A little bit about us...
Our names are Jason and Melanie. We have been planning to take our family on an epic traveling adventure since our children, Quinn and Elowen, were very little. We wanted to broaden their world view through travel. We had traveled as a couple (before kids) to Thailand and the Caribbean. Jason had been to the Philippines and Melanie had visited Romania. We began taking the kids on vacations that fit within the typical American vacation schedule of approximately one week including US locations, Mexico, and Belize. We paired those vacations with summer camping trips with friends, holiday visits to family, and hiking. But this tour kicked off our largest and longest adventure yet; a 55-day adventure through Europe, including 10 countries and countless cites.
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"Travel is more than the seeing of sights, it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of the living." Miriam Beard
Melanie had been dreaming of visiting Ireland for years. Jason's co-workers raved about Italy. When we started our travel planning, we decided that we wanted to start our trip with a Rick Steve's Tour. Our goal was to have a guide ease our way into independent travel. Quinn and Elowen helped us choose which tour to pick and each told us their top country to visit and most important sites to see. Elowen (13) wanted to visit France, eat crepes, ride a red double decker bus in London and see as many castles as possible. Quinn (15) wanted to see trains and go deep underground in a slate mine in Wales. We chose Best of Europe 14 Days tour, because Melanie was more comfortable planning travel through Great Britain and Ireland rather than Italy and France.
"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live" J,K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Why we chose a Rick Steve's Tour
Rick Steve is our local celebrity, so we were familiar with his tours and guidebooks. He had visited Elowen's classroom virtually during Covid. We had watched his travel videos and we liked what he had to say about his philosophy of travel and the value of his tours.
1) Value by pooling together a small group to share travel costs of the bus and the local guides.
2) Unique experiences with local meals and family run restaurants.
3) Centrally located, small family run hotels and guest houses.
4) Educational guides. The tour guide prepares the group for each location with a few local words, some important social expectations and relevant history or fun facts. The local guides provide in-depth knowledge about their city and sights.
5) Active tours. We appreciate the city center walks and hiking opportunities (in the free time). We didn't sit around in hotels waiting for the action to come to us. We wandered the streets seeing the local population, admiring the sights and architecture.
6) Small tour group. I have to admit that for our family of introverts, 24-28 people still sounded big, but we quickly grew comfortable with the group. Our group was sometimes split into 2 smaller groups with the local guides. I appreciated that we were able to do things that some of the larger groups we saw were not able to do. We were small enough to have extra space on the bus and small enough to fit family-owned restaurants and small enough to fit in most small guest houses.
7) No grumps policy. We were apprehensive signing up to spend 2 weeks with 20+ strangers. It was reassuring to know that the tour company has everyone sign their behavior expectations. The people we met were great! It was a joy to travel with this group and it was sad to say goodbye at the end of our 2 weeks together.
1) Value by pooling together a small group to share travel costs of the bus and the local guides.
2) Unique experiences with local meals and family run restaurants.
3) Centrally located, small family run hotels and guest houses.
4) Educational guides. The tour guide prepares the group for each location with a few local words, some important social expectations and relevant history or fun facts. The local guides provide in-depth knowledge about their city and sights.
5) Active tours. We appreciate the city center walks and hiking opportunities (in the free time). We didn't sit around in hotels waiting for the action to come to us. We wandered the streets seeing the local population, admiring the sights and architecture.
6) Small tour group. I have to admit that for our family of introverts, 24-28 people still sounded big, but we quickly grew comfortable with the group. Our group was sometimes split into 2 smaller groups with the local guides. I appreciated that we were able to do things that some of the larger groups we saw were not able to do. We were small enough to have extra space on the bus and small enough to fit family-owned restaurants and small enough to fit in most small guest houses.
7) No grumps policy. We were apprehensive signing up to spend 2 weeks with 20+ strangers. It was reassuring to know that the tour company has everyone sign their behavior expectations. The people we met were great! It was a joy to travel with this group and it was sad to say goodbye at the end of our 2 weeks together.
© 2023 Melanie Martin. All rights reserved.