Does anyone have recommendations for a good tour company or other plan for visiting destinations in Europe? My husband and I are fortunate enough to be able to plan a fairly major trip to celebrate our 10th anniversary, and we would like to do a tour either of Scandinavia or the British Isles (or parts of either region). My ancestors are largely from Scandinavia and Ireland, and my husband’s are largely from England, Scotland, and Germany.
Now, there are major issues with the desire by rich white Americans for “authentic,” “off-the-beaten path” travel as raised in this Racialicious post (which is very thought-provoking and well worth reading–I personally am so insular as to never really have had the desire to travel to non-European destinations in the first place, which I’m sure says very bad things about me, but in any case many of the points raised by the author and in the comments had never occurred to me before and were quite eye-opening). Nevertheless, I’m just going to lay out there what I am looking for, and hope that a) the fact that I’m planning travel to wealthy European destinations in the first place will in and of itself mitigate some of the potential issues of entitlement, power/economic imbalance, and racism raised by the piece, and b) commenters will set me straight if I’m being an asshole.
So, I think what I am looking for is a package tour so that I don’t have to plan everything myself. I pretty much planned out my own activities when I got to go with my husband to a conference in Paris a few years ago, but that was easier because it was a shorter trip; it was less expensive because the company paid for his airfare and our hotel and it was therefore less risky if I accidentally planned stuff that ended up sucking, though luckily that ultimately did not happen; and I know a little about France and speak a little French, even though we’re talking high-school French level here, but at least it was a starting point. In any of the destinations I mentioned, I would be much more clueless and based on the cash outlay, language barrier (in the Scandinavian case) and general ignorance of the culture, and potential for stress, I think the trip would be more effective if I just let someone knowledgeable plan it for me.
As a stupid example, my dad is from the Upper Peninsula, so I’ve been there many times throughout my life. Therefore, I know that the pasties you can get by the Bridge kind of suck (though there are probably exceptions, I just don’t know about them, which sort of underlines my point), but this particular shop in Ishpeming has ones that I love. It’s not a “secret” or anything–I’m sure a lot of the customers are tourists just like me–and it’s actually a fairly prosperous chain as far as I know, with a couple of locations and the ability to ship frozen pasties and that kind of stuff. It’s just that if you had never visited the area or only had Google to go on, you might not know it was there (I mean, you might, but you might not), whereas if you asked someone in my family, you would. I don’t particularly need everything we do to be some kind of back-street exclusive experience containing no other Americans, I just want it to actually be good and for the trip to be fun and substantive and educational on the whole. If that makes any sense.
So, that being said, I would just as soon not end up on a cheesy tour where everyone is 70 years old (no offense to older folks; I’d just feel more comfortable if the group skewed more toward my own age–the same goes for the fact that I’d prefer not to end up with mostly high-school or college students either) and we spend all our time on a bus and/or in highly “touristy” places with crappy food and overpriced souvenirs. Let’s call this what it is; I don’t think I’m “better” than anyone else with some kind of high-minded desire for “authenticity” or to “blend in,” (or I don’t know, I probably do think that on some level, but anyway), but honestly I don’t want to waste the cost of what may be the biggest, most expensive trip of my life on subpar food and entertainment that’s considered “good enough” for clueless Americans who would secretly rather be at McDonald’s (as the stereotype might go), but not for people who live there or actually know anything about the culture.
Problem being, I don’t actually know anything about the culture, so I need to sort of contract that part of it out, and I do recognize that I sort of deserve what I get by doing so rather than researching the destinations thoroughly and/or knowing someone there who can show us around. Nevertheless, I’m hoping someone knows of high-quality tour companies that they can recommend. I have one recommendation for a Rick Steves tour; any corroboration for that, or other suggestions? We don’t really have any physical limitations so a more strenuous tour shouldn’t be a problem if that opens up additional options.
Here is the part where I share two things that probably say a great deal about my own white privilege and ugly-American-ness (or perhaps ugly whiteness), but also serve to explain why I’m leery of tours and “planned vacations” in general.
Number one, when I was in high school in North Carolina, a friend asked me along on her church trip to a sort of small-time local amusement park (warning: annoying music plays automatically). While there, we saw a show put on by local Native Americans and consisting of (what I assume were) facsimiles of “native costume” made of bandannas, accompanied by a lot of self-deprecating jokes about Native American culture and even about, essentially, the fact of being conquered and displaced by Europeans, all in a very lighthearted, “what are you gonna do” kind of tone, while all the white folks in the audience laughed. As a high-schooler, this made me feel almost sick with guilt and discomfort.
Of course, now I am aware that it’s not as simple as my outrage at the time would indicate. For example, you might well say that I deserved to be uncomfortable given the unjust situation that my ancestors perpetrated that gave rise to the show in the first place. And at the same time, obviously my guilt and a quarter won’t even buy you a phone call, so I can sit there all day long and feel terrible about myself and have my white sensibilities outraged and it still doesn’t do any real person a bit of good, whereas the money I paid to see the show does do real people some good. So I don’t know. I do think that I know that in an ideal world, I would hope not to be paying for entertainment that caters specifically to my sense of superiority as an American and bolsters my own self-satisfaction (even though I’m going to majority white countries in this particular case, U.S.-centricism is still potentially an issue), perhaps by relying on caricatures of nationality or ethnicity to make me feel more comfortable, and I would prefer my money not go to a company that trades on that. And maybe I wouldn’t even recognize such a phenomenon for what it was unless you guys tip me off, so that’s why I’m explaining all this.
Basically, even though I know I am absolutely as racist as or perhaps much more racist than the next person, and have a vast amount to work on in that respect, I like to think that I’m “better” than a tour that would cater to Americans’ sense of superiority and entitlement. Whether that is actually true is debatable, of course.
Number two, my in-laws went to Colombia on a cruise, and this cruise was the most hokey, controlled, tourist-trap thing you can imagine, from what I could glean. Now, you might say that at least they weren’t treading too far into the actual culture to gawk at and trample on private life, and at least they were contributing to someone’s livelihood by paying for photos with “locals,” visiting pre-approved landmarks, and shopping for high-priced emeralds at preselected shops that count on you not to know that you’re being overcharged. (Both general points raised in the Racialicious comments). But isn’t there somewhere a happy medium where you support local economies and maybe develop rapport and empathy with people outside of your own country, without at the same time violating people’s privacy, exoticizing them, or having your sense of yourself as the “superior other” reinforced at every turn, which doesn’t seem like it can be a positive thing? In other words, is there a way to be a “responsible tourist” that falls somewhere between tourist traps (that IMO say more about you and your comfort zone than about the culture of the country you’re visiting), and imposing yourself into areas where you do not belong and are really not wanted?
Anyway. Enough about my tiresome internal struggle. The other possibility would be to go to the maritime provinces of Canada, so if anyone has any suggestions about tours or just what to see if we go that route, that would be great also.
Or, does anyone have other destinations altogether to suggest? I’m not big on going to the beach just to go, for example, but if it’s a beach (or other) destination that is particularly beautiful or cool or that you really loved, let me know.
Thanks for any advice you can provide!!
June 26, 2008 at 4:26 pm
I don’t have any advice on tours. I’ve never been on a tour myself. But I do want to say, I don’t think you need to worry so much about the colonization aspect – you’re going to wealthy, white, European countries. That’s quite different than going to a poor, “exotic” country. Although if you are concerned I would suggest learning at least a few phrases in the language of the place you’re going and reading up a little on local customs, dress codes and manners.
June 26, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Yeah, I agree for exactly the reason you mentioned. (And as you know I’m not a good person to resist going off on a tangent if there’s one there, regardless of whether it’s that germane to the entry
).
So anyway, for this specific trip it’s more like I want to avoid a corny overly “packaged” tour that caters to people who are clueless about the places they’re visiting and might not know a crappy meal from a good one, for example. And since the trip is sort of once in a lifetime, and is going to cost a lot no matter what, I’d just as soon spend more and get something higher quality. So basically, to be painfully honest, I’m just being a big snob. I think your advice to brush up on local manners (not just language, etc.) is very good though. I will do the best I can with that.
I do still wonder, regardless of where you’re going, about ways to be a “good tourist” and kind of make the best of supporting the economy, while minimizing the worst of intruding on people’s private lives or culture. I’m not sure you can select a tour company per se that will allow you to accomplish this, so it’s more of a general wondering. So I appreciate your thoughts on how to be a considerate traveler.
June 30, 2008 at 2:31 am
Are you sure you don’t want to come to Germany instead?
For the British Isles, try Brendan –although I’ve never had the money to try, they seemed to have a range of planned-ness to their packages. Sadly, they don’t seem to have the one I always wanted to go on, which was a walking tour of part of Ireland.
(http://www.brendanvacations.com/Front/MainFront.aspx?mainIndex=0&RegionID=1)
I myself have a tendency to go overboard in the trying-not-to-seem-touristy when I travel –I try not to be taking pictures all the time, making people detour around me so they don’t get in the shot, and I try to order in the language (this of course, would not be a problem in the UK or Ireland so much…)
If you’re going to be eating out, I suggest finding a local to give you recommendations of restaurants. There’s a world of difference between a restaurant that both locals and tourists go to and the ones that just tourists go to.
June 30, 2008 at 8:31 am
Mercy–thank you! Those are great suggestions. I’ll check out Brendan, and like an idiot it never occurred to me to actually ask a local about restaurants, so I will keep that in mind too.
And Germany actually does sound great… I visited when I was in high school (with a band from a local arts camp), and although it was an unforgettable trip I was, you know, 15 and I probably failed to appreciate much of what I was seeing. So it would be great to go back. I see Brendan has some tours that include Germany, and Rick Steves has one of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland also.
And I could also try to plan it myself with the help of my dad, who has spent a fair amount of time in Germany on business. I had forgotten that I had this idea (typical me), but after he went once at Christmastime it did occur to me that that would be an awesome trip. The Christkindlmarkt and decorations and such where he was traveling sounded really cool.
Anyway, thanks again! You have given me some great ideas! If you see this and have a moment, do you have any general suggestions on where to go or what to see in Germany?
June 30, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I used to work for a travel company, and edited travel guides for a while, and worked as a local guide in Italy for a year. Part of the main issue, which I’m sure you recognize, is that “off the beaten path” and “busload of people” just don’t tend to work together really well. Restaurants and the like that want to stay in the good graces of local residents don’t want to give up all their tables to huge visiting groups. And on the production side, travel companies want restaurants and hotels they can rely on in terms of price, quality, and availability, which tends to encourage some degree of standardization.
There are certainly more specialized tour companies out there, but they tend to be expensive.
I think the major advantage of packaged tours, though, is the arranged-transportation aspect of it. If you’re less worried about that and more worried about the cultural aspects, I would highly recommend taking local walking tours at your destinations on the first day you arrive, and then picking the guide’s brain for other recommendations to fill out the rest of your time. When I was a guide, I loved helping my guidees with suggestions for other sites to see, restaurants to try, etc.
The Rick Steve’s guidebooks have recommendations for local guides (which I think is awesome, and not a listing I’ve seen in other guidebooks). I’ve also heard wonderful things about London Walks in London and Mike’s Bike Tours in Germany.
And if the transportation or accommodation angle does worry you, you can work with a travel agent to help with that. Though I’ll just plug the Rick Steve’s guidebooks again — I think they do a fantastic job of finding good, reasonably priced hotels that hover at that borderline between “foreigner friendly” and “authentically local.” I’ve been impressed enough with his guidebooks, and with the attitudes of the people using his guidebooks (they were always my favorite guidees!), that I would suspect their package tours would be pretty high-quality.
June 30, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Wow, thanks, occhiblu… I never thought about approaching an overseas trip in that particular way. But it makes a lot of sense.
We’re not really in any rush to go, per se, so maybe what I’ll do is check out some of the Rick Steves guidebooks now and see if I think I will be comfortable doing as you suggest. I basically just did the recommended walking tours from the Lonely Planet guidebook during the few days I spent in Paris, and had a great time even without branching out beyond the recommended routes, so maybe with a little more forethought this will be doable.
Thanks also for the tips on how to find local guides, and the guide company recommendations. That is great info!
July 1, 2008 at 2:33 pm
You’re welcome!
Seriously, I think the internet made travel planning harder in a lot of ways. Books are *so* much easier to use for planning, because you can get a better sense of the geography and the “hierarchy,” as it were; researching things on the internet makes everything seem equally important and it’s harder to get a sense of where everything is in relationship to everything else. But nobody buys reference books anymore, because we’re all so used to looking things up online, and I think it can be a mistake to try to plan things that way.
I worked in the travel industry for almost 10 years, I spend pretty much all day on the internet, and even I get totally overwhelmed whenever I try to plan a trip online (which I used to have to do for work).
The internet’s great for getting additional information on specific sites or hotels or whatever, but I really think a physical book is much better for getting the “hang” of a place.
Most guidebooks also have a lot of info in the front with suggestions for planning your trip, and additional resources for help, so make sure you at least skim over that stuff, too.
And I’m totally jealous that you’re traveling! I haven’t been out of the country in entirely too long.
July 1, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Exactly! I have found the internet overwhelming when trying to look up this kind of information, and I was assuming it was just because the Google results tend to be all spammed up, but I bet you are right that a guidebook is a more logical way to get a feel for a destination. Anyway, thanks again.
We are definitely lucky to have this opportunity to go overseas… I think that’s why I’m stressing over “getting it right.” But thanks to you guys I feel more capable of figuring it out.