#10: Personalized, Private-Guided Journeys

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Welcome to dream vacations with laurie and greg shuss. IIf you love to travel, our team of travel advisors are here to help you plan that special vacation, whether it's a cruise, a tour, a resort, or even a luxury villa. We bring the best vacation experts on our show. So sit back and enjoy today's podcast from Dream Vacations. 

 welcome back listeners viewers charlie mcdermott co-host producer of the show once again here with half the team anyway greg how you doing I'm good charlie thanks for having us again today for this great podcast that we do with you unfortunately laurie is with a client today she's a little tied up, but I'm glad to be here and I have a guest with me today you. This is Amy Graham from Kensington Tours. She is director of Southeast Sales. And we're just so happy to have her here today. She's going to tell us all about private, personalized, guided tours. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome

I mean, hey, it's the dream vacation podcast, but this is my dream time. I love guests like you, Amy, who share, allow us listeners and viewers and myself to dream about what I should be doing my next vacation. So let's start with, fill us in, Amy, on what you would consider the differences between a personal tour and a group tour.

 Awesome. Well, I'm fresh back from Amsterdam as of two days ago. So I'm a little dreamy vacation mode, which we all need. But I like to just say our luxury and when we're working with our private guided travel and what makes us different is These, you know, the luxury of having private guide, it really is a dial into what you're looking for when you're looking for travel. Right. We all have a list of something that we want to see or what are we trying to achieve on this trip? And, you know, is it is it heritage? Are you looking for a certain play or a certain museum? So for me, going back into Amsterdam and the Netherlands and. I really wanted to trace some genealogy. So the benefit of that private guide is that he could dial it in towards what I was looking for. He's not trying to appease, you know, 10 other people that are with us. He's really just focused in on what we're looking for as, you know, a traveler. So whether it's good food or if you want to do a certain thing. a timeframe that maybe, you know, you like to sleep in because you're on vacation and you don't want to start any tours till 10 p.m. or 10 a.m., then that's really where that private guiding comes in. You know, sometimes for us, if you get to a port or you get to a big bus tour, you know, you're really just trying to, everybody's got a different plan for that day. And so private guiding, we're going to really dial into what you're looking for. For me, it's usually a good meal or a good museum or something that not everybody necessarily is going to be interested in. So very, very customized, it sounds like. Yeah, I like to say the luxury that, you know, the luxury to travel is not something that everybody gets to do. So regardless of where you're going and if you're moving your body internationally or domestically, that's a luxury. But to really dial it in and And they're, you know, it's their first time to Europe and there's a storybook that they read. We're able to really dial it into the ground level instead of a more topical level of trying to go with the bigger crowds. So how about then? Go ahead, Greg, we're going to. Well, I was just going to say, we're seeing more and more of that these days. We have clients call us and they don't want to take a standard tour. They don't want to be on a bus with 40 people. They don't want to have to do all these things at a scheduled time. And maybe some of the things that are included in that tour are not things that they're really interested in. Again, we're getting a lot more clients calling who want customized tours, who want to see certain things and do special things in certain places. We work exclusively with Kensington Tours and someone like Amy to make sure that we can fulfill those requirements that they have for these trips. That could include all kinds of different things. We get all kinds of different requests like, They want to do a special wine and food tour in a certain part of Italy. And if I call Kensington and hook up with one of their advisors, we're able to do those kinds of things. But because it's a custom tour, we can only work with someone like Kensington Tours. I got a good one for you, Greg. Last week, we had a young lady that had traveled with her father, and we had booked with her travel advisor that she wanted to play the violin in four different camps, four different villages in Africa. She had YouTubes and villages and she figured out where she wanted to go and she provided us the villages. We got her a private guide and she and her father went and played her violin for her graduation gift. That was her graduation gift for last year was to go and play the violin in four different villages in Africa. So that's not necessarily something that a group of 10 people are putting a trip out there for. Right. Not everybody's looking for that same fulfillment of that bucket. So this really allows you to dial it in. So great. You know, you want a private guide in the museum or maybe it's a cooking class or a private tour. But there really is that enrichment travel level that touches on that. you know private guide and what can we really bring to the table when you're looking for that ground experience so I thought that was a special one and I always say also like Netflix is the best thing for our industry because now people are looking at genealogy they're looking at people want to become gladiators now anime is massive for Asia or for Japan so there's all different things that the kids are watching that the parents get to fulfill now Wow. Wow. So, Amy, are you able, so using that trip to Africa or any trip, you know, we all, we don't know what we don't know. And we get into the middle of the trip and all of a sudden we want to do something else. Like, are you able to change plans on the fly during the trip? On a dime. I always say you get to the destination, you know, your travel agents book you this beautiful resort and then you get there and you like have a full schedule of like museums or tours. Then you look at the beach and you're like, well, maybe I just want to be an hour late. I want to go jump in the beach first or I want to go jump in the ocean or maybe you're just tired. Right. Sometimes flying over the pond. affects us differently. So yeah, the great thing for this is you're able to stop on the drop of a dime. I had a client last week say that, you know, they were doing wine tastings and they passed a craft beer brewery and he was a beer person. So his wife and he were able to stop with our guide and actually get some beers in between the beer, the wine tasting. And so, or maybe you just want coffee. For me, I want to stop and get a coffee. I was up in Thailand on the North side and there was a beautiful coffee farm and So I was able to stop there, but having that private guide gives you that benefit to even change it. Maybe you're just not feeling well, or maybe your kids are hungry and you want to make a quick little stop. So this gives you the ability to really have that driver, that experience, or maybe it's something they want to show you that, that you didn't even know existed. So yeah, on the drop of a dime, everything is, you know, done curated to you the day of. Very cool. How about does Kensington Tours cater to a specific travel style like adventure travel or luxury experiences? I always say the hardest part of our jobs is where do we go? I always say it's where don't we go? It's kind of how do we get there, right? We want to be where maybe an eighth of the big groups are. So where the herds are, we're trying to really stay back and really immerse ourselves in the destination and the culture and the food and all the components that go into making you know that you're in that destination for a reason. So we do do some travel styles. Like we have family travel, which caters to more of the children's with children. traveling with the adults that want more triples and quads so that it can accommodate them in a room. They don't have to have multiple rooms. Or maybe it's like we have a scenic drive that I say that's for like the, you know, you hit your midlife crisis trip and you want to rent a Porsche on the Autobahn. So we source out all of that for you. We do a yachting and villa. So for the people that are not necessarily wanting to be on a big cruise ship, we have yachts for them. And then we do some genealogy tours. So it's more or less how do we travel as opposed to just one demographic of travelers. We do a lot of multi-generational. So we see that age coming down every day. Really just the person that's looking, you know, I always say these are milestone journeys. So it's not like you're just going to go sit by a pool. These are something you're going to come back and say when Greg and Lori went on their 50th, you know, anniversary, they were, you know, in Spain and they were having the best tapas and Cava wineries and things like that. Yeah, you know, if I could just share something from one of our clients that we just set up a tour with. with Kensington for a couple that on their bucket list, they wanted to do Australia and they wanted to do two weeks there. And they had all kinds of requirements. They wanted to do a food and wine thing. They wanted to do a bike tour. They wanted to do sailing. So working with Kensington, we set up this two week tour for them. And I came back and I said, well, how was your trip? How'd you enjoy? And I just want to read you what they wrote back. They said, uh this was a dream vacation for us it was truly perfect we cannot say enough about how well this trip was planned and executed down to every single detail we have traveled extensively in the past but this has to be the best vacation ever this is a testament to how well you listened to us and selected hotels and adventures that suited us perfectly also same goes for the tour guides especially the biking adventure all of them went above and beyond to personalize our tours and we made new friendships along the way thank you again for a dream vacation so amy again I have to thank your staff for working with us and just making such a great vacation for our clients Thank you. We really do have an amazing team. I think we really just want to see the clients come back and be storytellers, right? Like the whole reason why we travel is to feel changed. And so working with Greg and working with Laurie has been incredible because if they can give us, you know, what are the clients looking for, then we'll take that and just run with it and multiply that, hopefully just leaving them, you know. flabbergasted, which is our fun part. We get to do the easy part. We get to tell the stories. So, Emmy, what about types of travel, transportation? What's included with a custom tour? Yeah. So how do you like to travel? That's always, I always say to me, I do pretty well on my own. Like if I can get down to luggage and baggage claim, I can have the guide meet me there. But if maybe you are a bit of a nervous traveler, we have what's called angel assist where they can meet you as soon as you're off the aircraft. We can deplane with you. We can do a private where we drive out to the actual, to the aircraft and pick your clients up or pick you up as a traveler. But then we also have fun things for like the train. Maybe you want to try the train. I always say Switzerland is one of the best ways to see the back country of Switzerland by train. So we can angel assist you so we can walk you to the platform with your bags. We all know the stories, the Europe trains don't wait. And so we're there at least to hold your hand and get you on that train and make you feel a little bit more secure. And just, you know, sometimes it's maybe a big trip. for some, and some haven't traveled abroad as much as others. So maybe it's just that little bit of insurance you need to get you there on time, but we also do self-drive. So we do Norway. We have some where we'll route you around and the guide will meet you and take you to the restaurants and to the different experiences. And then we do a lot of the national parks where you could drive yourself, or we could have the guide meet you in the park. So there's really, and then, I mean, we do a lot of disability travel, which it's, funny. We don't think about these things unless you actually need to utilize it, but where the actual seats face the proper way so that you're, you're not getting cars sick. Cause maybe you're in a wheelchair or maybe you don't have the same mobility as everybody else in the vehicle. So we like to be in sprinter vans, which are comfortable, less than 10 passengers. So if it's your family of eight, that's one car. If it's your family, it's larger than we'll get two cars. And then we'd use a lot of sedans and I mean, just luxury, um, there's nothing worse than being in a smelly car and having a sightseeing. Yeah, so our transfers, our touring is all done in a luxury style vehicle. Our opportunities to pick you up from the airport and get you to your hotel on time, or maybe we're dropping you off at a ship. Those are all done in luxury vehicles as well. Nice, nice. How about qualifications? What kind of qualifications and experience do your destination experts have? And how do they work with travel advisors like Greg and Laurie? So that's a great question. So we're actually a pretty large company. We continue to grow with our ground team. So what our true client is, is luxury travel advisors. So we don't look at, you know, we guide clients, but really it comes down to working with Greg and Lori and expecting them to know who's a better fit for Kensington, right? Some people that are looking just to go and sit at all inclusive. Those aren't going to necessarily be our travelers. Our travelers are pretty... you know looking for that experience and so we expect greg and lori to understand that and to bring us the clients that want that experience and what I love to hear is when I was I was in prague in december and the guide said you have the best travelers and to me that just gives me the same compliment greg would have given me about you know our guides he's picking out the right travelers that are looking for that immersive experience So our guides, which are a very, very, I mean, we vet them. Some of my guides have been with us 18 years, our drivers. I have multiple husband and wife couples that drive together or they split the, you know, they split the one's a guide, one's a driver. And yeah, they're career guides. When I sat in training with Kensington a year back or so. we had a historian that we came, he was an Egyptologist from Egypt who was now our destination expert who's planning these trips. And Charlie, if you said to him like, Hey, how's the weather in Florida? He would have said, well, in Egypt, it's really great. Cause really his brain is always in Egypt, right? What did you eat for dinner last night? Well, in Egypt, they had this. So what he breathes and what he sleeps is Egypt. And so he's going to give you the ultimate experience. You know, I had another destination expert I was working with last week and Her clients, the agent's clients are going to Ghana with us. And she said, I couldn't get a hold of the hotel. So I sent my cousin over there to go and tell him to get back to her. Just because the on-ground team is so important to have, right? So, you know, you're not calling a call center that's not actually from the destination. These are career guides. English is their probably fourth language, but they do speak English, yes. But they're also just career-oriented, family-loving. They're selling their heart and their soul because this is their home. So it sounds like these destination experts are... Egypt is a great example. If Egypt's on my bucket list and I'm only going to spend a certain amount of time there, I want to make sure I see and do all the great stuff there. It sounds like you have... destination experts that specifically know that region and can help me with everything I want to know about that region versus like a generalist. Is that what I mean? Yeah, we don't do generalists. And I think really there's nothing in our company that stands for generalists. We want to have the complete kind of hands-on feeling like we want to make sure the hotels are vetted. All of our destination experts go to their destination that they oversee four times a year. So they go in and they meet with like what's new in the destination. You know, there's always going to be some things that are legacy tours, but like, In Czechoslovakia, we went into a brand new Pilsner factory that had opened that had a great experience for kids, not just the adults. So the adults could enjoy the beer or the kids had like more interactional video games. And so we went to vet them out. We went to a Parmesan farm just to make sure that that was something, you know, it's not for everybody walking a farm and learning about, you know, the cows that are making the Parma. But these are pours that I know most Americans won't really think about sometimes. So it's like, okay, well, you can't go to Parmesan without learning about red cows and what makes, you know, it's so special there. So these are going to be the people that suggest that. And it might not be something that you even knew you needed or wanted in your life. And then you leave and you're like, that was amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. In restaurants, that's a big thing, right, for us. We travel for food, or at least I do. But imagine having a local that can give you the restaurants to go to that, you know, they're going to work with Greg and make your reservations for you so that those are already taken care of by the time you get to destination. How about the qualifications? What are the qualifications of a private guide assigned to a tour? So, I mean, they're going to just be career guides. So this is what their background is. My Egyptologist, as I mentioned, was a he went to school for a historian. I have one guide who actually worked for the royal family. His mom worked for the royal family in Jordan and he went to school for, I want to say, archaeology. And then he just said he couldn't get away from guiding. So these are all career guides, professionals. I have a guy down in Galapagos that I swear he will go off on a tangent on the Darwin experiences. You'll never have to read another book again. They're going to just show you the live walking book. I just say these are the people that you want to guide you, right? It's not a generalist. And we want to know how you like to travel. Maybe some people aren't that into food. I had some clients that were really into churches and they were more concerned on seeing a list of churches that they had. So we were able to go through and pick out other churches, assign them a guide that really, you know, specialized in, you know, religion for them and then was able to take them around from there compared to somebody that maybe it was more of a historian for political science or something of that. Now, do your guides speak multiple languages? Yeah. Well, I mean, I think it's just a standard in this industry to at least have two languages. I would say most of our guides have probably three and four languages. And if you do, if you are traveling and maybe, you know, you're bringing family that's meeting you that aren't English speaking, you know, let us know what their preferred language is and we can always match up a guide who speaks that preferred language. Spanish maybe. We've had some Mandarin requests. Yeah. Yeah. But English is a must. How about booking accommodations? You know, if someone, maybe they have experience in the area, they want to choose their own hotels. Is that allowable or how does that work? That's a great question. And absolutely. So if you're working with Greg and, you know, Greg comes and says, we want some guides, we want to do some experiences. But my clients have already booked their hotels. They've used their points or maybe they've booked it because they knew somebody there. Maybe Greg's booked it because he has a great connection there. It doesn't have to all be with hotels. We can book just your guides and your experiences and your transfers. You know, we really specialize in that private guiding sector. So that really is where we have most concern is making sure that you have the ultimate experience there. So, yeah. But I mean, if we are booking hotels, we're usually using Posadas or Peridors or Villas, Chateaus or more boutique-style hotels. We're not always looking for like the Four Seasons, for instance. You know, we typically want that accommodation to match the destination. Yeah. All right. Were you going to say something, Greg? Well, I was just going to say, when we talk to our clients about personalized special tours, we always check with them about what kind of accommodations are they looking for? And again, also, what kinds of things are they interested in in that tour itself? So we try to vet a lot of that information before we contact the experts at Kensington so we can kind of finalize it and kind of narrow it down to just make it easier for all of us because you don't want to keep going back and forth with the client, right? And saying, well, wait a minute, would you want this? Should we go back and try something else? That just sets them off, basically. So we try to narrow down and get as much information about what they want to do during that tour before we contact one of the experts, though. Yeah. And I think there's something to be said that we've stayed in a lot of the hotels that we're putting together as a trip. So we've vetted them. We know that the size of the rooms are absolutely legit and it's a reputable property. And then also we want to make sure that our clients are taken care of and they're surprised and delighted along the way. that they're really truly experiencing travel like it should be. And I always think the only thing guaranteed in travel is change. So should something arise, you know, a hiccup or something of the sort, then we're always there on ground to make sure it's right that day. And so when we're working with partners that we know, like the hotels and such then we're able to make sure that things are fixed right away right and we always recommend travel insurance because especially when you're traveling overseas or you're going anywhere out of the country you want to make sure you have proper travel insurance because god forbid something should happen it costs a bloody fortune to get back to the states or be put up in some hospital or hotel somewhere else so it's always important and we always stress that with every client So is that the next question, Charlie? No, no, actually, this is personal. No, not necessarily personal. A good friend of mine, he just returned from, actually, it's jealousy related, just returned from India last year, Egypt. I forget where he was the year before, but he's a solo guy. He just goes on these trips on his own. Do you offer trips for just individuals, one person? we do absolutely um I have one lady right now guerrilla checking trucking with just she's a guide and her agent said you know she doesn't like to work with she doesn't like to travel with people and by golly she's not traveling with any people this is her third trip with us and I mean it was sometimes those two together I feel bad for the guides. I'm like, okay, well, what's your conversation going to consist of today? But, but absolutely we can handle, I mean, I travel alone quite a bit myself, so I actually appreciate it. You know, not having to join a group trip and just having that one-on-one time. And especially if you're moving about the cabin, right? Maybe you're doing multiple countries. And so traveling solo, you're going to have a different guide when you get to Africa or South Africa. So, Yeah, absolutely. Solo travel, I think, is having a renaissance. It's, you know, people are we've been around a lot of people for and, you know, we're in our little COVID bubbles and all that great stuff. So travel is just having a it's been so different from everything we knew pre-COVID and it's great. because people are actually doing things. And I'll touch on Greg's insurance, because this one's personal for me was I did my first river cruise. And on day one, a client knocked my cell phone into the Danube. And I had 10 days to go. And you know, it was covered under my travel insurance was my iPhone. And that's a $1,200 sometimes mistake for some people. So don't think about it just for like if something's canceling. It's also if your luggage is lost, it's if you're sick. I had one experience when I was in Australia, I got sick and that was covered under my travel insurance. So there really is a lot more stuff to be said about that travel insurance that Greg touched on. Good to hear. How about the other side of the spectrum? We talked about the solo traveler. Is there a maximum number, like group size for private tours? So there's not. And the great thing for custom is, you know, it might be your family of 10 that are traveling and that's just, you know, who your group is. We do have we do do a specialty groups department. So we do work with Greg and Lori to do a group that maybe they're taking a hosted group of people. on a cruise and we're doing the pre and post excursions for them or something like this. A group is usually 10 or more, but beings that were custom, even if you have two people, if you're having a family of 10, it doesn't have to be considered a group, it's just your family. But we do do group tours of 10 or more. You'll see we have some really fun group packages coming along for doing tee times at St. Andrews and New Zealand, we have some tee times now, so some golf packages. And with that being said, great thing for groups and custom. If five gentlemen want to go golf and five women want to go shop, we can separate that group around or maybe two want to go have high tea and three want to go here. Not everybody has to be on the same group plan with custom travel. So I would say minimum 10 is what's considered a group, you know, and then Anything I would say past maybe 30 is going to be a bit aggressive just because our, you know, our vehicles are smaller. We never want to be on a motor coach ever. I'm not made for motor coaches. It's the smells, it's the lights, it's, you know, the turns. I prefer much smaller vehicles. So anything, you know, I'd say, you know, 10 passengers. So 30 is a pretty significant number for us. We could do more. Everything's possible. But I say what our normal is, what our DNA is. Also, Amy, I'm 6'6", so I don't fit well in a motor coach or coach seat on an airline. It doesn't work for me. I felt almost spoiled last week in Amsterdam as I had to get off the cruise we were on and get into a motor coach. I was like, I'm not made for general population. And you're so spoiled. But I do feel spoiled. But I'll tell you the truth is, is once you, you know, when you're on a cruise or, you know, you have a lot of people in your personal space and then you get off and you get into that private car, it's very hard to get back into that big van, that big passenger bus. You've had, you know, your alone time off the boat, but you also recharge your battery and then you get back on the boat and you're ready to go and have more, you know, talking and people time. Good stuff. Well, final question for you. Do you offer ship and land tours? We do. And this is actually my favorite because I think if you haven't done a private trip or a private custom guided ground, then this is an opportunity to understand what it truly is benefiting. Like what's the amazing part of it. So we can do our pre and post cruising. So maybe you come to Greg and you're doing a, you know, We can pick you up a few days before, do some private guiding for you. We'll drop you off to the ship. We'll get you on the ship and sorted. We guarantee that you're there on time. If not, we'll fly you to the next destination, which knock on wood, hasn't never had to happen. But we do the private guiding. And then, for instance, you could be on that ship and you don't want to necessarily do what the ship's offering. We can also do just private excursions for you. Maybe you don't see an excursion that you want to be on and you want to create one. I had a client a couple months back. Her agent said that she was born in the port that they were going to, but it was a 45-minute transfer up. So we picked her up from the port, she, her husband, and her kids, and we took them up to the town she was born in. They were able to have lunch and do a city tour. And, of course, that's not going to be offered from the cruise ship because, again, the mass market doesn't necessarily know where she was born. So we were able to do her private guiding tours. And to me, I love searching museums. I have a museum list. So maybe that museum's not always offered from the cruise ship or maybe the tour that you want is sold out. And so we can do it for you private. So that works when you're on the boat or that works also your pre and post. And we offer over 165 ports. I believe that we have some special tours for you and And then it's hard to get back on the boat. Then it's hard to get back on the bigger. And the other funny part I'll say about that, Charlie, is I had a client, the agent said, my clients were so happy. They said that the black car would come and pick them up from the port. And when they would get back on the cruise ship, that everybody thought they were the owners of the cruise ship. Right. But yeah, I think there's a, you know, it's not for everybody. Some people love group tours and they love camaraderie of getting to know people. And some people just want to have a little break. Yeah. Good stuff. Greg, anything we left out? I don't think so. Again, we book a lot of personalized private tours and work directly with Kensington and Amy and her folks. A lot of our clients are 55 and above. We do some solo travelers. In fact, we had a solo tour that we worked with Kensington. And she was very, very happy with that as well. And again, if you need more information, you can contact us at BonitaSpringsTravel.com or at our phone 239-603-6040. And we look forward to helping you book this wonderful personalized private guided tour. I look forward to seeing some interesting itineraries. I love watching the requests that are, you know, just bucket list trips and seeing what's on everybody's list. Yeah. Great. Well, Amy, thank you for your wealth of information. And we're all jealous. We all want your job. No, kidding. Oh, no. You say that now until you haven't slept in your bed. Just the fun vacation-y stuff, you know, all that stuff. Except for that coach. Don't ever put me on a coach bus. Don't do it. Thank you, Amy. Thanks for joining us today. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. I hope you have a wonderful week. We look forward to traveling with you. There's a lot to be seen. We'll see you on the trails. Super. We'll see everyone in the next episode. See you, Greg. Thank you, Charlie. Bye, everybody. Thanks for listening to Dream Vacations. To learn more about our travel business, go to Bonitaspringstravel.com or you can call us at 239-603-6040. Again, that's 239-603-6040. Let's make your dream vacation come true.