Speaker 1:
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Matthew:
Welcome to the travel podcast. I'm Matthew and I'll be your host for this week's, for this episode, where we'll be delving into the world of touring from adventure to swallow group tours and everything in between, debugging some myths and also giving you some helpful tips from own experiences of tours. We are joined on this episode by Jules and Lauren from the travel podcast.

Jules:
Hi.

Lauren:
Hi

Matthew:
And also Sarah from Travelsphere and Just You and Stu from G adventures. So to start off with, Sarah, if you could just give us a, a bit more background about yourself and the two companies that you work for in the travel and the touring industry.

Sarah:
Yeah, sure. Thank you very much for having me. As Matthew said, I'm Sarah from Travelsphere and Just You. Travelsphere is a classic touring company and Just You is a specialist in solo travel. First of all, and I'll tell you about Travelsphere and why I think group touring is particularly good and why everybody should try it once, at least once. And so for me, I think we are all so busy in life and holidays are so precious to us now and everybody wants to make the most of every holiday that they've got. And I just think by taking a group guided tour, it means that you don't need to worry about the travel and the arrangements. You don't need to worry about how you get from one place to another or even if you're going to see all the key sites, at the end of the day all of this is taken care of as part of your group guided tour.

Sarah:
Otherwise, I think nowadays we want to experience more from a destination, we really want to get out there and so cool the atmosphere and the culture immersed ourselves in any destination that we visit. And I think we all want to come home feeling a little bit better about ourselves and enriched having been to a destination. I just think by taking a guided tour, you just let somebody else take the strain, tunnel the logistics for you, you don't need to worry about it, when you visit all the places that you want to see, so the main attractions, they're always as part of your guided tour. You'll be able to skip any ques that are in place, which is great, we all don't like to que, I'm on holiday and see those destinations really at the best time of day. And one example that I give, that we do at Travelsphere is we take our customers to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise. There's nobody else there, it is a great way they see it and you get those iconic pictures that you can share with all your friends when you get home as well.

Sarah:
And also for me, when you travel as part of a guided tour, you're always traveling with like minded people. I think a lot of people think, "Oh, travel as part of a group will I get on?" But if you think about it, you're all traveling for the same purpose, you're traveling because you've got a similar interest and it's a great way to meet new people, have new friends maybe, but also take the time on your own and freedom as well, which I know we're going to touch on in a bit later on.

Sarah:
And you know when you choose the guided tour, it's always important to do your research and it's something that's true and I can talk about that as we move forward in this podcast, but you need to consider all the places that you want to visit. And importantly, always consider the size of brick that you're happy to travel in as well. Guided tours can range from anything from one or two people to over 50 and in Travelsphere, we believe that it's important to find the perfect group size to allow the customers to get the most of the destination and Travelsphere groups range from 15 to 35 people. But even at 35 people just remember that only 17 couples, so some touring companies will have over 50 people, which that might be a bit too hectic for you. And in fact, for us, the majority of our tours went around on 30 people.

Sarah:
It's important to how everybody has the right experience, be at the heart of a destination and get the most on the holiday. Group size is really, really important. And of course on every tour, whether you travel with Travelsphere, Just You or G Adventures or any other company, you'll always be accompanied by a tour manager and tour managers play such a crucial part. They have experience in the destination, they know all about where they're going and they can tell you all of those little secrets and hidden gems about a destination. For me, that's a synopsis approved touring and Travelsphere encompass all of those. But I also know G Adventure specializes in the small group adventure touring and Stu can tell you about that as well.

Matthew:
Yeah, perfect. Thank you Sarah and Stu if you could, after you delve into a bit more about the small group and adventure touring sides, especially some of the key adventure specializing.

Stu:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, as you guys heard, we're called G adventures and the hardest part of my job is the second part of our name, the word adventure. Because everyone hears that word and thinks, "Oh I need to be Bear Grylls to go on this trip." Or as Sarah said, I've worked hard, I've got all this time off, I don't want to go and sweat on my holiday, I want to relax. And what I would say to that is maybe substitute that word in your mind for experience. As Sarah said, this style of travel is all about experiencing the destination, it's really about coming back and being able to reel off an entire list of different things that you tried, different foods that you try, different places you visited, the people you met.

Stu:
It's not about being overly fit or being bad girls as I said. Yeah, we also believe that small groups is kind of a really nice way to travel. I think people have this perception of touring as 50 people on a coach, you have to move seats every day, our average group size is 12 maximum of 16. That means you can all sit around kind of one big table at a restaurant or maybe two tables, check in when it comes to checking in at a hotel, it's going to be nice and speedy as well. And you can travel on some really unique types of transport as well because when you've got a smaller group like that, you can sometimes jump in a couple of Tuktuks together, if you're in Asia, it's a really nice way to be able to get around and be a bit more nimble as well.

Stu:
You're not waiting for the 49th person to come back from the souvenir shop and wondering where they are, you can be a bit more nimble, which is really nice. We also have a lot of flexibility built in, if you're on a trip with us, there's quite often half the day will be planned where you're with our CEO, which is our Chief Experience Officer, the name we give to our guides. You'll be with them, but the afternoon may be free and you can follow the CEO and you can go to a temple or you can go to a restaurant or you can just chill and read a book by the pool. These are not the heavily regimented kind of preps where you have to follow a flag and go from one place to the next whilst following a cock. There is a lot of flexibility in there, which I think is really helpful.

Stu:
And as Sarah mentioned, you've got people from different parts of the world, you've got kind of a lot of different like minded people. For us, we have about a hundred nationalities travel with us each year, so as well as the destination you're visiting, the people that are actually on the trip. There's a bit of spice of life in there as well that you'll be meeting people from different countries and I personally have a lot of Facebook friends, which I think I've met once and then hardly spoken to again. But if I end up in Milwaukee then I'll have someone to stay with potentially. I guess that's just a quick summary of kind of what we have, small group, escorted touring with a local guide. Yeah, that's not too regimented or adventurous.

Matthew:
Sounds ideal and I know Jules, Lauren and myself have all been on actually a G adventure, a triple crew go into a bit more detail of our own experiences which was absolutely brilliant. And obviously I did mention at solo group tours, which is kind of ironic in a way, I suppose some of you may think if you listening where you think, "Well, how can you go on a group tour if you're on your own?" But I'll let Sarah mentioned that... Sarah also represented Just You or for Just You, which specializes in the sola travel groups. Can you just give us a bit more information on how all that works out.

Sarah:
Yeah, of course. No problem. Travelsphere is many [inaudible 00:08:38] We do welcome solo travelers as well, but we, over 15 years ago we created a brand called Just You and Just You is solely for solo travelers. It's all about traveling solo but never alone and really for any sort of traveler to travel as part of a group, is just a perfect way to experience any destination. And every single tour we craft is specifically with the tour solo traveler in mind. It's not just a spinoff of another tour that we do, it's specifically [inaudible 00:09:09]. What would the solo traveler want? What would they love to experience? And what do they want to get out of it as well. Borrow, that's already important on a Just You holiday that every solo traveler has a room to themselves. It's not just a single room, it's a double or a twin, so they're not in a pokey single room with a back door and they are covered everywhere. Always a double or a twin and there's never a single supplement as well.

Sarah:
The price to a customer's ease, is the price that they pay as well. It's very transparent and as I say, built the solo customer. We've got, because of everything, so flights, transportation, and literally with our Soto travelers, every step of the ways I know how nerve wracking it can be the first time going away on your own, even actually just going to an app or on your own can be quite frightening for people. And I totally understand that as well, so we meet you at every major airports as well. There's always a representative there to meet you with the Just You signs to help you through the check-in, travel through and then if you're on a worldwide holiday, you also have a lounge at the airport and you can often see people and we've got purple luggage labels that we give them as they board and you can see them looking out for one another, checking into the airport, thinking, "You're on my holiday as well."

Sarah:
And you see the community say starts to develop there as well. With all of our tours, every solo traveler can expect to have a welcome get together, so they meet each other, if they haven't already on the plane. And really when you a solo traveler, I think traveling as part of a guided tour, it goes back to the shared experiences. I know Stu's mentioned it, with G Adventures and I could get at the Travelsphere as well, but it really about being able to tell someone about your day. And it's about being able to share the things you saw, the new food you tasted, or maybe the wine tasting trip that you went on that day. And not just have a selfie in front of a major attraction, but actually be able to say to somebody, "Please take my picture," and "Wow, look at that. Isn't that amazing?"

Sarah:
It's about that shared experience. You're all in the same boat and that's something that anybody who's thinking about traveling on their own should consider every single person on a Just You holiday is a solo traveler. There might be some first timers on there that never been away before. There might be others that have traveled for years with us and actually just love it and keep coming back again. But everybody comes together as like minded people. And again, go back to the tour managers, it's really, really important for us that we select the right tour managers, but Just You holiday, we need to be able to identify who wants to be involved in the group, who maybe wants to step back and just take the time out to themselves and who may be really just is a little bit shy in coming forward and then the tour managers help bring them in and also have them recommend great places to eat and visit in a destination and just create those memories of a lifetime for them.

Sarah:
And the best tip I would give anybody that are thinking of traveling solo, is just try it, take the plunge, I know it's scary, I know it's nerve wracking, but I promise once you take that first solo guided tour with Just You, there's absolutely no going back and you'll be a serial Booker without fail. I guarantee.

Matthew:
Well, it's, I know we've touched on a lot of why people would choose a tour and holiday in what you both have just been talking about there on like this. You mentioned getting really, delving into the culture, really get an experience to the CEOs or the tour guides that can really point you in the right direction and it isn't, as you mentioned, the whole, this is us listening, we follow everything constantly[inaudible 00:12:47]. You have a lot more time to yourself to explore. I think some people assume that actually on a tour you've got to follow the flag and follow them and you've got to do everything that they do.

Matthew:
Whereas what you've both just described through for the businesses that you work for, it is, you do have that freedom to really delve into the, it's just an added benefit that you've got those, that great experience and that comfort of having that tour guide there with you. Talking about, so trying to debug some of the myths. I know Lauren and Jules have got some questions to put to you. So if we start, if I let the girls, if you want to start off.

Jules:
Yeah, definitely. Thank you. I think there are some misconceptions that people do have when you think sort of about doing a touring adventure or a trip or something like that. And I know that I definitely had some before I went away in one, I think one of the main ones is that a lot of people think adventure touring is mainly just for like young backpackers. For that you've got to be super fit and active to go and do it, but that isn't necessarily the case, is it?

Stu:
No, no, certainly not. I mean at the moment, the word adventure could be used when you try and go to Tesco. The word adventure is something different to everyone and I'm sure if you said to your grandparents, "Would you like to go to China?" Or somewhere that we might think is a bit more mainstream or even Italy, somewhere that's perhaps a bit more accessible for people to travel, then I might say, "Well, that's a bit of an adventure for me." It is important to know that adventures are different for everyone and for some people climbing Everest is the adventure they want. We don't offer Everest, you can't climb it with us. And we have no trips that have mandatory skydiving or bungee jumping or anything like that, nothing at all.

Stu:
But we do have some trips, just to give you an example, like we have sailing in the Maldives, you don't have to work very hard on that. You don't have to do much at all other than just lay around, enjoy the sunshine, some cocktails, find yourself on some secluded islands, that is adventure because you're not, I guess how we would define adventure is that it's the experience is beyond the hotel. We've all been to hotels and potentially we've not even remembered what the hotel itself was like because we've just, it's very similar to other places we've been. But you go somewhere like Maldives sailing, it's nice relaxing and you remember the experiences and the snorkeling and things like that. So yeah. Is it for young people? Yes, but it's also for, our record holder is 92 years old, so it's for 92 year old people as well. And everyone in between.

Lauren:
I know there's one of them actually on the G adventures you have like a rating don't you, of how physical you expect each tour to be. Do you have something similar, Sarah, on your tours?

Sarah:
We rate our tours and different categories of classic Leisurely and relaxed touring. When they're, so it gives you an idea, a classic tour would be maybe you're booking the next multiple destinations. That's probably a little bit more active because you're moving around. But a leisurely tour might be in one or two hotels so it's a bit more laid back. But we do actually have some walking tours specifically with Just You solo travelers. And we do have a little guide in there on how hard the walking is and maybe how far each day you need to walk. But it's I'd say our average age for both Travelsphere and Just You is around 55 to 60. Although we all actually open-ended for Just You and it's quite interesting to see the mix of ages that you've got on a tour.

Sarah:
For us there might be a 30 year old experience in that vast Verona opera experience and then there could be a couple of more mature ladies that liked to go away together. They just like to have separate rooms on the same tour. And they have the shared experience because they will go to this once in a lifetime experience of seeing the Verona opera in the summer. It's definitely open age for us and I'd go back to what Stu said, adventure means different things to different people. For Just You customers there might be going to the airport for the first time, that's a big adventure on their own and then taking that holiday and, but others, like Stu said, it could be sailing around the Maldives. I know we're right by the beach right now. [inaudible 00:17:13]in Maldives.

Lauren:
You mentioned as well that both of your operators, they do give you time for yourself. So it's not a rammed itinerary with right here then you've got to be at here eight o'clock, nine o'clock, 10 o'clock. There are some flexibilities. Is that right between both of you? If we go first to Stu.

Stu:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like I mentioned, we've always got that local guide and they'll have suggestions for what you're doing that day. But sometimes it's just open for what you'd like to do. An example I'd give is on a trip I was in China. There was a couple that were recently married, so every night they went out for their own dinner separate from the group and did their own evening activities, whatever that was, being recently married. And that they didn't hang with the group during the evening, but during the daytime they were with us. And I think that was a really nice flexibility that you could be on your honeymoon, but go on a small group trip, which I must admit, when I met them, I thought that was a bit odd. I thought maybe you'd want to be off in the Maldives like most people's perception of a honeymoon, but they wanted that small group experience. They wanted to travel through a different destination meeting other people, but they wanted that freedom to have their own time, alone if they wanted.

Sarah:
Yeah. And the thing, same for Travelsphere and Just you, mentioned earlier on that a lot of our tours maybe have one hotel and then lots of different excursions throughout the week. It's up to you to do as many or as little of those excursions as you want. One day you might just say, "I'm just going to lay around the hotel, read a book, just to have some time out for myself." And then another part gives you more flexibility of freedom, the stereo factors is the aping meals and we don't always include every man every single night, because he wants to go away in an amazing destination and just eat in the same place every single evening. You want to go out, you want to try and [inaudible 00:19:14] get involved in various different things like that. It's really, really important that we offer freedom and flexibility to our customers in any way possible. As much as giving them the much included and valued the money as we can too.

Lauren:
And I know Matthew you mentioned, I resolved some people when they think about going on a tour, they kind of just picture themselves in a big group following a tour leader with a flag. But that's not necessarily the case. And it wasn't on our G Adventure's one, although we did have to follow the lead up because we were in the jungle, couldn't exactly go rogue. But it wasn't just like a massive line following a flag. And it's definitely not like that. So really is it?

Sarah:
No, not really. No. I mean it depends on where you go and what time of year you go. I think one of the biggest preconceptions about any group touring is, there is somebody walking them, the flag held high and shout to everybody and herding them along like sheep. And it really isn't that. And that again goes back to thinking about the group size and most important to you. As Stu mentioned, his group sizes range from small grades up to 16 and we're 15 to 35. It just depends on what you're looking for. We offer Travelsphere and Just You, these little headsets, so the tour guide will have the microphone and with the headset and everybody else in the group will have a headset and they can wonder round visit destination, but they can almost just wander off a little bit from the group and emersed themselves in that culture and architecture, the places that they've visited or the landscape and just lose themselves for that moment while still getting that enhanced knowledge of the destination that they're in. But I'm never going to promise that might be a flag. That's the thing.

Sarah:
[inaudible 00:21:06] destination you're in pizza and it's the peak season and it's summer. There might be somebody just waving a flag to make sure you know where you are, but I'll guarantee you'll appreciate that flag when you see it at that point, because no one wants to get lost. But I'd say going back to the group size, that is really key when you're thinking about, where you are traveling. I don't think I personally would want to be in a group of 50, going around Nashville and gray sands or whatever like that, you just lose yourself. And so if it's at down to everybody's passing profits.

Jules:
That's brilliant. Say when you are on these tours, one of the main things I always like to do when I'm on holiday is, get to know the local people and experience things through their eyes as such and just hear some of their stories about the area. Because there's nothing better than hearing it from the horse's mouth as such. Do you, within your tours, do you include interaction with local people? And how does it work with both of your tours if we start with you Stu?

Stu:
Yeah, as we touched on earlier we've got local guides and I think no one can show you a country or a city better than someone that lives there. In the same way that if you've got a friend coming to stay with you and they're not from your part of the world, you'll show them and you'll say, "Oh, you need to try this food. You need to go to this beach." You know the area, which is, I think it's really nice. And so it was quite often unscripted, I guess would be the word, moments on our trips where the CEO, the local guide will say, "Oh look, it's, there's a festival tomorrow and my whole family is getting together in the garden and there's going to be fireworks," or local food and you'll find yourself in the situation, which we could never put on the itinerary.

Stu:
These unscripted moments, which are the ones that you really end up remembering. And like I said, because they're just so unplanned, you just, you'd never find them on an itinerary. I guess interwoven with that, we have a lot of social enterprise projects that people visit. And so they're the ones where we're finding a way to give back through tourism. Our ethos is that travel can be the greatest form of wealth distribution the world has ever seen, which means people visiting foreign countries, they get to go and have a local meal at a project we've set up, they get to meet the people there, try the food and that kind of stimulates, their economy as well, which we think is really important. That gives these unique opportunities for touch points with locals where you get to meet them as well.

Jules:
Brilliant. And you Sarah, do you have some interaction with locals involved in your tours?

Sarah:
Yep. We also have local guides, so we have a tour manager and often separate local guides as well that join us throughout the tour to tell us all those little hidden secrets and maybe get involved in the cooking classes that we do or wine tasting. And in Vietnam we even do the noodle making as well. But Stu mentioned the local projects and social enterprises and we're part of the same wider family, like Stu, we actually support many of those projects as well. And we have the same belief that giving back to the local communities and letting our customers experiences these startup businesses that the locals have started is just a unique experience and again, something they can take back. It's really important as to get involved with the local communities and give back to the places that we're visiting as part of tourism.

Jules:
Oh, that's brilliant. I think that's what a lot of people sometimes assume that tours can be quite expensive, but when you actually break it down of what you get included and he broke it down as if you were booking it all separately, they really all worth it and you'll find as well, I think that with the tours, you get those money can't buy experiences. Like Stu said, things will happen that you can't put in an itinerary and you wouldn't experience anywhere else. Do you guys sort of agree with that?

Stu:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think where we fall into this trap of seeing the cost of a flight and the cost of a hotel and thinking that's the cost of my trip. Whereas when you might see that number on paper and think, "Well, it's cheaper for me to just fly to Peru and then book a hotel for a week. How can that be any different to what this company is offering?" But in reality, it's all those little experiences that you mentioned, it's the little buses that you take to visit local communities, things like that, that if you tried to do yourself, yes, perhaps you could do it cheaper, are you going to be able to speak Spanish and get the local bus and all the additional time that you're going to put into finding those experiences if you can even find them to begin with. I think it's certainly worth kind of having that all bundled up knowing that someone's escorting you through that country and really helping you as well. Especially where there's language barriers.

Sarah:
Yeah, I'd agree as well with[inaudible 00:26:04]. I think when you break down each component and you look at what's included and you look at those experiences that you really can't buy yourself. If both of you did, you'd probably have to be on a big waiting list for it.I mentioned the Taj Mahal, sunrise. Not everybody can just walk in and do that. That's a really special experience for us. And like Stu with the G Adventure, Travelsphere and Just You, we've woven all of these unique experiences into the tours so that they have our customers and everybody will have an experience like no other as well. And I think if you could just look at the benefits of everything that's included. The Travelsphere and Just You we always include the flight, there is an option to take the bus if you want.

Sarah:
You book it as a whole package and nowadays that's really important to book things as a package, to have your protection guarantees and that's really, really important that people understand that by booking something as a package, they know that the money is protected as well. There's the option to be flexible and not have the flights if you've got air miles and what to do that as well. And it really is looking at what you want to do, breaking it down and looking actually could you really put that together yourself? It will take a long time. Why don't you just leave it to the experts to do it? That's my advice.

Jules:
Yeah. Great advice. Definitely. You know that best. So you should take advice from the experts. And I wanted to ask about, you mentioned that obviously it's not just for old people, it's not just the backpackers, but what about families? Do you offer any sort of packages for typical mum, dad and two kids or anything like that, are their families getting involved in touring? Stu?

Stu:
Yeah, yeah. I'll start with that. Yeah. We've got a range of trips that we've started with national geographic and national geographic family journeys. And really the idea of that is to inspire the younger generation to be travelers, not tourists, my kids aren't that age yet, but I would love to take them away to some of these far-flung destinations and know that they're on that trip with other like-minded kids as well. That's what's really important on these family trips. It's not a babysitting service where you can drop your kids off and you go to the Maldives, it's families traveling together. If anyone that's got kids will appreciate that they have a lot of energy and they require a lot of interaction, have a lot of questions. On those trips with this other kids on the trips there are adjoining rooms and there's two of our local guides because they can have lots of questions about what's that bird? How long until we get to the next stop?

Jules:
Sarah, do you have a family tours with Travelsphere?

Sarah:
The Travelsphere is for adult adults really? It's couples, we do have singles as well. But Just You is open age, so we welcome anybody of any age to travel on a Just You holiday. It's not [inaudible 00:29:02]. But saying that we'd like, as mentioned earlier, we get a whole range of different people just wanting to have that experience. And each year that we operate, we see the average age moving down and down and down beside our taco. I think maybe half the population is so low now. It's really interesting to see this area grow and how people travel. But what we do, we've got a sister brand of G adventures. It's specialized in families, so we leave the experts to it and we're the experts in solo travel and couples.

Lauren:
Amazing. I've got a question actually in terms of what people can expect with accommodation and food. With the food, are they going to be experiencing local dishes when they're away?

Sarah:
Oh, go ahead. Do you want to do the [inaudible 00:29:59].

Stu:
I was just going to say it's really a combination of both. Sarah mentioned earlier, all the meals aren't included on a lot of our trips. What that means is if you've been in Italy for a week and you just don't want pastor and pizza, you want a burger or you want Chinese or something, then that's completely fine. To have that flexibility of you've had the local cuisine in that part of the world, but maybe you just want something, comfort food, something that you're familiar with for something completely different, that whole variety. I remember having a lot of chili cheese in Bhutan, which is a national dish. But after you've had that for five days, sometimes you just want a bowl of chips.

Sarah:
And Travelsphere and Just You majority of our hotels are four star and a lot of our hotels that we've worked with tend to be family operated ones, ones that we've worked with for years and years and years. We've got really great relationships with them. And whenever anybody arrives at the hotels, they just treat them like an extended part of our family, which is great. They make local dinners for them, so it like big pasta dishes, the whole grape and it's like dining as one great big family. But then a lot of the tours that we do allow things like maybe a barbecue in the Outback in Australia or it might be by summit vinegar tasting in Italy as well. And I mentioned the noodles as part of that.

Sarah:
We cook some meals, but we absolutely encourage anybody to taste the local cuisine. And our customers love the wine tasting as well. It tends to be a highlight but any, both wine tasting and, which I blame them [inaudible 00:31:49] foody myself, so when you see all the pictures in our brochures or online, it really starts to make your mouth water and think, "Alright okay, can I be my own Nigella in the kitchen's night and make those dishes."

Jules:
I've got a question in terms of accommodation. In terms of the hotels that are offered, are people available to upgrade on the star rating? Where applicable? I know when we did our jungle track, he can't really upgrade from hammocks and bunk beds in the jungle and but if it's applicable, can people kind of upgrade that star rating of hotel if they choose to?

Stu:
Not traditionally, only because we want to keep the group together. We have had people in the past say, "I'll look, I'd really like to stay at this hotel," and we just kind of, I guess advise against it if only because they might be in a foreign country, we just want to make sure everyone kind of sticks together. I guess that way we can say meet downstairs in five minutes and everyone will be available. But while we're on a combination of, raised an interesting point because we stay in Gaz in Mongolia, if you're there on one of those trips. And that could very easily be described as basic, but I think most people will accept basic accommodation for a night or two. If it's some way completely unique, there is not a really nice hotel right next door, you're in this Mongolian go or Juertas as they're sometimes called. And that's part of the experience. I think people are often quite happy to forego some of the modern mod cons for a night or two just to have that kind of Instagramable moment that they can share with friends.

Lauren:
I definitely agree with that. A hundred percent makes the experience when you're doing something like that. I definitely agree.

Sarah:
And for us we are pretty much the same as Stu, is a group travel experience, so we don't tend to offer necessarily upgrades on the hotel, but there might be room upgrades within the hotel that's available for them and to take on, but traveling is part of a group because all that is shared experience and getting to know one another as well. I think it's, we'd like to keep everybody together, but like I said, we really do have great relationships with all our hoteliers and I know that G Adventures do have great relationships as well. We pride ourselves in the accommodation that we give.

Matthew:
Well thank you very much for the debugging some of these myths and because we've throughout that everyone's mentioned a lot of their own experiences. We've all been on it from the trial court costs team, went to Columbia and did a trek to the lost city, which was a complete opener and game changer for everyone. It is one of those which is with G adventures, more of the adventure side. It was hard, we had a lot of people, as long as you trained could do it. It wasn't exhausting as such, it was just you needed to be prepared mentally and physically. But it was probably one of the best things I've ever done. And like you were saying earlier, Stu, the getting away and just being away from technology, being around this social group, we all in the evenings were playing cards on and Jules and Lauren can bring in that side of it as well. Can you talk about it? Before this podcast, it just brings back memories and we were looking at photos, reminiscing and bring about such good times. Or do you say Jules?

Jules:
Yeah, definitely. It was definitely a once in a lifetime trip as such, but I think something that's not mentioned so much on tour, it actually really you, it changes you as a person. Because I think you come back from some of these experiences and like you said, you have integrated with locals, you've lived as they live and you've really been immersed in the country that you're exploring. Do you come back and kind of think, "Oh, I don't need to be spending so much money on all this material? It's good."

Jules:
I just think yeah, with the touring, just the ever lasting effects of just, which you might not get so much from a bucket and spade holiday. But yeah, because it's all about the experience and like you said, the people that you share the experience with, you create a sort of bond and again, that's another lasting experience from these tours. We just had the most amazing time. What would you say Stu is your favorite tour that you've done?

Stu:
I've been in everything, it's a difficult question as a bit incredibly fortunate to travel a lot. Antarctica and the Arctic. But probably my kind of favorite experience most recently was last year to Bhutan and I referenced Bhutan earlier at when we were talking, but the reason is that it's a bit of a time capsule and there's not many places you can go in the world now and not have phone signal or not see iPads and see all modern cons. But they've made a decision over there where they, all the buildings have to look the way they did 200 years ago. And I really think if you took away the power lines and took a photo or just looked at the scene, you would think you'd gone back 200 years. And I really liked that despite the superpowers that are surrounding the country, they've remained quite true to themselves.

Stu:
And I really liked, there's still places you can go in the world where you don't feel like you could just be anywhere else. Because there's a lot of cities in the world you could walk down and they would feel like clones of other cities, as, because the whole world kind of becomes quite similar, but I really liked that, the unique culture that they're embracing. And just lastly, they all wear the national dress, not on one day of the year on a national holiday, but they always wear the national dress. It's like going to Scotland and seeing everyone in kilts all the time. It's really nice actually, yeah, that's probably my favorite travel experience of late.

Jules:
Brilliant. What about you, Sarah? What's been available on one of your tours?

Sarah:
I think for me it was the Croatia cruise that we do. I think a lot of people think a tour is from hotel to hotel unpacking and your on a coach, like we mentioned before we actually charter yachts that was around the coast of Croatia and you certainly call it an all the little coastal towns. It's a breakfast that lovely laid out and it's about 30 to 35, 36 of you, 35 of you, sorry, on the boat. And we disembark from the boat and go for a wander around the town and I'm a bit of a Game of Thrones fan as well so you get to see some of where that was filmed. That's pretty amazing and then some of the dinners are included, but it's nice, it is free as well, docked up in the evenings, you can just go off to dinner somewhere local and just, it's just a different type of travel experience that isn't what a stereotypical I think or a misconception of what people think of tours.

Sarah:
And one of the best things that I've done is to say, "Oh, I kayak around the Dubrovnik walls just as the sun was setting." I know Jules, you mentioned changing, it changed your life. It was quite an emotional experience as well, that you come back and you describe it to somebody and to do it justice you almost have to go back and do it again. I think that's one that I'll do again. But I've got lots of places on my list to go to yet, actually the [inaudible 00:39:30]in Bhutan is one of those.

Matthew:
Yeah, I think like you said, that is with, I have a lot of places that I want to travel. I love traveling. And I think a tour for some of this destinations for me would be one of the best ways of seeing it, being able to go, especially to somewhere like Bhutan or Mongolia or silk road, be able to take in so many different countries and cultures in one go, but have the security of having that CEO or the tour guide that who speaks with the local dialects because trying to do that on your own, yeah, you can do it. And I probably, if I had the time, I wouldn't mind doing it on my own.

Matthew:
But at the same time, the security side of it of trying to go and get something, I know the local people be so friendly, but I think it's just having, having that there and be able to see so much in one go is something that I loved about our trip of when we went to Columbia and getting that local culture and our CEOs, because it was a G trip where Julio and Miguel were absolutely brilliant and Julio was the indigenous, so we had two indigenous people actually take us to the last city. On the way they would stop and talk to us about what their culture is, what the huts meant. We got to meet some of the elders, learn about their culture, they'd show us how they make, used the plant life to then create their clothing and demonstrate how they did it.

Matthew:
Being able to have that, which is something that you wouldn't get if you did it on your own as well. And also they were absolute machines that they will walk in,[crosstalk 00:41:19] walk in a day, it'll take us five, but they can get there and back in a day. They're absolute units. But it was just amazing. And they joined in with the group, which we were just in hysterics. But that you all said is that building up bonds. A lot of us knew each other before we went, but we came back even closer. And our last night was probably one of my favorite nights.

Matthew:
And I know Lauren wants to mention stuff about it to us. I'll hand over to her so she talked about her experience as well, but that, the last night we'll always remember that for the laughter. It took us hours to get to sleep. We kept waking up everyone else, but it was a [inaudible 00:41:56], one person would almost go to sleep and then someone started laughing again, it was just contagious. But I think it's just that everyone got so close to each other that it was just an unbelievable experience. I loved it. Sorry Lauren[inaudible 00:42:08]

Lauren:
No, no, no. It's fine. I definitely agree with you. The atmosphere that we had in a group was just amazing. We did not stop laughing from the moment we woke up until the moment we eventually got to sleep. It was just like being school kids again. Everything was so funny and we even had a jungle playlist that we listened to and sang along to on our track and like Matthew said, even our CEO and our indigenous guides, even as we had a language barrier, they still got involved and had a massive laugh with us. And I don't think anything can beat that bond that we all made. Everyone was cheering each other on at each hurdle, and even when I came back, it was so weird not having everyone, I kept messaging Jules asking if I can go for a sleepover because I just spent so many nights in the jungle with her. I didn't think anything could beat it honestly, it was just the best experience we've ever had.

Jules:
Stu you mentioned in Bhutan they didn't have any signal or anything, but it was quite crazy for us when we went into the jungle in the middle of the jungle and he's got a little shack and he's got a few bottles of water, but he's also got wifi. That was quite incredible.

Stu:
I remember seeing pictures of, because you guys had a bit of rain. I remember seeing pictures of people slipping and sliding in the mud. And the laughter, it was probably you Lauren in the video, but I remember seeing it, just the laughter people falling over in the mud. Normally you'd be like, "Oh no, I've fallen over." But I think you're all just laughing at each other as you slipped over.

Lauren:
I genuinely [inaudible 00:43:43] from laughing from that trip.

Matthew:
It was hard when you laugh and you're trying to go up a Hill. That was difficult. But I think that was probably my favorite day is probably the most difficult in the same way because the environment. But it was stunning. Being in the jungle during a thunderstorm is, there's nothing like it. I mean, I've been fortunate enough to be in Florida quite often and see the thunderstorms in the Caribbean and in Florida is something to behold, the amount of rain that comes down. But being out in the wilderness and seeing it there, it was yeah. Take your breath away. It was absolutely stunning. Loved it. And like I said, the mudslides were, we're all laughing. And I think that again brought us closer together because it was such, it was a struggle, but I think it brought us together.

Matthew:
And I know obviously not all touring is like that, but I sort of see the ones we've experienced ourselves. And but like I said, the Silk road one or even potentially somewhere like in the deep South of America, jumping on a group tour there and getting to see quite a lot and you don't have to worry about driving yourself. And that's a thing when everything, especially when you go in and cover in quite a lot of distance, I think with the tours is someone else can do that for you. You can go and enjoy a glass of wine or a bottle at dinner and not have to worry about being up and driving.

Matthew:
You can just let go and enjoy yourself because you know, you've got that someone there to do that for you. And yeah, I just think it's such a great way to see your destination with that. If from the larger groups or need to do when, somebody is going around a certain destination, its got museums, if they wanted to go off and do that, is that something that if it wasn't part of the itinerary but you were in the town for the day, they'll be able to go and do?

Sarah:
Yeah, absolutely. There is flexibility and freedom in the tour, so that might be a tour for direct to take you to a chateau. Excursion for the day takes you on a chateau to the light in town and you've got your whole day to do whatever you want there. Some people might just choose to sit in a square, drink red wine and eat tap pass as somebody else might actually want to go around the cathedral or a museum. So yeah, absolutely.

Sarah:
There's always enough freedom and choice and I think everything that you've just talked about, about your experience with G Adventures is just about the shared experience of the group tour and actually the benefits of traveling together and how you do get a bond from traveling together, but you do have so much laughter and you do have so much fun and you create those memories and you come home and I can hear the excitement when you're talking about the amazing experiences that you had and you just came back feeling like it has changed your life and that's amazing and it's great to hear, so I'm glad to hear we're all doing the right thing.

Jules:
Definitely. And you mentioned a good point there, Matthew, one of the massive benefits of going on an escorted tour with you guys or many of the other companies is the safety aspect. And obviously you look after your clients really, really well. Do you, and that's something you definitely need to consider before you go. Is there any other like top tips or anything you would give to maybe first time tourists of what to look for in a tour? Or anything else they should consider before booking?

Sarah:
Yeah, I think Stu got some and I've got some, so together we can create a list. I think may, I would be thinking, right, what do I want to say? What do I want to do? What's on my bucket list? And I would, do I want to live off the beaten track or actually do I want to be a little bit more looked after in a hotel? I would, there's always a company out there to help you. And across Travelsphere, Just You and G Adventures we hope that is one of those brands. There's something for everybody.

Sarah:
And I've considered, I mentioned earlier and I've mentioned it a few times, the group size, who do you want to travel with? And how many people? And how does that feel for you? And if you've got your bucket list and you didn't know what you want to say, just make sure it's included, or at least it's an optional extra. I'd really study the itinerary is to make sure you're happy with them. And going back and looking[inaudible 00:48:16] about are you protected through the Atol and Aptus schemes and others schemes as well and that's really important. And that would be my top tips. What would be yours Stu?

Stu:
Yeah, all of those. I'll have all of those please. And a sprinkling of just get in touch with our companies, like I know at G every staff member gets a free trip every year. It's just a work perk that we have to deal with. It's very difficult.[crosstalk 00:48:53] But that means if you're really not sure about that destination, you're not sure about that tour, is it right for you? Just give us a call and there's a good chance if that person hasn't been on that trip, then maybe the person next to them has, and they can just talk you through what it's like because I think you read the itinerary and you've come up with your own idea of how that's going to run. But like I said earlier with the unscripted moments is quite often things that like, "Oh no, what we normally do is we normally do this. It's not in the itinerary, but you're gonna have this great experience because on day three we tend to do this."

Stu:
And as I think Sarah covered earlier, like their local guides have their own little quirks, their own little secrets, which we might, we might let you in on, we might just say day three will be exciting because we want you to be surprised.

Matthew:
Amazing. I think I'm going to ask Jules yourself obviously from going away and doing more of an adventurous tour. What would you and open to you as well Lauren. What would you, what would your top tip be after go what you packed? Or what you did first and then coming back?

Jules:
Well that was going to be my top tip back here. Your packing list, that's very important. I just like, I just studied it very well we looked at, I think touring you do need to do that little bit more research and there're loads of things out there like YouTube videos and clips and blogs. You can really delve into some of these tours and get real insight before you're even on the trip. Maybe do your research and get your pack in right.

Lauren:
[inaudible 00:50:29] like a packing. However, I have a pack, which is definitely something I did because our track was five days. I think of all the same outfit throughout all of it. Don't carry extra stuff if you're doing something like that, you don't need it. And also if you're deciding on a tour like Jules said check out the YouTube videos, the blogs and stuff on it, but also if it's like, if you want to do, don't ever think about it, just do it because you will absolutely love it no doubt.

Jules:
I agree. Any top tips Matthew for touring?

Matthew:
All of the above. And I suppose it's also depending on what tour you're doing is making sure footwear, there's normally a good one depending on where you are. Obviously if you go onto a boat like Lauren, said you don't really need to pack that much of your... Enjoy and say it in around the Seychelles or the Maldives, some flip flops and swim swimwear. But if you're doing something a bit more robust, even if it's a group tour around Italy or a city, I'd say footwear is probably one of the, and socks would be the key thing, making sure you always have from our experience enough socks for each day. Because our socks did get wet and I did have them dangling off, I rotate them because I only took two pairs because I thought that's all I need it's going to be quite dry.

Matthew:
Each day one of, if it got wet I'd then dangle the others off the back to try and dry off in the sunshine. My top tip is look after your feet because you're going to be exploring a lot. That's what I would say. And I mean I think that's just, one last thing before we sort of wrap up this episode. We've discussed so much of the touring world. What I want to do just from each of you is just sort of roundup, why you think someone would choose a touring holiday. I know we've sort of, we've mentioned it throughout, but for you, why do you think someone would choose a touring holiday? If I come to you first, Sarah.

Sarah:
I think you should choose the touring holiday because life's too short. Let somebody else take the hustle out of it and let somebody look after you and seek advice from your local travel agent on the online websites from calling up the call centers, whatever that may be. Talk to experienced people, learn about the destination and just embrace that like-minded shared experience.

Matthew:
And Jules?

Jules:
Mine would be to, I would recommend touring to make new friends and you can definitely make loads of new friends, whether they be locals or other people that you're on the tour with. And like you said, like Stu mentioned earlier, you're on this tour with like minded people because they all want to experience adventure and they all want to experience new places. I would say, go make some new friends.

Matthew:
Perfect. And going onto yourself, Stu.

Stu:
Yeah, like we touched on earlier, I think, why would you pick a tour? I think local knowledge. Like I said, if your friend comes to stay with you, you show them around, you know the area best. If you're off to Mongolia or off to Italy, off to New York, who better than a local to show around. And I think you touched on it Juliette saying, an experience shared is an experience well doubled really, amplified when you have all these extra people with you. And as Sarah said earlier, you don't have to take the selfie. You can have someone take that picture of you and not be in fear. They're gonna run off with your phone. Because they're on the same trip with you as you.

Matthew:
And Lauren.

Lauren:
I kind of echo what Stu said, for those experiences that you're just not going to get if you do it yourself. You could be walking down a road by yourself looking at the scenery, but if you've got a local guide with you, you're gonna see and learn about these things that you wouldn't necessarily know about. Definitely follow the experiences 100%.

Matthew:
Perfect. And why, say someone to choose a touring holiday to be able to, I'd say to see lots of a destination in one holiday. Whether it be meeting the local people, seeing things that you would not see if you went and stayed in a hotel trying to do it yourself. Go in and get an those unexpected experiences from a CEO. Maybe go and see local fireworks or go into local dance or learning some salsa in Bogota. Things like that I think is why someone should choose a touring holiday so diverse. But I just want to say a massive thank you for all of you for joining us today and taking the time out to really help people. I think everyone listening will be able to now think of touring and think of it for a next trip and where they would be able to find which is best for them.

Matthew:
But what we will do on the travelpodcasts.com along with this episode, you'll be able to find URL links to Travelsphere, Just You and G Adventures. And also we'll have some little links to some of the trips that we talked about personally. If you are interested in seeing what we've ventured on they will all be on there and also in the footnotes on any of the episodes if you're listening to this via iTunes or Spotify or one of the other streaming services. Again, thank you Stu, thank you, Sarah, for joining us.

Sarah:
Thank you for having us.

Stu:
Yeah, thank you for having us.

Matthew:
No problem. Again, thank you Jules and Lauren as some of the regulars of the travel podcast.

Jules:
Thank you [crosstalk 00:56:20]

Matthew:
And again, make sure you do go check out the travelpodcast.com for more information and to listen to any of our other episodes. And if you did enjoy this episode, please give us a five star rating and we look forward to you listening soon.

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