August 17, 2010

Start with a concert, add your friends, and stir…

I know you need new ideas for group travel. After all, to get a whole group interested you need a theme. And I know usually beaches and bikinis is theme enough, for spring break trips at least, but sometimes you want something a little more.

Around here, we build tours around all kinds of themes – black history, art, architecture, theater, and more. But on a recent tour of New York City, I had another idea.

Our tour was surrounded by live events, though we were always just ahead or behind the big moment. We did see several live performances (theater mostly, Broadway, and the Blue Man Group), but we stumbled onto the set of several more once-in-a-blue-moon kind of settings. And each time I thought, how fun would it be to plan an entire trip with your friends around one great event?

This is a picture from Central Park in front of Good Morning America’s Summer Concerts stage. I was there the day before I knew Miley Cyrus would be on stage with crowds and crowds of people on the grass in front of it. It was a strange close-but-so-far-away kind of feeling to stand in a quiet, empty space in Central Park knowing that in less than 24 hours it would be teeming with people, loud music, adoring fans, and applause. Even more, it would be filled with thousands of people living a once-in-a-lifetime moment. Somehow, just picturing it, made me feel that I was living one.

Our next close call was when we toured Radio City Music Hall where the stage was being set for that night’s concert – a comeback tour with New Kids on the Block. I loved watching the stage crew move around beneath us. I hoped we’d catch the sound check. And I thrilled to the fact that the sunbeam-style lights radiated above us in practice for the show even though most tour groups don’t get to see the famous lights illuminated during the day. Again, we were technically going to miss the big event, but being there behind-the-scenes during the preparation, that was the thrilling thing for me.

Still, all totaled, I couldn’t help picturing the excited people who were going to experience the actual performances for these two concerts. I imagined family groups, mother-daughter duos, best friends, school clubs – all coming to this exciting city for one main purpose – this concert or event – and then having hours before and after for sightseeing and strolling on the streets I’d come to love after only a few short hours on them.

This, I think, would make the perfect group travel tour. Find an event – something you can all agree on as worth the money and the crowds and some of your cheering and applause. Enjoy that and then bask in the hours that stretch around it, giving you all the time in the world to discover the location that’s hosted the amazing event. We tend to pack our trips too full with our to-do-and-see lists. So try this instead: One event, hours of anticipation, hours of relaxation afterwards to just talk about the fun.

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