For travelers, not tourists

Specialized travel companies tailor hands-on trips that put their customers in the middle of the action instead of standing on the sidelines with a guide book in hand.

By ALINE MENDELSOHN

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 20, 2000

[Times photo: Stefanie Boyar] Dolores and Paul Beaver own Amazonia Expeditions, a specialty tour company in Tampa. The company was founded by Paul, and Dolores leads about a half-dozen trips a year to Peru, the company’s prime destination.

Jacqueline and Michael Mizisko fit most definitions of "world travelers": The Seminole couple has blazed through Antarctica, Japan and Western Europe.

Even in the middle of the Amazonian jungle, 85 miles from civilization, Jacqueline Mizisko recalls, she felt completely at ease:

"There's no light pollution, and you feel so close to the stars."

But she knows she would not have gotten to that spot, and that feeling, without the help of a new breed of travel agents.

Whether it's schmoozing with dancers backstage at the Kirov Ballet, sipping tea with princesses in India or swimming among piranhas in the Amazon -- as the Miziskos did -- specialty-tour operators often have the expertise and contacts to provide experiences that the traveler might not find elsewhere.

While typical travel agencies might know a little about a lot of places, specialized companies focus on specific regions or countries. Such companies -- and there are many located on Florida's west coast -- have become more common as travelers seek to become more than just tourists. People want to experience such previously unaccessible places as the Amazon jungle and the nations of the former Soviet Union.

The specialized tour operators make contacts that can smooth entry into a protected area or arrange introductions to local experts.

"Our guides are like walking encyclopedias," says Debbie Sturdivant, director of marketing for Holbrook Travel Inc., based in Gainesville.

These "encyclopedias" include a marine biologist accompanying a trip to Costa Rica during the turtle-nesting season, and a veteran travel professional leading a visit to members of a Masai tribe in Kenya.

Specialty companies such as Holbrook, which focuses mainly on Africa, South America and Central America, attract travelers from all over the country. Among the lures for customers are trips working around their individual interests.

"These aren't just cookie-cutter tours," says Jeanie Fundora, tour consultant for Cox Travel Agents, a Tampa company that specializes in travel to India.

In the past, Cox clients have attended private polo matches with British army officers, tours of colonial Bombay led by an architect and dinners in Delhi with a journalist to discuss current events.

Nailing down the details of such activities can involve hours on the phone, swapping dozens of e-mails and faxes and, most importantly, questioning clients on what they would most like to see. "People who are well-traveled want to pursue a certain interest while they are there, rather than use guides to see monuments," says Cox Travel Agents president Nathaniel Waring. "It's an intensive, customized process to match the American clients with their interests and schedules."

Travelers pay for the special attention -- and often the luxury. For example, participants in trips arranged by Clearwater's Hub and Spoke Tours around Switzerland and Austria dine in style, by candlelight on china.

This company takes its name from another unusual marketing feature: Clients stay in the same hotel for an entire trip but make day trips. This lets them visit several places but avoid packing and unpacking.

Even camping and backpacking trips can be done with culinary class. Wilderness Adventures in Good Taste takes clients backpacking around the United States, accompanied by chefs who prepare gourmet meals.

Founder Bob Valentine of Crystal Springs has been an outdoor leader for more than 20 years. But he relates that on his first backpacking trip, in Hillsborough State Park, he made the mistake of bringing a 9-pound tent and a machete -- items way too heavy for a simple trip.

Today, Valentine's clients benefit from his experiences: "It took me 20 years of mistakes to finally get it all worked out.".

Now, a typical dinner on one of his company's trips might consist of vegetarian broth with snow peas and scallions, basil pasta with sun-dried tomato pesto and Parmesan cheese, and cherry cobbler for dessert.

"You definitely wouldn't get this kind of adventure anywhere else," says Rick Eppers of Tampa, a Wilderness chef. Preparing the meals is an adventure in itself. Eppers uses zipper-sealing plastic bags to keep the ingredients dry. On hiking and kayaking trips, he relies heavily on dried foods, such as soups, fruits and turkey snacks.

Change of direction

Of course, not all specialized tours are fancy. As adventure travel becomes increasingly popular, so do safari-style trips. In the jungle, comfortable beds and flush toilets would be considered luxuries, and the lack of e-mail and faxes is part of the lure for some people.

Most specialty travel company founders have personal background or interest in their area of operation. In the early '80s, for instance, Paul Beaver spent three months in Peru as a consultant with the Chicago Zoological Society. He returned to the States with a new perspective on life and an ambition to show others the wonders of the Amazon.

When he founded Amazonia Expeditions, he equipped participants only with a tent and a machete for their trips into the jungle. Today, Beaver's company is Tampa-based but also has a Peruvian tour staff and a lodge near the jungle.

His extensive experience in Peru includes sampling local cuisine, such as beetle grubs and rats. While he enjoys the beetles, he admits "The rats are kind of nasty."

Not that participants in his tours are required to taste rodents or insects, he adds.

Having developed a preference for tour operators that provide such customized vacations, those world travelers the Miziskos chose Beaver's company for their trip to Peru.

Wilderness Adventures founder Valentine says every trip is his favorite.

"Whether I see the wild ponies racing on the fields (in Assateague, Md.) as we kayak or see the pastels of the Grand Canyon turn from pink to purple under the moonlight -- it's all amazing."

Nonetheless, he can single out his most memorable experience. It happened while camping in the Shenandoah Mountains. One entire night, his neighbor amid the trees snored loudly, keeping Valentine awake. The next morning, as he prepared to shoot a dark stare in that direction, he was startled to see the neighbor, a 200-pound black bear, standing about 5 feet tall as it yawned and stretched.

For more information:

Here is a sampling of destinations and travel experiences and some specialty tour companies based on Florida's west coast that operate related tours:

• Amazon: Amazonia Expeditions, (800) 262-9669
• Central and South America, Africa: Holbrook Travel Inc., (800) 451-7111
• Eastern Europe: Exeter International, (800) 633-1008
• India, Nepal, Burma, Tibet: Cox & Kings, (813) 258-3323
• Hiking, backpacking: Red Wolf Expeditions, (800) 345-3831;
• Wilderness Adventures in Good Taste, (813) 997-1919
• Hobbies and crafts: Specialty Tours, (800) 677-9412
• Switzerland, Austria: Hub & Spoke Tours, (800) 573-1116

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