European Focus tours are conducted at a much slower pace than the big bus tours, where the accent seems to be packing as much into a day as humanly possible even if it’s a brutal pace. We slow down and enjoy a stroll through a quiet hamlet on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors, an area of narrow lanes that a big bus could never reach.
Some day, not right now and not in 2020 or 2021, but some day soon, European Focus and its founder James Derheim will simply stop taking clients to Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Venice, Rome, Florence and the list goes on and on. Why? Mass tourism and the BILLIONS of people who are traveling – it’s ruining the experience in these cities and no one is happy. And, since European Focus thrives on happiness, why subject people to what is known to be a miserable, frustrating experience?
So starting in around 2022, European Focus will concentrate on the smaller and more out of the way towns and villages where the heart and soul of Europe is still authentically warm and welcoming. Good-bye Paris. Hello Strasbourg. Good-bye Amsteram. Hello Leuven and Maastricht. Good-bye Venice. Hello Todi, Orvieto and Parma.
It’s a new world. Unfortunately, with mega-ships, cheap flights and a growing Asian middle class, a very crowded one.