Dipping My Toes Into The World Of Tour Organizing

For the previous 5 years, I had been doing some part-time tour directing for a local motorcoach company as a way to earn some extra money and do my second favorite thing...travel.   As a tour director, the trip and itinerary was all planned out for me. My main responsibility was to research our destinations and make sure the trip went as planned by the office.

After leaving my tour director position this past year, I  thought it would be an interesting challenge to organize some small tours of my own.  My first trip was a four day to St. Louis, and this most recent tour was weekend to Chicago.   I made all the arrangements, rented a 12 person van...which I discovered is really not made for 12 people...and got 10 friends and acquaintances to sign up.

The weather was perfect and the group all got along great.   We took a Wendella Chicago River Tour, saw a show at Second City Comedy and spent an afternoon at the North Halsted Street Market Days and finished it off with a relaxing stop at the King Spa & Sauna in Niles, IL.   Overall it was a great success and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Just might have to do this again...