European Focus will be in medieval Chartres, France three times this season
Updated March 26, 2015
Another exciting year lies ahead for European Focus Private Tours, with (so far) twelve custom-designed tours booked for the season, which begins in April. Here’s an example of what we’re doing with our clients this year:
April 19-26
Ireland
A family of four from South Carolina and Louisiana arrive in Dublin for their first ever trip to the Emerald Isle. For one member of the family it will be the first trip ever to Europe, and James is excited to share the wonders of one of our favorite places with her. We will be spending time in Counties Tipperary (Cashel) plus Cork (Cobh) plus Kerry (Kenmare and Dingle) wrapping things up in County Clare with an overnight in the charming hamlet of Bunratty. This will be the first tour for this family with European Focus.
April 23-May 27
Multiple Countries
The longest tour of our career will be lead by Jenean with a couple from Texas about to be exposed for the first time to the wonders of Europe. The trip will start in Vienna and end in Paris 33 days later, along the way, our clients will experience parts of Bavaria, Austria, Italy and much of France.
May 1-10
Germany
George and Susan’s third trip (after Germany and Italy) with European Focus, and James is happy to welcome this couple from the east coast of Florida back to his native Germany for a tour which will include Berlin, Dresden, ancestral Nürnberg and Amberg plus Bacharach on the majestic Rhein River.
May 13-24
France
Betsy and Jim also come for their third trip with European Focus (after Germany and Ireland) this time we explore Normandy including the D-day battlefields along with Mont Saint-Michel where we will enjoy a two-night stay in a grand chateau. Then we go to the Loire Valley, more grand chateau plus the house where Leonardo da Vinci spent his final years. We continue to Chartres to gaze at the wonderful stained glass in the 13th century cathedral and then spend the final three nights in a charming boutique hotel in the Latin Quarter of Paris, taking in all that the City of Light has to offer.
May 25-June 8
France
Art and Carol’s eighth trip with European Focus will concentrate on France, with a near repeat of what Jim and Betsy will have done with James previously, including Bayeux in Normandy, Mont Saint-Michel and the Loire, Chartres and then up to Reims for the final part of the trip. Can you tell that we totally spoil our guests? The majority of our 2015 trips are with repeat clients, and we are very happy about that!
June 11-24
Austria
Peter, Gayle and Margaret return for their third European Focus trip with a journey into ancient Rome’s past throughout the provinces of current-day Austria. We always feel as if we have attended a semester of university after a trip with this family of academics! It is just one more of the benefits of having created the most unique travel and experience company in the world.
June 29-July 18
Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy
Five sets of parents are sending their 18-year old children on a Grand Tour of Europe in celebration of graduation. We will be exploring cultural and historical sites in Amsterdam, Berlin, Nuremberg, Rothenburg, Munich, Lucerne, “Heidi Country” and Austria, Venice, Florence, Lucca and the Cinque Terre, Pisa, Rome and more. James will lead this tour.
July 11-25
England and France
Jenean welcomes first timers from Oklahoma, a family of four, for a trip that will combine big cities with countryside in England and France. James meets up with the family on July 22 and takes them all out to Normandy.
July 26-August 2
Germany
Steffani comes on her first European Focus tour, a dream come true for this family historian who will visit the places where her ancestors lived near Oberursel, Germany as well as Rothenburg ob der Tauber (that’s where we live during the season), Munich and the Rhein Valley.
August 9-27
Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Germany
Two couples consisting of Devon and Phyllis, Shirley and Rudy come on their second European Focus Tour (the last one was in 2006) and this time we are doing a bit of a ‘Grand Tour’ starting in the alps of Switzerland and continuing through mountainous Austria into the Czech Republic and up into Poland, where Phyllis has ancestral ties in the former Silesia.
We end up in Lüneburg, up near Hamburg. This will be one of the longest trips of the season in both distance and length.
I hope that at the age of 50 I can keep up with these 70-somethings! (And for Devon, that at 80-something he doesn’t wear me out!)
August 30-Sept 12
France and Italy
Eddy from Oklahoma took a trip with his two sons in the summer of 2013. This time he returns with six other family members for a trip including all the best that Paris and Rome has to offer, plus excursions out into Normandy and Tuscany.
September 23-30
Italy, Austria and Germany
James takes mother and son on an alpine adventure including Lugano, Lake Como, Bellagio and a stopover in Venice. Heading north we explore Cortina di Ampezzo and Berchtesgaden before the pair fly home from Munich.
October 4-13
France
Jenean takes two guests on an all-girls trip to Provence including the area around Gordes and Saint-Remy-de-Provence. The ladies will enjoy cooking classes, wine and olive oil tastings, incredible scenery and of course the famous markets. The trip will end with a couple of nights in stunning Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Côte d’Azur.
October 4-11
Germany
Linda and her cousin Carol come over for their first European Focus tour concentrating on ancestral towns including Bad Kreuznach, the area around Saarbrücken and a town in the Black Forest before James takes them to Zurich to board their river cruise to Amsterdam.
As one can see, all of our trips are built custom for our clients. No ‘cookie cutter’ or forced itineraries. Our clients tell us what they wish to see and do, and we create their trip around those wishes. European Focus is the only professional tour company in the world which will design and lead a tour for just one person! Our most common ‘group’ size is from two to four.
Spots remain open on our 2015 calendar. To get started down the road towards your own dream trip in Europe, please start here.