All families have holiday traditions, and our (office) family is no different. Most of us have been here 10 years or more, so we really are close. Our holiday office party includes a gag-gift exchange that often involves old prom photos and tacky jewelry and culminates in a frenzy of trading that rivals the NYSE….
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Sue Baker, we’ll miss you!

Our own Sue Baker is an outstanding colleague and person. She’s worked for UnTours for 15 years. Most of that time was spent on the Italian Team, where she helped direct our program expansion. Her research helped us map out our programs in the Amalfi Coast, Rome, and Florence. In fact, her early reading pointed…
Wild Monkeys and Other Family Fun in Alsace

Wild monkeys? Why yes. They are among the wild things that make Alsace fun for the young and young at heart… Kintzheim (Monkey Mountain, Eagles’ Castle) Kintzheim promotes itself as the “village of animals in freedom.” The freest animals are the 200 or so Barbary apes living on a fifty-acre forested hill. The monkeys…
Tuscan Fun for Kids: 16 Super Cool Things to See and Do
Our Tuscan UnTour is a top destination for families, and for good reason. Here are 16 activities we are sure the kids and adults in your family will love. 1. Buonconvento: Visit the playground in town, where you may even meet local kids in the afternoons. Take a short local train trip in the…
Top 10 Untours for Family Travel
Family photo courtesy of Carl Peters Each of our UnTours has something for everyone. It is hard to narrow it down to 10, but here are our favorite spots for a multigeneration vacation. 1. Swiss Heartland and Swiss Oberland You mean the photo isn’t enough? Then consider the endless hiking trails, mountain peak vistas, picturesque…
Foundation Fridays: And the Winner is………..
Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman (left) presided over judging and participated in the award ceremony. Gabriel is second from the right. ……….Wash Cycle Laundry yet again! This time it has won first place and a $25,000 prize in a business competition sponsored by the Blackstone Group. We met Wash Cycle Laundry founder and CEO Gabriel Mandujano when he…
Top 10 Tips for Family Travel
Multigenerational travel is endlessly rewarding for kids and their travel companions. Rather than simply seeing a place, you are sharing an experience and making family memories that will outlive you. Sharing a special place with young ones not only enriches them, but it can help you discover new dimensions of a place you think you…
Stargazing and Ferrari Spotting: Tuscany with Teens
Sue Baker enjoyed sharing Tuscany with her kids when they were teenagers. They’ve grown up since, and Sue has very recently become a grandma. We hope she’ll get to take her grandson to Italy some day. In the meantime, Sue’s observations remain relevant today. I have always loved to see my children in awe…
First Person Account: The Fall of the Berlin Wall
Above: Cathrin (center, in black skirt) in the newsroom in East Berlin, circa 1989 Cathrin Baumbach has worked for UnTours for over 10 years and runs our programs in Germany, Austria, Eastern Europe and Greece. Cathrin grew up in East Germany and was living in East Berlin when the wall fell, 25 years ago. Here…
Travels with Anna: Rediscovering Greece

Friendly dogs and sandy beaches aren’t the first things that come to mind for me when I think of Nafplio and our Greek UnTour. My 14-year-old daughter opened my eyes to new sides of this lovely seaside town when we visited Greece this summer. Anna didn’t join me on a work trip to Greece to see…