Preparing for a Summer of National Parks Tours

January 26, 2019

My Down Time this year (before I start full time with my student company and then straight into work with my adult company through October) is 39 days. January 10-Feb 15-ish, with a few meetings and work appointments thrown into these dates.

Most would say this is an amazing amount of time, but most 5-day-a-week workers get weekends off plus a vacation which totals ~110 days off per year.

Tour Directors don’t get weekends off and the standard excitement of TGIF does not resonate with us.

With my 39 days, I had to make a very specific schedule if all of my deadlines were to be met. Currently, I am still a little behind, but a huge task is complete… everything I need to run two solid back-to-back months of National Parks Tours. Done.

I tend to get a little crafty on these tours and love making my own name badges, name tags for the bus, hand made maps for each day and printed schedules so everyone can know where they have been once they get home from 14 days of our beautiful National Parks. But, this takes a lot of time and all the space of our dining room table.

I’ve ordered new DVDs and music, bought all of my little gifts for the guests, counted and packaged everything, and printed all of my handouts. I think I am ready.