The safety and security of group travel with the freedom to choose how you spend your time
Independent Tours--What we do
Independent Tours is a tour group company that organizes trips for small groups of adults--usually composed of between 15 and 20 people. As its name suggests, we don't follow the model of leading everyone around. With those kinds of trips, travelers don't always get to do what they specifically want. They often spend an inordinant amount of time waiting for others to get ready. Instead, we do the logistics (selecting and purchasing plane tickets, making hotel reservations, chartering buses, reserving train tickets, etc.). We also provide extensive advise and guidance, both before and during our trips. We are there to to help, but we leave the touring to the participants. Independent Tours chooses destination cities and towns that can provide high interest to our travelers. We allow trip participants plenty of time to explore. They are not only encouraged to see the destination cities in depth on their own or in small groups, but to take day trips if it makes sense to them. The model seems to work quite well for our travelers and for us. And, Independent Tours tries to keep our costs comparitively low for group trips while still choosing quality accommodations and transportation providers.
Who Owns Independent Tours
After graduating with a bachelors degree in French from the University of California at Berkeley, Kent Porter (California Seller of Travel #2093529-40 Bernard Kent Porter) began his 38-year career teaching French at Ukiah High School in Mendocino County. During the first 16 years of his teaching career, Kent organized and chaperoned 15 summer exchange programs to France for his students. Cyndi Smith-Porter has been engaged in work as a human resource professional and as a marriage and family therapist. With an avid interest in travel, Cyndi joined Kent in organizing eleven additional group trips to Europe with both students and adults. Now, they have formed Independent Tours, a company focusing on adult travelers who want to visit exotic places around the world on their own terms--but but with the guidance and planning skills of Kent and Cyndi.
Independent Tours is a registered California Seller of Travel with the Attorney General’s Office of the State of California, Bernard Kent PorterCST #2093529-40.
