The value of staying put

Tired of the 10-cities-in-10-days package tours? Some travelers are finding comfort, flexibility and friendship with extended-stay options in European, Asian and South American locales.

By J. G. NASH

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 18, 2001

One of the relatively new and increasingly popular travel trends is alternately called the extended or "sitting" tour. It might as well be dubbed the stay-in-one-place vacation.

These packages usually offer two to 12 weeks' lodging in sunny locales, in nations with favorable rates of exchange. Because tour packagers may fill hotels for months each year and also buy airline tickets in volume, prices are affordable for many travelers who might have considered foreign travel beyond their means.

For example, 13 days' lodging, with all meals furnished and round-trip air fare from New York, can cost as little as $92 a day, per person, on Spain's Costa del Sol (Sun Coast).

This area is already the No. 1 vacation destination for Europeans, so in the winter it can seem there are more English, German and U.S. people in the towns than Spanish.

Although a prime attraction for tourists who return every year is being reunited with seasonal friends, other advantages include:

Typically the package-tour company offers optional day-trips; from the Costa del Sol, the destinations are places such as Gibraltar, Grenada and the charming cliffside city of Ronda.

There also are cultural opportunities, such as a home-hosted meal in a small village or a visit to an agricultural cooperative.

Depending upon duration, distance and other expenses, such side trips may cost from $50 to $250 per person.

In-hotel activities can include card games, crafts, lectures about local culture, dances or perhaps a cooking class.

Experienced visitors regularly make up their own small groups and use local transportation for day trips to nearby cities. These towns offer different shopping opportunities, cathedrals and perhaps museums and sidewalk cafes or restaurants.

Although most of these long-stay packages offer all meals in the hotel's dining room, some guests cook, using facilities in their efficiency apartments. In addition, some tour companies offer a dine-around program in which guests may take meals at a variety of local places; this extra cost is figured in to the package price.

In addition to the Costa del Sol, other destinations include Mexico, the French Riviera, Italy's Amalfi Coast and Tuscany region, Sicily, Venezuela, the Mediterranean island of Majorca, Portugal, Malta, the Austrian Alps, Switzerland, England's Lake District, even Beijing and Borneo.

These vacation packages are particularly attractive to seniors, many of whom have already traveled widely and are tired of the standard pack/unpack routine of most escorted, multistop tours.

An increasingly popular variation on the "sitting vacation" allows travelers to divide his or her time between three or four locations. This tourist somewhat expands the horizon but still avoids the "If this is Thursday, this must be Paris" syndrome.

Through intelligent use of several days at each place visited, the traveler is able to learn far more about the destinations and the people. This newer package is offered in Spain, Thailand, Italy, Turkey, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Britain and Eastern Europe.

Since being introduced to this style of travel vacation (at Torremolinos on the Costa del Sol), I have sampled it in Mexico, Eastern Europe, Thailand and Italy. In each instance, I calculated the cost of such vacation if done on my own, or through a travel agent; in no case did I consider it possible to get close to the bargain cost offered by the tour companies.

Of course, there is the concern of being part of a package group. I have never been a fan of escorted tours. Because I want to set my own schedule (especially so as to be able to create the photography that is vital to my work), I usually have arranged my travel plans by myself.

That said, I approached my assignment, to cover seniors on the Costa del Sol, with something less than enthusiasm. It took me less than three days to understand the popularity of these extended vacations.

I now occasionally use them for my business needs, typically choosing trips that allow me to spend at least two full days in each location, so that there is time to work on photography and associated research.

But of course these trips are simply vacationing for most folks, such as Bernie and Ruth Davis, who were on their 17th consecutive annual vacation on the Costa del Sol when I met them. Bernie summed up the lure that makes them return to the same spot:

"We have more than 200 good friends here, from many nations. That's far more than we have at home. In fact, this is a like home to us, but it's a lot more fun than where we live in Maryland."

J.G. Nash is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Homosassa.

If you go

The number of companies offering these packages is small but growing. Among the established firms:

Grand Circle Travel; call (800) 221-2610.

Go Ahead Vacations; (800) 242-4686.

Saga Holidays; (800) 921-9291.

Before signing up with any company, make certain that you have compared value offered, not just prices. For example, one agency might provide all meals, while another might offer only two meals a day. Or one might include several attractive tours in the base price, while another might charge extra for such options.

Also, carefully review the dates on which the tours are offered. Do you really want to spend two weeks on the Costa del Sol when the average daytime high temperature is only 60? Most of the tour companies provide an abbreviated temperature/date chart for each region visited.

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