The Andante Experience

Great Minds Think Alike

Connecting with other people who are as curious, interested and enthusiastic as we are is an enriching experience. We all share the same sense and thrill of discovery. Oliver Gilkes, who has led hundreds of our tours, sums it up by saying that "the very best times are what we call Sistine Chapel moments. That point when a spark of understanding flies between the viewer and the past. You do not have to dig things up or find them in a dusty archive to experience those moments of discovery, they come at all levels. Merely standing in the forum at Pompeii taking in its measure or being awed by the impressive antiquity of Göbekli Tepe can be enough to connect you to the past. Visiting these places together gives everyone the chance to be involved in this act of discovery, too”.

INCLUSIVE, INFORMAL AND FUN

Andante guests are some of the most interesting people you could care to meet. Meal times are never solitary, days are never dull and evenings are delightfully companionable. As interests are explored, friendships are made, many long outlasting the duration of the tour.

We could publish a book with all the beautiful, heart-warming and often moving letters of thanks we have received over the years not only from those who have fulfilled a long-desired ambition but from those who have simply just had a really great time.

Totally Devoted To You

To enable our Guide Lecturers to focus 100% on guiding, informing and entertaining, our Tour Managers and Local Guides work unobtrusively in the background, ensuring that things run smoothly. These engaging individuals bring a different expertise to the party and are devoted to your comfort and well-being. They will wait in queues to obtain entry tickets ahead of your arrival, stay in reception after you have checked just in case you need anything, help source reading material on the sites you are seeing, take around a map on longer journeys so you can mark your progress, ensure there is plenty of water on board and produce treats at that opportune moment.

Individual Liberty

We may travel as a group, but we always respect the individual. We build time into our site visits wherever possible to allow our guests the freedom to explore and make discoveries of their own.

There are no name badges, roll-calling, unnecessary shouting, umbrella-waving or whistle-blowing on Andante tours! If you want to spend some of your time sketching, writing, meditating or settling down for a coffee and a chat with new friends, we are the travel company for you.

Solo Travellers

Escorted tours are a fantastic solution for solo travellers because not only can you leave all the organising to someone else, you can head off on your trip safe in the knowledge that you will travel as part of a group and among individuals who share your particular interest.

Our expert-led tours are inclusive, informal and fun, and Andante guests are some of the most interesting people you could care to meet. Travelling in a party of people who share your interests is an enriching experience and friendships are quickly formed, with some lasting for decades.

Over half our guests travel solo and many tell us that single supplements across the travel industry - including our own - are just too high. We listened and have negotiated hundreds of places on a selection of tours with zero or 50% off the single supplement. There are a limited number of these spaces available, so book early to secure them.