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Your Greenbacks Give Back with These European Apartment and Farmstay Packages

March 29, 2004 -- One of our favorite tour operators of all time is Untours, that unusual and family-run outfit from Media, Pennsylvania, that consistently arranges vacation rentals in Europe and Asia at budget prices that would make even the scroogiest of misers smile, and yet still turns a profit. Big deal, you say? Well, yes, when you discover that the company puts a majority of that profit into a fund that provides low-cost credit to business and entrepreneurs in impoverished areas. Job creation, in fact, is the fund's primary goal.

The Idyll Development Foundation, affiliated with Untours through the leadership of Hal Taussig, head of both organizations, has made loans to businesses and organizations throughout the USA, as well as in Brazil and Vietnam. The fund's motto is "a hand up, not a handout," and its mission is to try to make it possible for people living in poverty to achieve economic independence. Your leisure vacation dollars contribute to their success.

Untours is offering spring savings of up to $350 per person on their packages for departures through June 15 for vacations that include qualifying flights on Air France. You get to live like a local in a fully furnished vacation rental (usually an apartment or a farm house, depending on the destination) for two weeks or more, roundtrip airfare from New York or Boston (additional charge from other cities), ground transportion (car rental or rail pass) for the two weeks, and on-site local English-speaking support if and when you need it. You have to sign up and get your air tickets by May 14, 2004, for deals like the following:

In Alsace, where the villages are full of half-timbered houses and good places to dine, $1,668 out of Newark ($180 savings, they say); $1,719 from Chicago ($210 off) or $1,849 from Houston ($180 off). Similar discounts from Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., too.

Other offers include:

  • Central city apartments in Paris from $2,139
  • A cottage in Provence from $1,839
  • A farmhouse in Tuscany from $2,049
  • Apartments near Pisa and Lucca for $2,039
  • Venice apartments stays $2,239
  • Farmhouse apartments near Spoleto in Umbria from $1,909
  • Farmhouses in Andalusia between Cordoba and Granada from $2,079

These pre-tax prices are based on departures out of Newark. Departures from Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. and other gateways are available for additional fees.

To book an Untour, phone them at 888/868-6871 or visit their website, www.untours.com.

We'd like to hear from our readers who've traveled with Untours before. Just click over to our Message Boards to relate your experience.

 

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