This is just my suggestion for a Members tour:

Length of tour: 16 to 18 days

Tour: Egypt and Jordan (include St. Catherines and Mt. Sinai and the famous Treas. in Jordan.)

Tour in May or September or October, not in June, July or August (too hot).

Do it and we will do it!

Cat's

Sounds like just what I'm looking for...Egypt has been at the top of my "wish list" for a long time!
Sue

Well if it turns out to be Egypt that cuts us out as we were there not that long back. Oh well, thats life I guess.

Cat's,

what you are suggesting for a BB tour is somewhat like a combination of the Grand Tour of Egypt (17 days) plus the Jordan Experience tour (5 days), perhaps with the Alexandia section of the GT of Egypt removed to shorten the overall tour a little. There is also a new 2009 tour called Egypt and Jordan (13 days) which looks like the Wonders of Egypt tour combined with the Jordan experience tour, but they would need to add St. Catherines and Mt. Sinai to meet your requirements.

Whilst all of these tours are great tours, I can't see them attracting 30 or more passengers on a BB tour. Anyone can book any of these tours, anytime. Of course, tours in that part of the world are not like European coach tours and can operate with small numbers because Spring Tours in Egypt and the operator in Jordan can provide transport of a size appropriate to the tour group and there are no group size problems on the Nile cruise.

I believe that one of the main reasons that the 2008 BB tour succeeded was that it was a unique itinerary with several locations/inclusions/optionals/traditional hotels, etc., that are not available in other Insight tours. Perhaps some of the BB Tour members might care to comment on this?

I can't see a normal Insight tour (or combination of tours) attracting an "economic" coachload of passengers if offered as a BB tour. So, in my view, it's over to the Insight Itinerary planners to show us some of their best ideas and putting them up for a vote on the BB. However, there is probably a need to go through the BB questionnaire/voting process to determine the most popular tour length and time of year before looking at itineraries.

Given that people are probably planning their 2009 tours right now, then 2010 is probably the earliest that the next BB tour could be held.

phil

quote:

Originally posted by phil:
I believe that one of the main reasons that the 2008 BB tour succeeded was that it was a unique itinerary with several locations/inclusions/optionals/traditional hotels, etc., that are not available in other Insight tours.

I for one certainly agree with your comment Phil.

From our personal point of view there were 2 main attractions to the BB Tour:

* First was the very point that you make. With my wife and I having visited as many countries as we have, we were particularly atracted to the factors incorporated in the BB tour that made it different from the various tours that we could have picked out of the Insight brochures and

* second, was the opportunity to meet and travel with a number of our Bulletin Board friends with whom I have communicated for so many years.

I must say however that without the first point the second on its own would not have made the BB tour a viable option for us.

Both my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed both the BB tour of Germany itself and the pleasant company of our travelling BB companions and we would certainly love to do another but we will have to wait and see what Insight can come up with.

What would we hope for? Something that is different from the mainstream that we could do at ourselves from selections in the brochures.

This is my suggestion for another Members tour:

Length of tour: 16 to 18 days

Tour: Italy, Sicily and Greece (no islands, please)

Dragon and Phil...

What do you suggest for a tour?

I suggested something, did you?

Your suggestion sounds good to me Cats.

Cat's,

this was my suggestion:

quote:

So, in my view, it's over to the Insight Itinerary planners to show us some of their best ideas and putting them up for a vote on the BB.

The 2008 BB tour didn't come out of thin air. Insight suggested 5-6 novel alternatives from their Itinerary Planning Group (not from their brochures) and members voted on them.

As I said earlier, if Insight want to attract an economic coachload of passengers on a special one-off tour, they will need to suggest itineraries that are not available in their brochure.

Suggesting a few countries for touring may be a start but I'd rather wait and see what the Insight Itinerary Planners have to offer.

My strong suggestion would be for Insight to start once again with questionnaires on tour duration and time of year before looking at where.

phil

This message has been edited. Last edited by: phil,

Hi Phil and fellow BBers
Let me know if you need any helps with this, I had an Insight rep tailor a tour for clients of mine in the US last year. They were fabulous, they had a ball!