The calendar has grown, and I keep hearing the same thing from ladies who are trying to pick something. There is a lot on here now, and it is not obvious where to start. So let me fix that.
Here is the thing nobody tells you about running a travel club. The more trips you offer, the harder you make it for somebody to choose one. I still catch myself listing off destinations when what somebody actually needs is help narrowing down.
So I sorted every trip into eight kinds. Not marketing categories. Actual different kinds of travel, with different pacing and different reasons to go.
Find the one that sounds like you and start there.
Local Adventures
These leave from right here at home. Brunswick County and the greater Myrtle Beach area, motorcoach, and you are back before the laundry piles up.
Night of a Thousand Candles at Brookgreen. Charleston overnights built around a show, with real orchestra seats and a night at the DoubleTree. Nashville at Christmas. The Smokies in May.
No airport. No parking deck. No white knuckle drive home at eleven at night.
If you have never traveled with a group and you are not sure about it, start here. Four hours in you will know whether this is your kind of thing, and if it is not, you are out one Saturday.
Classics
The ones you already have in mind. St. Augustine. Key West. Mardi Gras. Nashville. The manatees at Crystal River.
Nothing experimental about these. They are the places you have been meaning to get to, done at a pace that lets you enjoy them. I am not going to march you through a city at seven in the morning to tick a box.
Our National Treasures
The parks. Yellowstone in January when they close the roads and the crowds vanish and it is just steam coming off the snow. All five Utah parks in one go. The Smokies during the one week the wildflowers actually peak, which I timed on purpose.
I will be straight with you. These involve more walking than the Classics. I say so on every page because I would rather you know now than find out on day two. But standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon is not something a photograph prepares you for.
Best Of
A whole state or region, given the time it deserves. Best of Arizona. Best of Michigan. New England at peak color. Louisiana through the bayous and the back roads that are not New Orleans.
Seven or eight days each. These are for anyone who has driven through somewhere beautiful and wished they had pulled over.
Front Row
Built around an event, where the event is the whole point.
Derby weekend in Louisville. St. Patrick's Day in Savannah, which is one of the biggest in the country and almost nobody outside Georgia realizes it. Cheyenne Frontier Days, the largest outdoor rodeo anywhere.
The reason to do these with a group is the seats. I book a year out and I get blocks. Try buying Derby tickets on your own in March and see what is left.
Cityscapes
Great cities, four or five days, on foot rather than through a bus window. Chicago from the river, which is still the best way to see any American city. New York in early November when the crowds have gone and the windows are going up. San Francisco at Christmas.
I build in more free time on these than on anything else I run, because a city rewards wandering. I will point you at what is worth seeing and then get out of your way.
Journeys of Faith
Trips built around faith and the places where it took root.
A Nation Remembers at the Ark, five days in Kentucky where the Ark Encounter, the Creation Museum, and the Veterans Tribute Weekend all come together. And In the Footsteps of Paul, eleven days through Greece and Turkey, standing on the ground where Paul preached.
These are open to anyone. You do not need to come with a congregation and you do not need to be a scholar. Curiosity is enough.
Passport
International, and the longest trips I do. Italy for twelve days. Ireland. Seventeen days across Scandinavia and the Baltics. The Christmas markets, once by motorcoach through Austria and Germany and again by river from Nuremberg down to Budapest.
Book these earlier than feels necessary. I mean that. The good staterooms and the good departure dates go about a year ahead, and I would rather you hear it from me now than be disappointed later.
These are also the trips women tell me about years afterward.
A few belong to two
St. Augustine is a Classic and a Local Adventure both, because you can ride down with us or fly into Jacksonville and meet us there. Same with the Smokies, where you can come on the coach or fly into Asheville.
If a trip gives you a real choice about how you get there, it shows up under both.
How to actually use this
Go to the trips page. There is a row of buttons across the top. Tap a family and the list shrinks to just those. You can also sort by year, by length, and by whether a trip is ladies only or open to everyone.
And here is what I would really rather you do. Call me.
I can usually tell within about two minutes which kind of trip suits somebody, because I have scouted every one of these places myself before I ever put them on a calendar. I have opinions about all of them. Ask me which one is too much walking. Ask me which hotel has the better beds. Ask me which trip I would send my own sister on.
I answer my own phone, usually with a Diet Coke in hand, and I would far rather talk it through with you than have you guess from a website.
931-801-9900. Any time.
Frances