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A Quality Travel Experience Tailored to Meet Your Specific Needs
Casterbridge Tours is known for its high level of customization for each college study abroad tour, and this flexibility applies not only to the educational and cultural aspects of the itinerary, but also to your individual budgetary considerations. We have numerous methods available to create a program to suit the needs of each institution.
Fragmented Services
It is not unusual for faculty members to already have established contacts abroad, a restriction on international flights, or a desire to provide a high level of free exploration on a tour. In cases such as this, we often provide a college study abroad tour with fragmented services. This can consist of flight and transportation only; land services; accommodation, transportation, and guiding; short excursions during a longer established program; or any combination of services that best fits the needs of the group.
Alternative Accommodation
Casterbridge Tours has excellent contacts and buying power with hotel properties and accommodation vendors around the globe, so we can provide any standard of accommodations for your group at a competitive rate. If your group’s budget is restricted, we can provide accommodation in university halls of residence, superior youth hostels, bed-and-breakfasts, or one or two star hotels – although we never sacrifice cleanliness and comfort for cost saving. Alternatively, we can upgrade our Standard Tourist Class hotels to guarantee Superior Tourist or First Class hotels to suit the needs of more discerning travelers.
Limited Guiding
All Casterbridge Tours include a Tour Manager/Guide who is available to your group 24 hours/day. The services of our Tour Managers are exclusive to each group – they stay in the same hotels as you, eat dinner with you, and are available to help with planning of evening and free-time activities, if desired. Their job is to attend to your group’s needs at all times. They also handle all logistics to provide the program leader with greater peace of mind.
We do on occasion have program leaders who are uniquely familiar with a destination and feel confident in their ability to handle the logistics. Other times there is no need for a guide in the evenings, or on certain portions of the tour. In these cases, we can remove the Tour Manager/Guide, and replace him/her with a meet-and-greet guide on arrival or local guides where desired or required by local law.
Transportation Options
Outside of the capital cities, a private coach is generally provided for all group sightseeing and intercity travel. In cases where the group is comfortable using public transport, we are happy to utilize the extensive rail and bus networks that are found in many destinations in order to reduce costs. We can also arrange your program based around a capital city, and utilize private coaching only for day trips to nearby locations.
Travel Passes
Many cities and countries around the world offer travel passes to visitors that provide free or discounted admission, as well as use of public transport for the duration of the pass. On tours where there is a great deal of free time, this is an ideal way for groups to reduce their costs and provide great opportunities for experiencing the culture. We can also create tours connected to your coursework that only visit travel pass sights, thereby reducing costs while maintaining the educational focus.
For more details on creating your own customized program with Casterbridge Tours, please contact our College/University Coordinator by phone at 1-800-522-2398, or by registering online.
