Booking an Active Tour

August 10th, 2010

I received an email today from Eloise, who just returned from a hiking tour in Mt. Blanc with her husband and daughter. I met the three of them when I was helping guide a Fit Health Into Life trip in Tucson for the company run by my girlfriend Devon.

Eloise

I was in New York last week, unfortunately for a funeral, and met a very outgoing and enthusiastic gentleman, Mark, who was catering the post-funeral event for his company, Mark of Excellence. Mark mentioned he wanted to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and when I told him I had just been, asked my advice.

Just a few days ago, we purchased the Inca Trail Pass for Liz Miller, one of our long-time US-based guides. Liz will be guiding our Peru Trek in October.

How do these three events relate? They all have to do with you, if you are planning to book an active tour.

Eloise, who booked her trip to Mt. Blanc in France with a US-based company on a private trip with just the three of them, had a terrible guide and thus a terrible time. In their words, the guide “never asked us any questions about our fitness or hiking ability, in fact he did not ask me what I do for a living till the 5th day of the trip. He never seemed to really want to engage with us. At dinner he was always very quiet, rarely adding anything to the conversation, and never providing information on the next days hike, unless we asked. For that matter, never asking what we thought of the current days hike, what we liked, didn’t like, challenges, was it what we expected.”

The guide was local and was an excellent trail guide, he just wasn’t an excellent trip leader. In New York, I told Mark he could travel to Tanzania and I would put him in touch with a couple of local guides he could use to climb the mountain safely and cheaply. I also told him we would be running a trip up Kilimanjaro in late January and he jumped at that idea.

And in Peru (or soon to be there), our October group that will hike on a practically unused alternative Inca Trail is a small group of only seven travelers. Our local guide, Santiago, is incredible and we discussed having him lead the group alone but ultimately decided to send Liz along.

The moral of these three stories? Know what you are getting when you book a foreign trip. Eloise’s guide in France is probably a nice guy with his friends and a solid trail guide. The problem is, he did not get along with or know how to take care of his American customers. And he clearly wasn’t trained to be a trip leader. Many American companies simply subcontract their work to local companies, without even sending a US guide along.

Mark, from New York, could spend less money and hire a local Tanzanian guide but might run into the same problem. He quickly made the judgment to go with a company like Zephyr Adventures to ensure his vacation is excellent. And our seven travelers in Peru will have the benefit of both Santiago, our local expert, and Liz, our American guide who is trained to make sure their needs are met, their questions are answered, and they have someone from our company to communicate with.

Make sure you make your vacation an excellent one.

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Private Group Travel

May 24th, 2010

Over the years we frequently have been approached to create private tours for a group of friends, a social organization, or a business. When these work, they are super fun. 90% of the time they don’t work because they the group never gets organized.

American Women of Berkshire & Surrey

American Women of Berkshire & Surrey

Earlier this month I ran two private group tours in Europe. The first was a Provence biking tour for the American Women of Berkshire and Surrey, a social group of American women living in the London area. This group has traveled with us for three years in a row and while the group members change each year, the trip is always fun. The Provence tour followed on the heals of an Umbria, Italy tour in 2008 and a Rioja, Spain tour in 2009.

Our group of 16 plus Zephyr’s Italian guide Giovanni and me had a super time. This was a special group, with a couple of women (thanks Amie and Janell) who were infectiously fun and most of the rest of whom willingly joined in the frivolity. Four of the group (Dee, Cynthia, Linda, and Amy) had traveled with us for all three tours and so were the veterans who kept the group together.

St. John's Wood Women's Club in Umbria

St. John's Wood Women's Club in Umbria

The second group tour was for the St. John’s Wood Women’s Club, an organization in a different area of London that is similar to and heard about Zephyr via the American Women of Berkshire and Surrey. This group traveled with us for the first time this year and 20 women plus Giovanni and I did a five-day biking tour in Umbria.

This group was also unique, in that everyone was strong on the bike. We rarely had to use the van for shuttling at all and most of the women completed the Medium route each day. This despite threatening rain on a few occasions. I spent two enjoyable days biking long route loops with a handful of riders, once to the wine town Montefalco and a second time on a hill loop near Spoleto. This common ability level is unusual on our tours and is a product of the private group.

Biking to Montalcino on the Long Route

Biking to Montefalco on the Long Route

Of course, it is no surprise why these trips tend to be extremely fun. The participants all know each other and have a common thread. In this case, both groups were women in their 40s and 50s. They arrived ready for a good time.

What many in the groups don’t know is I spent months working with a key organizer from each group to set up the trip, pick a date, and create a page for the tour on our website. The organizer, Dee for the first group and Kelly for the second, then had to spend many more months promoting the trip to the club members via email, newsletters, and personal conversations.

In short, it is a lot of work organizing a private tour. And this was for two groups that succeeded in lifting off. Most group organizers never get past the stage of emailing a few friends to gauge their interest. The simple fact is it is difficult to get people on the same page as far as timing, destination, and cost for such a tour. It takes an organizer is who is committed and, well, organized to make a private tour succeed.

So what is the lesson for you, a potential organizer of a private tour for your friends, for your upcoming milestone birthday, for your business customers, or for your next family reunion? First, we at Zephyr would love to have you join us on a Private Adventure. Second, be prepared to spend time and effort getting people to join you!

Posted in Biking, France, Italy, Private Trips | No Comments »

I Love Europe

May 9th, 2010

I love Europe. I often think I probably should have been born a European rather than an American. It is not that I don’t love the United States but just that I seem to fit better into the European style of living and thinking.

Regina MargheritaI am in my hotel room in Ponte San Giovanni, Italy, on my final night of a one-month European trip before I fly home tomorrow. It has been an excellent trip, in which I ran three fun biking tours (two in Provence and one in Umbria) but it is time to go home. I miss sleeping in my own bed, having a beer with my friends, and watching a movie while snuggling with my girlfriend Devon. But missing home doesn’t detract from the joy I have had in spending another month in Europe.

Let me explain to you why I love Europe by describing my final evening here in Italy. I walked across the street from my hotel into a residential neighborhood, full of high-rise apartment and condo buildings that seemed, at first glance, to have zero appeal. However, at 8:00 in the evening on a Sunday night the place was alive with people. Young boys were playing basketball in a school courtyard, teenagers were flirting with each other in the park, and families were sitting down to gelato or a pizza. There was a distinct sense of community.

I was aiming for dinner and sat at an outdoor table at the local Regina Margherita pizzeria, whose owners proudly proclaimed they were from Naples. Using my pidgeon Italian, I found out that the menu was pizza and only pizza. However, when I asked about the pasta I was craving, the owner suggested “pasta arrabiata”, which has a spicy tomato sauce with garlic, red chile flakes, and Italian spices. When I asked about a salad, the very nice man had to ask the cook, his wife, what she could create – it was not normally on the menu.

Ultimately, I had one of the best pastas I have ever eaten. The pasta itself was soft, delicate, almost luxurious. The sauce was delicious, full of garlic and spices. I made the error of asking for Parmesan cheese before even trying the pasta but the Signora explained to me pasta with arrabiata sauce didn’t need cheese. She was right.

Coupled with a basic salad and the house red wine, this was one of the best meals I had in my month in Europe. It is exactly why European, and especially Italian, life appeals to me: it is simple and yet meets all one’s needs, plain vanilla and yet as delectable as one can get. I’ll be back.

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Provence, Volcanoes, and Travel Insurance

April 23rd, 2010

I am sitting in my hotel room in Avignon, listening to the sounds of an accordion player trying to make a living and watching locals and tourists alike stroll through the ancient streets of this stupendous town.biking in Provence countryside

Provence is wonderful and we are on our last night of a six-day bicycling tour. The days have been filled with fantastic riding; visits to wineries, a specialty cheese shop, and an olive oil mill; and wandering through fantastic small towns including Chateauneuf du Pape, Gordes, and Saint Rémy-de-Provence. At night we enjoy long, three-course French meals accompanied by Provencal wine of the local area.Local Provence Market

The only disappointment, for our three tour participants, my co-guide Giovanni, and me, was that out of our group of 11 planned participants, eight had to cancel at the last moment. One injured himself playing volleyball a week before the trip and the other seven were all stranded in the US, unable to find a flight to Europe because of the Iceland volcano that erupted and closed almost the entire European airspace.

Six of the eight were alumni and I had been looking forward to enjoying Provence with good friends who are also Zephyr travelers. Of course, the greater disappointment was theirs and I was sad the eight were not able to join us on what is an excellent tour.

bike parking while wine tastingGiovanni and I are staying another week in Provence and have a private group of 17 American women who live in England joining us for a bike tour. This is their third trip with us and I know they will be impressed with the area.

We will plan another trip to Provence next spring and I hope our eight travelers will be able to join us then. If you are interested in moderate biking (with some nice optional long routes), excellent food and wine, and historic sites, consider joining us. My only suggestion – book travel insurance! You never know what might get in the way of your travel plans.

Market photo courtesy of Giovanni Ramaccioni.

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Customer Focus Versus Company Focus

April 8th, 2010

You might have heard that Spirit Airlines just announced they will be charging fees for carryon bags. Yes, that’s right – carryon bags.

airlinecartoonIn a spin-laden press release, the airline says “In order to continue reducing fares even further and offering customers the option of paying only for the services they want and use rather than subsidizing the choices of others, the low fare industry innovator is also progressing to the next phase of unbundling with the introduction of a charge to carry on a bag.”

I don’t know anything about Spirit Airlines but I do know they likely aren’t using this to lower fares and that this has a decent chance of being adopted by other airlines soon. It has nothing to do with pleasing customers and has everything to do with increasing revenues. It is an excellent example of what I call “Company Focused Service”, which is what many companies prefer to Customer-Focused Service.

The travel world seems particularly beset by such companies. We all know airlines are trying to survive by charging to check bags, board the plane earlier, or even using on-board toilets. Upscale hotels have practiced Company Focused Service by charging “resort fees” for use of swimming pools or fitness facilities.

The worst, however, are car rental companies. This started with their insistence on customers paying extra for car insurance, even though many renters have such insurance through their own auto insurance policy or via their credit card. It progressed to gasoline charges, in which they deviously offer to let you return the car on empty for a “lower price”, even though we all know it is almost impossible to return a car completely empty and more times than not you will leave too much gas in the tank to justify this option. And the newest unscrupulous practice is when a car rental agency hands you the keys to a car that is half filled with gas. That means 1) they didn’t bother to fill up the tank, even though the previous customer probably got reamed for returning the car less than full and 2) you, the customer, now have to worry about trying to fill the tank to the exact right amount, or worse, driving enough miles to use up the gas you already put in!

All these examples are just ways for the company to make money at the expense of the consumer. And the only way they work is because the consumer basically has no options. Car rental companies, airlines, and even hotels are essentially oligopolies – industries dominated by a few players. We measly consumers have few choices when deciding whom to fly from Minneapolis to Baltimore, which car rental company to use in an airport, or which cell phone company to pledge two years of our lives to.

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