COACH TOURS
(rome, mask) susan wright, (people, coach) courtesy pat wodynski S U M M E R 2 0 1 5 | W E S T W O R L D A L B E R T A 33
A
MA member Pat Wodynski took her 18-year-
old daughter Mikaila to Europe last July as a
high school graduation gift – 11 amazing
days in Italy. It was everything a Calgary kid's
first visit to the country should be: three nights each
in Rome, Florence and Venice, with stops at all the
essentials: St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, the
Roman Colosseum, St. Francis's Basilica in Assisi
and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. They
made carnival masks in Venice and did a gladiator
sword-fighting workshop in Rome. ey learned to
make pizza in an Italian kitchen and visited a glass-
blowing workshop on Giudecca Island.
Here's what might surprise you: the trip was a
family coach package – Trafalgar Tours' "Gladiators,
Gondolas and Gold." But that shouldn't be a surprise
at all, says Lethbridge AMA travel counsellor Yvonne
Kergan. Coach tours have come a long way from the
sedate, 60-plus affairs of decades past.
"Coach tours just aren't like that anymore. ere's
nothing stuffy about them," says Kergan. Companies
Why the newest generation of coach tours is perfect for families
BY ROBIN SCHROFFEL
Trafalgar's Gladiators,
Gondolas and Gold includes
insider moments like
attending gladiator training
school. Departures June
to September 2015. From
$3,035. AMATravel.ca/
Family-Series
BUS
Everyone
on the
AMA member Pat Wodynski took
daughter Mikaila (above) on a coach tour
of Italy last summer. Among other
adventures, the duo visited St. Peter's
Basilica in Rome (left) and learned to
make paper masks in Venice (top).
