About European Focus

James started his love affair with Europe as a photojournalist for the European Stars and Stripes newspaper, published in Griesheim, Germany. For five years, James traveled extensively in Europe, photographing people, events and places for the largest English language newspaper outside of the United States. Among his many interesting assignments was the time his editor said, “Get on a plane and don’t come back for two weeks.” He flew around Europe and parts of Asia on military transport planes, writing, photographing and learning about the world. This fantastic experience hooked James on adventure and travel. His extensive travels for the Stars and Stripes taught him the skills he uses on a daily basis while helping his clients get to know Europe.

In 1990, James started offering photographs of small towns in Europe to people tracing their family trees. This successful “hobby” grew into a full-time business by 1994. In 1996, a client asked James if he could go along as he photographed the village of Flammersfeld, Germany. James said “why not?” European Focus Private Tours was born.

James speaks German and is proficient in basic Italian. Jenean Derheim has been traveling for her corporate clients since the late 1980s. Jenean joined European Focus in 2000 and is proficient in German, French and Italian.

Venice Italy at sunset

Private Tours

European Focus is the only tour company in the United States which offers customized itineraries for as few as one person up to a maximum (usually) of 10. (We have handled larger groups on request.) While the big bus companies feature guides who memorize endless dates and names and other trivia on a handful of places, our knowledge is more broad-based (we do after all offer our services in more than 18 countries) and we don’t talk at our clients, we talk with them, to find out what they are interested in knowing. Some of our clients have told us about their prior experience with “Big Bus Companies” including those tours “Through the Back Door” which feature shared bathrooms, anti-bedbug sleeping bags, horribly long travel days and complimentary ear plugs to drown out the noise from hotel rooms located on busy streets not to mention many meals, excursions and other amenities totally left out of the “package price.” These “features” of travel with our competition shock us, because we’re accustomed to showing our clients the pleasures of Europe without sacrificing comfort, quality and the exceptionally high standards which have formed the foundations of European Focus Tours since the beginning. Find out how you can have the Trip of a Lifetime (and be spoiled rotten by the experience) by spending fifteen minutes on our web site. We prefer that our primary clients be over the age of 40. That doesn’t mean we discourage kids – not at all! We just ask that the people in charge of the group (even if your group is just the two of you) be over the age of 40.

Genealogy Tours

Tours mixing Family History with vacation travel. The ultimate experience is to walk in the footsteps of your ancestors, to touch the baptismal font where your great-grandfather was baptized, to see the landscapes your ancestors knew in their daily life. Only on a European Focus Private Tour is this possible in an intimate and highly personalized way. Start your own adventure here, by spending some quality time getting to know us via our web site. And, if you want to talk, we’re just an e-mail or a phone call away.
All photographs on this web site by James Derheim except where noted.