There is a wildly popular restaurant near me that offers only two entrees on its evening menu: big steak and little steak! In this day of proliferating options in every category from soup to nuts (pun intended), it’s kind of reassuring that sometimes the simplest choice is the best.
Downsizing is a natural reaction to a complex world with stress levels sometimes off the charts. There is a growing nostalgia for a simpler time with fewer choices – not more. The recent orgy of acquisitiveness (not unlike that of the Roaring Twenties, which we all know was followed by the biggest downsizing of them all) has led us to rethink our priorities. Do we really need to possess gigantic wardrobes or live in “McMansions” to be happy?
This excess doesn’t just apply to material goods but also to experiences. When I first started in the tour business – over thirty years ago now – it was the norm to cram as many miles and stops into a day as physically possible, in the belief that the longer the list of attractions and the more exhausted the traveler was on return, the happier he was.
That type of tour is still out there – alas – but an increasingly larger number of today’s travelers are more interested in quality than quantity, and tour operators have responded with itineraries which provide a more in-depth experience rather than a laundry list of sites. In other words, less is more.
My company, Shebby Lee Tours, is a very small one. We don’t offer cookie-cutter tours or scores of departures. Each program is custom-designed to provide meaningful travel experiences specifically designed to expand travelers’ understanding of what they are seeing and how it got to be that way. While travelers wanting this kind of experience have always been out there, I personally have been gratified as time goes on to see more and more of them knocking on our door.
So if you are looking for more distinctive, personalized, and authentic travel experiences, you’ve found the right tour operator.
Let us help you find just the right excursion to fit your desires.
After all, it’s not the destination, it’s the journey.
Shebby Lee is a historian, writer and tour operator specializing in the historic and cultural heritage of the Great American West. Her early training was in the theatre and she served a tour of duty as an entertainer with the USO. She is also an Admiral in the Nebraska Navy.