Art and Carol at top of Jenner Mountain, Germany
taken the time needed to get to the top (cablecar)
much less allow for plenty of picture taking and
a cold one at the top.
Sometimes people mention that they’re considering taking a tour from one of the companies like Rick Steves mentioned in the headline above. After spending 14 years building a private, custom-design tour business from scratch and after serving hundreds of clients (many of them repeats) it all comes down to one question a person contemplating one of our unique trips should ask themselves: “Quantity or quality. What’s most important to me?”
The “Big Bus Trips” promise a hugely ambitious itinerary packed with sightseeing. Words like “see” and “Visit” need to be fully understood. “See” means you pass by a sight and “see” it through the window of a fast-moving bus. If you’re on the wrong side of the bus, you “see” that sight through the raised arms (those on the “right” side of the bus are all snapping photos as fast as they can with their digi cameras) of the other 30 or 40 people on the bus. That packed itinerary promises the moon but unfortunately, only delivers a hectic, exhausting dawn to dusk schedule usually starting at the crack of dawn and lasting until your “chicken or beef” with “entertainment” dinner. The trip might seem to be “cheap” or a “good deal” until you realize that there are many meals left out, and that most of the sightseeing is rush-rush-rush and get back on the bus.
European Focus Private Tours are the complete opposite. Our schedule is relaxed and we don’t make promises that we can’t deliver on. Wake up and the start of your day is not up to us, in most cases it’s up to you – because you and the travel companions you choose for your trip decide! We don’t mix and match strangers on our tours, so there’s no compromising. You’re doing what you want to do, 100% of the time on each and every day. And when we sit down for dinner, our guests have the luxury of ordering what they want from the menu. Our philosophy is to truly get to know a country, you should dine as the locals dine, and that means we don’t force a limited decision on our guests.
Absolutely – European Focus Private Tours cost more than the mass-produced tours. It’s the same comparison between a custom-built home and one that’s been churned out of a factory and assembled onto a concrete pad next to 50 other houses which look identical. There are so many stark differences between a mass-produced tour and a custom-designed one that it would take several web sites to explain them all. Our clients say it best. “After taking a tour with European Focus, I could never again go on a bus tour.” 
The “Vater Rhein” carries two of our clients past
medieval castles on the Rhein River, Germany.
Ahhh – the serenity of slow travel!
We’re always happy to put prospective guests in touch with members of our European Focus Family of tour goers.