113. Escorted Touring is a Luxury Travel Experience

Group travel gets a bad rap, but it can actually be a total blast. In this episode, I’m busting the biggest myths about escorted trips and showing you why it might just be your new favorite way to see the world. We’re talking luxury travel perks, stress-free planning, and built-in adventure buddies. Plus, I’ve got the scoop on why domestic travel is having a major moment this summer!

Connect with Michele on IG: @jetsettingwithmichele or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/MMTinsiders

Contact Michele to plan your next vacation: www.makinmemoriestravel.co/contact

This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com. 

Transcript

Hello jet setters and welcome back to another episode of Jet Setting with me. Today I am going to talk to you all about group travel and I plan to shatter the biggest myths about them and reveal why it just might be my new and yours favorite way to explore the world. But before I do, next week is July 4th. Yikes. That happened quick. Believe it or not, Mr. Sitting With Me and I are still planning our annual get out of the Texas Heat escape for the week of July 4th. Which means it is not too late for you to do the same.

Just this morning an article came across my desk discussing how low airfares are overall. Scott Keys, he's founder of a travel app called Going says, and I quote, we're actually calling it the Golden Summer of Cheap Flights. Okay, back to escorted group travel. I may have perpetuated a few myths about escorted group travel in episode 94 where I did cruising versus touring. Which luxury travel experience is right for you? I may have inadvertently poo pooed the group travel in favor of cruising. My personal biases got in the way. But I'm here now with a huge mea culpa to escorted group tours because I have now had a phenomenal group travel experience. I recently got to go on a Globus tour of Utah's Big five National and there were one state park in there, a place I definitely couldn't have gotten to on a cruise.

It's interior, land based, mountains, desert. It was perfect for this kind of domestic travel. Now I do want to point out, as I said, airfares are low and that is good for both international and domestic travel. But man is domestic travel hot for the summer. And I don't mean the temperature, I mean it is hot. The trend, the thing to do is to stay, stay here in the US that does include Alaska and Hawaii and travel domestically. So this trip, it was like a VIP pass to a really immersive, very stress free, seamless adventure. And every single moment was tailored for extra fun and discovery of what makes this country so incredibly beautiful.

There was effortless planning and peace of mind. I mean everything is done for you. The transportation, check. Accommodations, check. Sightseeing, check. And by that I mean like entry fees and reservations are all made. For example, if you wanted to go by yourself to Arches national park, you probably couldn't get in. But we and Globus in that case secures reservations, reservations so far in advance.

And believe me, I heard what they spend on it every year. It's a chunk of money, but they take care of it and so it's all done. Most of the dining is included, breakfast every day, most dinners, and a lot of times because we were in the park, lunches were included too. Everything was perfectly organized. Like we would always know what to expect so that we could focus entirely on the awe inspiring cliffs that we were seeing and enjoying the experience without worrying about logistics. I mean, we didn't even have to worry about refreshment breaks on the road. We just knew they were coming up and they were always going to be at a stop where there was a restroom, a place to get coffee and or sodas and snacks and I mean they were awesome. P.S.

they also usually had very inexpensive souvenirs which I mentioned when I talked about. Well, I'll get to that episode that I talked about in episode 109, but I'm going to tell you more about that in just a second. So our guide met us on the first night at our welcome dinner and that was the last moment we had to think about anything was finding the ballroom where the welcome dinner was the next day. We met our driver in the morning and the two of them worked in such synchronicity to make our dinner days seamless. The transitions from the bus to the hotel to the sites and for meals and then back to the hotel and back to the bus the next morning. It was literally flawless. I mean, our guide would go over every detail as many times as we needed to hear it to make sure it was in writing. I mean, it was everywhere.

It was incredible. Another perk about escorted and group travel is the curated experiences, but with local insight. You know, I am always telling you, I've told you in episode 109 for sure about avoiding tourist traps and finding hidden gems that one of the keys to that is talking to the locals. Well, our tour guide, he had been with the company for 30 years. He might as well have been local because he has been to all of these places a multitude of times and because he knows so much and he is so good at it. He does the similar tours of Utah's big five national parks. He does one that goes by in conjunction with Rocky Mountaineer or Alaska Railway. I can't remember, I'm getting confused.

But anyway, he does ones that go up into the Canadian Rockies, like 13 day tours, like he is amazing and, and all of the guys with Globus have worked an average of 30 years, like incredible. So the expert guides and the insider access you definitely can't get on your own. So if you are looking like me, I always love to dive Deeper into the culture, history, the unique spots, you get that authentic, enriching experience that goes beyond that surface. I did talk about this a lot, as I just said on episode 109, about how to avoid the tourist traps and finding the hidden gems. Every guided tour that you take, it's going to be unique to the people on board the bus based on the questions that they ask and the things that they want your guide to focus on. But it's all memorable. So like I said, our guide just went beyond. So apparently, and I didn't know this until this trip, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

And I'm not talking about Paul Newman and Robert Redford, although up until the beginning of this trip, which was the beginning of it was May. It was the end of May. It wasn't that long ago is what I'm trying to say. But up until that trip, the only thing I knew about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was what I had seen in the fictional movie with Robert Redford and Paul Newman, which PS still has one of the best movie lines of all times. Don't worry, the fall will kill you kids. Google it, watch the movie. It's super good. And those are some handsome looking men that star in it.

Anyway, I digress. That was the squirrel moment for this episode. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid did a lot of of living up in the Utah area where these parks are located. Like I believe it was Bryce and Arches. They were very familiar with those backcountry roads. And so we had a two hour drive one morning and so our guide put on a 45 minute, I mean, way to Eat the time documentary about the real life Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and how they pulled off their raids, how they knew the areas and the back areas, the true history and even talked about how I think it was Butch. I don't think it was Sundance. I think it was Butch actually maybe didn't get hung in Bolivia and actually lived in Arizona and married and didn't commit more crimes and died out of a heart attack when he was like 76 or something.

So food for thought. But aside from all that, our guide still knew the wildlife we would see out our windows and he would tell the driver and they would talk about it and the driver would then go away where we might see more wildlife. He knew every flora, every fauna. He even knew the populations and the ghost stories of the small Utah towns located outside of the gates of the national parks. It was incredible. Okay, another myth about group tours that I'm sure I perpetuated means that you have no freedom or spontaneity. So that is not true. I learned for myself there is flexible free time and customizable options inside of that tour.

You will get the perfect blend of expert LED sightseeing and the freedom to explore on your own. For example, one morning I chose to stay behind. I'm sad to say I didn't really care about a Utah state park. It was the national parks I was really interested in and I had work to do and I was getting really stressed. So I stayed behind. I got to do my work, but I also got to grab a coffee at the local cafe and go shopping for the perfect souvenir. And oh my God, I love it. I also mentioned that on a previous tour that I'm never taking off that sweatshirt and short set that I bought.

It's so comfy. So you can linger longer at a museum. If you're willing to take a Lyft or an Uber back, you can find that coffee at a local cafe. I know. I also mentioned that when you talk to the locals, they can recommend a restaurant and that a couple of us went and saw sunset off the cliffs based on a local dinner recommendation. So you will have freedom and spontaneity. Now you will also make new friends. When we went to that dinner, there was five of us.

Now, I did happen to be traveling with friends on this trip, but my best buddy was someone else entirely. Everyone on the trip shared all those photos in a photo circle so that we could all make sure we all got the best of the photos. Like I said, we would share lots of meals and we of course were sharing this wonderful experience together. So this is a great idea for solo travelers because you're going to make plenty of friends along the way and you are never going to feel alone. I promise. Now, Globus Small Group Discovery has a maximum of 36 people on the bus and that's on their classic tours. They actually do smaller tours with no more than 24. And if there's 10 of you who want to travel together, solo or partners, then you can do your own thing.

But we were all on a brand new bus, had WI FI on it and we were with like minded travelers who share our interests and our pace. So it was a very social atmosphere. It was just a lot, a lot of fun. Now one thing I know I mentioned when I was talking about this trip on an earlier podcast was it wasn't my idea of a luxury hotel. There were no luxury hotels located outside of these particular national parks. They're more like, you know, western rustic towns. There are actually luxury camping sites, but as you know me, that gives me the ick. I managed just fine in the very clean, very conveniently located.

There was good food, there was good service, there was great shopping and we had porterage at each site thanks to Globus. So our luggage seamlessly went from the bus to the hotel, back to the bus again. I felt like I was having a luxury experience even without the trappings of the beautiful hotel. But it depends on your budget. Just like you can get on the ship with an inside cabin, there really are tour types of every shape and size of traveler. So yes, luxury travelers like me who want to do the premium tours. You want to stay in the mostly five star hotels which are close to the city center. I can help you locate those.

But let's say you don't care. If you're five minutes out of the city center and maybe you have one four star hotel instead of all five, then you can save money and I can help you find that too. And actually right now, if you are willing to travel on the shoulder seasons, Globus just announced. I went to the webinar yesterday. That's how fresh this is in my memory. Like an extra 500 per person, 1,000 per couple. For places like Ireland, where they have these global escapes and they're on the shoulder season, they're on the regular buses with the regular wi fi, they're at great hotels and they're at a savings of basically like half off what you would pay to do that trip in the summer. So.

So if anybody wants to look into going to Ireland this November, I am ready. Willing bags can be packed and we can go next week. As I mentioned at the very beginning of this podcast is July 4th, so I will be playing my annual July 4th fireworks special. And if you've already planned your July 4th trip for this year, it'll help you for next year. Until then, happy travels.