The experience beyond the trip : why should you rely on a tour operator?

If in the past the distinction was between trip and holiday, today the debate has gone far beyond. The holiday has now become something that is well standardized, which is customary with friends, family or the better half, with a clear purpose: to break away from the routine of everyday life. In the theme of “travel”, the distinction to be made today is another: that between trip and experience.

In the original sense of the term, “trip” means an experience in a place different than the country of origin, a moment of knowledge, often so intense that it can change the traveler’s point of view, by expanding his/her mind. Just think about the stories of the most famous travelers in the literature: first of all, Ulysses, on his trip par excellence, namely, the Odyssey. Or Dante’s metaphor-trip described in the Divine Comedy, venturing into the otherworldly reality, up to Paradise.

However, let’s see what are the differences between “Trip” and “Experience”

The first difference is the care, which the experience is organized with, rather than the proper trip.

Organizing a trip is now within everyone’s reach, just with a click. Once the destination is found, it takes just a few minutes to book flights, overnight stays and services. From that moment onwards, you just have to activate the countdown and prepare the luggage. Nothing could be easier and faster. Nothing to do with arranging an experience.

Despite the rise of the Smart Travelers, choosing to take an authentic experience means relying on the right partner. Finding a local tour operator is essential, as well as making sure it has the right proposals and the right links on the territory. According to the Travel Market Report, 61% of millennials and 59% of adults in the last year looked for “travel agents, travel providers and expert opinion sites”, which one can rely on. Their activity is a link between a trip and an experience, and “Valdichaina Living” carries on this role in the territory of Valdichiana Senese.

IT’S ALSO THE CONCEPTION OF TIME WHAT MARKS THE BORDER BETWEEN TRIP AND EXPERIENCE.

Most of today’s travelers rely on the last-minute proposals, reducing their trip to a real hit-and-run into places that take weeks before they can be understood. Almost as if trips were collectible figurines. Experience, however, takes time. And our agency, Valdichiana Living, has first-hand experience of this.

Time is necessary to get to know all that involves an authentic experience personally. Let us take the example of the cooking class , which Valdichiana Living arranges on the whole territory of Valdichiana Senese: collecting the products right from the vegetable garden, learning how to make fresh pasta guided by local housewives, and eating what you have cooked; or having a wine tour in the countryside of Montepulciano, meeting the producers of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano right in their companies, getting to know their stories, are activities that provide more than a simple hit-and-run. They are real experiences, which would not have the same meaning if they were reduced to a 2-hours passage.

Besides, the time used for such experience is also the time to create them. Let’s just think about the time, which the same tour operator needs to create a well-established network of contacts, with the aim of making a stay an unforgettable and indelible moment.

Traveling is the best thing in the world. However, let’s face it: why should you bring home a magnet, when you can learn to make fresh pasta and prepare it all year long when you go back?These are the real souvenirs.