2011 Holiday Newsletter
Dear Focus Travelers All,
Amazing as it seems, 2011 has already sped by and it is time to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and an especially Happy New Year!! 2011 was full of wonderful Focus travels and happy memories and 2012 is going to be equally spectacular!! Many of you have already firmed plans to join one or more of our upcoming adventures, and I hope many others will find some you cannot resist. Our Focus Travel groups always have such fun together!
Late April of 2011 saw a Focus group arriving in Amsterdam the beginning of a wonderful tour which include Bruges, Normandy and The flowers at Keukenhof Gardens took our breath away! In Normandy we stayed at the famous Château d’Audrieu where we felt as if we had been transported to the 18th century! A day at the Normandy Beaches was enormously moving. Then came a highlight for me: a visit to Mont Saint Michel! Monet’s gardens at Giverny were spectacular. Some of us ended our trip with a last few days in Paris. What a trip!!
In June a Focus group set off for what proved to be a truly magnificent tour of Italy and its Tuscan Treasures. Rome, Positano, Paestum, Pompeii, Capri, Siena and Florence – all were wonderful experiences not soon forgotten. But our days on the stunningly beautiful Amalfi coast and our visits to many of Italy’s incredible hill towns were highlights few of us will ever forget! Our tour was liberally sprinkled with wine tastings and, believe thee me! Those were wine experiences – not mere tastings!! We arrived for a several days stay at the Castello Di Gargaonza in Tuscany and found ourselves living in a perfectly preserved and restored 13th century walled village on its own wooded estate. Some of us left for home from the Castello while others of us ended our tour on beautiful Lake Como. Again – a trip of a lifetime.
An exploration of Greece, Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Albania made September memorable for yet another Focus group. After exploring Athens and Marathon we spent three glorious days on the island of Crete. Next we began an in-depth exploration of Greek Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Albania. All three proved fascinating. The incredible Meteora monasteries perched high on natural sandstone rock pillars and, Delphi were spectacular! Some of us ended our tour with 4 wonderful days on Santorini – the most beautiful of the Greek islands. What a perfect ending to a fantastic tour!
The last Focus trip of 2011 was the most adventurous of all! Late October saw a Focus group adventuring to Ethiopia! What unexpected and diverse landscapes! We spent the first half of our tour in Northern Ethiopia where we visited the island monasteries of Lake Tana and Lalibela, a remarkable complex of 12 century monolithic churches. The second half of our tour found us experiencing true adventure in 4X4 vehicles (3 of us and a driver to each) bouncing over rocky dirt roads and four wheeling through rivers to visit primitive tribes.
What a sparkling, unforgettable travel year! I hope you will agree that 2012 is going to be just as wonderful. We are beginning 2012 with a February cruise to the Caribbean on Oceania Cruise Line’s newest ship – The Marina!! Our Islands In The Sun cruise group is formed and the ship is fully sold out! We will be exploring Tortola, St. Barts, St. John’s, Virgin Gorda, La Romana, and Turks and Caicos. Excitement!!
In May, 2012, a Focus group will be adventuring to Russia to cruise the Volga River on AMAWaterway’s beautiful river ship, the AMAKaterina. We have sailed on AMAWaterways before and loved it and journeying down the Volga is going to prove unforgettably wonderful as we experience Moscow, the villages and sights along the Volga, and St. Petersburg. A Baltic Extension follows our cruise and includes Tallinn, Estonia, Helsinki, Finland, Riga, Latvia, and Vilnius, Lithuania. Our group is 9/10’s filled. One cabin remains open at this writing.
In June and July, 2012, Focus will be safari-ing in Kenya and Tanzania following the Great Migration! This safari with HLO tours and Hamdy Nossair proved so intriguing that we have ended up with not one but two groups. The first (June 27 – July 13) is fully filled and includes an extension to Victoria Falls. The second group (July 10 – 26) has the identical itinerary but does not end in Vic Falls. We still have room for a very few more in group two.
Our 2012 adventures will culminate in September, 2012, with Bulgaria, Romania, and Transylvania Revealed! On this tour we will visit Sofia, Bulgaria, Plovdiv (with fascinating day excursions such as a visit to Hissarya, famous for its well-preserved Roman ruins and/or the impressive 2400 old Thracian shrine of Chetinyova Mogila in the village of Starosel), Nessebar and its old town, and the Thracian tomb in Kazanlak, before we head north along the Black Sea coast to visit the Botanical Gardens and Palace in Balchik. We will visit the Madara Horseman (a UNESCO site), Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, and its Tsarevets fortress. The nearby village of Arbanassi will demand a visit before we head to Bucharest, Romania. We will experience many delights in Romania before we journey to Transylvania where, among other wonders, we will visit Bran Castle (Dracula’s haunt). This is only a small taste of the thrills and adventure awaiting us on this unique tour. The detailed itinerary will be at the January Blowout.
Joe Green of Tumlare Travel and Hamdy Nossair of HLO are helping Focus plan even more wondrous travel adventures for 2013! Among them are Machu Picchu and the Galapagos; a cruise of the St. Lawrence Waterway, Canadian Maritimes and Quebec City; New Zealand and Australia,; and a Gorilla Trek in Uganda! I hope you will be as excited by them as I am! The Annual Focus Blowout is planned for Saturday, January 28. An invitation is included with (or attached to) this letter. I hope you will mark your calendars immediately.
Those of you who live far away and won’t be able to come to the Blowout, please email me or call and let me know which itineraries you would like to see. I’ll be sure to send them to you along with the upcoming Travel Schedule.
As I write this holiday letter, I realize all over again how much Focus Travel Club has given me (and I hope all of us who adventure together) in terms of friendships deepened, new ones made, and horizons broadened. What fun it is to explore the world with groups who so enjoy each other! I wish each and every one of you a wondrous holiday season. May visions of Focus travel plans dance through your holiday dreams and may your New Year be full of happiness.
Warmly,
Ellie