A wide estuary at low tide, sand flats cut by shining channels running seaward.

ten places, and the edge of the map

Vacation Package Destinations

Vacation package destinations here number ten, and the list stays short for a reason: somebody in this office has slept in every one of them.

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Why ten and not two hundred

An agency that lists every country has been to almost none of them. Ten is the number somebody here can actually answer questions about: which room faces the road, which road takes twice as long as the map says, which week the ferry stops.

Each one below is filed under the rhythm that suits it, because in most of these places the rhythm is not really a choice. A Rajasthan trip that stays put is not a Rajasthan trip. An Umbrian week that moves nightly is a week spent driving.

Umbria: One hill town, a car for part of the week, April to June and September to October
Puglia: Flat country, dry stone walls and olives, a farmhouse base, best either side of high summer
Newfoundland: Headlands and fog, one harbor base, a season about ten weeks long
Georgia: The country on the Black Sea, not the state. A capital and a wine valley, joined by a long drive
Taiwan: A capital and an east coast gorge, joined by a fast train, typhoon risk in late summer
The Chilean lakes: Two lakesides and an island, ferries in between, rain in every month
Transylvania: A driving loop through hay meadows and walled villages, a different guesthouse most nights
Rajasthan: Five towns, a car and a driver, unbearable April to June and pleasant in December
The Elbe: A river ship between sandstone bluffs, and a real chance the water is too low
The Alps by sleeper: Night trains and day stops, three of the seven nights spent moving

When you ask about somewhere else

You get told it is not ours, and then told what kind of specialist does that ground properly. Nothing is taken for saying so, and no attempt is made to bend one of these ten into the shape of the thing you actually wanted.

What is never said here about any of them

Whether a place is safe: Not a judgement this company is qualified to sell
What paperwork gets you in: Border rules belong to you and your nationality, and nobody here advises on them
Cover for the trip: Not arranged, not sold, not suggested. The reasoning is on the page of questions about booking
Which supplier runs it: Named in your written proposal, where the name is any use to you, and not on this website

Nothing on this site is run by the company that sells it. Thistle Crossing puts trips together and hands them to the airlines, hotels, ships, rail companies and tour operators whose job it is to carry them out. Not one bed, one seat, one hull or one guide belongs to this company. The firm doing the carrying is named on your written proposal, works to rules it wrote itself, and bills you without this desk touching the money.

Which rules a few things out, and they are worth stating rather than implying. Nobody here flies anything, sails anything or lets a room. No department of any government has appointed, approved or endorsed this firm, and no page claims otherwise. Cover for your trip is somebody else's business and so is the paperwork that gets you over a border. There is no way to pay through these pages and no card number is ever stored.