When The Traveling Professor develops and offers a small group tour, they are carefully researched and planned. Rarely are tours from other companies looked at, but rather, The Professor looks at his own philosophy regarding traveling with a small group of travelers:
Small Groups: That means 8-14 travelers. There are instances where larger groups are warranted as in the case of a Small Ship Croatia Cruise. Sometimes it works out for our Peru, Machu Picchu and the Amazon with perhaps as many as 16 or 18 people. But for the most part, we like to keep our tours in the 8-14 traveler range. We looked at Rick Steves tours. Their group sizes can exceed 25 travelers. Collette tours advertises their "small groups" with up to 24 travelers. Road Scholar "boasts" of a small group size of up to 24 persons also. We have solo women travelers, senior travelers, and couples.
Programmed Itineraries with Free Time Too: We like to see and do a lot. However, we provide travelers with plenty of "free time" to pursue activities on their own. For instance, when traveling to Austria, travelers have the opportunity to attend concerts on their own. In Iceland, some travelers like to go whale watching. In Croatia, some people like to go wind-surfing. In Norway, some like to go bike riding in the Flam valley. In Italy, some travelers might want to eat at a very special restaurant. We provide plenty of opportunities for travelers to pursue activities they want to do on their own.
Hotel and Lodging Selection: For the most part, we only select well-located 4 and 5 star rated hotels. We also put a lot of thought in selecting hotels. For instance, in Venice we pick the 4-star American Dinesen hotel because of it's canal-side location and exceptional value for a 4-star hotel in Venice. In Peru we select top-rated lodging like the luxury but excellent value Inkaterra Amazonica, which provides the absolute best Amazon experience. Who wants to go 2nd class in Peru? Not us and not you. The Brooks Hotel in Dublin could not be better located. We have had a special relationship with them for years and it is a great value too. Le Chateau Frontenac is part of the experience and we would not think of staying anywhere else in Quebec City.
Smartly Planned Itineraries: What goes into a good itinerary? We have found that a relaxing breakfast with a start time of about 9 or 930 am works well for our clients. We put on the itinerary things everyone wants to see like the Duomo in Florence or Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. But we put things on the itinerary that we have found fascinating like Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, a privately owned not open to the public bunker in Normandy, the special Fridheimar hydroponic tomato farm experience in Iceland. Instead of taking a bus to the Isle of Skye in Scotland, we take the absolutely stunning rail journey. We find some companies won't offer this to clients because it adds a few dollars to the cost of the tour. But we carefully select experiences that greatly enhances the trip for perhaps only a small cost.
We Don't Like to Move Around a Lot: Imagine being on a tour with 5 hotels over 12 or 14 days? The unpacking and packing can wear you out. Although it's not possible on all tours (like Ireland, for instance), we try to keep the number of hotels to a minimum. For instance compare our Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands itinerary to this one.
Solo Traveler Friendly: One of the things we are most proud of is we have built a community of travelers. There are many instances where people have met on our trips who travel together again either on a Traveling Professor tour or on their own. We always have several solo travelers on our trips and we are happy to tell you how many solo travelers on our trips so that you won't feel like the only single. And when we don't have a group reservation for lunch or dinner, solo travelers can always be guaranteed to have a dinner reservation made with other solo travelers on our tours, if that's what they want. Many of our travel friends are women travelers and we welcome them.
We Don't Include Lots of Meals: Breakfast is included at all hotels. But not always lunches and dinners. We find travelers like to eat when they like to eat and what they like to eat. We always have great recommendations in each place we go to, but we don't lock you down into touristy restaurants that only take big groups. We do organize group meals in some cases like when we are traveling on the road or in a situation lends itself to a group meal.
No Big Busses: It is very cost-efficient for those larger groups to travel by coach. We like to feature scenic and enjoyable scenic rail travel on trips like our Norway tour, our Christmas Markets of Montreal and Quebec City tour, our Venice and Northern Italy tour, and our Scotland tour. When we do need to use bus transportation for tours, it is a luxury touring class vehicle that holds up to 16 people. We get you to those places the big bus tours can't get you to.
Cost: Let's talk about cost. Compare Rick Steve's Best of Scotland Tour starting between $5195 and $5495. Our Scotland tour is $4999. Tauck offers a week in Scotland for $5990. Road Scholar's 18-day Ireland tour starts at $7299. We have a small group 14-day Ireland tour for $5499. It is important to note that although these other companies are reputable and they run good tours, we think our quality and value compare very favorably to theirs. Our costs are always lower, but we feel they are a great value for what you are getting.
Other tour companies run good tours, there is no doubt about that. But we think our Small Group Tours by The Traveling Professor is the best kept secret in small group travel.