Tell us a little bit about your most recent Untour.
My most recent travel was to Turkey. I was in Istanbul to do the initial research to put together an Untour for 2013. The city is a fascinating mix of Europe (modern public transportation, wide pedestrian shopping streets, safety) and Asia (delicious new foods; street musicians playing exotic local music; roosters crowing in the city center; being awakened by the morning call to prayer; narrow streets bustling with vendors).
What is your favorite UnTours memory?
I’d have to go back to my time running the Austrian Untour in the 1980s. We worked with a farming family in a farming village who had an apartment in their home that they made available to Untourists. The Draxls had two children and like other Austrian farmers I’d come to know, they were well-read people who kept up on world affairs and had an intense interest in the world beyond their village. We had a family of Untourists from California who spent three weeks getting to know the Draxls. Several years later, I visited my farmer friends and learned that shortly after their Untour, our clients from California had sent their troubled teenage son to live on the farm for a year. After a year of hard work and strict discipline from Herr Draxl, the son returned home with a new sense of self-confidence and purpose. The Draxls were able to visit California and the two families became quite close. I have seen many other deep friendships develop between Europeans and Americans over the years that never could have come about without an Untour.
How is taking an Untour different from other ways of traveling?
Not only do Untourists, especially in our more rural locations, have opportunities to meet local people, they have a chance to slow down and get to know one location in depth. Staying longer in one place sometimes means seeing fewer museums and cathedrals, but the memories of serendipitous discoveries and encounters on an Untour last longer.
If you could describe an Untour in just 3 words, what would they be?
Make lasting memories.