Don't confuse Untours with a sequence from that "Bizarro" Seinfeld episode with the polite Jerry or a vacation provider for the "evil" Captain Kirk. The real Untours (tel. 888/868-6871; www.untours.com) is a 32 year-old tour operator that would rather you live in a country than simply visit it. With that in mind, Untours offers two weeks in an apartment, villa, farmhouse or cottage in a number of different countries around the world, ground and air transportation to your selected destination, and support services including airport transfers and in-country English speaking contacts for questions, insider tips and excursions. As a bonus, Untours now provides on-site transportation such as rental cars, train passes, or city public transportation passes. From charming stone cottages in Umbria to wooden A-frame homes in Alsace, Untours offers a unique travel experience for travelers looking to feel as "untourist" as the locals.
What's best about Untours? It might be the prices, such as fall and winter specials offering two weeks in Greece and Holland for less than $1,000. Throw in a car rental and it gets even better. Both these fall sales mean discounts of up to $300 per person on both deals. To ensure the discount, all travelers have to do is book before December 31, 2006.
Now for the details on those "deals" (www.untours.com/deals.html). The Greece package offers apartments in Nafplio, a quaint harbor town on the Peloponnesian Sea. Available dates and prices include November 29 to December 13 and December 13 to December 27, 2006 for $1,319 with airfare out of New York, the apartment for two weeks and a rental car. Dates in 2007 are from January 3 to January 17; January 17 to January 31; January 31 to February 14; February 14 to 28; and February 28 to March 14, 2007 for a land-only price of $959 and an air inclusive price of $1,739. Common to all Untours deals, prices are per person based on double occupancy. Prices decrease for multi-bedroom homes for groups of three of more. Hints for Nafplio include skipping the modern commercial Nafplio that some call just another "suburb" of Athens and head straight to the old town with its majestic marble-floored square and romantic port where people drink red wine and watch sunsets before walking off or dancing off their huge Greek meals. Once the capital of Greece, Nafplio has fortresses and stone passageways where you can almost see and smell life 2,000 years back.
Offering up to $200 in savings, the Holland package places you in an apartment in Leiden, a small university town just 30 minutes outside of Amsterdam. Intellectual, artsy, and filled with museums, Leiden is the birthplace of Rembrandt and was home to the Pilgrims before they set off for Plymouth Rock. There's also a 900 year-old market held on the banks of the Rhine every Wednesday and Saturday. Loaded with coffee shops, bicycle riders, and those extremely hospitable Dutch, Leiden would make a lovely home for a lot longer than two weeks. As often is the case, Untours travelers make friends with their neighbors and often return to the same apartment year after year to recapture the experience. Available dates for the Leiden trip that comes with a rail-pass for transport around Holland stretch from January 3 to 17; January 17 to 31; January 31 to February 14; February 14 to 28; and February 28 to March 14, 2007. The land-only price for the two weeks comes to $799 per person while the air-inclusive price costs approximately $1,399.
Untours is also very altruistic. Most of the company's profits are distributed to charities around the world through Untours 14-year old foundation (www.untoursfoundation.org). Offering low-interest loans to various projects, the Untours Foundation has lent over $4 million dollars to various causes in hope of creating jobs, building low-income housing, and supporting fair trade practices worldwide. Fortunate recipients include Home Cares in Philadelphia, a Haitian banking concern providing basic financial services to the poor, and a land-reclaiming organization in Brazil instituting self-sufficiency for the formerly homeless. That should make you feel even better while you're enjoying your two weeks Untours vacation.
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