I was lucky enough to be able to interview our newest staff member, Sonia Ratcliffe. She is a travel nut and has spent a combined 18 months in France—two study abroad stints and a year teaching English, au pairing and working on a vineyard. Take a look at what she has to say about her…
1. Tell us a little bit about your most recent UnTour. Paris was our destination, my 16 year old grandson, Patrick and I. I chose the Latin Quarter. Our apartment was near Notre Dame, a great location to begin his adventure. Merci Ives, for showing us the patisserie from where we started every morning. 2….
It’s hard to imagine a classier guy than our own baron, Manfred von Crailsheim, owner of Schloss Sommersdorf, the centerpiece of our Castle UnTour. Yes, the Baron opens his family’s 14th century castle and its beautiful grounds to our guests every year, placing them in the heart of Bavaria and giving them a truly unique…
1. Tell us a little bit about your most recent UnTour. We flew into Rome, stayed for a week, went to the airport to pick up our car and drove to Umbria, where we stayed in an agriturismo near Trevi, from where we traveled to many towns in the region. Spoleto, Assisi, and Orvieto were…
Photo by UnTourist Ron Anderson As you may know, we had the inaugural Unny Awards just recently. These awards are our way of recognizing the regions which have welcomed UnTours all these years. The Unnies are fun and lighthearted and that’s how we like things around here. We like to think of them as the…
The UnTours Foundation has begun 2014 with a new loan recipient, Philly Compost. Why commercial compost, you might ask? The food waste problemOver 36 million tons (72 billion pounds!) of food waste reached landfills in 2011 in the United States, according to the EPA. That’s an estimated 1,400 calories per person, per day. Meanwhile food…
1. Tell us a little bit about your most recent UnTour. We enjoyed the Bavarian Castle/Salzburg sampler. 2. Why did you choose to go there? We saw a bit of Bavaria and northern Austria of a bus tour in 2006 and promised ourselves then to return and enjoy the area at a more leisurely pace….
Since I started working here way back in 2011, the UnTours regions have been calling on me to give them some attention. Actually, not just attention, but distinction. Now, I know they are all big enough to speak for themselves. They don’t need you to tell them they’re great; we all already know that. What…
1. Tell us a little bit about your most recent UnTour. Paris/Provence, September-October 2012. We are “going Dutch” in just three weeks, also! Gracieuse—where they stayed 2. Why did you choose to go there? Paris had always been on our must-see list. The opportunity to combine this with Provence was too good to pass by….
Shannon was a gift to me from my board, which saw better than I that I was drowning in work after Hal retired. Shannon was hired to be my amazing colleague, which she is indeed! A film editor by training, Shannon worked on several of Ken Burns’ film projects. You can see some of her…