http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/travel/familiar-places-seen-anew-on-a-tour.html 2014-12-02 23:32:28 Familiar Places, Seen Anew on a Tour Here’s why taking a tour of a destination you’ve been to several times just might make sense. === The brochure for Madagascar looked inviting. So did the one for Easter Island, and the one for Antarctica, too. We’d never been to any of those places. So why did my husband, Dave, and I, independent travelers who usually prefer to rent a car and scout our own itinerary, go for an introductory tour of Italy, where we had been seven times before? We signed onto the Smithsonian Journeys’ But would repeating what we had seen and done along most of its itinerary be a good way to spend time and money? Could we make it more than simply a repeat? Not surprisingly, no less a European-travel expert than Rick Steves says that there’s an upside to joining a tour that retraces familiar territory. “Experienced travelers have seen the biggies,” Mr. Steves told me. “Taking a highlights trip as a repeat is a lazy way to have a wonderful vacation.” “For me, it’s a whole new experience going back to places I know very well,” he added. “There’s no pressure to see the blockbuster sights. Our guides always empower veterans to slip out and wander.” Once we had signed up for our Smithsonian trip, we determined to personalize it, while taking advantage of the convenience and conviviality of a tour. We prepped by looking back over our earlier visits to each stop on the itinerary, to recall what we’d missed on earlier trips. There would be free time to fill with strategic stops of our own, from splurge restaurants to small museums and churches that we had missed or were eager to revisit, from “inside” walking tours to the gondola ride that we had always dismissed as too kitschy every time we’d been in Venice but that now seemed as if it might be bucket-list material. As Mr. Steves said, it’s not unusual for veteran travelers to choose to join the mostly first-timers on highlights trips, intending to find occasional chances to slip out the back. David Mulligan of Johnstown, N.Y., a retired high school French teacher, has taken about 30 group trips with Road Scholar, the nonprofit educational group that began in 1975 as Elderhostel. “I always do the group activity because I don’t want someone to say, ‘You missed the greatest thing!,' but then I do wander off,” Mr. Mulligan said. “When I was with Road Scholar on a tour of Northern France, a repeat for me, I went off in Auvers to explore the fields. I swear I saw the same crows van Gogh painted there!” On the other hand, some prefer to use any free time to return to their favorites. “I do the things I can’t imagine being in that city and not doing,” said Sharon Irving, of the San Francisco Bay Area, who has taken many repeat tours. “When we stop in Florence, my favorite city in the world, I go to San Marco to spend uninterrupted time with some particular Fra Angelico pieces, especially his ‘Last Judgment.’ ” A three-day stop in Rome tailored to first-timers was a twofer for us: a chance to plug holes by seeing things we had missed in five previous visits and, just as significant, to enjoy again some of the most important sights in the world, this time with Smithsonian Journeys’ local guides and Mr. Gariff. Veteran travelers who join repeat tours often do so for the ease of getting from one familiar spot to the next. But there’s also the advantage of sharing meals — and discoveries — with others. Pamela Cooper of New York, who has traveled on her own extensively, chose a tour of France even though it duplicated much of what she had seen in many stays in Paris. “Occasionally, I had felt a need for company,” she said, “so I picked a Rick Steves tour for its free time, because I wanted people to talk to, but not all the time.” That friendship factor was a plus for us, as well, but on Day 2 of the Smithsonian trip, while we were just getting to know our 20 new tour-group friends, we split for one special celebration. It was our third time on the Amalfi Coast, and my off-the-menu goal was a world-class dinner at the dreamy Using email also worked well when we saw that we would have a free morning and afternoon in Rome. We booked some walks with docents offered by the United States-based We met Context docents for walks to a few lesser-known pagan, Roman and early Christian sites near the Colosseum, and another of the three major churches with Caravaggios in side chapels. Websites like Some of our finest hours weren’t during free time. I went AWOL in Florence, where I left Dave and the group on its way to see Michelangelo’s David in the flesh. Instead, I figured the better way for me to soak up a sunny Palm Sunday was to head for I felt the thrill of exploration while walking down the hill and across the Arno, toward my other destination just past the Duomo — the Any traveler knows that feeling. It doesn’t get any less exhilarating for serial repeat visitors. Veterans who take highlights tours seem to share the view that the upsides of group travel give you the best of all worlds: the chance to make your own discoveries, and to see a familiar country through new eyes. The indelible highlight of our 17 days proved the point. Leandro Marandola, a Smithsonian tour leader — and a winning combination of Jonathan Winters, Frank Sinatra and Sir Kenneth Clark — had worked his wonders. In an unscheduled stop, our bus rolled into the majestic We would not have had that shared moment, contemplating the enormity of the sacrifice by American soldiers and the beauty of the cemetery, if we had not made a return trip to Italy.