What To Expect

Small groups, shared interests

What To Expect

Most of our travellers have already seen a great deal of the world. They know the difference between visiting a place and understanding it. They tend to travel with us not because they need someone to manage their journey, they are more than capable of doing that themselves, but because the right expert, and the right company, changes what a journey can become.
 
If that sounds familiar, a Travel Editions tour is likely to feel like a great choice for your next holiday. 

Who You Will Be Travelling With

Our groups are small. Depending on the type of tour, our overseas tours are normally between 20 and 30 people travelling together with a tour manager and any expert in addition. A few specialist itineraries travel with smaller group sizes. You can see the maximum group size on each of the individual tour pages or our friendly reservations team will be happy to tell you about a specific holiday too. 

Some of our tours in Great Britain may have a slightly larger group size of up to 40 participants, these tours will have both a tour manager and an expert to make sure everyone is enjoying their tour as much as possible. 

The reason we have limited the group size in this way is very straightforward: a smaller group means you can hear what the expert is saying, ask questions without holding everyone up, and have a proper conversation with your fellow travellers rather than just the person next to you on the coach.

What the group shares is not a background but a shared interest or passion they are looking to indulge. Everyone has chosen that particular itinerary because it interests them: the period, the subject, the destination. That common ground creates a natural ease, and conversations that start over coffee on the first morning tend to carry through the whole tour.

A significant proportion of our travellers come on their own. On many departures, solo travellers make up the majority of the group. There is nothing uncomfortable about arriving alone, many other guests will be doing the same and the Tour Manager will always be a friendly face to welcome you and ensure everyone is comfortable and included within the wider group.  You will find yourself among people with a great deal in common, and the rest tends to take care of itself.

The Expertise

On our specialist Art, History and Heritage tours, you travel with a renowned expert, a historian, a curator, a published author in the field, someone who has helped to shape the itinerary and leads each visit with deep knowledge and real (and infectious!) enthusiasm. These are not recitations from a textbook. They are conversations, questions answered in depth, connections drawn between the content of your chosen tour and the context which links it to the world it belongs to.

On our broader escorted tours, an experienced Tour Manager handles everything practical, from the moment you meet to the moment you arrive home, leaving you free to focus entirely on where you are.

The Rhythm Of A Tour

Every itinerary has its own pace, you can see a detailed day by day itinerary on each of the tour pages. This is the easiest way to get a feel for how busy an itinerary will be. We also categorise the tours by ‘Tour Grading’ for each, this will also give an indication for how busy you will be and also the suggested level of mobility required. 

In general, the Art and History and Great British Heritage tours have more structured visits: guided visits, site access, lectures or on-location talks. The Escorted tours allow more time free to explore a destination at your own pace, either by a self-guided visit or designated free time in an area before the return transfer to the hotel is scheduled. 

Evenings tend to be spent together either over a group dinner included in the programme, or where the evening meal is not included, it is very common for different members of the group choose to make plans for drinks or dinner together in the local area. The evening meal tends to be, in our experience, where conversations from the day often continue long into the evening as well as looking forward to the next few days agenda. 

Free time, where it appears in the itinerary, is your own. An hour in a room in a stately home that caught your attention. A walk-through part of the city not on the programme. Time to sit somewhere and absorb what you have seen.

If You Are Travelling Solo

It is worth saying plainly: you will not feel like the odd one out. A Travel Editions tour is not a structured social event: there is no forced mingling and no assigned seating. But you will be among people with similar interests in unexplored places, and that tends to be more than enough. For practical questions about single supplements and room arrangements, our team is happy to talk through the options with you. Call us on 020 7251 0045 or click here for more information.

Before You Set Off

Your joining instructions arrive approximately ten days before departure, with everything you need: timings, meeting points, and the specific details of your itinerary. If anything needs clarifying before then, we are available Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
 
Extra nights are possible on many of our tours, should you wish to spend additional time at your destination before or after the group itinerary. Speak to us at the point of booking.