Exploring Authentic New England -
Collette Vacations Premier Tours

The principles of Collette Vacations remain as they were 90 years ago when Jack Collette founded Collette Travel – excellent accommodations and good value. Collette Travel started in New England, and even though they’re now global with offices in three countries, they’ve never forgotten their roots. Collette New England Tours remain the standard of service and value which other competitors aspire to reach. Recently, I had a chance to review Collette’s 2008 New England vacation offerings with Steve Lima - one of Collette Vacations expertly trained representatives.
Cliff:	Hi Steve. Thank you for taking time away from a busy booking season to explain to visitors of my site what Collette has developed for people looking to vacation in New England in 2007.
Steve:	You’re welcome Cliff. I’m excited to have the opportunity to discuss Collette and our prime offerings in New England this season. We’ve already seen an up tick in the demand for our tours as people continue to focus on value and service. Some of our more popular New England tours have dates already sold out.
Cliff:	Before you talk about the tours you offer, can you take just a minute and tell my visitors why they should consider Collette Vacations over every other company offering New England tours?
Steve:	Sure. Collette Vacations has been in business since 1918, and is the oldest tour operator in United States. In that time we’ve discovered a thing or two about what people expect on a tour. So to answer your question, apart from our absolute guarantee to offer good value and excellent accommodation, I’d say it’s our experienced and caring Collette tour managers that form the backbone of every Collette tour, and differentiate us from our competitors. We hire and train the best in the business. Our tour managers work for us; they’re not seasonal or freelance guides that many other tour companies use. Essentially we’re in the service industry and we’d better be excellent at putting our customer’s experience above everything else. And our continued growth and success confirms that we deliver on that promise.
Cliff:	I’d noticed from visiting your web site, Collette Vacations has a bunch of New England tours available can you give a flavor of each for my visitors?
Steve:	You bet Cliff. Let me start with one of our perennial favorites, which is our New England Back Roads tour. This is an 8-day trip through the mountains and Atlantic coastline of Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Highlights include Boston sightseeing, a scenic cruise of Lake Champlain in Vermont, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and Boothbay Harbor and Kennebunkport in Maine. New England has so much to offer in diverse scenery and terrain, and this tour always delights with surprises around every bend of the back roads this tour follows.
Cliff:	Do you have a tour that shows the beauty of Cape Cod and the Islands?
Steve:	Glad you asked Cliff. Yes, Collette has a tour called Islands of New England which we’re very excited about. This 8-day tour also gives you a chance to explore early American history in Boston and Plimoth Plantation, and the Gilded Age in Newport, R.I., before island hopping around Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. This New England tour showcases the geological wonder of the Cape and Islands created during the last glacial age. Many of the places visited have protected beaches and dunes, and nature reserves. This tour is a nature lover’s paradise.
Cliff:	Many of my readers know I lived on the Cape for two years and have a special spot for the region and its islands. So it’s great to see a vacation company of Collette’s stature offering a tour of this special part of New England.
Steve:	Well, if your visitors liked that one Cliff, then they’re going to love this next tour. Collette’s New England: Islands and Mountains tour was put together after so many inquires about whether we offered a combined back roads and islands tour. At 10 days this is our longest New England tour. It’s the best of both worlds as you not only get to visit the lakes, mountains, and coastlines of New England, but also Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, before completing the tour in historic Boston. We’ve packed a lot into this tour but it’s designed never to feel rushed.
Cliff:	Steve, I’m excited about the next tour as it covers two locations I’ve always enjoyed visiting in Massachusetts – Boston and the Berkshires.
Steve:	That’s right, our Boston to the Berkshires vacation is a 7-day trip, and includes private event tours through museums in Boston, and a walk on the famous “Freedom Trail”, before heading out west to the extraordinary beauty and cultural attractions of the Berkshires. With this popular tour we’ve allowed plenty of time for unrushed independent exploration of Boston, and the scenic Berkshire town of Williamstown.
Cliff:	Now Steve, I know it’s early in the season, but any plans for a Fall Foliage trip?
Steve:	It’s never too early to book a fall foliage tour in New England. As you know fall is one of the heaviest seasons for visitors to New England – because it has to be one of best spots in the world to watch fall. And we’ve already taken a lot of bookings for our Fall Foliage of the Northeast tour. This is another 8-day vacation that explores the Adirondack Mountains of New York, the Green Mountains of Vermont, before moving down to the rolling hills and mountains of Western Massachusetts’s Berkshires. Of all the fall foliage tours we’ve organized this continues to be the most popular. But of course it fills up fast.
Cliff:	Well Steve, that sounds like an exciting and comprehensive list of tours for 2008. You seem to have something to suit all vacation tastes. Any closing thoughts for my visitors as we wind-down the interview?
Steve:	I’d just recommend that if any of these New England tours I’ve discussed interest your visitors they check them out today by going to our Collette Vacations site. We take reservations online, but as I said when we started the interview, demand is already strong for our tours. So if you have an interest in learning more about a specific tour don’t delay.
Cliff:	Thank you very much for your time today Steve, and for the information on 2008 Collette Vacations in New England.
Editor’s Note: For more details on Collette Vacations discussed in this interview click any of the links below: New England Back Roads Islands of New England New England: Islands and Mountains Boston to the Berkshires Fall Foliage of the Northeast Collette Vacations For information on Collette Vacations Terms and Conditions click here.

Go to My New England Vacations Home Page.