I have once again been remiss in posting my reviews as I
have been so busy with my homework. I now
have 5 restaurant reviews, 3 pairings and 3 tastings to type up in the next few
days. Plus wine 3 wine stop reviews to
boot. See I told you I have been doing a
lot of studying.
On top of my studying I have been working on business plans. I met a very nice couple yesterday, and to my
bad I did not get their names, so sorry.
We were discussing one of my goals and so I thought I would put pen to
paper and express it.
The end goal of all of this studying is to get into doing
tours of Europe a couple times a year. I love travel, food, wine, photography and
architecture. I love planning trips that
fulfill the dreams of the people going with me.
Here is a short (well longer then I thought) look at what I
do and will do for a trip using my next trip to Vienna & Venice as an
example:
1. I study the area
of travel completely. I have 18 books on
Vienna & have been to Venice so many times now that I don't need the 20
books that I do have.
2. I write up a list
of the attractions to see, and add a link to each site on a spreadsheet. Vienna has 108 locations that are named in
the 18 books.
3. I write up a list
of the top restaurants in the cities we will visit, I get this from not only
books but reviews on the internet. I am
a huge TripAdvisor user. I am still
working on this one for Vienna. Venice
is where ever my friends that live there take me.
4. I research hotels
that are in the area and pin them to my Google Earth map along with all of the restaurants
and attractions. This way once #5 is
done I can chose which hotel is the best for the activities we will be doing.
5. When the list is
complied I send it and a detailed questionnaire out to my guest. This way each person can chose what they want
to see. Majority will rule, but I will
leave time in the schedule so people can do things on their own if they
wish. Or if the group just wants a
roadmap on what to see, they can do that too and we can all do things on our
own.
6. The questionnaire
I have tells me a ton about you. Things
like likes & dislikes, allergies, preferred room arrangement, goals of the
trip, budget goal and how you prefer to travel.
7. Once the questionnaires
and list have been returned I make a master list and start planning the trip in
a logical sequence.
8. I have learned the
hard way that I have to give up the first 2 days of a trip to jetlag. I am the energizer bunny but some others are
not. So I will plan that the plane
arrives around check in time so that there is no issue with having to have the
luggage stored or not getting the shower you really need after 24 hours of
travel. The first day is basically check
in and dinner with a night walk of the city if you are up to it. Day two is just an acclamation day with maybe
a lunch and tour of a big attraction then dinner and free time after. But after that, the schedule goes nuts. I have a detailed spreadsheet (ask any of my
friends, they laugh but they love it) that shows every minute (actually every 5
mins) of the day from waking up & shower time to turn out the lights. I note the transportation schedules, with
departure & arrive times for 30 mins on either side of our need, I mark all
the reservations and the attractions that we will see and how much time we will
spend. (I base the time duration on my research and suggestions from the
attraction websites), I try my very best to make sure that everyone gets to see
what they want with the time allowed. Once the schedule is done I send it out for everyone's
review and comment. Again, people can
follow the schedule or just take the day off if they want. The price is based on what you want to do,
not on what I say we do. See pricing
below (#12).
9. The dates I like
to travel are the two weeks that start the Saturday of Memorial Day & Labor
Day as you get an extra day of vacation because you don't have to count the
holiday. These dates also are usually on
the mid season rates and not the high season, which saves a ton of cash. I also like to do two weeks as you get a
bigger bang for your buck when you look at the per day cost. This is because of the airfare.
10. I keep my group
size small, 8 people including me. On
special request I could go larger but that would be up for discussion with the
rest of the group.
11. I plan one night
at a Michelin starred restaurant. You
are welcome to join me or you can skip this dinner if you want, I love
expensive good food. For other meals I
plan only 2 a first night and last night dinner, again you can join me or not I
will just want to know ahead of time for reservations. The rest is at your choice. I have the restaurant list for when we are
out touring and we can decide to eat together or not. If not you can use the list and find a place
you like and then just met at the next spot for the next attraction. I do this because of my allergies; I don't
expect my guest to have to comply with what I can and can't eat, so I like
giving options. The other reason, is the
24/7 with the same people, it is really nice to just have time to yourself, or
have a romantic dinner alone if you want.
12. Pricing is simple;
you pay for what you request. I do a
detailed budget based on the schedule. Then
you can pick and chose which items you want based on your budget. If you want VIP rooms great I will book them
for you, if you want to fly first class great I will reserve that for you as
well. There are some things that I can
get cheaper with group pricing so I always work that out to see if we have
enough people to go. My budget always
includes what cash/credit you need to bring for food, shopping and other
things. So to say that I have a set
price for the tours is not correct, you set the price. I like to travel in a different manner then
others might like to, so I like this option the best. Again we don't have to spend 24/7 together,
if you want a hotel that is on the other side of town because it is cheaper or
more expensive great that is why I have the questionnaire so that I can tailor
the trip to your dreams.
When I do post a trip details here in the future I will give
a general idea of what the low end budget and the top end is as well. To just give you a basic idea of what my
trips cost me, my last one to Venice, Northern Veneto and Amsterdam which
included 1 night in Venice (this room was spendy $1400 for the night see view below it will explain the cost), 6 nights
at a farm house in the Veneto and 2 nights in Amsterdam. We had cooking classes for 4 days, a wine
class, 4 winery tours, plus a ton of shopping & sightseeing. Air fare was expensive at the time, over
$4,000 for two of us to fly in economy comfort (which I strongly advise if you
are not doing business or first). The
total with all of our food & shopping (and we do a lot of that) was $13,000
for two of us. But $1,000 of this was
the 3 cases of wine we sent home. If you
take out the wine and reduce the room down to a reasonable $400 it would have
been about $11,000. Take out the air
fare and that is $3,500 a person or $350 a day for everything else.
 |
| Morning in Venice |
 |
| A room with a View |
With all of that said what do you have to pay me? Well that
would be anything that I have to pay for up front like admissions for a group
rate or tour guides or classes. The
hotel and airfare you would pay direct, you need to earn those air miles so you
can go again. If you don't want the air
miles, you can pay me and I will take them gladly. Big smile face! Then there will be a small fee for my help
and guide services. I am still working
out this number but it won't break your bank as I would rather have you have a
great time then worry about money. Because
I do it this way you pay for everything yourself once in country. You have to be really good at budgeting the
money you bring, or have really good credit limits..... ie for shopping.
Here are the trips I have scheduled for now. Drop me an email at
torchdancerstudio@hotmail.com if would like more information when it becomes available.
Sept 3rd to Sept 19th 2016 Vienna & Venice - Wine, Food
& History- Trip full
Sept 19th to Oct 3rd 2016 Venice, Veneto & Florence - Wine
& Culture- 7 spots open
May 27th to June 5th 2017 one of the wine regions of France,
still working on this one - Wine & History. 6 to 7 spots open.
Sept 2nd to Sept 18th 2017 Northern Spain from Barcelona to
Bilbo Wine & Cooking classes- 6 spots available.
