After completing almost 3 weeks with his small group tours in Paris and the Normandy Invasion Beaches, The Professor headed to Spain for 3 days of rest and relaxation. Madrid was surprisingly cool at this time of the year which made exploring comfortable. Check out what The Traveling Professor did on his short stay in the charming city of Madrid.
We just completed 2 small group tours to Paris. Each group had 7 travelers and we completed our "Paris Beyond the Eiffel Tower Tour". Our guide, the well-known Michael Osman, took us past the typical tourist destinations of Paris and opened our eyes to lesser-known but wonderful sites like the Musée Jacquemart-André, Musée Nissim de Camondo, Parc Monceau, a walk through the passages of Paris, and the Musée National Eugène-Delacroix. An important part of each day on our small group tours of Paris was lunch. In today's blog post I will point out 3 bargain lunches in Paris, 2 of them at some of the most elegant locations to be found.
The Traveling Professor is surprised about how costs can vary on airport parking. For example, at New York's JFK airport parking can be about $25 if parking on-site, about $18 a day if parking off-site. Westchester airport charges an amazing $30 a day. At Dallas DFW airport it is $31 per day. So, if traveling on a 2-week trip, it would not be impossible to spend a whopping $350 just to park a car. Considering airfares to Europe are only a few hundred dollars more, that's a lot of money. Nice friends or relatives may offer to drive you to the airport, but if you are like me, I hate to impose upon them An obvious alternative is to use a close by off-site facility which usually saves 30%-50% and sometimes that is a good choice. In today's blog post, The Professor will give a few more good tips on how to save on airport parking.
Anyone who travels to Paris knows that lodging can be very expensive. I have been traveling to Paris well over 20 years and probably have made nearly 100 trips to the City of Light. Over the years I have uncovered some 2-star hotels that are well worth staying in. These hotels listed below have charm and style, but best of all, the price is right. They are well-located and offer a stay in Paris that will not soon be forgotten. Try one of them on your next tour to Paris.
In Europe, the only place I have ever seen U.S. dollars is the LHR airport. I have never seen U.S. dollars accepted anywhere else in Europe. Since the introduction of the euro about 20 years ago, things have gotten simpler since a single currency is accepted in most European Union countries, there are still many countries (Iceland, Norway, Croatia, Denmark come to mind) who do not accept euros. In this blog post The Traveling Professor gives some simple and never published before ways to exchange currency to use in Europe.
Air travel is a big hassle. Airline customer service is horrible at best, airlines treat their customers like cattle with long waits, no personal service, and charge ridiculous fees. However, some travelers are treated like VIPs with large seats, preferred boarding, lounge access, reduced or eliminated baggage fees. Find out how to fly like a VIP without spending a lot of money. Read all about it in today's The Traveling Professor blog post
For his small group tours and personal trips, The Traveling Professor probably flies about 75,000 to 100,000 miles per year on multiple trips. That's a lot of experience with packing. There are lots of ways to make the packing experience more streamlined and easier. Read about The Traveling Professor's top 5 packing tips and enjoy your next trip to Europe or South American with less hassle.
Every now and then it is a good idea to splurge on hotel accommodations. We frequently present good value 3 or 4 star hotels on our small group tours to Italy. Today we take a little bit different direction with telling about some luxurious hotels in Florence. These are all full service Florence hotels, some of them offering spa services, superior dining, and spacious rooms.
The Traveling Professor offers and runs about 10-15 small group tours through The Traveling Professor website each year. However, we do run tours that are not offered on our website. Usually these tours are for private organizations who are running these tours to raise funds and build loyalty for their own organization. In other situations, small group tours are offered as professional development programs. In this blog post, I will describe the benefits of running a small group tour for your organization.
We recently got back from a small group tour to Peru. The Traveling Professor has been bringing his small group tours to Peru for almost 8 years now and this was our 20th trip. It included Cusco, Machu Picchu, and the Amazon jungle. We made the tour with 15 travelers from all over the United States. In this blog post, The Traveling Professor will tell you about our accommodations, the outstanding food, and what was on our very exciting itinerary. Check out the blog post for our small group tour to Peru trip review.