October 2016

 In addition to our scheduled public tours, Taste Vacations also offers a myriad of private tours, where you can choose your own destination and activities, and a trip date that works for you. Though we find our public tours to be a great way to meet new people who share a common interest with you, there are many private tour advantages. They are a fun way to gather your friends or family for a memorable vacation. Here are 5 advantages to booking your own private tour:

1.  You choose who you hang out with. Meeting new people on a tour can sometimes be half the fun of your vacation – but there is always a risk that there is someone on the tour that you don’t get along with which can sometimes put a damper on the trip.  By booking a private tour, you have the opportunity to gather the people you want to hang out with and feel that would enjoy the same kind of vacation as you.

2.  You can gain access to exclusive experiences.  Yes, you can plan your own friends and/or family vacation without the help of a tour company.  But you may be missing out on some incredible experiences that are just not available to the general public. On many of our private tours, we are able to set up exclusive experiences like private tastings with winemakers, a private luncheon at local chef’s residence and garden, a wine blending session with a winery owner, or walking tours that dive deeper than the general public tours that just skim the surface.

3.  You may not know what you don’t know.  You may not be aware of all the wonderful experiences available to you in any given location. Though you can do extensive research online, there are still many amazing experiences, restaurants, and local activities that may be completely new or haven’t been shared on social media yet. We have personal connections in each of the locations we run tours and are constantly seeking out new experiences for our guests. Let us help you create your itinerary by suggesting activities that may have not even been on your radar.

4.  Take the trip you want, the way that you want it.  We pride ourselves in creating engaging and fun itineraries but we still understand that not everyone is thrilled to be doing each of the activities we have chosen.  That’s where private tours really shine.  You choose the people you want to go with, the destination, and the activities you want to do.  With the help of our tour operations team, you can build your dream vacation.

5.  Go when you want to go.  We all would love to be able to drop everything and go on vacation whenever we want, but the reality is that we have many responsibilities and obligations in our lives that need to come first.  Sometimes the public tour dates just won’t fit into a busy schedule the way you’d like. With a private tour, you can schedule your vacation for when it works best for you.

If you’re interested in booking your own private tour, check out our Private Tours section or contact our tour operations team today.

People travel for many reasons but I believe they travel mainly to experience new things – try new foods, meet new people, do something they’ve never done before. It is curious then to encounter people, mainly Americans, that seem to expect everything to be exactly the same as it is at home while they are traveling to new places.

I’ve just returned from a tour of Italy where I encountered quite a few other Americans. Most meetings were pleasant and people shared my enthusiasm for exploring new destinations, but a few caused me to cringe and try to disassociate myself with the situation. For instance, I was staying in a lovely boutique hotel in Lucca. It is a beautiful historic town with a large 16th Century stone ramparts built around it. It is this wall that kept Lucca quite independent and from being ruled by many of the larger Italian powers that came and went over the centuries and has secured its unique culture and cuisine.

At the hotel, they offered a nice breakfast spread that included hard boiled eggs, deli meat, cheese, pastries, and, of course, your choice of espresso, cappuccino, or even café americano. One morning, I was having a pleasant exchange with the hotel staff while ordering my morning cappuccino when an American couple came in and sat down at the table next to me. They began by complaining to each other about the breakfast selection and that the café americano didn’t taste like Starbucks back home. I tried to ignore the comments and enjoy my breakfast but had to stifle a chuckle when they then asked the hotel staff if they had an English-speaking television because theirs was only in Italian. Not only did they not seem to understand how television programming works (clearly it is not the TV that is controlling if it in English or Italian) but they were certainly not ready to embrace the Italian culture and cuisine.

For some people, instead of experiencing new things they keep their blinders on. They try to keep their same daily routines but in a different setting. How will you know if you prefer the taste of a true Italian espresso the way the locals drink it better than how you drink coffee at home? Or find a new favorite pasta dish if you continue to only order spaghetti with tomato sauce?  If you don’t get out of your comfort zone, and try new things you’ll leave Italy, a country known for its world-class cuisine, unimpressed and maybe even a little hungry.

And this, of course, applies to more than just trying new foods.  If you only do the same things you would at home, what was the point in traveling to a new destination in the first place? Clearly, you won’t love everything that you try but you can at least have a definitive opinion and maybe even an interesting story to tell when you get home.

I encourage you, wherever your next trip takes you, to take your blinders off, branch out a little, try new things, and learn a little more about yourself in the process.