our program allows you to experience these journeys in first-class comfort as you go behind the scenes to the beaches, bridges, cities, and villages where crucial battles took place and history-making decisions were made. Guided by the best experts in WWII history, you’ll hear the personal stories and walk in the footsteps of the citizen soldiers who fought for the freedom we enjoy today. From the hedgerows of Normandy, along “Hell’s Highway” in the Netherlands, in the foxholes surrounding Bastogne, and atop the Eagle’s Nest, this tour immerses you in the drama of D-Day and beyond. *Terms and conditions apply. For a full list of terms and conditions, contact The National WWII Museum Travel at 1-877-813-3329 x 257

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Shane Taylor Rick Warden Actor, Band of Brothers Actor, Band of Brothers June 2nd Departure May 20th Departure

EUROPE’S EXTRAORDINARY SITES

CALL 1-877-813-3329 X 257 TO RESERVE OR VISIT WW2MUSEUMTOURS.ORG THE NATIONAL WWII MUSEUM • 945 MAGAZINE STREET • NEW ORLEANS, LA 70130

S T A T E

o f

M I N D

from

conquistadors to astronauts BY BRIAN JEWELL

ALABAMA OFFERS GLIMPSES OF BOTH THE PAST AND THE FUTURE

ew states in America can boast five centuries of fascinating history. But Alabama has 500 years’ worth of stories to tell. From the days of Spanish exploration in the 1600s to the Civil War, the civil rights movement and the dawn of space exploration, Alabama has experienced more than its share of historic characters and occasions. Groups traveling through Alabama will find ways to touch that history in cities and towns across the state. All the while, they’ll enjoy new developments that showcase the progress happening from Mobile to Huntsville and various points in between.

NEW AND OLD IN MOBILE

At the southern end of the state, Mobile is among the most historic cities in the Southeast. But history is only part of its charm. “Mobile is one of the oldest cities in the country,” said Stacy Hamilton, vice president of marketing and communications for Visit Mobile. “It has a really fascinating history. Being a port city for 300 years, there’s an international influence here that you might not see in some Southern towns.” There are about 15 museums around town such as the History Museum of Mobile that explore the cultural and historic roots of the city. Groups can also experience elements of the area’s history by taking walking tours through some of the city’s eight historic neighborhoods or taking Segway, trolley and duck boat tours around the area. “We have a really fascinating African American Heritage Trail that groups can take,” Hamilton said. “That will take you through the black experience in Mobile, from the slave market trade to some of the first black-owned businesses. It takes you through to the present to see how some of the slave families are having an impact on Mobile today.” Beyond the cultural history, Mobile’s ecological roots lie

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Colorful historic buildings are evidence of Mobile’s multicultural heritage.

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HUNTS VI LLE

B I R M I N GHAM

S ELM A

M O B I LE

in its location on the Gulf of Mexico, and one of the area’s most exciting attractions gives visitors a deep look into the natural riches of the area. “The GulfQuest National Maritime Museum is a five-story, $60 million museum dedicated to the history of the Gulf of Mexico,” Hamilton said. “It examines the gulf from a recreational standpoint, from an environmental standpoint, industrial, maritime and shipping.

It’s a pretty significant addition to the Mobile experience. “There are almost 100 exhibits throughout the property, and it’s very interactive. You can virtually navigate a dive submarine around different reefs found in the gulf. And there’s an awesome simulator that they use to train ship captains on tugboats and big ships coming in and out of the port.” Many groups that travel to Mobile will also take time to visit Bellingrath Gardens, a beautiful historic home and estate just outside the city, and the USS Alabama, a World War II battleship that has been open to the public for more than 50 years. The city also claims the oldest Mardi Gras celebration in the United States and hosts 35 to 40 parades during the threeweek period leading up to Fat Tuesday.

STORY OF SELMA

Selma, a central Alabama town of about 20,000, made a name for itself during the civil rights movement. Visiting groups can learn about the pivotal events in the area during the 1960s and other periods. “Our primary attraction is the

Mardi Gras in Mobile

Courtesy Visit Mobile Courtesy Visit Mobile

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Edmund Pettus Bridge, a critical place in the modern American civil rights movement,” said Sheryl Smedley, executive director of the Selma and Dallas County Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Information. “The events that happened there helped push forward the National Voting Rights Act in 1965.” The bridge was the site of a march that turned ugly when police attacked demonstrators with tear gas and nightsticks. The events garnered national attention for the civil rights movement and earned the nickname Bloody Sunday. The bridge is still part of an active roadway; groups touring the area can drive across it and learn more about what took place there from local guides. The National Park Service operates an interpretive center at the foot of the bridge, which recently reopened after a renovation. The museum features three levels of exhibits for touring. The annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee, which takes place in March on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, gives visitors an opportunity to cross the bridge on foot and learn more about the march’s historical significance. “We typically have 30,000 to 40,000 people come for the Jubilee,” Smedley said. “There’s a wide range of things that happen, including summits and lectures. There are a ton of vendors that set up around the bridge and a commemorative crossing of the bridge to remember what happened on Bloody Sunday.” Groups can learn more about the city’s history during a visit to the Old Depot Museum, which is housed in a historic building that served as Selma’s train station in the 1800s and 1900s. “It bridges the gap between the Civil War and civil rights movement and tells a little bit of the story in between,” Smedley said. “It houses a couple of beautiful murals commissioned by the Works Progress Administration.”

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Other historical stops around town include the Old Live Oak Cemetery, a 19thcentury graveyard with live oak trees and marble monuments, and Sturdivant Hall, an antebellum mansion that exemplifies Greek Revival architecture.

Mobile’s GulfQuest

Courtesy Visit Mobile

Bellingrath Gardens in Mobile Courtesy Visit Mobile

BOOMING BIRMINGHAM

Situated near the center of the state, Birmingham is Alabama’s largest city and is also at the center of its historical, cultural and culinary scenes. The city has numerous signature attractions for groups, among them the Birmingham Civil Rights District. This area encompasses the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, where four African-American girls were killed in a racially motivated bombing in 1963, and Kelly Ingram Park, which was a staging area for civil rights

Selma’s famous Edmund Pettus Bridge

Courtesy Selma-Dallas Co. COC

Brown Chapel in Selma

“We typically have 30,000 to 40,000 people come for the Jubilee.” — SHERYL SMEDLEY SELMA-DALLAS COUNTY COC

Battle of Selma re-enactment Courtesy Selma-Dallas Co. COC

Courtesy Selma-Dallas Co. COC

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Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Photos courtesy Greater Birmingham CVB

Birmingham’s Lyric Theatre

Negro Southern League Museum in Birmingham

A Lyric Theatre box seat

protests in the city. The district also includes the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, one of the best civil rights museums in the country. Beyond the historic sites, though, Birmingham is booming with a variety of new attractions and urban appeal. Last year saw the opening of the Negro Southern League Museum, which is dedicated to the African-American baseball league that was prominent in the South before the sport was integrated. “It showcases the largest collection of Negro League artifacts in the country, dating back to the late 1890s,” said Sara Hamlin, vice president of tourism for the Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It’s a tribute to the metal and mine workers who formed their own baseball league during those times.” This winter will bring the debut of an expansion of Kiwanis Centennial Park, home to Birmingham’s famous Vulcan statue.

By Kim Graham

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“The park will complete a $4.66 million expansion, scheduled to open in December,” Hamlin said. “The expansion will reconnect Vulcan Park and Museum to downtown Birmingham, both visually and physically. And there will be a multicolored light show projected onto Vulcan each night to enhance the image of this Birmingham icon.” Another popular Birmingham attraction, Barber Motorsports Museum, recently debuted a major expansion that gave it an additional 85,000 square feet of space. The museum has the world’s largest collection of vintage and contemporary motorcycles. Groups will also want to visit the newly reopened Lyric Theatre, a vaudeville theater built in 1914. “It sat dormant for over 30 years,” Hamlin said. “It opened last year on its 102nd birthday. Groups will enjoy coming to see a show or taking a tour — it’s a beautiful, ornate facility.”

Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment

U.S. Space and Rocket Center Huntsville’s Big Spring International Park

Photos courtesy Huntsville/Madison Co. CVB

STARGAZING IN HUNTSVILLE

A south-to-north trip in Alabama ends in Huntsville, a city of about 200,000 near the Tennessee border. There is a lot for groups to see and do in this smart, modern, well-educated city. But first and foremost is a visit to the famous U.S. Space and Rocket Center. “That’s the place you must see — it’s the No. 1 attraction in the state of Alabama,” said Pam Williams, tourism sales manager for the Huntsville/Madison County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Group visits can include guided tours, some led by retired NASA employees. Participants see some of the one-of-a-kind artifacts on display, including full-size rockets and vehicles that have flown in space. From there, visitors can choose to take in a show at either the Imax theater or the National Geographic Theater. This is one of only 12 National Geographic theaters in the world, and the movies shown there cannot be viewed by the public anywhere else. Groups can enjoy lunch in the Mars Grill, plus an optional bus excursion to the nearby NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. “I highly recommend the bus tour experience,” Williams said. “It depends on what is available that day, but typically they see test stands from the very first manned space flight program to the future programs. If available, they can go into the Payloads Operations Facility, which is where all the experiments happening on the International Space Station are operated. So visitors can go in and see the scientists here communicating with astronauts on the space station.”

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“Visitors can go in and see the scientists here communicating with astronauts on the space station.” — PAM WILLIAMS HUNTSVILLE/MADISON COUNTY CVB

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Huntsville Botanical Garden Courtesy Huntsville/Madison Co. CVB

“It is a gorgeous new addition to the garden. Think of an old Southern plantation home with big white columns.”

hello

Courtesy Wicomico County

Huntsville

Get ready for your adventure in the Rocket City! Huntsville, Alabama | huntsville.org

Beyond the space history, Huntsville offers many other enticing stops for groups. This spring will bring a new visitor center at the Huntsville Botanical Garden. “It is a gorgeous new addition to the garden,” Williams said. “Think of an old Southern plantation home with big white columns. It includes special event space, expanded dining and a gift shop.” Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment is a popular destination for meals, shopping and other activities that is in a reclaimed textile mill. Visitors can browse artist studios and sample handmade chocolates and other treats during an afternoon at Lowe Mill.

— PAM WILLIAMS HUNTSVILLE/MADISON COUNTY CVB

By Tony Weeg, courtesy Wicomico County

bucket list 1

Embrace adventure at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center

Discover the nation’s largest seasonal butterfly house at the Huntsville Botanical Garden

Shop the Artist Market at Lowe Mill and stay for a concert & picnic

Hear stories of spies, lies, alibis & ghosts while touring our Historic Districts, Historic Huntsville Depot, Weeden House ...and more!

Pam Williams

Tourism Sales Manager HuntsvilleCVB

@Go2HuntsvilleAL

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VisitHuntsvilleAL #iHeartHsv

256.551.2204 pam@huntsville.org

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known

F O R

MONTE CARLO BEACH

LUXURY F I V E - S TA R D I N I N G A B OA R D S I LV E R S E A C R U I S E S

MONACO

SILVERSEA CRUISES Courtesy Monte-Carlo SBM

HAVING A REPUTATION as a luxury destination is a double-edged sword for Monaco, the sovereign city-state on the French Riviera. When people think of Monaco, what comes to mind is its opulent casino and stylish patrons, yacht-filled harbor and high-end hotels, all straight out of a James Bond film. But that reputation can sometimes intimidate visitors, both individuals and groups, who think Monaco is out of their budget and, therefore, out of their reach. However, Monaco is comparable or even less expensive than cities like Paris, London and Barcelona, Antognelli said. Like those destinations, Monaco is a real city with real people and real life, he said. “Everything on TV and cinema is good for our reputation, but we have to explain it’s not only for billionaires,” Antognelli said. “You can come and have a drink and have dinner.” The Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco is an iconic, four-day event that draws about 200,000 visitors every year to watch racecars rip through city streets from the harbor, up to the Casino de Monte-Carlo and down to the tunnel. The casino is arguably more iconic than the race, made famous in movies such as James Bond films “Never Say Never Again” and “GoldenEye” and the 2004 film “Ocean’s Twelve.” Guests can stay at four Monte-Carlo properties, including the legendary 1930s Monte-Carlo Beach Hotel or the sprawling seafront 334-room Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort. WWW.VISITMONACO.COM

Courtesy Silversea Cruises

NOT EVERY CRUISE comes with butler service, but with Silversea Cruises, every suite does. Some people even have to ask what a butler can help them with. The answer? Unpack your luggage when you arrive and pack it when you leave, make dinner reservations at one of the ship’s fine-dining restaurants — even draw a bath for you. That level of service is the No. 1 reason Silversea Cruises sets the bar for luxury cruising. The staff-to-guest ratio is nearly 1-to1, said Brad Ball, director of media relations for Silversea Cruises. The company’s ships also exude luxury. Silversea’s largest ship holds only 596 passengers, and the smallest has a capacity of 100. Its five larger Classic ships cruise in the Mediterranean, the Greek Isles and the Caribbean; its four smaller Expedition ships go to more remote and exotic destinations, such as Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands. The low passenger counts means spacious suites and larger public areas onboard, and guests don’t have to fight for a chair on the pool deck or wait in long lines at restaurants. There are places where guests can socialize and enjoy an open bar or relax in peace and quiet. “You really get a sense that this is your own private yacht,” Ball said. Silversea is also one of the most all-inclusive cruise lines that includes food, beverages, Wi-Fi, gratuities and transportation into the city. Shore excursions are personalized and intimate, and an onboard shore concierge can arrange for private cars, private tours and custom experiences. WWW.SILVERSEA.COM

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TRENDING in

BY RACHEL CARTER

TRAVEL OCEAN HOUSE

B E L M O N D R OYA L S C O T S M A N

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND Courtesy Ocean House

OCEAN HOUSE originally opened in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1868, after the Civil War, but the iconic hotel eventually fell into disrepair and was torn down in 2003. It was rebuilt in 2004, and although the building looks the same — all 247 windows are even in the same locations as the originals — it went from 159 rooms to 49 rooms and 18 suites, all lavishly appointed. Upon arrival, each guest will find a fully stocked beach bag in their room to use on the resort’s private 650-foot white-sand beach, where they can order food and drinks or reserve a private cabana. On the resort’s 13 acres, guests can take croquet lessons on the croquet lawn, enjoy s’mores at the fire pit or a traditional lobster boil on the beach. The Center for Wine and Culinary Arts at Ocean House offers complimentary wine, cocktail-making and cooking classes. The resort’s wide-ranging partnerships provide an array of opportunities for guests, said Christine Smith, director of luxury sales and strategic partnerships. Through its Mercedes-Benz program, guests can take one of nine Mercedes convertibles out for a day of sightseeing and leisure driving. In the new Secret Garden overlooking the beach, guests can enjoy a pairing of Veuve Clicquot’s new champagne, Rich, with a high-end hot dog. Groups can also take a coffee-making class using De’Longhi equipment. WWW.OCEANHOUSERI.COM

Courtesy Belmond Royal Scotsman

THE BELMOND RAILWAY COMPANY may be best known for the Venice Simplon-Orient Express, one of the most luxurious and most exclusive trains in the world that has been running between London and Venice since 1982. But the company’s Royal Scotsman train is just as luxurious, although it provides a different experience as it clacks around the Scottish countryside. The mahogany-clad cabins evoke a time gone by, much like spending the evening in a candle-lit Edwardian library, as warm as the tweed and wool furnishings. The train has 10 carriages, including one that houses Bamford Spa, and together they create the feel of an elegant Scottish baron’s lodge on wheels. Every trip includes all meals and beverages, including alcohol, and 24-hour steward service. The train offers a variety of itineraries, most of which depart from and return to Edinburgh. During Scotland’s Classic Splendours departure, guests can visit Eilean Donan Castle and Ballindalloch Castle, tour Glamis Castle and its gardens, and visit Rothiemurchus Estate, where they can take a leisurely walk or a ranger-led tour, go clay shooting or try archery, tackle a treetop adventure course or take a Segway outing. For the Royal Scotsman’s Scotch Malt Whisky Trail departure, Belmond partnered with the Scotch Malt Whisky Society to offer a private tasting at its headquarters and a one-year membership. The trip also includes private tours of the Glenlivet, Glen Ord and Tullibardine distilleries and an onboard whisky ambassador to lead tastings. WWW.BELMOND.COM

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marketing Y O U R

P R O G R A M

MOBILIZING MEMBERSHIP BY ELIZA MYERS

ou’ve crafted the ideal trip, with a perfectly paced itinerary, a capable tour operator and exciting excursions. But after the tour, no one talks about it. It’s like it never happened. According to data company Nielsen, 92 percent of customers believe recommendations from friends and family over all other forms of marketing. Therefore, to expand your loyalty travel group beyond its current membership, word of mouth is key. Your members must champion your loyalty program to other potential travelers for your organization to grow. To encourage travelers to become advocates for your loyalty travel program, engage current group devotees more in the program. You want your travelers to actively root for the success of your group, instead of silently signing up for another tour. If members feel ownership in the program, they are more likely to talk about your latest tour to everyone who will listen.

After planning a trip based on members’ needs, also survey the travelers at the end of the tour. Don’t wait to send out a survey of the tour until after they return home; they may not complete the form. Make time near the end of the tour when travelers can fill out the surveys and not feel rushed. Stress the importance of their participation so they know their feedback will improve the travel program. Nicola Wissler, education and workforce development manager for the Visalia Chamber of Commerce, also encourages participation from members with surveys that help determine future trip destinations. “We come up with 12 options and give our surveys to members to let us know what places they are most interested in,” said Wissler. “It helps us plan for future trips. If there is consistent interest in one trip we can’t do yet, we save it for a future year.”

SURVEY SAYS

Engagement with the travel program should start before members even set foot on the motorcoach or cruise ship. Once you have your list of travelers, foster connection to the group

Gathering feedback is the first step toward cultivating involved members. Though talking one-on-one with members is always important, surveys are an effective way to find out what people think and to ensure they feel they have a say in the program. Periodically survey all members — travelers and nontravelers — to determine what types of trips to offer. Many group leaders discover that members are eager to travel with the group but unable to because of the length or the price of the trip. A survey that asks what days, times, lengths, prices and destinations they prefer can tap into a larger pool of potential travelers.

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BUILDING TRUST

N O V E MB E R/ D E C E MBE R

2017

through personal phone calls, information on the upcoming trip, pretrip gifts with your organization’s logo, recommended reading lists and other means. Ensure that travelers feel comfortable asking questions. One way to do this other than reaching out personally is to host a pretrip reception. Some planners create elaborate themed receptions with appetizers, decorations and slideshows of the upcoming trip. In some loyalty travel programs, however, members live across the country, making a fun party together impossible. Instead of giving up on the idea, host a conference call with all the travelers where they can introduce themselves while you talk through the details of the trip and ask questions. You could also introduce your group members to each other via a pretrip email with a short bio of each member. During the tour, try to either go yourself or send someone from your organization to emphasize the tour’s relationship with the organization rather than just the tour operator. With someone there, you can ensure that each member feels personally connected to the rest of the group. “We typically like to have one person from Commerce Lexington on each bus,” said Katie Hardwick, assistant vice president of programs and events for Commerce Lexington in Kentucky. “We feel like we’re not only selling our tours, but ourselves.”

Information coming from a traveler rather than a group leader can mean more to those on the fence about their first group trip. It also provides a way for the traveler to relive the experience through writing. Don’t just hope that word of mouth spreads naturally; task your members to share their experiences with others by offering discounts on future trips for those that successfully recommend a friend to sign up. Mail everyone memory books after each tour so travelers can show friends and family the program’s exciting adventures without any effort on their part. With the proper encouragement, your galvanized members will publicize the travel program for you.

CREATING ADVOCATES

Once you’ve involved members before the trip and surveyed them during the trip, the most important step is to follow up after the tour ends to ensure long-term, vocal supporters of your program. Immediately after the tour, ask them to post about it on social media. Another way to encourage endorsement from members is to ask them for photos or quotes about the tour to share with all members in newsletters or social media. If your program runs a blog, ask if any members will volunteer to write a blog post about the trip.

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C A R E E R

C O R N E R

on a bicycle

SPECIAL

interest tours

BICYCLE TOURS

built for tours BY BRIAN JEWELL

ome places just look better from the seat of a bicycle. Motorcoaches may be the traditional vehicle of choice for the group tour industry, but as tourism customers become healthier and more active, more travel coordinators are looking for inventive ways to attract travelers who wouldn’t normally be interested in sitting on a bus all day. That’s where the bicycles come in. Bicycle vacations began as a niche activity in the 1980s, attracting athletic travelers who wanted to explore small parts of popular destinations while still burning lots of calories. In the past 30 years, these tours have grown in popularity. Several companies now offer bicycle tours in North America, Europe and even more exotic locales. If your travel organization includes a young and active clientele, or if you’re looking to expand your audience to reach such people, consider incorporating a bicycle tour into your product offerings. Here are five keys to making a bicycle tour successful.

1) EXPERT HELP IS REQUIRED.

Intrepid travel planners often take normal trips into their own hands, booking the arrangements themselves instead of using the services of tour operators. For bicycle tours, though, this approach is a nonstarter. The equipment and expertise required to stage a successful bike vacation necessitates the use of a tour operator that specializes in that area. “We provide a fully supported bike tour,” said Todd Starnes, owner of Seattle-based Bicycle Adventures. “We have the bikes, the helmets and a van to carry all your gear.” In addition to the practical necessities of equipment and logistics, bike tour operators provide guides that specialize in helping people make the most of this style of travel. VBT, the company that began as Vermont Bicycle Tours and now operates trips worldwide, emphasizes the importance of these guides. “Everywhere we go, we have two local, bilingual guides,” said John Zelig, the company’s group tour manager. In this configuration, one guide leads the group on a bicycle while the other drives a support van behind the group.

Top: Cycling through Death Valley, courtesy Bicycle Adventures Bottom: Van and trailer on cycling tour, courtesy Bicycle Adventures

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N O V E MB E R/ D E C E MBE R

2017

2) AN ACTIVE AUDIENCE IS IMPORTANT...

As the name implies, bicycle vacations require a measure of physical effort not necessary on a typical group tour. Because of this, they tend to attract younger, more active customers. “We like to say that cycling is the new golf,” Starnes said. “Baby boomers are enjoying a more active lifestyle, and they want active vacations. They’re choosing the bicycle over a cruise or a sedentary vacation. “It’s a pretty fit crowd — they like the outdoors and they go to the gym on a fairly regular basis. But cycling doesn’t have to be their thing. Sometimes, the only time people ride a bike is when they’re on a tour with us.” Though most bike tours aren’t cycling marathons, they do involve riding between 15 and 30 miles a day. Often those rides are split up by a gourmet picnic lunch. On shorter days, guests may ride in the morning and then spend the afternoon at a winery, a spa or a popular local attraction.

Hands-On Fun

Get Your Craft On!

3) …BUT ALL SKILL LEVELS ARE WELCOME.

It would be easy to think that only athletes are attracted to cycling vacations, but operators say that’s not the case. The average age for many groups is between 65 and 70 years old, and participants don’t have to have been a cycling enthusiast to enjoy a trip. “We have a lot of people who haven’t been on a bike in 20 years,” Zelig said. “It’s not all about the biking and walking.” New technology is helping to make bike tours accessible to even more people. Pedal-assist bicycles, also known as e-bikes, use electric motors to help drive the wheels, allowing riders to traverse hills and other terrain with reduced effort. “Pedal-assist bikes have given people who aren’t avid riders the ability to go on a bike tour,” Zelig said. “If your spouse is a big rider and you aren’t, your spouse can lead the pack, and you can still ride having a good time.”

4) FLEXIBILITY IS A BENEFIT.

Most traditional tours involve a detailed itinerary and a fair amount of structure to keep everything running on time as the group moves from one attraction to the next. But on bicycle tours, riding is one of the chief highlights, and a smaller group size allows guides to customize the day on the fly based on riders’ preferences. “There’s nobody holding up a flag for you to follow,” Starnes said. “Everyone can stop whenever they want to take a picture. When we have things like wine tastings, if the group wants to linger for another couple of hours, we can do that. There isn’t a set schedule. We’re so flexible — we can start at 6 in the morning or sleep in later. We can do less biking and more hiking if people want.” Bike tour operators still make sure that participants get to visit the major attractions in the places they visit, but they often opt for free time at those places as opposed to guided tours.

“All the different hands-on activities are a blast, no talent required! You are treated like their guest and everything is planned out for you. We loved it!” – Triumph Community Bank Travel Club, East Moline, IL

Request Your FREE Planner Call 1-800-322-8198 or order it online at:

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Top: A cycling group in Tuscany, courtesy VBT Bottom: Touring Slovenia by bicycle, courtesy VBT NOVE MBER/DE CEM B ER

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5) IMMERSION IS THE NAME OF THE GAME.

Motorcoaches allow groups to cover vast distances in short amounts of time. Bicycle trips, however, give riders an in-depth look at a smaller geographical area and provide immersive experiences that aren’t often possible on bigger tours. “In the end, it’s really not about the biking,” said Laura Breen, head of VBT’s sales and customer service. “It’s about getting out and experiencing a slower pace than a motorcoach. A farmer might stop and invite them to come see the farm. It’s a very cultural experience. We like to include a focus on cultural immersion in all our trips, and having a local leader is a big part of that.” “There are opportunities to do everything from a home-hosted meal in a village in Italy to learning how to make pastry in Slovenia,” said her colleague, Zelig. “There are little things to discover that you won’t find on a normal tour.”

Top: Riding near the Dolomites mountain range in Italy, courtesy VBT Middle: Crab cakes dinner, courtesy Bicycle Adventures Bottom: Cycling in Hawaii, courtesy Bicycle Adventures

GIVE BETTER TOGETHER

Join forces with 160+ member companies and 13,000+ travel professionals to amplify your giving and marketing, and inspire your employees.

Find out more at TourismCares.org

Ad space generously donated.

a fa m i ly of br a n d s

Volunteering in Peru led to the creation of Turismo Cuida, an affiliate that has granted over $200,000 to tourism projects across the region.

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N O V E MB E R/ D E C E MBE R

2017

TRAVEL

ALLIANCE

PARTNERS TR AVEL GUI D E

PUBLISHED BY THE GROUP TRAVEL LEAD ER

SEE WHERE GREAT TOURS BECOME GRAND TOURs Downtown takes center stage with events and entertainment at beautiful Bicentennial Park.

Grand tours are made in Cbus. Enjoy captivating performances and backstage experiences from BalletMet. Interpret world-renowned works of art at the Columbus Museum of Art. And anticipate the grand opening of the new National Veteranâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Memorial & Museum in July of 2018. Plan the perfect itinerary in Columbus, with something for everyone in your group.

experiencecolumbus.com/tours

Discover folklore, folk music,

AND FLAT-OUT FRIENDLY FOLKS. Explore one-of-a-kind artifacts at the world-class Will Rogers Memorial Museum. Marvel at fascinating, hand-written lyrics at the Woody Guthrie Center. Dine and shop at the world-famous Pioneer Woman Mercantile. Then rock out to Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favorite country acts at Blake Sheltonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ole Red Tishomingo.

Visit Oklahoma, where the legends are just a little more legendary.

Find adventures and itineraries at TravelOK.com/Group.

TR AVEL ALLIANCE PARTNERS

CONTENTS 39 40 42 44 50 56 62 66 42

WELCOME TO TAP A LETTER FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR STEFANIE GORDER

STRONG AND GROWING TAP CONTINUES TO GROW ITS NETWORK AND OFFERINGS.

A SPECTAPULAR DUO TAP HAS TWO SPECIAL EVENTS ON THE DOCKET FOR 2018.

BENEFITS OF TAP GROUP LEADERS HAVE A LOT OF REASONS TO WORK WITH TAP TOUR OPERATORS.

UNIQUE EXPERIENCES TAP TOURS GO BEYOND TRADITIONAL SIGHTSEEING.

INTERNATIONAL ENCOUNTERS VISIT THESE FASCINATING COUNTRIES ON TAP TOURS.

FAMOUS FACES FOLLOW THE FOOTSTEPS OF GREAT AMERICANS ON THESE TAP TRIPS.

ARTS AND MUSIC TAP TRAVEL EXPERIENCES HIGHLIGHT THE BEST OF AMERICAN CULTURE.

ON THE TAP COVER: Groups can see the famous Neuschwanstein Castle on TAP tours in Bavaria, Germany.

2018 TAP TRAVEL GUIDE

Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Bring your groups and discover endless adventures, rivers, lakes and national parks, monuments and memorials. Find free-roaming wildlife, Old West history, Native American heritage and your great place in South Dakota.

800-952-3625 â&#x20AC;˘ TourSDakota.com â&#x20AC;˘

/SoDakTravelProfessionals

Badlands National Park

AKTÁ LAKOTA MUSEUM & CULTURAL CENTER — CHAMBERLAIN 800-798-3452 • AKTALAKOTA.ORG The Aktá Lakota Museum & Cultural Center in Chamberlain preserves and promotes the arts and history of the Sioux Indian culture. View beautiful exhibits of contemporary art and historical artifacts. Open year-round. Free admission.

THE MAMMOTH SITE 605-745-6017 • MAMMOTHSITE.ORG Experience an active indoor paleontological dig site and museum. The Mammoth Site is the only Accredited Museum in the Black Hills. Hands-on activities available for children. Open year-round.

SIOUX FALLS THE HEART OF AMERICA 605-275-6060 • VISITSIOUXFALLS.COM/TOURS-ARE-HERE South Dakota’s largest city is conveniently located at I-29 and I-90. Explore Falls Park, a 123-acre park with a triple waterfall ﬂowing over beautiful pink quartzite. Contact us for customized itineraries.

800-952-3625 • TourSDakota.com

BEST WESTERN RAMKOTA HOTELS OF SOUTH DAKOTA

CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL

CUSTER STATE PARK RESORT

605-673-4681 • CRAZYHORSEMEMORIAL.ORG

888-875-0001 • CUSTERRESORTS.COM

Family-friendly, full-service hotels featuring indoor waterparks (free for guests), pools, restaurants and bars, ﬁtness centers, and free WiFi. Located in Aberdeen, Rapid City, and Sioux Falls.

Celebrate Native American history and culture at Crazy Horse Memorial. World’s largest Mountain Carving-in-progress and much more! 17 miles from Mount Rushmore. Open year-round.

1,300 free-roaming bison! Accommodations, bus parking and dining at our State Game Lodge. Experience a Buffalo Safari, Chuck Wagon Cookout, or Trail Ride. Located in the Black Hills.

MITCHELL FIND YOUR PALACE!

PIERRE — YOUR ADVENTURE ON THE RIVER

RAPID CITY — DO BIG THINGS!

866-273-CORN (2676) • VISITMITCHELL.COM

605-224-7361 • PIERRE.ORG

Exp-EAR-ience Mitchell’s history, starting with the Corn Palace! Museums, 50+ restaurants, and complimentary group services. Four hours east of the Black Hills; I-90, Exit 332.

Tours of the Capitol building, memorials, Governor’s mansion, Trail of Governors and the Oahe Dam are available. The Pierre area offers a plethora of outdoor recreation and museums to visit.

Enjoy shopping, dining, events and local favorites like Main Street Square, City of Presidents and more. Nearby, explore Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Crazy Horse Memorial and other Black Hills treasures.

THE SOUTH DAKOTA SCULPTURE TRAIL

WALL DRUG WORLD’S LARGEST DRUG STORE

800-528-1234 • REGENCY-MGMT.COM

800-893-7148 • SOUTHDAKOTASCULPTURETRAIL.COM Explore free public sculpture exhibits on South Dakota’s Main Streets. Discover unique arts, cuisine and culture of South Dakota along with the iconic Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorials.

605-279-2175 • WALLDRUG.COM Wall Drug has been entertaining and educating the traveling public since 1931. This wonderland of free attractions includes a restaurant that seats 520. There’s something for everyone. Located in Wall.

800-487-3223 • TOURRAPIDCITY.COM

WATERTOWN 800-658-4505 • VISITWATERTOWN.COM Groups love Watertown. Art galleries, historical landmarks, a trail of sculptures through our vibrant downtown, diverse culinary scene, craft brews, and genuine hospitality. Watertown will awaken your spirit, curiosity and sense of adventure.

SOUTH DAKOTA DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM

Falls Park, Sioux Falls

HELLO TRAVEL FAMILY,

More operators equals more product. More product equals more opportuni-

ties for our travel partners to offer fresh tours and destinations to their clients.

TAP firmly believes that it takes all of us — operators, suppliers and sellers of travel — to work together to make this global travel world go ’round. We are proud to be the first company that offered one brochure that featured guaran-

teed departures. Our tour expansion online also features scheduled departures,

custom tour ideas and two exciting SpecTAPular Tours and Events that feature

unique concepts; just search “SpecTAPular” on our website. Along with our elite Guild Members, who offer destinations and services that are consistent

his past year, Travel Alliance

with our goal of expanded partnership, we are ready for 2018 and beyond.

We are committed to contributing valuable education to the travel industry,

Partners (TAP) has been

and we do that in three ways. TAP Into Travel webinars, Tuesdays at 2 p.m.

tiatives that bring revenues

on industry trends. Bus regulations, how to incorporate print marketing and

focused on marketing inito all, as well as celebrating

its 15th official year as a corporation. Using our Power

of Partnership is enabling TAP to gain solid ground in the tour and travel industry. It seems like everyone is talking about TAP.

This year, we welcomed new tour operators into

Eastern Time, feature not just destinations, but also important information negotiating better contracts are just a few subjects that have been reported as

tremendously helpful for the tour business. Also rated highly is our Buyers Educational Tour (BET on TAP), designed for potential new TAP partners and for new travel sellers of TAP tours. This runs in conjunction with our annual

conference, TAP Dance, set for June 4-8, 2018, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. For travel professionals that have an active website, the customized Tour

our family. Three came on in January, with our fourth

Wrap allows active sellers to receive higher commissions and never lose their

the tour offerings available at www.tapintotravel.com.

others in the worldwide travel industry to grow revenues for all.

joining in June and our fifth in October, enhancing The goal is to include quality and like-minded North

clients. We are proud to work in partnership with buyers, sellers, suppliers and

This phenomenon called TAP continues to gain momentum. For informa-

American tour operators that meet the mission of buying

tion on our corporation or programs for sellers of travel, tour operators and

tour offerings different. We encourage you to look at

partners can also help you understand the advantages of being involved with our

and selling unique products in order to make our TAP

the TAP partner profiles featured in this special edition

to find new ideas to help you build your tour portfolio. To make it easy, phone numbers are provided, as we

suppliers, please do not hesitate to reach out and contact me. Our operator network. Strong partnerships translate into more money. So let’s be partners. I look forward to helping you get hooked on TAP.

are all too busy to not know the people who can make things happen quickly.

Do you know that all TAP operators must abide by

a set of standards in order to be in the TAP family of brands and have intense annual reviews to ensure they

SINCERELY,

meet them? This is why a TAP operator should be at

the top of all travel sellers’ contact lists when they are considering new tours to offer their clients. And if you are a supplier, it’s good to know that we have systems in place to stand behind our word.

STEFANIE GORDER, CTP, DS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TRAVEL ALLIANCE PARTNERS, LLC 866-373-0790 | WWW.TAPINTOTRAVEL.COM | MARKETING@TRAVELALLIANCEPARTNERS.COM

WWW.TAPINTOTRAVEL.COM

COLLABORATE

INNOVATE BY B R I A N J E W E LL

TA P DR AWS ON ITS COLLECTI V E STR ENGTHS

ravel Alliance Partners, commonly known as TAP, was an innovation when it began 16 years ago. And innovation continues to be a driving motivation for the organization’s tourism professionals. In 2001, a small group of tour operators banded together around a novel idea: They each operated in a different part of the country, which meant that they had different expertise and different audiences. So they decided to form a network that would allow them to leverage that diversity to create growth opportunities for everyone, and TAP was born. Each tour operator member opens its products for sale to all the other members. That allows each tour operator to offer its customers more tours than just the ones it creates. And it gives

each company an opportunity to attract customers from its partners’ audiences, thus expanding the size of the market for everyone. “We have 30 unique companies in the TAP network,” said Stefanie Gorder, TAP’s executive director. “They are regional experts, offering differentiated products and clients. Some are focused on students. Some are pushing millennial product. Some are pushing senior product. Some are better at special events.” TAP’s reach is larger than just its 30 partner companies, though. The organization works closely with many representatives of destinations, attractions and other travel industry companies to help inspire new ideas and create new tour itineraries for customers. Those industry representatives, called Preferred Professional Travel Providers (PPTPs), gather with the tour operators every summer for a four-day conference called TAP Dance. TAP also has outreach initiatives aimed at helping group leaders make the most of its offerings. “When you look at TAP, this concept of working cleverly together to better everyone’s business is remarkable,” Gorder said. “It continues to

2018 TAP TRAVEL GUIDE

Each weekly webinar is recorded and stored on TAP’s website, which means that travel planners can listen live or after the fact and can browse the archive of content for topics that interest them.

NEW TOUR IDEAS

TAP’S PARTNERSHIP OFFERS TRAVEL PLANNERS ACCESS TO HUNDREDS OF DESTINATIONS, INCLUDING HOLLAND. Courtesy Image Tours

grow because it’s not one-sided. It takes our operators, our suppliers and our buyers of TAP tours. We’re all working together for the larger goal.”

FOCUSING ON INNOVATION

TAP’s concept has proven successful: The network added five new tour operator members in 2017 and has many PPTPs from around the country participating in its programs. Now, the organization is focusing on refining and innovating its model to achieve new successes in the future. “If we do the same old thing, we will have the same old result,” Gorder said. “The TAP of the future is getting new results. That means revitalizing every program.” A key element of this initiative is a focus on new technology platforms. TAP has long marketed tours with a website, as well as the TAP Tour Wrap, which allows other travel organizations to market TAP trips directly on their own websites. Now, Gorder said, TAP partners are enhancing those platforms with travel videos and outreach on social media networks such as Facebook Live. The group is also expanding the scope of its successful TAP Into Travel webinars, which take place every Tuesday at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. Each webinar features a presentation by a different TAP member tour operator. For several years, those presentations have focused on specific tours those members offered, but now some feature educational elements as well. “The focus of the webinars is not just on product anymore,” Gorder said. “It’s on how to help someone’s company grow, whether through enhanced print buys or targeted email marketing. Trends and changes in the industry are a big deal right now, and TAP continues to be the leader in providing educational opportunities to enhance the end user’s business.”

WWW.TAPINTOTRAVEL.COM

One of TAP’s most significant early innovations was its Guaranteed Departures program. The first of its kind in the travel industry, this program consists of dozens of tours that TAP guarantees will operate on their scheduled dates, regardless of how many customers sign up. In addition to its Guaranteed Departures, TAP offers many more Scheduled Departures, which are tours they expect to perform well, and Custom Tours, which are exciting travel products available to group leaders on request. Those two types of trips are creating opportunities for TAP members to offer new tour experiences. “We have some really cool cruise programs,” Gorder said. “Traditionally, we haven’t focused on those, but we have some great ones now, like a new PBS Garden Smart cruise program. There are new group products, like Hippies to Honeymoons, in upstate New York. And we’re selling the 2020 Oberammergau Passion play — you don’t want to wait to book that. We have huge numbers already, and there are lots of Custom Tours available around the Passion play.”

FUN AND PRODUCTIVITY

Many of these new travel ideas are the result of meetings between TAP Operators and PPTPs at TAP Dance. Tour operators have four solid days of appointments with destination representatives and use that time to find new travel ideas. “We have a partner whose entire 44-page catalog is all fresh product developed at TAP Dance 2017,” Gorder said. “Another partner has done 11 custom products from TAP Dance.” The schedule of appointments is demanding, but Gorder said, in the spirit of innovation, the organization is finding new ways to incorporate fun and community into these meetings. “Sometimes we do better business at social events,” she said, “so we’re restructuring our social events. Put on a bathing suit instead of a business suit, and the conversations take a whole new turn.” There will be plenty of opportunities for fun at the next TAP Dance, to be held June 4-8 at a beachfront hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The 2019 edition of the conference is headed to the Little America Hotel and Resort in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

49 Courtesy Visit Salt Lake

THE

SpecTAPular

TWO BY B R I A N J E W E LL

Courtesy Aramark

N EW ENGL A N D A N D L A K E POW ELL STA R IN 2018 EV EN TS

dynamic duo of special events in 2018 will showcase Travel Alliance Partners’ (TAP’s) product diversity and growing expertise in creating one-of-a-kind specialty experiences. Known as SpecTAPular Tours and Events, these occasions were introduced by TAP in 2012 and have become an important part of the organization’s distinctive offerings. “SpecTAPular is something totally unique,” said Nick Calderazzo, president of TAP partner Twin Travel Concepts and the organization’s SpecTAPular committee chair. “You’re not going to find it anywhere else in the marketplace. It has elements of exclusivity — an exclusive concert,

an exclusive event, something that makes it stand apart.” Each SpecTAPular event is created by one of the TAP member tour operators, and the rest of the members sell it to their customers. Previous editions have included USO-style shows in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and “The Great Gatsby”-themed weekends at the Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island, Michigan. In 2018, TAP will offer two very different experiences. The first will take place in New England, September 18-21, and is centered on the Big E, a state-fair-style festival. The second will be a houseboat excursion on Arizona’s Lake Powell, October 13-21.

THE BIG E

Officially known as the Eastern States Exhibition, the Big E in Springfield, Massachusetts, is one of the largest annual events in the Northeast, serving as a state fair for all the New England states combined. “It’s all six New England States coming together at one time,” Calderazzo said. “It’s a huge fair, carnival and circus, with the most incredible food.” TAP member Richard Durgan of Durgan Travel will be coordinating this SpecTAPular and is arranging for participating groups to have

2018 TAP TRAVEL GUIDE

where they tie up at night. Guests will be able to enjoy the landscape of Lake Powell, which is surrounded by towering, colorful sandstone cliffs, and participate in active exploration if they wish. “Each houseboat will be carrying kayaks and will have a powerboat,” Murray said. “So people can go waterskiing, wakeboarding or tubing. They can go fishing off the houseboat or take the powerboat out to fish. We’ll also go hiking up some of the slot canyons to scenic areas in and around the lake.” In addition to the active options, participants will be treated to astronomer programs that highlight the area’s clear night skies. For more information on either event, visit www.tapintotravel.com. 2018 SPECTAPULAR EXPERIENCES WILL TAKE PLACE AT LAKE POWELL, ARIZONA (LEFT), AND THE BIG E IN MASSACHUSETTS (RIGHT). Courtesy Eastern States Exposition

a full day of fun at the Big E, as well as excursions to some of the other popular attractions in the area. The itinerary will include a day in the Berkshires with a visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and an evening event at the Yankee Candle headquarters in nearby South Deerfield. The trip will also include a visit to Hancock Shaker Village in Hancock, Massachusetts. “It’s the best Shaker representation in the country,” Calderazzo said. “It’s a working Shaker village. When we go there, we’ll do a lot of hands-on stuff.” The event has been timed to coincide with New England’s popular foliage season, and several TAP members are offering longer fall foliage tours that will include the SpecTAPular portion in Massachusetts along with other destinations and activities.

LAKE POWELL

About a month after the Big E, a different SpecTAPular will unfold out west, where up to 110 guests will enjoy a nine-day, eight-night tour from Phoenix to Salt Lake City that will include a five-day houseboat excursion on Arizona’s Lake Powell. “We’re going to be on 75-foot, luxurious houseboats,” said Jason Murray of Southwest Adventure Tours, the TAP operator coordinating this tour. “They each have five or six staterooms with queen beds and satellite TV. They have a hot tub on deck and a full kitchen. It’s basically a floating home that takes them around with all the amenities of a house itself. They have couches and chairs that you can lounge on throughout the day and waterslides you can fly off into the water.” The houseboat will be piloted by professional crew, and the all-inclusive tour will feature meals served either on board the boats or on the docks

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CHRISTIAN VAN METER WINS SPIRIT OF TAP AWARD Travel Alliance Partners (TAP) presented its 2017 Spirit of TAP Award to Christian Van Meter, manager of group sales, Americas, at Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group. Van Meter was nominated by TAP members for his outstanding role in the tourism industry and particularly for his work in helping to bring the 2017 TAP Dance conference to Tucson, Arizona. “Christian is a deeply caring individual who goes the extra distance for everyone he interacts with: customers, colleagues and hotel teams,” said Tracy Gruber, TAP’s meeting and event coordinator and daughter of late TAP member Ann Thomas, in whose memory the award was established. “He has an amazing travel and destination knowledge, and educating himself on global destinations is his personal passion. He is always surprising me by how he quietly and unassumingly pursued availability and rates for a client when others would have moved on.” The Spirit of TAP Award was established in 2012 after the passing of Ann Thomas, owner of TAP tour operator Western Discovery. The award annually recognizes a Preferred Professional Travel Provider who truly encompasses the TAP vision and embodies the true spirit of TAP. Rather than waiting for others to ask for help, the awardee asks, “What can I do for you?” and “How can I help?” The award was presented at a luncheon during TAP Dance, the organization’s annual meeting.

51 Courtesy Visit Salt Lake

ADDED

VALUE BY R AC H E L C A R T E R

THER E A R E R E A L R E A SONS TO USE TA P OPER ATOR S

ravel Alliance Partners (TAP) gives group leaders the power of partnership. TAP members offer a variety of programs and products to help group leaders reach new customers and grow their business. TAP has preferred vendor agreements in place with three cruise companies and runs a weekly webinar series thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s free and open to anyone. One TAP partner offers an advertising-share program, and others provide special incentives and niche itineraries that help entice new travelers.

2018 TAP TRAVEL GUIDE

ADVERTISING HELP

Image Tours partners with travel agents to split the costs of advertising their tours. The company creates a newspaper ad for each agency, builds in the tour and airfare price from each agency’s city and then splits the cost with that agency to run the ad in the local newspaper. “We have a program that’s proven to bring new customers to your business; and by the way, we’ll pay for half of it,” said Justin Osbon, sales director for Image Tours. Image Tours first started the advertising program in the early ’90s and has been running it ever since; it is now in about 193 papers across the country. In addition to designing and customizing the ad, the company also helps throughout the sale, including providing a template cover letter for the first mailing to make it more personal and follow-up to give clients a personal touch in getting the tours they want. “We’re helping [agents] build their business by setting them up as their local European tour expert,” Osbon said. When people say newspapers are a dead medium, Osbon has hard numbers that say otherwise. Many group tour customers still read newspapers and trust using them more than using an online agency. They’re looking for help with their first trip abroad and like that there’s a local office staffed by local people. “It brings new clients into their business, who buy this one tour then turn around and buy three or four or five more tours,” Osbon said. “They’re going to buy more because you helped them with that first big international vacation.”

CRUISING PARTNERS

IMAGE TOURS HELPS GROUP LEADERS WITH LOCAL ADVERTISING FOR ITS TRIPS TO DESTINATIONS SUCH AS ESTONIA.

TAP has preferred vendor agreements with three cruise companies that allow TAP partners and people who work with TAP partners to get better deals and bigger discounts on Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line and AMA Waterways. “If you go through a TAP partner, if you’re going to deal with one of these three companies, you’ll get a lot better rate or a better value, and you might get cruise credits, dinners or a combination of value-adds,” said Steve Everidge, secretary and treasurer of Shenandoah Tours and cruise chairman for TAP. “It brings better value for the end user.” Shenandoah has an in-office travel service, and when someone calls up wanting to go on a particular river cruise line, the TAP agreement allows Shenandoah to offer AMA Waterways cruises as a comparable option. Sports Tour and Travel recently created a specialty itinerary with Norwegian to have a baseball umpire on board to tie into the company’s Bahamas Spring Training Cruise. “It’s unique to both companies, unique to [Sports Tour and Travel] and unique to Norwegian,” Everidge said. “They’re going to have an expert on board; it’s something they normally wouldn’t have, so it gives them a different market.” Shenandoah Tours often uses Holland America in Alaska and the Panama Canal. Everidge particularly likes Holland America’s product in Alaska because the company owns the cruise ships, the hotels, the buses

Courtesy Image Tours

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SHENADOAH TOURS AND TAP PARTNER WITH AMA WATERWAYS FOR RIVER CRUISES IN EUROPE.

and even some passenger cars on the McKinley Explorer dome train. In addition to providing consistent quality throughout the trip, it also gives TAP members and groups working with TAP access to those preferred vendor agreements from start to finish. “It’s somewhat of a package there,” he said.

EDUCATIONAL WEBINARS

Courtesy Shenandoah Tours

Every Tuesday, anyone can tune into the “TAP Into Tuesday” webinar. Although most webinars are focused on travel — destinations, attractions and experiences — Tri-State Travel has homed in on another aspect of the travel business: motorcoaches. Tri-State Travel is a full-service tour operator and one of only three TAP members that is also a charter motorcoach operator. Most group travel leaders rely on motorcoaches, but many have no idea of what to look for when it comes to booking them. “No matter if you’re a tour operator in California or a group flying into Chicago, you have to get around somehow,” said Andy Hillard with Tri-State Travel, and “not all motorcoach companies are created equal.” Tri-State Travel has twice led webinars about motorcoach education. The first was on motorcoach safety, and the second was about electronic logging devices, which the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will require all motorcoach drivers to use beginning in December. The devices, which sync up with the engine to record driving time,

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“NOT ALL MOTORCOACH COMPANIES ARE CREATED EQUAL” — ANDY HILLARD are intended to improve safety and make it easier to track data about drivers’ shifts. The change will affect the group market, Hillard said, because group leaders will need to start thinking about tightening up itineraries or adding more time, an extra night or a relief driver to avoid going over the daily limits on driving time. For motorcoach safety, the webinar went over questions to ask, such as the carrier’s Department of Transportation (DOT) rating, if it has a full-time safety director and what its maintenance practices include. Group leaders should also ask about the average age of the operator’s fleet and the coaches’ amenities. For comparison, the average age of Tri-State’s 25 coaches is 2.5 years. Group leaders should also ask for a carrier’s DOT number to look up its records online. TAP Into Tuesday webinars are free and open to everyone; they take place every Tuesday at 2 p.m. Eastern time. The webinars are available at www.tapintotravel.com/webinars.

BASEBALL PASSPORT PROGRAM

Travelers are always looking for some sort of incentive, and STAT Baseball Road Trips is essentially “a frequent travel program,” said Michael Coldesina, manager with Sports Travel and Tours. The company started the baseball passport program about 17 years ago. The agency gives travelers a Passport to Baseball, P L A N YOU R M I N N E S O TA T O U R AT E X P LOR E M I N N E S O TA .C OM

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C A L L 1–8 8 8 –8 4 7 – 4 8 6 6 F O R M O R E I N FOR M AT I ON

and every time they visit a stadium on an itinerary, they get a stamp in their passport. When they’ve visited all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums, Sports Travel and Tours invites them on a weekend trip to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. As the Hall of Fame’s official licensed travel partner, Sports Travel and Tours holds an induction ceremony there for travelers who have acquired all 30 stadium stamps and even pays for their overnight hotel accommodations. “I think it gives group leaders a product that I don’t think they’ve traditionally looked at,” he said. “People are trying to do these trips on their own and visit the stadiums on their own because they don’t realize there’s an outlet for them to go and take all the hassle out of the process.” Sports Travel and Tours has been running baseball trips pretty much from when it opened in 1996; the company soon realized that “a lot of impetus of these trips wasn’t the game itself but to visit the stadium,” Coldesina said. The company tries to include all 30 MLB stadiums on at least one tour each year. Some itineraries include three or four stadiums, especially on the East Coast, such as Fenway Park in Boston and the Yankees’ and Mets’ stadiums in New York. Although the program centers on stadiums, itineraries include plenty of other attractions, destination and historic sites.

WOMEN-ONLY GETAWAYS

Main Street Experiences started its Women in Need of Spoiling (WINOS) program to take girlfriend getaways beyond wine tastings and day spas to fully escorted trips tailored for a female audience. “The tours are for women, by women,” said Jennifer Lum Lee, director of marketing for Main Street Experiences, formerly Main Street Tours. The five-woman company has mostly worked with seniors, so WINOS “opens up a whole new world for us,” she said. “This is going to be a lot of fun because it’s what we would want to do.” Main Street started the program about a year ago as a partnership with Elaine Moulder, owner of Brilliant Edventures, based in Georgia. Most girlfriend getaways don’t include transportation and meals, and the partners wanted to offer the full group experience to small groups of women. Although the smaller groups won’t get the same deep discounts as large groups, Main Street and Brilliant Edventures have the connections to get some discounted rates and special perks. The two companies have plans to launch WINOS as a retail product but have also been doing custom group itineraries. WINOS in Waco includes a tour of sites from HGTV’s smash hit “Fixer Upper” and a stop at Magnolia Market, owned by the show’s hosts, Chip and Joanna Gaines. The trip is built around the Rootstock Wine Festival and includes dinner on the historic Waco Suspension Bridge. A new itinerary, WINOS and the City, will launch in May 2018 and plays on HBO’s popular show “Sex and the City.” Travelers will take a walking tour, visit filming locations from the show and be pampered by a beautician before a night out on the town to see a Broadway show. WINOS will be launching four to six new itineraries next year, with destinations such as Maui, Hawaii; Wyoming; and San Francisco.

A WINOS GROUP AT MAGNOLIA MARKET Courtesy Main Street Tours

2018 TAP TRAVEL GUIDE

MAKE YOUR

FRIENDS JEALOUS BY R AC H E L C A R T E R

BOOK ONE OF THESE TAP-ONLY ITINERARIES

he whole point of traveling is to see something new and experience something different. But too often, individual travelers and group leaders get stuck in a rut of letting the sights and sounds pass them by, whether through a motorcoach window or on a walking tour. Many of the tour operators of Travel Alliance Partners (TAP) have tapped their creativity to find unique experiences for travelers in the destinations they visit. These TAP itineraries go beyond the norm to give people a chance to drive a steam locomotive, travel with a TV show host, cross an international border, see a national park in a new way and, maybe, just maybe, speak to the spirits.

2018 TAP TRAVEL GUIDE

DRIVE THE RAILS

In a recent episode of CBS’ smash hit “The Big Bang Theory,” Leonard buys Sheldon a certificate for the ultimate train experience at the Nevada Northern Railway Museum in Ely, Nevada. The closing scene shows Sheldon operating a coal-fired locomotive, shirtless in bib overalls, his face smeared with grease and a grin. Ever since the episode aired in February, the museum’s Be an Engineer program has “been selling out all the time,” but Leisure West Tours still has priority, said owner Lee Dahl. Travelers on Leisure West’s Railroad Engineer: Ultimate Experience itinerary “have to have a shirt on, but they get great big smiles on their face,” he said, jokingly. People often don’t realize they’ll be at the throttle, blowing the whistle and signaling at crossings, because “they just think it’s not something they could ever do,” he said. And it’s not just five minutes in the seat. The in-depth program gives each participant nearly an hour at the throttle of two locomotives. Guests start on the diesel engine, which is more straightforward and less overwhelming than the century-old, coal-fired steam locomotive, Dahl said. Over the course of two days, each person gets to drive each locomotive and may also operate a two-person speeder car and the “hand-pump cars you used to see in the old cartoons,” Dahl said. The Nevada Northern Railway, including the engines, buildings and rolling stock, is a National Historic Landmark. The railroad was built in 1905 to reach the copper mines about 140 miles north of Ely; but when the mines shut down in 1978, so did the railroad. “They thought they’d be back to work as soon as the mine opened back up, and it never did,” he said, so everything is much as they left it: tools, equipment, paperwork — including workers’ time cards.

YELLOWSTONE IN WINTER

TRAVELERS CRUISE ON THE SEA OF CORTEZ ON TRIPS TO MEXICO WITH GRAY LINE TOURS.

Yellowstone National Park is a different place in winter. Snow blankets the ground, muffling ambient noise. Wildlife stands out, stark against the white carpet. Steam from geysers and thermal pools turns into billowing columns in the freezing air. “It’s just really quiet,” said Shawn Horman, vice president of Western Leisure. “It gives you a different experience in the park.” Yellowstone’s winter season — when there’s enough snow cover for over-snow travel on the roads — usually runs from mid-December through mid-March, and Western Leisure typically runs its trips to the park in January and February. For travel, the company uses a combination of modern snow coaches — vans or minibuses that have been converted to tracks for winter driving — and historic snow coaches, which are basically World War II-era snow machines. Each can hold eight to 12 people. The snow coaches are “totally part of the experience,” Horman said. Local guides drive and narrate, showing passengers where wolves are feeding on a carcass or where bison “like to lay on the warm ground,” he said. Groups also ride a horse-drawn sleigh into the massive herd on the National Elk Refuge near Jackson, Wyoming. “You’re out on the elk refuge with magnificent views of the Grand Tetons, and there’s, on average, 4,000 elk on the refuge,” Horman said. “They’re used to the sleighs — they don’t run away. All the bulls are fight-

Courtesy Gray Line Tours

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ing and wrestling all day long — it is a fabulous experience.” In addition to standbys like Old Faithful, the itinerary can also include attending the weekly broadcast performance of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City and a tour of Utah Olympic Park near Park City.

RIVER CRUISING WITH A TV HOST

Alki Tours’ Holland and Belgium River Cruise with Amadeus River Cruises puts passengers on board a river cruise with a national television host: Eric Johnson of PBS’ “GardenSmart.” “The whole idea is it’s an interactive opportunity for people to learn and live their passion on their holiday and bringing them that much closer, in this case, with public television,” said Tyson Verse, travel manager with Alki Tours. Johnson and his crew will be filming on the trip as well as hosting seminars and participating in cruise events. The trip begins in Amsterdam with a visit to the Rijksmuseum, where guests can see works by Rembrandt and Vermeer up close, followed by a stop at the Van Gogh Museum. In Amsterdam, travelers can also visit the Hortus Botanicus, which was founded in 1638, making it one of the world’s oldest botanical gardens. During a tour of Aalsmeer Flower Auction, Europe’s largest building, filled with acres of flowers, groups will learn about how the auction sells some 20 million flowers daily from around the world.

LEISURE WEST TOURS’ RAILROAD ENGINEER EXPERIENCE

Courtesy Leisure West

ESSE PURSE MUSEUM, LITTLE ROCK

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2018 TAP TRAVEL GUIDE

Keukenhof is an 80-acre garden with more than 7 million tulips, daffodils and hyacinths. The garden is “the best of everything on show,” Verse said, and the bulbs are planted at different depths, a technique called lasagna or layer planting, so there’s always something blooming. But the cruise isn’t only for gardeners; it includes stops in Antwerp, Bruges and Ghent and excursions to castles, windmills and World War I museums and memorials. Kinderdijk is a village known for its elaborate network of historic 18th-century windmills, pumps, dikes and reservoirs that control flooding in the lowland. “We try to keep the entire audience interested,” Verse said.

GRAND TETON IN WINTER

GHOST TOURS AND TOWNS IN NEVADA

Mark Hoffmann, president and founder of Sports Leisure Vacations, is a skeptic when it comes to the supernatural. But the more experiences he has during ghost hunts in the ghost town of Goodsprings, Nevada, the more he can’t explain — including a recent encounter that hit close to home.

Courtesy NPS

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Sports Leisure Vacation’s six-day Death Valley and Nevada Ghost Towns itinerary departs from Sacramento, California, and travels to Las Vegas. From there, guests will visit several Old West ghost towns where they’ll find old miners’ cabins, abandoned post offices and deserted train stations. In Goodsprings, the group goes on a ghost hunt, a tour that for years was led by Robert George Allen, a retired entertainer who started the Haunted Vegas tour and who recently passed away. Each person has a “ghost box” to ask spirits yes or no questions. During a recent trip, Hoffmann’s ghost box was lighting up, which indicates a spiritual presence. After asking several questions, Hoffmann finally asked, “Robert George Allen, is that you?” And the box “blinked like crazy,” he said. Goodsprings’ other claim to fame is the 100-year-old saloon where

Clark Gable awaited word about Carol Lombard’s plane crash. “He sat there and burned a hole in the bar with his cigar,” Hoffmann said. The remote town of Belmont doesn’t have power, but it does have people — about a dozen residents. And those residents welcome visitors to see the ruins of collapsed buildings, the remains of partially standing structures and the Belmont Courthouse, which locals are trying to restore. The company recently expanded the itinerary to add Death Valley National Park, where guests will spend two nights at the Oasis at Death Valley, formerly the Furnace Creek Resort.

CROSS THE BORDER INTO MEXICO HOLLAND’S KEUKENHOF GARDEN

Courtesy Keukenhof

Courtesy Gray Line Tours

Give Them the Experience of a Lifetime

Few motorcoach tour operators still offer itineraries that cross the southern border into Mexico, but Gray Line Tours is — proudly — one of them. TJ Morgan is president and CEO of the Tucson, Arizona-based company that his grandfather started in 1916 as Citizen Auto Stage Company. Gray Line offers a variety of itineraries, among them Best of the Barrio, which explores Tucson through its Sonoran cuisine, and the Border Crisis: Fact and Fiction tour, which was designed to allow people to go on personal fact-finding missions and see the border firsthand in a safe and secure way. But for people who want to travel into Mexico, Gray Line’s Beaches of Rocky Point, Mexico, itinerary is a “nice, safe way for people to get an exposure to Mexico tourism,” Morgan said. “Rocky Point is very safe.” For those who have never traveled to the country and feel unsure about the best way to do so, Gray Line drives its motorcoach across the border to the beachfront Peñasco Del Sol Hotel. Gray Line’s bilingual guide has built a relationship with the border agents, and the drive is about four hours total: three hours to the border, then one more hour to the hotel. The resort fronts the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, and when guests arrive, they enjoy a margarita reception at the hotel. While there, groups can opt to take a sunset cruise, a bird island boat tour or a whale-watching trip with EcoFun Rentals, which also rents kayaks, paddleboards and boogie boards to beachgoers. Travelers will visit Rocky Point’s Old Port, where they can buy fresh seafood from fish markets and explore curio shops filled with handmade knickknacks and souvenirs.

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THE

WORLD AWAITS BY R AC H E L C A R T E R

TRAVEL THE GLOBE WITH TAP-MEMBER COMPANIES

o matter where in the world groups want to go, Travel Alliance Partners’ (TAP’s) tour operators can take them there. TAP’s 30 partners provide international and exotic tours that give travelers distinctive experiences — watch a play that has been produced since 1634; see the ocean tide reverse a river; walk underwater in the Great Barrier Reef; visit the ruins of a Roman Emperor’s palace; and get close to the wildest of animals on a Kenyan safari.

2018 TAP TRAVEL GUIDE

ATLANTIC CANADA

Three provinces make up the Canadian Maritimes: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Add Canada’s easternmost province — Newfoundland and Labrador — and you have Atlantic Canada. “When I hear about any of our Atlantic Maritimes trips, the first thing that comes to mind is the friendliness of our people,” said Atlantic Tours president Richard Arnold. But the region also offers nautical heritage, delicious seafood, great wines and incredible scenic beauty — “all those things lead to us being a wonderful destination,” said Arnold. In New Brunswick, the city of St. John sits on the northern side of the Bay of Fundy, which boasts what some consider the world’s highest tidal range. The ocean floor is exposed during low tide and covered by 50 feet of seawater during high tide. The massive tidal shifts create another phenomenon: the Reversing Rapids. The St. John River empties into the bay, but the power of the ocean forces the river to flow backward during high tide, creating roiling rapids and whirlpools. The Bay of Fundy is also spectacular for whale-watching, with up to 12 whale species using it as their summer feeding ground. In Shediac Bay, the group will go out on a lobster boat to haul up lobster traps and eat their lobster dinner right on the boat. There are 10 National Historic Sites in Newfoundland and Labrador, including L’Anse aux Meadows, a Viking or Norse settlement dating to the year 1000, and Red Bay, the site of a 16th-century Basque whaling station on Labrador’s southern coast.

CROATIA’S ADRIATIC COAST

TRAVELERS CAN SNORKEL AT AUSTRALIA’S GREAT BARRIER REEF ON A TOUR WITH ANDERSON VACATIONS.

The Adriatic coast in Croatia has long been a favorite vacation spot for Europeans, but it’s just starting to catch on with Americans. There, U.S. travelers find a safe, picturesque place where everyone speaks English, said Sue Biggs, owner of Custom Holidays. “This is about scenery and history, and you get plenty of both,” she said. The company’s Croatia and Venice cruise begins in Dubrovnik, which sits on the southernmost tip of the Croatian coastline. Old Town’s creamy stone walls and matching buildings with red-tile roofs in Old Town are always surprising to visitors. A walking tour of the “Pearl of the Adriatic” includes stops at the Rector’s Palace and Franciscan Monastery’s Pharmacy. As visitors take a walking tour through Plitvice Lakes National Park, they explore several of the park’s 16 terraced lakes, and “you see a beautiful waterfall” around practically every corner, Biggs said. Farther north in Zadar is the city’s sea organ, which looks like a series of large steps down to the water; the steps hide tubes that allow air and water to flow into resonant chambers, essentially allowing the sea waves to play an ever-changing song. “You can sit there and listen for a long time,” she said. “It’s really, really special.” In the city of Split, groups visit the palace of the Roman emperor Diocletian. The massive historic ruins have been repurposed as an openair gathering place with courtyards, shops, buskers and street performers.

Courtesy Tourism Australia

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IRELAND

Ireland is a longtime favorite for people’s first foray into European traveling. The Irish have “such an affinity for America” because so many Irish emigrated to the United States, and the feeling is mutual; “some cities in the United States have larger Irish populations than some cities in Ireland,” said Sandi Pufahl, president of Fancy-Free Holidays. Many of her custom groups want to visit because they have Irish roots and want to learn more about their heritage. Pufahl starts her tours in Dublin, where it’s almost a requirement to visit the Guinness Storehouse. The building’s stories and exhibits are built around an interior atrium that’s designed to mimic a pint glass. After the tour, groups go to the top level, a circular glass level — again, like the rim of a pint glass — that gives a 360-degree panoramic view of the city with information about sites and buildings etched into the windows as part of the view. At Trinity College, the group learns about the Book of Kells, which contains the first four gospels annotated by monks and was found in a bog, and visits St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The group will enjoy a medieval banquet at the 11th-century Bunratty Castle. The evening includes performances of medieval songs by a harpist and singers wearing period costume, and a banquet of squab and roasted potatoes for which “you have to use your dagger and your fingers,” she said.

take your next tour somewhere

new

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

What tour doesn’t need to stop somewhere new to ensure an experience that’s fascinating, fresh and fun? In Oklahoma City there’s something new to discover on every corner. From our gleaming new downtown to the Old West at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. From a new appreciation of our spirit at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum to being welcomed like a new friend everywhere you go. Add us to your next itinerary and you’ll soon discover that around here, things are more than just new. They’re OKC new.

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A red carpet evening at the Sydney Opera House “is a great way to start or end your itinerary, depending which way you want to go,” said Vasil Vladinski, operations manager for Anderson Vacations, which offers a variety of itineraries in Australia and New Zealand. Groups can take a backstage tour followed by dinner and a performance. During a cruise in Sydney Harbour, the 56-passenger boat takes passengers to area beaches and a locals’ restaurant. Travelers can also climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge, where the “views are phenomenal,” he said. Near Queensland, the Whitsunday Islands provide the iconic Australian beach experience, and Cairns is a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, which people can explore in countless ways: in a helicopter, on a glass-bottom boat or in the water snorkeling, diving or ocean walking. Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, is a sacred place and a huge draw for cultural tourism. In Daintree Rainforest, groups can walk with an Aboriginal guide through their ancestral lands. Off the coast of South Australia, Kangaroo Island is a haven for wildlife where “everyone comes back and says, ‘I wish I had more time there,’” Vladinski said. In Rotorua, New Zealand, Maori guides use the thermal mud to cook a traditional hāngī meal, which travelers then eat for dinner. “Lord of the Rings” fans can visit the Hobbiton Movie Set near Matamata, and in the Waitomo Caves, living glowworms light up the walls. An overnight stay on a boat in the remote Milford Sound allows travelers to watch the sunset from their kayaks and discover waterfalls as seals jump all around their boats. 2018 TAP TRAVEL GUIDE

ON SAFARI IN KENYA

Going “on safari” invokes images of trekking in rugged terrain, sweating under a glaring sun and batting away unthinkable bugs. But Talbot Tours’ Kenya Safari Adventure is one of the most relaxing vacations you’ll ever take, said president Serge Talbot. The itinerary includes five game reserves: Amboseli, Samburu, Mount Kenya, Lake Nakuru and Maasai Mara national parks. Travelers stay in African lodges that rival American resorts and spend their days swimming, napping and reading between twice-daily game drives in the early morning and late afternoon. During each outing, travelers will see an “incredible variety of animals,” Talbot said. Guides, many of whom Talbot Tours has been using for more than 10 years, navigate six-person, pop-top safari vehicles through reserves where guests will spot lions, cheetahs, giraffes, gazelles, antelopes, elephants, baboons, wildebeests, zebras and more. At Sweetwaters Serena Camp, travelers stay in luxury tents that look directly across the game reserve; a fence keeps the animals separate. Serena Mountain Lodge is a four-story lodge built on stilts where every guest room, along with the dining room and lounge, overlooks

PUFFINS IN NEW BRUNSWICK

Courtesy Tourism New Brunswick

AN INDIGENOUS EXPERIENCE IN NEW ZEALAND

By Fraser Clements, courtesy Anderson Vacations

“WHEN I HEAR ABOUT ANY OF OUR ATLANTIC MARITIMES TRIPS, THE FIRST THING THAT COMES TO MIND IS THE FRIENDLINESS OF OUR PEOPLE.” — RICHARD ARNOLD

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an illuminated waterhole and salt lick. Guests can watch the “pecking order” as animals take turns arriving to drink, Talbot said. Travelers marvel at thousands of pink flamingos at Lake Nakuru; the trip also includes visits to a giraffe compound, a chimpanzee sanctuary and an elephant orphanage. But one of guests’ favorite moments is the Maasai Mara village, where travelers can interact with the tribe and the children. IRELAND’S DINGLE PENINSULA Courtesy Fancy Free Holidays

MAASAI WARRIORS IN KENYA

Before he was Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger was a boy from Germany’s Bavaria region, where travelers can learn about his life during Ed-Ventures’ Pope Benedict’s Bavaria and the Passion Play itinerary. Groups will visit Marktl am Inn, where Benedict was born in 1927, and the village of Traunstein, where he spent his childhood. The trip also includes stops in Freising, where he studied and later taught at the School of Philosophy and Theology, and at the Cathedral of St. Mary, where he was ordained in 1951. But the showstopper is arguably the Passion Play in Oberammergau, a production the town has been doing since 1634 after vowing to put on the play if God spared them from the bubonic plague. Townspeople now perform the play several times a week May through October during every year that ends in zero. Actors must be from the town or be a direct descendent of someone who is. “It’s in German, but you know the story,” said Shannon Larsen, vice president of operations and TAP partner for Ed-Ventures. “The drama is amazing. It hits you right in the heart.” Although the trip is popular among Catholics and other Christian groups, “there’s so much to see in Bavaria, you could take Pope Benedict off there and just call it ‘Bavaria,’ and it would still be a nice, cool trip,” she said. “Frankly, there’s a ‘wow’ every day.” Those wows include a visit to Salzburg, scenic views of the Alps and plenty of World War II history, such as touring the Eagle’s Nest teahouse, which was given to Adolf Hitler as a gift in 1933.

John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe

Courtesy Talbot Tours

POPE BENEDICT’S BAVARIA AND THE PASSION PLAY

A BUILDING IN OBERAMMERGAU, GERMANY

Explore headline-making FBI cases and learn how the bureau is fighting terrorism and cybercrime in this special update to one of the Newseum’s most popular exhibits.

NEWSEUM.ORG 555 PENNSYLVANIA AVE., N.W., WASHINGTON, D.C. TripAdvisor’s 2016 Travelers’ Choice Top 25 Museums in the U.S.

Courtesy Ed-Ventures

2018 TAP TRAVEL GUIDE

NAMES YOU’LL

KNOW

BY R AC H E L C A R T E R

FIND THE FAMOUS ON A TAP ITINERARY

rom the Black Hills to the Florida Keys, travelers can find the faces of famous Americans. More U.S. presidents have called Virginia home than any other state. New York’s Hudson Valley drew the magnates and tycoons of the Gilded Age. Boston was where the Sons of Liberty fomented the birth of the nation. Florida drew all sorts of notable names to its shores, and South Dakota is best known for the famous faces carved into its stone facades. These Travel Alliance Partners itineraries showcase some of the most influential people in American history.

HOMES OF PRESIDENTS

Thomas Jefferson was the third U.S. president. James Madison was the fourth. And groups will get an idea of how different the two Founding Fathers were while touring their 70

TWIN TRAVEL CONCEPTS TAKES GROUPS TO SEE KYKUIT, THE ROCKEFELLER FAMILY ESTATE ON THE HUDSON RIVER.

By Jamie Martorano, courtesy Twin Trave Concepts

2018 TAP TRAVEL GUIDE

Courtesy Twin Travel Concepts

A NORMAN ROCKWELL SELF-PORTRAIT

homes and estates during the Homes of Presidents and Virginia Byways itinerary operated by Mid Atlantic Receptive Services (MARS). “Madison was a very different person than Jefferson,” said Kate Scopetti, president of MARS. “You get kind of a different perspective of really the personalities of Madison and Jefferson, what they did together and how they communicated.” MARS customizes each trip, but most groups will tour Monticello, Jefferson’s home and mountaintop estate. The visitors center features a museum and a film that acclimates guests to Jefferson’s world before a shuttle takes the group to the house itself, which is filled with “things invented by Thomas Jefferson during his lifetime that are in use in the house still,” Scopetti said. Guests will see the slave quarters and the farmland and stop at the nearby tavern for a tour and “the best fried chicken in the world,” she said. Visitors can see where Madison and his wife, Dolley, lived at Montpelier in Orange, Virginia, and visit Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate. During a guided tour, groups will see the bedroom where the United States’ first president died in 1799 and the key to the Bastille that hangs in the main hallway. In Washington, D.C., tours include Woodrow Wilson’s house and President Lincoln’s Cottage. Other options in Virginia include Jefferson’s boyhood home at Tuckahoe Plantation and Washington’s cottage in Winchester.

ELANOR ROOSEVELT OUTSIDE VAL-KILL COTTAGE

LITTLE BIGHORN BATTLEFIELD

Courtesy Twin Travel Concepts

FAMOUS FLORIDIANS

Florida claims many famous people, from the original conquistadors searching for the Fountain of Youth to Ernest Hemingway and President Harry Truman. Wade Tours takes groups from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Coast and to the nation’s southernmost spot during its Florida’s Coastto-Coast itinerary. The nation’s oldest permanently occupied European settlement, St. Augustine feels like a European city. “We call it the oldest European City in America,” said Crystal DeLorenzo of Wade Tours. A trolley tour highlights sites including the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, the Oldest Wooden School House, Flagler College, Tolomato Cemetery and Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum. But one of the most popular stops is the Fountain of Youth, a 15-acre historic park; legend claims the park’s spring is the Fountain of Youth that Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León was seeking in 1513. In Sarasota, John and Mable Ringling’s Ca’ d’Zan mansion sits on the shores of Sarasota Bay. The Ringlings built the Venetian-style mansion between 1924 and 1926, and groups can tour it along with the Ringling Circus Museum and Museum of Art. The winter estates of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford sit on the banks of the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers. Guests can explore 20 acres of botanical gardens; nine historic buildings, including Ford’s winter home; Edison’s Botanic Research Laboratory; and the Edison Ford Museum. “It’s really pretty and very old-Florida with a lot of live oak and Spanish moss,” DeLorenzo said. As the Florida Keys continue to recover from damage from Hurricane Irma, Wade will continue to travel there, where a historic guided trolley

By Brandon Blackburn, courtesy NPS Photo

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tour highlights President Truman’s Little White House as well as Hemingway’s haunts, including his home and his favorite bars.

and the Crow Agency also provides guided tours. The tour also includes a stop at the Crazy Horse Memorial, an ongoing mountain-carving project that depicts the famous Oglala Lakota war leader and is designed to honor all Native American tribes.

MOUNT RUSHMORE AND CRAZY HORSE

More than 3 million people visit Mount Rushmore National Memorial every year, making it South Dakota’s top tourist attraction. But when groups visit, they often don’t plan enough time because “there’s really two parts to Mount Rushmore,” said Shebby Lee, owner of Shebby Lee Tours. During the day, visitors enjoy the viewing veranda and the ranger programs and take a flurry of pictures. But for the evening lighting ceremony, rangers lead a program about the meaning of the memorial, show the film “Freedom,” and ask active military and veterans to help with the lowering and folding of the flag before lighting the memorial. At Fort Abraham Lincoln, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s final command post, the group tours the rebuilt Custer home. Guides wear period costumes and lead the tour as though they’re servants in the home while Custer and his wife are away. “It’s more than a tour; you go back to 1874,” Lee said. “It’s absolutely wonderful.” At Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, groups learn about the infamous battle where Crazy Horse brought together tribes to defeat Custer and his army. Rangers often lead talks, but Little Big Horn battlefield sits completely within the Crow Indian Reservation,

ROCKWELL TO ROCKEFELLER

For Nick Calderazzo, president of Twin Travel Concepts, the three R’s have a different meaning: Rockwell, Rockefeller and Roosevelt. The company’s From Rockwell to Rockefeller itinerary takes groups through the Hudson Valley and the Berkshire Mountains to the Gilded Age mansions and country retreats of some of the nation’s most notable names. The FDR Presidential Library and Museum is a national park where the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt is better known simply as Springwood. Groups can explore the library and museum during self-guided tours, but a guided tour of FDR’s home “is fascinating because you really get stories of all the leaders of the day that came there,” Calderazzo said. Another Roosevelt stop is Val-Kill Cottage, Eleanor Roosevelt’s personal home, about two miles from Springwood. Though she lived at Springwood, so did FDR’s mother, and Eleanor “decided she wanted her own place,” Calderazzo said. “It’s a great tour because she was an amazing woman.” Kykuit is the Rockefeller Estate along the Hudson River that was home to four generations of the Rockefeller family, starting with John

Josh Duhamel

off-off broadway Off-off Broadway is on-on-on in cities across the state. North Dakota native Josh Duhamel enjoys one-of-a kind dining, shopping and entertainment in our vibrant downtowns. Share the fascinating cities of our state with your travel group. Visit us online to plan your next tour itinerary.

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Fargo Theatre, downtown Fargo

2018 TAP TRAVEL GUIDE

D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. A tour leads groups through the main rooms of the six-story stone house and into the gardens that are dotted with Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s sculpture collection. At the Norman Rockwell Home and Museum in the Berkshire village of Stockbridge, groups spend most of their time exploring the museum and Rockwell’s studio. Rockwell was famous for his Saturday Evening Post illustrations, and groups can see all the covers at the museum along with many of his larger pieces.

for his famous midnight ride before walking by the Paul Revere House. Many of the Sons of Liberty would gather at pubs along the Blackstone Block to plan the Revolution. There, travelers can eat at a culinary landmark: the Union Oyster House, America’s oldest restaurant. Guests will also learn about another pivotal but more contemporary figure in American history while touring the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. In the Oval Office exhibit, groups will see a rocking chair Kennedy used in his Oval Office and two photographs of his daughter, Caroline, that he kept on his desk.

SONS OF LIBERTY

Boston was where the United States of America began, and All American Tours’ Bean Town, Boston and the North Shore itinerary walks travelers through the footsteps of the people who shaped the nation. Groups will see some of the city’s and the country’s most important landmarks on Boston’s Freedom Trail either from the coach or during a walking tour. The Freedom Trail Foundation’s standard 90-minute Walk Into History tour features 11 of the trail’s 16 sites, and the threehour group tour covers all 16 sites, although visitors don’t go inside all of them. Either way, a costumed Freedom Trail Player guides the tour and talks about the significance of each stop. During a walk through the historic North End, visitors can stop at the Old North Church where the lanterns were hung to signal Paul Revere

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SOUTH DAKOTA’S MOUNT RUSHMORE

A FLORIDA FOUNTAIN Courtesy Wade Tours

Courtesy NPS

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YOUR

TICKETS BY R AC H E L C A R T E R

TAP COMPANIES DELIVER ON CONCERTS AND CULTURE

usic and art: The two go hand in hand when it comes to evoking a reaction, conjuring a memory or inspiring a feeling. Maybe people grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio or poring over a book of French impressionist works. Maybe they fell in love with Elvis Presley on the record player or studied modern art in college. Travel Alliance Partners (TAP) offers groups dozens of opportunities to encounter favorite arts attractions and discover new ones. The following TAP itineraries immerse travelers in culture, from contemporary art to country music.

ADVENTURES IN ART AND HISTORY

New York has the Met, Los Angeles has the Getty, and Columbus, Ohio, has a surprising number of art museums, collections, galleries and hands-on experiences to offer visitors. 74

GROUPS CAN HEAR LIVE MUSIC IN NASHVILLE HONKY-TONKS ON A TOUR WITH OREGONWEST EXCURSIONS.

Courtesy Nashville CVC

2018 TAP TRAVEL GUIDE

Courtesy Nashville CVC

NASHVILLE’S RYMAN AUDITORIUM

During the Adventures in Art and History itinerary offered by Joy Tour and Travel, groups will tour the Columbus Museum of Art (CMA), which recently renovated about 38,000 square feet in the original 1974 wing and expanded with a new 50,000-square-foot two-story building. The project allowed CMA to display more of it permanent collection, including some larger pieces and contemporary installations. Topiary Park is an outdoor park near the museum and is the only known topiary rendering of a painting, specifically Georges Seurat’s postimpressionist work “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.” There’s even a point where visitors can stand to get the right perspective and can reference a picture of the painting on a nearby plaque. In the Short North district, groups can explore 16 or so galleries, take in murals throughout the district and visit shops, restaurants, boutiques and bars. The district is also home to the Pizzuti Collection, the private collection of Ron and Ann Pizzuti, which is housed in a historic building. During a Coffee and Canvas session at Brandt-Roberts Galleries, people break into groups of four and each paint a quadrant of a canvas that hooks together in the back so that each person can take home a piece.

AMERICAN BANJO MUSEUM

Courtesy American Banjo Museum

MUSIC AND MORE IN TENNESSEE

Tennessee is home to two music meccas: Nashville, known for its country roots, and Memphis, home of the blues. That makes OregonWest Excursions’ Music and More in Tennessee itinerary a must for music lovers. In Nashville, guests take a backstage tour of the “new” Grand Ole Opry and its previous venue, the historic Ryman Auditorium. “They love all the history of the Grand Ole Opry because they may have seen that on TV or listened to it growing up,” said Tony Minden, owner of OregonWest Excursions. The group tours the Gibson guitar factory and visits the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, where “people don’t realize what’s there until they get inside of it,” Minden said. “Sometimes, they go back on their free time to see more.” While touring the Historic RCA Studio B, the group gets into the booth to record its own song, usually one of Elvis’ gospel hits. “We all get a CD at the end, which are pretty bad,” he said with a laugh. Memphis, of course, calls for a tour of Elvis’ iconic home Graceland, which “is on their bucket list.” The mansion and grounds also serve as a museum, preserving not only how the King lived, but also costumes and keepsakes from his career, and his gravesite. During a city tour of Memphis, a step-on guide from Backbeat Tours will play songs on a guitar as he tells stories about Elvis and the city.

CAJUNS, CREOLES AND GOOD TIMES ON THE BAYOU TOUR OKLAHOMA OPRY

Before visitors hear their first note of New Orleans jazz or taste their first bite of crawfish, the first thing they notice about Louisiana is “how friendly the people are,” said Rick Pharr, owner of CTN Travels. “People say hello and greet you and talk to you like you’ve been family friends for two generations,” he said. Visitors’ favorite part of CTN Travels’ tour Cajuns, Creoles and Good Times

Courtesy Centennial Rodeo Opry

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on the Bayou is a toss-up between the food, the music and the people. The foot-stomping music of New Orleans often has the distinctive sound of an accordion, which is likely a Martin. Melodeons, or diatonic button accordions, have buttons rather than keys like those on a piano, and Clarence “Junior” Martin has been making them for more than 30 years. Martin Accordions is a family-run business that’s housed in a large warehouse in Scott, Louisiana, just outside Lafayette. When groups visit, Junior; his daughter, Pennye Huval; and his grandson, Joel Martin, give a one-and-a-half-hour presentation that includes playing several types of music. “You can’t get ’em out of Martins; they would stay there forever if they could,” Pharr said of his groups. Guests also tour Oak Alley Plantation, which is like most English plantations in terms of scope; that’s countered by the colorful Laura Plantation, one of the few remaining Creole plantations. The trip includes visits to Louisiana’s Old State Capitol and the Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge, as well as a bayou swamp tour at McGee’s Landing, before hitting New Orleans.

BRANSON, BENTONVILLE AND BEYOND

In Branson, Missouri, travelers are inundated with toe-tapping, hand-clapping music. Then, in Bentonville, Arkansas, they are inspired by breathtaking works of art.

Between the two destinations, “not only are they getting the entertainment and the art, but they’re getting the scenery,” said Kim Vance, owner of AdVance Tour and Travel. Though subject to change, the current lineup in Branson includes Doug Gabriel, “The Dutton Family Show,” “No. 1 Hits of the ’60s (and ’50s Too!)” and Classic Country’s “Patsy Cline and Friends” show. The “Six” show features six brothers singing a cappella, and Doug Gabriel’s show, which “just blew me away,” Vance said. With upbeat tunes and lots of costume changes during “No. 1 Hits of the ’60s (and ’50s Too!),” “people come out dancing, and a lot of them say it’s their favorite,” Vance said. A new experience Vance offers that has been a huge success is Wine, Dine and Yacht With the Stars on the Landing Princess yacht. Entertainers from the itinerary come out for an hourlong wine reception aboard the cruise and mingle with the group. “Usually, we get a pretty good turnout — sometimes we get as many entertainers as group members,” she said. The group visits the modern white-and-glass Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, nestled on 120 acres of Ozark forest on the edge of downtown Bentonville. The museum displays as many as 500 of its several-thousand-pieces collection at any time, including two iconic portraits of George Washington. At the George Dombek Studio and Gallery in Goshen, Arkansas, the artist will greet guests during a reception and do signings, an exclusive experience for the group, Vance said. Visitors may be able to take a hands-on glass class or watch a demonstration at Terra Studios, famous for its “Bluebird of Happiness.”

S T A Y L A F AY E T T E Plan your escape to the Happiest City in America. 76

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OPRY TO OPRY

Say “opry,” and everyone immediately thinks of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. But there’s another opry in Oklahoma City: the Centennial Rodeo Opry in Stockyards City. During the Let’s Go Travelin’ itinerary Opry to Opry, people may focus on the Tennessee side of things — the Opry, Graceland, Historic RCA Studio B, and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum; but overlooking Oklahoma’s music contributions would be a mistake. The Centennial Rodeo Opry got its start as a backyard gathering of family and friends who loved to play and sing country music before becoming the Oklahoma Opry in 1977. The show moved into the historic Rodeo Theater in Stockyard City in 2002. Weekly Saturdaynight shows introduce new performers and bring back Oklahoma City favorites in a live music show that’s appropriate for all ages. The American Banjo Museum in the city’s Bricktown features more than 400 instruments and explores the history of the banjo, from primitive banjos built by African slaves to minstrel-age instruments from the mid-19th century to classical-era instruments dating to the late 1800s and early 1900s, and continuing with the bluegrass, folk and jazz genres. Groups can take a self-guided tour followed by a banjo recital or a sing-along performance in Your Father’s Mustache’s event room, which is modeled after a popular banjo nightclub of the 1960s. The Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame is housed in the Frisco Depot in Muskogee. Every year since its founding in 1997, the Hall of Fame inducts new musicians and has now inducted over 100 artists. The historic freight depot serves as a concert venue and often hosts perfor-

mances, including a September show by Milton Patton, the country singer from Season 8 of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.”

“YOU CAN’T GET ’EM OUT OF MARTINS; THEY WOULD STAY THERE FOREVER IF THEY COULD.” — RICK PHARR “SIX” IN BRANSON

ARKANSAS’ CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM

Courtesy AdVance Tour and Travel

DANCING AT MARTIN ACCORDIONS Courtesy CTN Travels

Courtesy AdVance Tour and Travel

your adventure begins at visitkansascityks.com | 913.321.5800

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TRAVEL ALLIANCE PARTNERS FEATURED TRIPS FEATURED TRIPS • THE BEST OF TEXAS: Discover the Hidden Gems of Texas

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Offering custom planned group tours for those wishing to expand their travels with the aid of a Burlington Trailways professional driver and a friendly, experienced tour host. TrailwaysTravel.com WWW.TRAILWAYSTRAVEL.COM

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CTN Travels begins in 28 year of serving a variety of group travelers. Customized group tours are our specialty. Groups of all sizes are welcome.

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JULIA BRYAN 800-668-6859

WWW.CUSTOMHOLIDAYSONLINE.COM SUE@CUSTOMHOLIDAYSONLINE.COM

FEATURED TRIPS • GRAND TOUR OF SICILY FROM PALERMO TO TAORMINA

RICHARD DURGAN 800-234-9959

• GRAND TOUR OF ITALY FROM VENICE TO THE AMALFI COAST

• NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

• SORRENTO FEATURING NAPLES, CAPRI, POMPEII, AMALFI DRIVE

DeNureTours is a Canadian company that began in 1960. Our vacations in North America, Britain and Europe feature a kaleidoscope of experiences designed to turn ideas and dreams into lasting memories.

Award-winning full-service agency with a focus on high-value European group tours with Italy a specialty. Our forte is to be able to customize a European Tour to meet your exact specifications for your expected number of travelers.

WWW.DENURETOURS.COM

JULIABRYAN@DENURETOURS.COM

FEATURED TRIPS • 2020 PASSION PLAY IN OBERAMMERGAU • BRITISH ISLES: SCOTLAND, WALES & ENGLAND

SHANNON LARSEN 507-289-3332

WWW.DURGANTRAVEL.COM

FEATURED TRIPS • EXCEPTIONAL IRELAND • DOWNTON ABBEY & ENGLISH CASTLES

RDURGAN@DURGANTRAVEL.COM

SANDI PUFAHL 800-421-3330

• CENTRAL EUROPE: GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, AUSTRIA & PRAGUE

• JFK 100TH CENTENARY ON CAPE COD

With decades of experience creating tours, Ed-Ventures has gained the skills and reputation for delivering top-notch customized group tours to worldwide destinations.

Guided Deluxe Worldwide Vacations since 1989. We are a family owned business and a Partner in Travel Alliance Partners since 2005. Members of NTA since 1991, CLIA since 1996 and ABA since 2010.

WWW.ED-VENTURES.COM

WWW.TAPINTOTRAVEL.COM

SHANNON@ED-VENTURES.COM

WWW.FANCYFREEHOLIDAYS.COM

TOURS@FANCYFREEHOLIDAYS.COM

TRAVEL ALLIANCE PARTNERS FEATURED TRIPS

“TJ” THOMAS B. MORGAN, JR 800-276-1528

• BEACHES OF ROCKY POINT, MEXICO • BEST OF THE BARRIO CUISINE TOUR

FEATURED TRIPS

JUSTIN OSBON 800-968-9161

• 15-DAY HEART OF EUROPE CIRCLE TOUR • 16-DAY HEART OF BRITISH ISLES TOUR

• TUCSON, UNESCO CITY OF GASTRONOMY

• 17-DAY WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL TOUR

Family owned & operated since 1916- we specialize in tours of the Southwest and Mexico, sightseeing tours, (culinary and local), and vehicles for charter from vans to state of the art motorcoaches.

Image Tours is a 3rd generation family owned and operated company specializing exclusively in escorted Europe Tours since 1939.

WWW.GRAYLINEARIZONA.COM

INFO@GRAYLINEARIZONA.COM

FEATURED TRIPS

GREG WINGHAM 513-777-8221

• RED CLIFFS ADVENTURE BY RAIL • LILACS & LEISURE ON MACKINAC ISLAND

WWW.IMAGETOURS.COM

JUSTIN@IMAGETOURS.COM

FEATURED TRIPS • RAILROAD ENGINEER: THE ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE

LEE DAHL 303-659-4858

• FALL COLORS ON THE SCENIC BYWAYS OF COLORADO

• ROCK -N- SOUL OF MEMPHIS

• YELLOWSTONE IN WINTER: A MAGICAL PLACE

Joy Tour & Travel has been developing exciting trips for groups since 1985. We serve mid to upper scale clientele with nice hotels that are 3 star or better and many inclusions and few options.

Experience the true Southwest. We offer unique, active and informative travel experiences. Our philosophy is to provide the best value and service possible.

WWW.JOYTOURS.COM

GREG@JOYTOURS.COM

WWW.LEISUREWESTTOURS.COM

LWT@LEISUREWESTTOURS.COM

FEATURED TRIPS FEATURED TRIPS

• SPRINGTIME IN THE MOUNTAINS: Ranch Relaxing and Biltmore Touring, • CAJUNS TO COWBOYS: Zydeco, Cowboy Cookouts, Cattledrives and Cowboys Stadium

• MOST INCLUSIVE ROSE PARADE EXPERIENCES • CAMAZING GIRLFRIEND GETAWAYS WINOS (Women In Need Of Spoiling)

LAURIE LINCOLN 800-300-6246

• OPRY TO OPRY: Oklahoma Opry to Grande Ole Opry

• MAJESTIC NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COAST

We are Peach Cobbler, Fried Green Tomatoes, Grits and Gravy.Golf, Music, History and Culture and more fun than you can shake a stick at. We love it all and we want to take you there.

From our innovative day and multi-day tours to our specialized Rose Parade and WINOS itineraries, we have provided our travelers with unique and enriching experiences since 1985.

WWW.LETSGOTRAVELIN.COM

JUDY JOHNSON 866-992-8784

JUDY@LETSGOTRAVELIN.COM

WWW.MAINSTREETEXPERIENCES.COM

LAURIE@MAINSTREETTOURS.COM

2018 TAP TRAVEL GUIDE

W W W.TA P I N T O T R AV E L .C O M

FEATURED TRIPS • FOOTSTEPS TO FREEDOM, FEATURING THE TUBMAN TRAIL, NMAAHC, MLK , MORE!

KATE SCOPETTI 800-769-5912

FEATURED TRIPS

TONY MINDEN 503-585-3979

• AN EAST COAST SWING, NYC, BALTIMORE, PHILADELPHIA, LANCASTER, GETTYSBURG

• CIRCLE OREGON • JOURNEY UP THE KITSAP PENINSULA FEATURING VICTORIA, WHISTLER & VANCOUVER BC • SAVANNNAH CHARLESTON & THE GOLDEN ISLES OF GEORGIA

Mid Atlantic Tours and Receptive Services operates hundreds of hand crafted, custom tours for groups traveling to Washington DC, NYC, Virginia, the Mid Atlantic Region, and the World!

Our tours are designed with a “love of discovery”. We include upscale accommodations, exciting and unique attractions. Our Tour Directors are professional and experienced, to ensure everyone has fun.

• WASHINGTON DC, CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL WITH HOMES OF THE PRESIDENTS

WWW.TAKEAFUNTRIP.COM

FEATURED TRIPS • CUSTER STATE PARK BUFFALO ROUNDUP • LEGENDARY NORTH DAKOTA • LEWIS & CLARK TRAIL

MARS@TAKEAFUNTRIP.COM

SHEBBY LEE, CTP 605-343-4852

TONY@ORWEST.COM

FEATURED TRIPS

STEVE EVERIDGE • CANALS, CASTLES AND CRUISE: NEW YORK FINGER LAKES 800-572-3303 • NASHVILLE COUNTRY CHRISTMAS AT THE OPRYLAND HOTEL • HOLLAND TULIP FESTIVAL

Journeys of Exploration and Discovery. Explore the West where legends live. Enjoy magnificent western parks as you’ve never seen them before with special insights provided by experts in the field. WWW.SHEBBYLEETOURS.COM

WWW.ORWEST.COM

SHEBBY@SHEBBYLEETOURS.COM

A tour operator based in Staunton, Virginia, offering superior escorted tours throughout the United States and Canada since 1972. Quality vacations at value pricing with a personal touch. WWW.SHENANDOAHTOURS.COM

SHENANDOAHTOURS@COMCAST.NET

LLC

FEATURED TRIPS • MIGHTY 5 SALT LAKE CITY

JASON MURRAY 800-970-5864

FEATURED TRIPS

KEVIN MURPHY, CTP 800-951-5556

• KEY WEST, MIAMI & THE EVERGLADES

• GRAND CIRCLE EXPERIENCE

• FERRIES & TOWNS OF PUGET SOUND

• TRAIL OF THE ANCIENTS

• NEW YORK CITY: BEYOND BROADWAY & THE BRONX

Receptive Tour Operater focusing on adventure, scenic, and photography tours throughout the Southwestern US. Small Group Experience from 1 to 25 customers. Private and Custom Tours also.

Our company prides itself on creating memories through unique experiences with many options. Our groups are smaller in size enabling us to provide more personalized service and individual attention.

WWW.SOUTHWESTADVENTURETOURS.COM INFO@SOUTHWESTADVENTURETOURS.COM

WWW.TAPINTOTRAVEL.COM

WWW.SPORTSLEISURE.COM

KEVIN@SPORTSLEISURE.COM

TRAVEL ALLIANCE PARTNERS FEATURED TRIPS MICHAEL COLDESINA 800-662-4424

• BASEBALL HALL OF FAME INDUCTION WEEKEND • PRO FOOTBALL ENSHRINEMENT WEEKEND • MULTI-DAY BASEBALL ROAD TRIPS

MIKE@SPORTSTRAVELANDTOURS.COM

FEATURED TRIPS

ANDY HILLARD 800-779-4869

• THE BIG E (EASTERN STATES EXHIBITION) • A NEW TWIST TO MACKINAC

We own and operate an award-winning fleet of deluxe motorcoaches, including a tour division that provides fully escorted travel packages for both individuals and groups throughout the United States. INFO@TRISTATETRAVEL.COM

FEATURED TRIPS

Talbot Tours offers groups, individuals and families exceptional values on tours, cruises, and international destinations. Fully escorted and independent travel services. WWW.TALBOTTOURS.COM

INFO@TALBOTTOURS.COM

FEATURED TRIPS • HAUNTED, THROUGHOUT NEW YORK: GHOSTS, ASYLUM, WINE AND SURPRISES!

NICHOLAS CALDERAZZO 917-575-6600

CRYSTAL DELORENZO 800-955-9233

• FROM ROCKWELL TO ROCKEFELLER: ROCKING THE BERKSHIRES & HUDSON VALLEY Always thinking of something new, quirky and surprising, our tours are custom-designed to your tastes and budgets. NY City, The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic are home. TWINTRAVELCONCEPTS.COM

FEATURED TRIPS

NICK@TWINTRAVELCONCEPTS.COM

SHAWN HORMAN 800-532-2113

• MYRTLE BEACH SPRING SPECTACULAR • EXPLORE MICHIGAN FEATURING MACKINAC ISLAND AND THE UP

• THE YELLOWSTONE EXPERIENCE • CANYON COUNTRY EXPERIENCE

• CAPE COD…..THE LOVELY ISLAND OF NANTUCKET

• CALIFORNIA RAIL TOUR

Wade Tours & Travel, a family owned business since 1926, serving the Northeast offering single & multi-day tours across the continental US and Canada with our fleet of modern state-of-the-art coaches.

Western Leisure is a full service receptive tour operator specializing in custom group tours to the National Parks of the west and along the Pacific Coast.

WWW.WADETOURS.COM

• KENYA SAFARI ADVENTURE • COSTA RICA

• VERMONT & NEW HAMPSHIRE IN JUNE: LOCAL EXPERIENCES, JUNE BLOOMS

• A SPECTACULAR SOUTHERN SPRINGTIME

WWW.TRISTATETRAVEL.COM

SERGE TALBOT 800-662-9933

• SAN FRANCISCO, WINE COUNTRY & MONTEREY

We offer Baseball Road Trips, Spring Training, Hall of Fame packages, Major Sporting Events and can customize packages to fit your schedule and budget. WWW.SPORTSTRAVELANDTOURS.COM

FEATURED TRIPS

CRYSTAL@WADETOURS.COM

WWW.WESTERNLEISURE.COM

INFO@WESTERNLEISURE.COM

2018 TAP TRAVEL GUIDE

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Exchange Bank of Missouri FAYETTE, MISSOURI TRIP: Savannah and Charleston TOUR OPERATOR: Advance Tour and Travel DATE: May 2014 The Exchange Bank’s VIP Travel Club reveled in the Southern hospitality of Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina. “In Charleston, the Magnolia Plantation gave us beautiful sights and smells, while our visit to Fort Sumter resulted in many conversations on the bus about the Civil War. Of course, a trip to Savannah would not be complete without dinner at Paula Deen’s restaurant, and it did not disappoint. Thankfully, we were in a private room, since lots of laughter was erupting from our group. We jam-packed this itinerary, and our travelers definitely felt like they got their money’s worth.”

— PAMELA PLATTNER, LEADER OF THE VIP TRAVEL CLUB

Averett University DANVILLE, VIRGINIA TRIP: Rhone River Cruise TOUR OPERATOR: Vantage Deluxe World Travel DATE: June 2015 For 12 days, alumni from Averett University made their way through France along the Rhone River. Guests enjoyed immersing themselves in the authentic culture at vibrant French communities such as Lyon, Avignon, Tournus and Viviers. “The local guides were especially interesting, as they shared their knowledge of and love for their towns. One highlight was an excursion to the Burgundy wine region, where we attended a brief lecture and tasting. In Viviers, we climbed to a cathedral atop a mountain and listened to a beautiful organ concert. The crew and staff onboard provided an exceptional voyage.”

— LARRY WILBURN, GROUP LEADER AND RETIRED ASSOCIATE DEAN

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INCLUDED

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When you Choose Collette to guide your travelers through America’s National Parks, you can be sure they won’t miss a single natural wonder. Our passionate and knowledgeable Tour Managers will be with them every step of the way to discover the vast treasures to be found out in nature. The wonders of the world await.

days spent surrounded by

nature

Grand Canyon

Offer the world to your travelers with journeys to all seven continents. Call 800.762.5345 now or your local Travel Agent to learn about our booking discounts! CST# 2006766-20 UBN# 601220855 Nevada Seller of Travel Registration No. 2003-0279