by Anne Bourke, June 2014
In May I was fortunate enough to escort 20 Tasmanians to Europe. For the majority of the group it was their first trip to this area of the world so the itinerary was designed around them having the opportunity to visit the areas that I feel are the highlights and with 30 years of experience in the travel industry felt confident in my choices. We travelled for a period of 28 days and during this time visited London, including a day trip to Oxford, Paris, Southern France (St Remy de Provence and Nice), Italy (Santa Margherita de Ligure, Cinque Terre, Portofino, Venice, Florence and Rome).
We were very fortunate as the weather was superb. Only one day of rain in Paris and five days of good weather in London – which is unheard off. They had the opportunity to experience all modes of travel including the Eurostar, local trains, underground, coach (private 52 seater coaches with only 21 passengers, window seats for everybody!) and the TGV from Paris to Avignon.
Since our return we have already had a catch up with hundreds and hundreds of photos being shared among the group. I have been thrilled by their feedback with comments like “cannot think of anyway you could have altered the itinerary to improve it”, “all hotels were superb and incredibly central”, “couldn’t travel with a nicer group of people and not only had an experience of a lifetime, now have made a new group of friends”.
There were many highlights on this tour but I personally really enjoyed lunch at the Eiffel Tower on the 1st level with magical views of Paris, dinner cruise on the Seine, the countryside of Southern France… I could keep going and going as there were so many!
I find it a very rewarding experience escorting a group and offering clients the opportunity to travel to areas that they possibly would find difficult to travel to otherwise. I would personally like to thank the group for being so much fun, easy going and such a great crew to travel with.