Greetings from Thailand!
As you're reading this I've already begun a 7-day silent meditation retreat in Koh Samui - no talking, no phones, up at 4:30 AM every day. This will definitely be a challenge! But, that's the point...after six months of travelling nonstop I want to create some headspace for the next phase of things here at Wheel & Anchor.
This week however I'd like to answer a question I've seen pop up in our New Member Questionnaire several times recently, regarding how we choose our destinations and whether we would do any trips through Canada or the US.
Answering the second question first - generally the members of this community are well-travelled, and places like Canada and the US etc are easily accessible for Canadians. In my view you'll have a better experience on your own or with just a few friends than with a group - the navigation is relatively simple and you can tour according to your own interests.
The same goes for cities like London and Paris, which are best customized to your personal taste, or experiences like river cruises, where we can't do much beyond the scheduled itinerary. In my view not all destinations or experiences are well-suited for groups; we do the ones that are.
Our expertise is in bringing you all over the globe to places that you may have dreamed of visiting - or perhaps have never even considered! These are places that are a bit more challenging to navigate but capture the true essence of what travel has to offer, and are best experienced as part of a small group.
The preparation and logistics behind operating trips overseas are considerable - even moreso post-pandemic - and it takes several months to pull together trips such as ours. We co-ordinate everything from A-Z and often book everything directly ourselves, which is quite rare in travel industry.
All of this is to say that accepting the limits of space and time and all the pieces involved means we can't go everywhere...and so we prioritize based on where our community wants to go (with a few adventures pulled out of my hat that I think you'd enjoy). We do this via our New Member Questionnaire and semi-annual Trip Inspiration surveys, and then we get to pulling things together.
So thanks to all who've shared their dream destinations with the community! And if you haven't had a chance yet, please do so here when you have a moment.
Briefly on trips - I'm pleased this week to release our November 2023 trip to South Africa and the Seychelles, a chance to see some of Africa's most incredible wildlife and landscapes. We'll start in Cape Town and taste our way through the Winelands en route to Kwandwe Private Game Reserve, one of South Africa's finest private game reserves and home to all of The Big Five.
Part two of the program will take us on a small ship cruise to a remote archipelago in the Indian Ocean - the beautiful Seychelles. Here we'll spend a week exploring silver-white beaches and clear lagoons in search of wildlife only found in this unique set of islands.
I'll sign off for now, but there's lots more to come when I've returned from the retreat, including webinars for Peru and our much-anticipated Morocco program. I'll be out just in time for next week's newsletter, so if you're curious about the experience, stay tuned for that 🙂
Cheers!
Gordon Dreger
Founder, Wheel & Anchor
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