Greetings from Toronto!
Well, things are heating up here in Toronto as Spring fully graces us with her presence, and they are heating up at Wheel & Anchor as we are about to release a bunch of new programs!
We've got trips in the pipeline and trips on the go, travellers at home and travellers abroad. It's been such a delight to get back to travelling this year, and with a half dozen or so trips under our belt again, it feels like the travel groove is properly returning.
I've finally gotten around to collecting some of the feedback from our February LiveAway in Madeira and our Cyprus LiveAway in March, and it makes me very happy to report that by and large they were a great success, and really seem to have resonated with the community.
The vision for the LiveAways was to create programs that respond to the 'new normal' of travel these days - more time in one place as a base to travel from, less bouncing around between airports and hotels, a slower pace with lots of free time to explore on your own, and of course in interesting places that warrant deeper exploration.
I have long felt that the 'old normal' in group travel was too busy - 1 and 2 night stays while trying to pack in as many places into an itinerary as possible leaves you exhausted and a bit harried, and now with all the extra hoops I think this is doubly true.
Slowing things down to really immerse and relax is I think a much better idea, and I think most of our members who joined us on our first LiveAways would agree. But don't take it from me - you can see what they had to say themselves here.
These first LiveAways were also a great learning experience for us from a program development perspective, and I now have an even better recipe to cook with for the next ones.
Speaking of next ones, on Tuesday we'll be doing the webinar for the first two weeks our 2023 Sicily LiveAway, which you can do in conjunction with our Malta LiveWay in March. Do join us for that if you are able (link is in your newsletter).
There are more LiveAways in the pipeline, but also a whole bunch of other trips, including our African Rail Odyssey program, Morocco, as well as an updated itinerary for our Egypt & the Holy Land trip next March.
And, lest I forget, fresh out of the pipeline this week is our May 2023 program to Japan, which you can find in your newsletter. Even with all these programs coming out, we are still a bit behind with the long list we have...so stay tuned as there are many more interesting things to come.
Cheers!
Gordon Dreger
Founder, Wheel & Anchor
P.S. Thanks very much for all the great feedback to last week's newsletter regarding our vaccine policy; as a community we are all very much aligned and on the same wavelength - likeminded travellers indeed!
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