Getting into the Spirit of Oktoberfest in Bavaria

Our group of five couples from the Orlando and Charleston area, close friends since many years, all went out and bought apparel for their first in a lifetime (but we have a feeling not the last!) visit to the “Big Daddy” of beer festivals in Munich, Germany in September, 2017. Here we make a stop […]

Tours Ahead in 2015

Updated March 26, 2015 Another exciting year lies ahead for European Focus Private Tours, with (so far) twelve custom-designed tours booked for the season, which begins in April. Here’s an example of what we’re doing with our clients this year: April 19-26 Ireland A family of four from South Carolina and Louisiana arrive in Dublin […]

Heartfelt Thank You For Care Package 67 Years Later

August 21 Dolores Petit is on the Trip of a Lifetime back to her roots in northern Germany. On the second day of her visit with relatives in the hamlet of Steinfeld, she suddenly came face to face with a woman whom she has never met. However, she gave that woman something so special, so […]

Castles, Country Inns and Historic Guesthouses Tour for July, 2013 a Wrap

  We sent our guests back to Calgary today after the conclusion of their first trip to Germany. Sisters Jennifer and Christina enjoyed a relaxed tour throughout southern and southwestern Germany including a stay in a castle at Hirschhorn, a stay in Germany’s oldest hotel in Miltenberg, three nights in Germany’s oldest fortified town of […]

Love Locks – quaint tradition or pollution?

July 2 From Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia There are varied explanations for the origin of love padlocks. In Europe, love padlocks started appearing in the early 2000s.[ The reasons love padlocks started to appear vary between locations, and in many instances are unsourced. However, in Rome, the ritual of affixing love padlocks to the […]

Visiting German Relatives in Hoinkhausen

(From a visit made to Hoinkhausen on September 12 and 13) When German relatives know you’re coming, the red carpet not only gets rolled out, it gets wrapped around you. Suzanne Pellegrino and her sister Beth Renney not only gave their relatives in tiny Hoinkhausen, Germany advance notice, they gave them nearly a year to […]

Trinity College Dublin Guided Tours Great Way to Experience History

Downtown Dublin’s Trinity College campus sprawls over more than 44 acres of prime real estate. But, the casual visitor only sees about twenty square feet of this space, and that is what is surrounding the famous “Book of Kells,” kept in the campus library near the main entrance just off of Grafton Street. When entering […]

An unforgettable visit to Amberg, Germany

George Then’s father was born in Amberg, in the Oberpfaelzerwald of Bavaria, Germany. He met his future wife in Nuernberg, where they married. They had a son, and emigrated to America to begin new lives in 1927. George Then was born in America. He’d wanted to come to Germany for many years to see where […]