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travel tips

Travel with the Non-auditioned Choir, Part 3: Immersing Your Singers in the Local Culture

December 9, 2020 by From Our Readers Leave a Comment

By Patricia Guth

Traveling with a non-auditioned and (often) mostly older choir is far different than taking your professional, high school, or college ensemble on tour. If you read the first two installations of this blog, you’ll recall that I talked a lot about the importance of choosing the right tour company and destination, the pacing of the trip, concert venues and audiences, and balancing sightseeing and singing with free time. In this portion of the blog, we’ll chat a little about providing your singers with a truly immersive experience.

Choosing the right hotels

You might think where you sleep each night has nothing to do with allowing your ensemble to embed itself in the culture of the nation to which they are traveling. But it actually has a lot to do with it!

There are two ways to look at hotel options. The first consideration deals with price. If you are traveling with high schoolers or young adults and endeavoring to keep prices down, you’ll likely choose a 3-star hotel on the outskirts of wherever it is you’re visiting. For many ensembles, that’s the way to go. It’s almost always less expensive and will certainly be suitable as, in most cases, your singers won’t be going off on their own. That means proximity to attractions won’t matter a lot.

However, for my non-auditioned choir, which includes many women who are well traveled, we’ve discovered that there’s much more to choosing a hotel than just finding affordable lodging. For this type of adult ensemble, having a few extra comforts is important. A lovely on-site restaurant and bar, or a pool and spa, for example, are perks that add a bit more to the hotel experience. And, of course, rooms with working air-conditioners seem to be paramount for American travelers, whenever possible.

But what we found to be most important is finding a good hotel in the city center or in a location close to public transportation where a jaunt into the city is simple. When we were in Budapest and Helsinki, for example, we stayed at hotels that were literally steps from museums, shopping, and other amenities. In Salzburg, we couldn’t stay in the center of the town but the bus station was right behind our chosen hotel and many of our singers took advantage of the city’s easy-to-navigate transportation during our free night there.

So, before you agree to lodgings, take some time to research the hotels you’re offered to be sure they fit the needs of your group. Not what you want? Ask your tour company rep what you can get for a slightly higher price and trim your costs elsewhere, if necessary.

What about meals?

Finding food that makes everyone happy can be tricky. We all have different eating habits. Some eat little. Others will think they haven’t gotten their money’s worth. You’ll likely also have vegetarians and vegans on your trip as well as those with medically necessary dietary restrictions.  As such, no group meal will please all.

It’s hard to work around this but we’ve found that if your tour company selects a meal and restaurant that reflects the local palette, you’ll at least be allowing your choir members the opportunity to get a taste of the flavors of your destination, even if they’re not nuts about them. (Just make sure dessert is phenomenal and everyone will walk away happy!)

While most tour companies will see that breakfast is included daily and will likely schedule a few group dinners during your travels, it’s often a wise idea to include opportunities for your travelers to go off on their own and find something to eat that truly floats their boat. For some, it might be the local pizza parlor. For others, it may be way more exotic!

Unscheduled lunches followed by free time are ideal for exploring local restaurants. I fondly recall happening upon a great outdoor cafe in the central square in Tallinn, Estonia, and enjoying what was probably one of the greatest meals of my life…and it was all by chance.

So, that said, don’t feel the need to plan every meal. Leave some food experiences to chance and your singers will no doubt experience some extraordinary culinary highs.

Scheduling cultural activities for your ensemble

When I was the conductor of a youth choir that traveled domestically, we made it a habit to schedule bowling and laser tag during every tour. It was something to which we all looked forward and we joked that it was the only time I could “shoot” the kids.

With my women’s chorus, we have chosen cooking as our must-do activity on each journey. During every tour, we participate in a cooking class at a local restaurant or cooking school, where we learn to make delicious local cuisine. Thanks to our tour organizers at KI Concerts, we’ve worked together to craft full meals in Carignano (Tuscany), Vienna, and Tallinn thus far, and then together enjoyed the fruits of our labor around a table filled with smiles. Our cooking school in Vienna even presented us with aprons embroidered with our first names and chef hats we could wear while cooking, as well as diplomas at the end of the class. It was magical and joyous and we sang as we cooked!

Of course, if cooking doesn’t appeal to your group, there are many other options. You might consider folk dance lessons, for example, or anything that speaks of the area you’re visiting and allows the ensemble to work together towards producing an end result, be it a meal or something else. We chose cooking because everyone can do it (including the men!), it’s ideal for large groups, and it’s fun (especially with a little extra wine on hand!). Nonetheless, if that doesn’t appeal to you, ask your tour company for other ideas.

Go for it!

There’s so much to consider when planning a tour and just thinking about it can be intimidating. If you’ve contemplated touring with your non-auditioned choir and aren’t sure whether it’s something you want to tackle, know that every tour we’ve done has represented one of the highest points in my choir’s history. With the right tour company, a well-thought out itinerary, great singing venues, and an adventurous group of singers, your experiences and those of your ensemble members will be unforgettable and pretty darn near picture-perfect.

We’ll be heading to Ireland in 2022 for our 10th anniversary and already have dozens who’ve indicated interest in the tour! It’s not too early to plan something to which your choir can look forward after a vaccine is available. Here’s to happy, COVID-free days when we can sing and travel together again!

I hope you’ve found this blog series helpful and am happy to answer any questions and further share our travel experiences with my community choir colleagues. Feel free to contact me at .

Filed Under: Others Tagged With: choir travel, non-auditioned choir, travel tips

The Challenges…and Joys…of Traveling with an Older Choir

November 19, 2016 by From Our Readers 3 Comments

I’ve got the travel bug…and, luckily, I conduct an adult community choir filled with plenty of women who feel the same way I do about seeing the world. So many countries, so little time.

In the four years since I founded the Bucks County Women’s Chorus we’ve embarked on two international tours. The first took us to Northern Italy in 2014 and the second to Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg this past spring. Each trip had its special rewards and its unique challenges, and we certainly learned a lot about traveling with a choir with an average age of about 60-65.

As far as performance tour companies are concerned, my choir is rather an oddity. Many of them work primarily with high school and college musical ensembles, though most have had some experience with adult choirs. Nonetheless, to truly organize and pull off a tour that’s older adult-friendly, tour organizers need to listen closely about the limitations of the group and must consider a variety of issues as they craft the itinerary. Only then will you have a tour that fits your needs and makes your singers happy.

Here’s what I found to be the most important considerations when organizing a tour for “my ladies”, many of whom are already avid travelers but are largely used to touring at their own pace.

  1. Is your destination travel-friendly for older adults? In other words, will they be exhausted by the terrain (note: remind me to tell you about our day in Venice) and the demands of traveling in that particular location? Also, keep in mind issues such as if your buses can get close to the venues for your concerts/activities or if a long walk is required. Ask if there are ample places to rest during walks or other recreation. All these answers can help you decide whether you’re considering the right tour destination for your older choir.
  2. Is there enough downtime built into the itinerary? Look at the schedule for each day and compare sitting time to active time. If you’re going strong for more than four hours at a time, you may need to do some rearranging. Also, try not to stuff too much into one tour. On our first trip, we packed Verona, Venice, Florence, San Gimignano, Siena, Lucca, and Rome into 8 days. Too much, too fast! Not only were we exhausted but we never truly got to know any of those places.
  3. Is your tour guide/manager familiar with the needs of an older choir? This is a biggie! On our trip to Italy our lovely manager was a young woman who seemed not to be in tune with what was required to lead an older group through the rough terrain of Italy. While she was vibrant and excited and we all grew quite fond of her, we often found her literally two blocks ahead of us and simply couldn’t handle her pace. On our most recent trip, the tour manager – a young man of about 30 – seemed to understand that we had to make more bathroom stops, needed more time to get from one place to another, and required some extra pampering. (He even brought us cookies and other treats and travel books for our longer bus rides.) The result was a very happy group of travelers and a very large tip for the manager.
  4. Do the restaurants offer plenty of alternatives? With an older group, you’re more likely to encounter individuals with dietary constraints such as the diabetic, the person who is on a low-salt diet, or the vegetarian. Ask to see the menus for those who need special attention to determine that they’re not getting the short end of the stick, with meals that are less than appetizing.
  5. Are the hotels suitable for more discerning tastes? For adult choirs, you may need to increase the budget for hotels a bit. My choir – while not at all spoiled – wants a comfortable place to stay that includes some nice amenities. For example, our hotel in Budapest – the Radisson Blu Beke – gave us a killer buffet breakfast each morning and offered a beautiful restaurant and bar as well. Also, ask for hotels in the city center, whenever possible, which makes it easy for your singers to wander out of their own during free time without having to worry about public transportation.
  6. Are your concerts organized strategically? Older singers need some recovery time before launching into a concert. A day of travel demands some rest time afterwards when you’re over 50. Don’t plan a concert for your first tour day and – certainly – don’t plan one for the last either, when everyone is exhausted and ready to pack up and head home.

A lot of the things we did wrong on our first trip were corrected on our most recent tour, thanks to a tour company that truly took time to get to know us as they were penning the itinerary. Did we slip up here and there? Probably, but the joy of traveling together, singing for international audiences, and getting to know each other intimately far outweighed the mistakes. Now we look back at the photos and laugh, we remember the applause and smile, we recall the beauty of the places we visited and the people we met and a tear forms in the corner of our eye.

And even if our ankles swell to three times their normal size, chances are we’ll do it all again.

________________

pat-guth-headshot  Patricia Guth is the Founder and Artistic Director for the Bucks County Women’s Chorus in Holland, PA. More information about Pat and her singers can be found here.

Filed Under: From Our Readers Tagged With: adult choir, community choir, From Our Readers, tours, travel, travel tips, women's choir

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