Even after visiting a region for year, new cultural icons can be found. The Collegial Saint-Maur in Hattonchatel, for example, has a beautiful altar by sculptor Ligier Richier dating from 1523.

While planning for 2022 I came across this inspiring quote from Walt Disney:  “Whatever you do, do it well.  Do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again, and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.”  Markus and I have been fortunate to have repeat clients, who have returned multiple times.  These include:  Valerie Young, Colin McAllister, John Snow, Bruce Blanchart, Heiner Saur, Andrew Pouncey and others.  But, for those of you who do not know us, but who are considering using our tour services, this blog post series is meant to highlight things that we do well.  In Part three we will examine our philosophy of closer to a “nutter” than a romance tour.  (Nutter is UK informal speak for a person who is a bit crazy or eccentric.)

When it comes to creating memorable vacation (or pilgrimage) experiences, it is extremely important to match the travel expectations of the participants with the travel philosophy of the tour operator.  If poorly matched, friction will likely develop and neither party will be pleased with the outcome.

Markus and I both have a passion for military history and we, therefore, design our tours for people who enjoy getting knee deep into history.  As outlined in part 1 of this blog post, we try to add suitable walks in the field for this reason.

That said, we do recognize that our five-day (+2) tours can get long in the field—especially for spouses—so in 2022 we are adding at least two cultural events into the tours and we are selecting at least a few days in a hotel where participants can opt out of the tour for a day or two.  The cultural events could be visits to food or alcohol producers, historic buildings or sites, or dinners with key local people.  It depends on schedules, our contact base in the region and other factors.

Markus and I target our tours to clients who are comfortable with a three-star hotel / restaurant; and we try to use family-owned, non-chain hotels.  We don’t generally structure out tours for clients who prefer a higher-end or a budget experience—although we certainly could do that for a private tour.

Our tours tend to be shorter than tours provided by other operators who target American clients; in part because we believe that our clients combine our tours with other travel interests while overseas.

We strongly encourage you to talk to us and to read our testimonials before booking a tour with us.  Remember also that we are available for private hire tours that can be much more tailored to your needs.  As always, we look forward to getting knee deep into history with you!

#kdih #kneedeepintohistory #meuse-argonne #ww1tours #ww2tours #battlefieldtours