Trafalgar’s Travel Directors take our guests all over the world on more than 300 tours across 72 countries and six continents. So it’s no surprise they’ve had a ton of remarkable experiences and made many special memories on tour. From organizing guest weddings to finding long-lost family members, here are 10 of our Travel Directors’ most memorable moments on tour.
1. Vow renewal in the Tuscan hills
“One of my most memorable moments with Trafalgar was when I helped a couple to renew their vows. We got a priest and we were in a lovely restaurant in Tuscany overlooking the Tuscan hills. But the priest spoke no English, so I found myself helping translate and renew the vows. It was quite hilarious” – Patrizia T.
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2. Finding family in Italy
“One of the lovely stories that comes to mind was when I had some guests on the trip who were of Italian origin. They said to me that after the trip they would stay longer in Italy to seek out their relatives, and asked if I could give them a hand to find out because they’d not managed to get hold of anyone and they’d never met before. So I made some phone calls to the city hall, called up some houses in the village, and bingo, I found some people. They met up with them after the trip and my guests were so happy about that” – Maria T.
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3. Playing match-maker in France
One of my most memorable moments was when I was traveling through the beautiful and quaint countryside of Normandy in France. In the front seat, I had a solo guest called Henry. I like my guests to have the best views, so I invited another solo guest, Anita, to come and sit next to him. And actually, they didn’t see much of the beautiful views because they started chatting and they really hit it off. For the rest of the trip they were inseparable, and when I got home I got messages telling me they had gotten together, so that was really cute.
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4. A chance meeting with long-lost family
“I’ve got lots of wonderful memories working with Trafalgar over the years. But one that sticks in my mind from a few years ago was one of the first times I did the Best of Portugal trip. It’s a beautiful country, wonderful food, people, landscapes, and beaches. One of the Optional Experiences we have is a wine pairing in an 18th century manor house. I had a wonderful group of people who were all coming along to it except for one couple who were of Portuguese origin but were naturalized Canadians. I persuaded them to come along.
“When I told the group the name of the manor we were going to, the couple said that rings a bell because some of their family comes from that village. It turns out, right opposite the manor were the houses of people who used to work in the manor. One of the families living in the houses were cousins of my guests. When we arrived, I said why don’t you go and knock on the door? And I arranged with the manor house to have them come and eat at the manor house at a separate table with their cousins. This is a memory they’ll have for the rest of their lives. It was wonderful to see that happen, and that’s one of the things I love about working with a company like Trafalgar.” – Richard H.
5. Meeting her husband
My favorite Trafalgar story is the fact that I met my husband on a Trafalgar trip. It was my second year with Trafalgar and his first trip ever as a Driver, so we had a great time. We got lost in lots of different places, but managed to bring the group back happy at the end of it. And now we’ve been together 26 years with three children!
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6. Paying tribute to family at a military cemetery in Normandy
“There’s so many it’s really hard to choose. But one of the most memorable moments sticks in my mind because it was quite recent and it was a very poignant moment that has left me with a very special memory. It was a lady who came to represent her family, to pay respects to an uncle who died in the Second World War.
“We were at the American military cemetery in Normandy and we arranged for her a very special cemetery visit. They took her out in a golf buggy, they had USA flags she got to bring home afterwards, they had a special memorial certificate they gave to her, and they took some beautiful professional photographs. So she was able to take that all home and share that with her family and it’s just small moments like that we can make special for a guest, and they really stick in your memory.” – Sarah
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7. Bumping into childhood friends on tour
“One of my most memorable Trafalgar moments was on one of my first ever trips with Trafalgar. I had the pleasure of going to a beautiful restaurant up in the Tuscan Hills. And unbeknownst to me, my second family, a mother and father I’d grown up with (I spent more summers at their house than I ever did at home and ate most of their food!) came off another Trafalgar coach. I turned around to see them, to great surprise to both of us. We hadn’t seen each other in about 10 years, so it was a fantastic moment of absolute joy to see friends, and what feels like family, reconnecting. It was Trafalgar that brought us back together.” – John
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8. Returning to the scene of a proposal
“My favorite Trafalgar memory was on my last holiday. I had Jim and Tracy and Jim had asked Tracy to marry him while on the Best of Italy and it so happened we were returning to the place where this had actually happened. It was a Be My Guest venue in Castello del Trebbio and it was Jim’s 60th birthday, so we had a fantastic evening.” – Anne
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9. Seeking out relatives in Sicily
“One of the most beautiful experiences I had while touring with Trafalgar was in May 2015 when I met this group on the Southern Italy and Sicily trip. A lady Teresa, from the New York area, approached me and said she has some family in the southern western point in Sicily. She said she only has their name and street from the letters that her mother got from the family, but unfortunately she does not have their phone number so she didn’t know how to contact them.
“So I did a bit of research and found four or five people living in that street with that family name. I called them and on the fourth one, I found the relatives of Teresa. I arranged a surprise meeting and when we came out of the coach, I said to Teresa, ‘You see these people? They are your family.’ It was a very touching moment. – Elena
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10. A scenic cruise and dinner on Lake Maggiore
“My favorite memory just now is from a tour I’ve just finished called the Best of Italy. It’s a lovely time of year to go, late October, very atmospheric. We go on a Be My Guest dinner on Lake Maggiore, we see the beautiful Isola Bella, and we go to Isola dei Pescatori for dinner to a place called Villa Toscanini. They serve us amazingly good wine from Milan, it’s the only Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) white wine in the area.
“It’s a really nice place and the first time I went there I remember the woman telling us that Madonna had eaten there, and I thought she meant the Virgin Mary but I realise now it was the pop star. When we come back across the lake, the boat’s captain plays amazing 50s music. So basically, you’ve got 40 people singing Jailhouse Rock, careering across the lake, having drunk some of the finest white wine in the area. It’s a lovely experience.”
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What are your most memorable moments on a Trafalgar tour? Let us know in the comments below!