Zephyr Blog

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. [caption id="attachment_168" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="American Women of Berkshire & Surrey"][/caption]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...

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. I 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...

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. 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. 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...

You might have heard that Spirit Airlines just announced they will be charging fees for carry-on bags. Yes, that's right - carry-on bags. In 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...

I just wrote a check to pay our 2010 dues for The Conservation Alliance. The alliance is a group of outdoor industry companies whose motto is "Outdoor Business Giving Back to the Outdoors". We have been a member of this group for at least five years and each year we simply write a check that goes to the alliance's coffers. That's all we do. The cool thing about the group, though, is that 100% of the donated funds goes to support local conservation efforts in the form of grants to non-profit groups. Recent grants have gone to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Colorado Mountain Club, and the National Parks Conservation Association. 34 grants in total were given out last year. Even cooler, our little annual contribution is multiplied tremendously because the Conservation Alliance has a...

I received two messages from Zephyr Alumni recently I wanted to share with our blog readers. The first was from Tony Santucci, who most recently traveled with us to Tanzania, and who referenced a Yahoo News story titled Study: Happiness is Experiences, Not Stuff. The gist of the article is we humans tend to receive greater happiness from engaging in experiences, be they a trip around the world or a dinner with friends, than we do buying material items. Now to me, that seems obvious. It was interesting, however, that the difference stems in part from our tendency to second-guess our purchases of "stuff" (Did I buy the right HD Television?) and our lack of second-guessing when we purchase "experiences". The conclusion from an adventure tour operator? Don't wait! Book your next vacation...

As an adventure travel company, one of the things I have always said is "we only run active tours". No bus tours for me, thank you. However, I must admit our two African safaris stretch that a bit. In Africa, we run a "hike, wine, and safari" tour that is absolutely incredible.  And just last month in Tanzania we added a five-day safari to the back end of our Mount Kilimanjaro trek. Now, safaris themselves are amazing. I am a pretty jaded traveler, having seen many places and sights around the world, but I can truly say a safari is a top-five experience of a lifetime. The thrill of seeing animals in action, the beauty of being in the great African outdoors, and the joy of discussing each day's sightings with your fellow safari participants is something everyone should experience...

Two of my favorite countries suffered tragedies within the last month. Peru was struck by massive flooding in the beginning of February and Chile just experienced a massive earthquake followed by a tsunami. The flooding in Peru was in the news mostly because almost 1000 travelers were stranded at Machu Picchu due to washing out of the train line. The travelers were rescued, the train is under repair, and the Inca Trail was untouched. The real tragedy, however, was the devastation to villages and fields in the Sacred Valley, which is low-lying land along the Urubamba River. In Chile, a massive 8.8 earthquake hit off the coast of southern Chile. This was followed by a tsunami that wiped out several villages along the coast. The death toll as of this writing has reached 799 people and the...

... followed by a hell of a slog. I promised Zephyr's Facebook page fans I would give this blog post that name and it does more or less reflect our experiences on Mount Kilimanjaro. Ten hardy Zephyr alumni joined our first-ever trip to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. We all met in Moshi, Tanzania after a very long flight via Amsterdam on KLM. Tanzania was hot but the Kilimanjaro-brand beers were cold and the view of the mountain from our hotel windows was outstanding. Our route was the seven-day Lemosho Route, which to me is the best route of six up the mountain. Most people take either the five-day Marangu Route or the six-day Machame route but the Lemosho Route provides days of fantastic trekking with few others around and a more gradual ascent of the mountain. In fact, I was...

Two posts about food in one week? Unheard of for me but true with this post. Some of you might know we have co-organized the Wine Bloggers Conference for two years and in 2010 also will be co-organizing the International Food Bloggers Conference with our partners at Foodista. Perhaps I have food and wine on the mind. This past weekend I was in Solvang, California to serve as a judge for the first-ever Firestone Chef Challenge. This cookoff was part of the Firestone Discoveries campaign in which a winning chef and a winning consumer Pathfinder would both travel with us to Peru on our April 17-25 Inca Trail Trek. Wow. What an amazing weekend. First off, there were three positive, outgoing, fun Pathfinder candidates: Kim Kuchycki, Lotchana Sourivong, and Margie Tosch (who provided some of...