Small Group Tours

FROM CLASSICAL PURSUITS

Private Small Group Tour Planning

We design educational small group tours and literary trips for affinity organizations and groups with a focus on small group discussion of great works of literature in the destination in which they were written or set. While we are happy to customize trips to suit the preferences of the travelers, our own Listed Trips offer a balance of in-depth discussion, easy guided walks, informal talks and generous unscheduled time. Small group tours are listed under the private label of the affinity organization or group with minor attribution to the planning role of Classical Pursuits.

We have 17 small group tours that have already been carefully designed, reflecting extensive research and experience. These may be adapted to the particular circumstances and preferences of your group of travelers.

Listed Small Group Tours and Educational Trips
1. Medieval Italy Small Group Tour
Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose
Two weeks - one week in Abruzzo, one week in Tuscany

2. Dante Florence Italy Small Group Tour
Dante's Divine Comedy, discussion of Inferno and Purgatorio, talks on Paradiso
Two weeks - ten nights in Siena, two nights in Ravenna, one night in Rome

3. Classical Rome, Italy Small Group Tour
Readings by Virgil, Cicero, Suetonius and the contemporary Anthony Everitt
Two weeks in Rome and Sorrento

4. Sicily, Italy Small Group Tour
Giuseppe Di Lampedusa's The Leopard, Giovanni Verga's Little Novels of Sicily, and Leonardo Sciascia's The Wine Dark Sea
Two weeks - first and last nights in Rome, Palermo, Erice, and Siracusa

5. Paris Literary Small Group Tour
Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, F.Scott Fitzgerald's "Babylon Revisited," Gertrude Stein's Paris France
One week - Left Bank in Paris

6. Andalucia Spain Small Group Tour
Federico Garcia Lorca's Gypsy Ballads and The House of Bernardo Alba
Ten days - Seville and Granada

7. Irish Literary Small Group Tour
James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and "The Dead"
Plays by Singe, Yeats, and McDonagh
Two weeks - Dublin and the Aran Islands

8. Small Group Cultural Tour of Mexico
Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo, Ermilio Abreu Gomez, Canek: History and Legend of a Maya Hero, and essays by Octavio Paz
One week - Merida and Chichen Itza

9. New York Theater Small Group Tour
Three plays - a classic drama, a musical, and a play being workshopped
Three nights - Midtown New York

10. New York Algonquin Small Group Tour
Readings by Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Alexander Woolcott, George S. Kaufman
Three nights - Midtown New York

11. Charles Dickens Small Group Tour (London)
Charles Dickens' Bleak House
One week - Bloomsbury district of London

12. Flannery O'Connor Small Group Tour
Flannery O'Connor - four short stories and four essays
Four nights - Savannah with excursion to Andalusia

13. Quebec City Small Group Tour
Hugh MacLennan's Two Solitudes, Ringuet's Thirty Acres, Jacques Ferron's "The Dead Cow in the Canyon"
Four nights - Quebec City

14. Newfoundland Small Group Tour
Wayne Johnston's Colony of Unrequited Dreams, Michael Crummey's River Thieves
Five nights - Quirpon Island, Newfoundland

15. Poland Small Group Tour
Poets: Milosz, Rozewicz, Szymborska, Herbert. Journalist/novelist: Hanna Krall. Filmmaker: Kieslowski. Composers: Gorecki, Penderecki, Preisner
Eight nights - Krakow

16. Classical Greece Small Group Tour
Homer's The Odyssey (books 9-12), Sophocles' Antigone, Plato's Symposium
7 nights - Napflion Greece with excursions to Mycenae, Epidauros, and ancient Corinth
Post-trip extension: Wrestling with the the Apollonian and Dionysian strands of Hellenistic culture
Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
7 nights - Santorini Greece

17. New Orleans Small Group Tour
Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, Kate Chopin's "Desirée's Baby," Ernest Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying
Four nights - New Orleans

Services and Fees

1. Adapting a Small Group Tour $1000 U.S. plus incidental expenses
This includes:
a. a preliminary review of the listed itinerary to understand the variations requested.
b. a list of options to choose from, e.g., accommodation, events, admissions, excursions
c. a statement of current pricing and availability individual trip items, e.g., flights, preferred accommodation, guides, ground transportation, meals, other ground arrangements and a suggested list of other budget items, e.g., tips and contingencies
d. a detailed guidebook for participants, including the itinerary, preparations for the trip, supplementary background readings.
e. an evaluation form for the participants

2. Planning a New Small Group Tour $2000 - $3000 U.S., depending on complexity, plus incidental expenses. This includes all the above plus the original research to develop and prepare a new itinerary.

The client organization is responsible for:
1. Providing timely direction to Classical Pursuits
2. Determining how many leaders, guides will go for free and if it wishes to designate any of them
2. Determining the licensed travel company it wishes to book arrangements*
3. Setting the price of the trip
4. Marketing the trip
5. Paying vendors not paid by travel company, e.g., leaders, on-site vendors, such as restaurants and admissions

Classical Pursuits is also able to arrange for the following services:
1. *Booking arrangements - can be done through a travel partner of Classical Pursuits - cost to be determined.
2. Taking registrations - can be done through travel partner of Classical Pursuits - cost to be determined.
3. Booking flights and selling insurance - can be done through travel partner of Classical Pursuits - no charge
4. Accompanying a trip - as host and organizer; pay bills on site; trouble shoot; make local arrangements on the spot, such as meal reservations; coordinate with local services, such at coach company - trip expenses plus fee based on length and complexity of trip.