The Benefits of Guided Touring - Q & A with a Collette Tour Manager

Collette describe their Tour Managers as part tour guide, part concierge and part friend.  On each tour you are guided by one of Collette's highly trained and experienced experts, every step of the journey. Passionate and experienced travellers themselves, you can count on them to share a bit of the history to where you are, a restaurant suggestion and many happy stories. Here a Collette Tour Manager has shared his answers to questions about why you should Go Collette!

What’s the benefit of taking a tour?

A tour brings together the best elements of travelling to a foreign destination. First of all, the planning is done! It takes quite a bit of research and time to put a trip together. As part of a tour, great sight-seeing, hotels and restaurants are all arranged for you. With that, you are always accompanied by the knowledge and insight of a tour manager and guide. You’ll know what those statues in that certain fountain mean or the history behind your favourite food. To top it off, you’ll be among like-minded travellers and new friends with whom you’ll share this whole wonderful experience. 

Can I choose my activities?

Collette is proud to offer It’s Your Choice during a tour. It may be a choice between visiting a historic/religious site or doing a cultural walk through a neighbourhood. We realise that everyone has different interests. And, of course, as much as our days are filled with amazing sights, there will always be those opportunities to explore a site or city on your own. I always have a few suggestions ready.  

What kind of inclusions can I expect?

On a tour, the most important highlights of a place are included. Who doesn’t want to go to Rome and go inside the Colosseum? And, best of all, travelling with Collette means you skip the line. What we have seen on our tours in the last few years is that guests are also looking for unique, authentic experiences, so we have been focusing heavily on this. A winery visit should be more than drinking a few glasses of wine. It’s a cultural experience that involves taking in the history of the place and meeting the family or workers behind that incredible glass of wine. 

How is a Collette tour different to others?

I have been working as a tour manager for Collette for 22 years now. And Collette has the same mindset as I do. It is family-run and I run my tours as if it were my own family who has joined me on tour. I still have the same excitement to know that someone might be seeing a place for the first time and I still promise to those who have perhaps been there before that they will experience something new. I truly want to “share” a destination on tour. So I think it is our Collette family of tour managers that really set a standard and set us apart.  

Your most memorable moment as a Collette Tour Manager?

Here is one memorable moment from a tour of Tuscany. We were on our way to Florence when a gentleman on tour asked if I would be able to take a photo of him and his wife in the same spot he had a photo taken the last time he was in that city. Of course I recognised the spot right away as the front of the magnificent Duomo. But I had to ask him, “When was this photo taken?”, to which he replied, “Oh, on the day I helped liberate Florence during WWII.” Needless to say, I took the photo but, after letting our local guide know, he was soon surrounded by Florentines, shopkeepers, students and other tourists.

The following day we drove down to the town of Siena. I knew we would be passing by the American military cemetery outside of Florence along the way. As much as it was too early, I made sure and arranged that they would open the gates for us. They had waited and allowed him the honour of raising the flag that morning. That was a very special moment for me, because I know it mattered to him. I try to go that extra mile for guests as often as I can.