Small Groups, Big Adventures: Why 2025 is the Year to Explore Beyond the Beaten Path with Guest Diana Ditto

Ready to trade crowded tourist traps for authentic cultural connections? In this episode, we sit down with Diana Ditto, VP of Product Marketing and Growth Strategies at Collette Tours—North America's longest-running tour operator with 107 years of experience—to discover why small group travel is revolutionizing how women over 45 explore the world.

Diana reveals the hottest destinations for 2025 and 2026, from the dramatic desert safaris of Namibia to the authentic Greek islands of Crete and Naxos, and the emerging cultural gems of the Balkans. But this isn't just about where to go—it's about how to travel meaningfully.

What You'll Discover:

• Why 18 is the magic number for small group tours and how it creates lifelong friendships
• How to experience authentic local culture through women's co-ops, home-hosted meals, and meaningful conversations about real life
• The surprising safety advantages of group travel for solo female travelers in destinations like Africa and the Middle East
• Why shoulder season travel offers better experiences, lower costs, and authentic local encounters
• How guided tours eliminate the stress of trip planning while still offering plenty of freedom to explore

Perfect for listeners who:

• Want to explore intimidating destinations safely and confidently
• Are tired of planning every detail of their trips
• Seek deeper cultural connections beyond typical tourist experiences
• Are ready to venture beyond Europe to places like South America, Africa, and the Balkans
• Want to meet like-minded adventurous women and form lasting travel friendships

Diana shares candid insights about everything from walking through Sarajevo's Tunnel of Hope to learning tango in Buenos Aires dive bars, proving that the best adventures happen when you step outside your comfort zone—with the right support system.

Whether you're a seasoned traveler looking for your next challenge or someone ready to take that first big leap into group travel, this episode will inspire you to book that trip you've been dreaming about.

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Transcript

Small Groups, Big Adventures: Why 2025 is the Year to Explore Beyond the Beaten Path with Collette's Diana Ditto

 Nicky & Heide: Welcome back to Untethered and Wander Wise, the podcast for women over 45 who refuse to let age define their adventures. I'm Heide Brandis. And I'm Nicky Omohundro. Today we're diving into what's hot in travel for 2025, and we couldn't be more excited about our guest today.

That's right. We're joined by Diana Ditto, VP of Product Marketing and Growth Strategies at Collette, which is North America's longest running tour operator.

Diana has her finger on the pulse of travel trends and with Collette just announcing their best year ever in their whole 107 year history. She's got some incredible insights to share.

That's right. Diana joined Collette in 2013 initially designing tours for the UK, Ireland, and Northern Europe. Before she transitioned to marketing where she launched their product marketing team, and as a fellow explorer, cook, and busy mom, also, congratulations on baby number three coming in September. We'd love to welcome Diana to the podcast.

[00:01:04] Diana Ditto: Hi ladies. Thanks so much for having me.

[00:01:07] Nicky & Heide: Well, we know our listeners are always looking for that next great adventure, especially destinations that might be off the beaten path or trending for a good reason. So let's dive in and discover what 2025 and 2026 has in store for the adventurous woman over 45. So first of all, tell us about Collette.

What is Collette?

[00:01:31] Diana Ditto: So we are a tour operator. We're different from a travel agency or a travel advisor in that we have preset itineraries, so there's a lot of free time built in them. But in terms of the overnights and the routing, there's not a lot of customization.

We have a team of over a hundred people that lives in various destinations around the globe, and they carve out these ideal itineraries. So even though you can't customize them, we have 170 tours and we've spent a lot of time thinking about, okay, how much time do you actually want to spend in Florence? How much time do you want to spend in Umbria? And then designing the inclusions around those.

So we are, as you said, celebrating our 108th year this season. So we're America's longest running tour operator and family owned and operated. We're about 700 employees worldwide, so quite large.

Catering predominantly to the American market, though we do have offices in Canada and Australia as well. And as I mentioned earlier, we have 170 incredible itineraries that take people to all seven continents. So we are a company of adventurers and explorers at heart.

[00:02:54] Nicky & Heide: Now, Diana, since this is one of your best years ever in your history, what do you think is driving the surge for travelers, especially those women over 45?

[00:03:03] Diana Ditto: People are just wanting to get out there. Post pandemic, it was called Revenge Travel. I think it's just the new norm where individuals, particularly women, are prioritizing travel and experiences over other things and going further and further afield.

Pre-pandemic, travelers maybe would've gone to Italy once and done Florence, Venice, Rome, ticked off the big items on their bucket list and then moved on to a different country. We're now seeing travelers going to Italy 3, 4, 5 different times because there's so many regional opportunities for exploration that you may not hit on that first bucket list trip over to Italy or whatever the equivalent is, anywhere in the world. Even so far as safaris, we're seeing people go on multiple safaris. It used to be Safari was a once in a lifetime bucket list trip, and now people say, "Oh, I did Southern Africa. Now let me do Eastern Africa, now let me head over to Namibia or up to Rwanda."

[00:04:09] Nicky & Heide: Yeah. And you kind of answered our next question, which is how you are seeing travel preferences evolve particularly for our demographic. There's a lot of women traveling solo, women over 45, friends who are choosing to travel with each other. Is that all part of this evolution of what people are preferring?

[00:04:35] Diana Ditto: A hundred percent. And we're also seeing a trend towards highly experiential travel, so wanting to meaningfully connect with people and culture. Of course, we want to go to places around the world and see the must-see sites. There's nothing wrong with that. You want to go and see the Eiffel Tower and the Colosseum, and Halong Bay—amazing places.

But there's an itch that we're seeing amongst our travelers, particularly our female travelers, to dive deeper, to talk to people and have candid and real conversations about life in these various countries, recognizing that not everything about travel needs to be rainbows and butterflies.

There are hard realities in certain places of the world, particularly for women, and not shying away from those conversations, but finding a respectful way to lean into them and to engage. So that is something that on our small group tours, we've actually added as a brand mandate. A brand requirement is these opportunities to have conversations about things like religion, politics—things that are typically off the table, but we know our travelers want to hear about.

And so we weave that into the conversation, into the dialogue so that we get to that next level of understanding with the people and culture of the destinations we're visiting.

[00:06:08] Nicky & Heide: That's fantastic. And you mentioned the small group tours, which I know for Collette is one of your most popular styles. What's the magic number when it comes to small group tours?

[00:06:17] Diana Ditto: So our average is 18, and that seems to be the magic number. Sometimes if you're too small, if you're 12 or 14, that might be too small where something like 30 could still be too large. So we average at about 18. We have a max of 24, and it's great. The camaraderie we see on tour, it is unbelievable.

I attribute it to the fact that we try very hard to ensure like-minded travelers are on our tours. We want travelers who are culturally curious, who want to do something new and fun and out of the box every single day. And because of that, you have this unbelievable camaraderie that is built on tour.

It's not uncommon for us to have groups of travelers that did not know one another before they went on tour and now form their own little traveling groups and make friends for life. It's really nice to see. I'm in my forties myself and I know it can be really hard to make friends when you're older and we have so many women in particular that come home and they say, "I feel like I met my sister. I feel like I met a new best friend," and they continue to keep in touch and go on future explorations together.

[00:07:38] Nicky & Heide: And I love that point because that seems to be the unique advantage of small group touring, especially for women in our age group, even men in our age group. But there's still people who might be hesitant about group travel. They have this idea in their head that it's 60 people shoved in a bus.

What would you say to women who like, "Well, I'd like to do group travel, but I don't want to be in that situation where there's 60 people and the bus smells bad?"

[00:08:07] Diana Ditto: Absolutely. And there are those situations where it's 60 people and the bus smells bad.

[00:08:11] Nicky & Heide: Right.

[00:08:13] Diana Ditto: Yeah, no, it is real. And you have to do your homework and find a company that aligns with you. Group touring, guided group touring may not be a fit for everyone, but don't immediately dismiss it, particularly if you're able to find the right company to travel with.

The things you want to keep an eye out for are group size, itinerary flow. What we're seeing from our travelers is things like one night stays—they want to avoid them like the plague. This idea of unpacking, packing, go, go, go. It may look really attractive to spend 10, 12, 14 days in a country and see all of these sites and you think, "Oh wow, this is great."

Increasingly, what we're hearing from our travelers is they want to slow down, they want to explore regionally, and they'd rather have two, three night stays in each city, weaving in secondary cities. That's another thing. If you find a company that weaves in secondary cities, that's something we, on our small group tours, pride ourselves on because yes, visiting the major metropolises of the world is fantastic, but oftentimes it's harder to meaningfully engage with people and culture, which as I said earlier, is really something travelers want. When you get to these smaller towns, you can still hear the native language being spoken. You can watch people drinking coffee that are actually from the destination, not tourists visiting.

And I would say also find a company that has like-minded travelers. So there are some companies that cater to younger travelers, some companies that cater to older travelers. Wherever you are in your life and travel journey, those are questions that just make sure you answer. And hopefully the company will respond accordingly with whether or not it's a fit, because it's a big decision. I mean, this is our time, right?

[00:10:17] Nicky & Heide: Exactly, and I love the idea of small group travel moving forward, being a huge trend for now and into the future. But let's talk about destinations, because I know everyone listening is definitely interested in where should we all go?

I know Collette had mentioned one of the trends coming up that was huge, and you did mention safaris and something on the list is Namibia and South Africa. What's drawing travelers to that particular area and why now?

[00:10:47] Diana Ditto: I think it goes back to this desire to go further afield. We have done very well with our Safari product for a number of years, and travelers routinely come back to us for that second, sometimes third safari. We added Namibia and South Africa because that was that third safari that we were missing.

People either did Southern Africa and Eastern Africa. Eastern Africa being Kenya, Tanzania, Southern Africa being, you know, South Africa, Botswana. Now that they've done both of those, they're asking us where to next. And Namibia for a while now, I would say, has been up and coming, but it's still niche.

So it offers a safari experience, but it's very different. It is a dry desert and extreme, whereas with other safaris, if you're in Kruger, if you're in the Serengeti, it can be quite lush. Namibia is very dry. It's kind of like going on safari in Arizona—kind of like that, but great opportunities to see animals because you don't have all of that vegetation that can be blocking your views.

So that's one of the reasons that, or that is the reason I would say we added it to our product portfolio for the 2025 season. And it's doing very well, which is exciting to see and great cultural heritage there that is different from a lot of the other African countries where you had British colonialism and occupation. In Namibia, it was German and of course they had the famous mines there that are now ghost towns.

But still a lot of that influence. So it's not a strange thing to be at a restaurant and see something like schnitzel on a menu and, you know, don't be alarmed. It's actually quite normal.

[00:12:39] Nicky & Heide: Okay, good.

[00:12:40] Diana Ditto: Africa's such a fascinating place with really interesting current culture, but also a very troubled but equally as fascinating past and history. And so you peel back another layer of the onion when you visit Namibia.

[00:12:58] Nicky & Heide: Yeah, I've been to South Africa twice now, and you mentioned this wonderful dichotomy between modernization, but it still has the wild, it still has that, like you said, troubling history behind it too. And I know safety can be a concern for women traveling, especially traveling solo to Africa.

It seems like an intimidating place to many ladies. How does Collette address those concerns?

[00:13:24] Diana Ditto: That's the beauty of guided travel, and Africa is one of our top destinations for solo female travelers because there is that element of safety in the group dynamics. So on our tours, we will average about four to five solo travelers, and those typically are solo female travelers. And yes, you definitely want to be prepared when going to a new and different part of the world.

That is why we see a lot of women and just solo travelers in general traveling to some of the more far-flung places as part of a group. Maybe they feel very comfortable traveling to Europe, Canada, domestically on their own. But now we've got Europe, Asia in there, the Middle East in there, Africa—there are a lot of benefits to being part of a group.

And also just again, the camaraderie as well, but Africa, South Africa, in terms of safety concerns, we've been very lucky. We've never had any issues, at least in recent memory, post pandemic with crime, whether major crime, petty crime. Typically in places we find like Africa, the Middle East, like Asia, tourism is so fundamental to their economy that often travelers are the most protected.

I'll never forget being in Egypt—I chose to go to Egypt after the Arab Spring, and I never felt safer because Egypt is dependent on tourism, and they don't want anything to happen to a tourist and to have that get out in the news. And so the security checks, the guards that were at the different attractions, the just general feeling of, "Oh wow. I was a little nervous to come here but they're actually"—they being the hospitality and service community—"are so happy that I'm here."

It was actually a really great time to travel and I felt extremely safe.

[00:15:29] Nicky & Heide: I was in Cairo two and a half years ago. I didn't worry about it. Like you said, all the checkpoints, the security was there. And I remember our tour operator when we were on the bus before we got off at the pyramids, you know, told us what to expect.

"This is what's going to happen. When it's time to get on the bus, we'll gather everyone." So there was a nice set of letting us know what to expect and then keeping us safe while we were in the destination so we could simply enjoy and then interact with other people that were there.

So that was fantastic.

[00:16:01] Diana Ditto: Exactly.

[00:16:02] Nicky & Heide: I find that—

[00:16:04] Diana Ditto: Oh, I was just going to say, and that can be anywhere. And that's one of the other benefits that we haven't touched on about guided group travel, which is the tour manager. And they tell you, you know, "This is a great area to explore. Definitely when you get out of your hotel, take a right. And maybe don't take a left." And those are things that you want to know, whether you're in Cairo or even San Francisco—different cities right here in the United States, sometimes it's like, "Yeah, avoid that neighborhood." And that's where having a local expert who's from the destination, and all of our tour managers and tour designers are from the destination. So they point you in the right direction and make sure that you're set up for success.

[00:16:45] Nicky & Heide: That is such a good point. I've been to some locations where like, "Okay, it's so foreign to me and I don't know enough about the country." And you're right, the tour guides are the ones that bring you to places you would never even look for. So the special little rug makers or artisans that aren't in the guidebooks, but you have this chance to interact with them and you wouldn't even know what to look for if you were looking for experiences like that.

So I think that's a really great point about small group travel is the knowledge of the local guides.

[00:17:19] Diana Ditto: Absolutely.

[00:17:21] Nicky & Heide: And then talking about hidden gems. I know there's two places that are rising on people's wishlist and you offer tours to these two destinations and they are Crete and Naxos.

[00:17:33] Diana Ditto: Yes.

[00:17:34] Nicky & Heide: Did I say that name—

[00:17:35] Diana Ditto: No, you nailed it. We have a new tour that is a small group tour that visits Greece and it includes mainland Athens and then two of its islands, Naxos, which is a popular island. It's definitely not on the same level as Santorini and Mykonos, but still popular with travelers.

At the same time, you're going to sit at a local café and hear Greek being spoken, which is fantastic. And then Crete, which really is a place that many Europeans go on vacation, but very few Americans, and I just don't understand why, because it offers so much without the tourist crowds.

And more and more, I don't know about you guys, but I'm hearing about these long lines and just endless—so many travelers in places like Italy and Greece in Mykonos and Santorini. And it's not enjoyable. You know, you think you're going to have these picture perfect moments, and whether it's because you're traveling in the highest season or just traveling to a place that hasn't managed tourism well, it just kind of, I don't want to say it ruins the experience, but it really takes the facade away or takes it down.

So Crete has the white, sandy beaches that you're looking for. It has beautiful snow capped mountains behind those white sandy beaches and then rolling hills in between. Amazing culture that still is very much intact and we engage with quite a bit. One of the highlights of the tour actually is we visit a women's co-op and we spend quite a bit of time there, a full half day, and they walk us through what it's like to be a woman living in Crete both historically and present day and teach us some different recipes, some different handicrafts that have been passed down from generation to generation. So unique opportunities like that to engage with the culture that sometimes on the other bigger islands, they've just gone by the wayside, but are still very much alive in Crete. So excited for this neck of the woods. And I hope for Crete that it continues to grow and develop, but not lose that amazing authenticity that it still has.

[00:20:00]

[00:20:00] Nicky & Heide: And I think that's the magic about these hidden gem destinations because you have that unique ability to connect with locals and have those regional experiences. How important are these social impact elements to today's travelers? Are you seeing people ask for more of that or are they—

[00:20:19] Diana Ditto: Absolutely.

[00:20:20] Nicky & Heide: —kind of learning the magic of it?

[00:20:21] Diana Ditto: No. Well, I think it depends perhaps where you are on your travel journey. If you're new to just getting a passport and heading out into the world, maybe they're nice to have, but not necessary. Most of our explorations travelers are established, savvy, confident travelers, and they prioritize meaningful engagement with people and culture as prominently or perhaps even more prominently than the must sees. These are travelers that can easily on their own arrange tickets to top attractions, find guides, pick out hotels, book airline tickets. They like someone else to handle all of those details for them.

But if push comes to shove, they could do them on their own. What's harder to do, we joke around is, let's say you're in Sarajevo to knock on someone's door and say, "Hey, can I come into your house and can I take a peek around and like, how many TVs do you have and how many people live in here and what's your life like?"

We facilitate all those experiences. Almost every single small group tour we have has at least one home hosted meal. Numerous opportunities to meet local people. Usually small producers, small farmers, women's co-ops, things like that. We prioritize those as the inclusions of the day because it's what we're hearing from our travelers.

They want—they'll get to take a selfie in front of Westminster Abbey or the Eiffel Tower. They can do that on their own and they'll find the time to do that while they're in these cities. But these other really deep people to people, heart to heart connections is what they're looking to us for.

So we've had to take a shift in our product design and prioritize that post pandemic. It's become a huge demand.

[00:22:21] Nicky & Heide: So one of the up and coming or the new tours that you're offering is in the Balkans, like Albania, which is a fascinating choice for 2025. It feels very ahead of the curve. What convinced Collette to venture there for the first time?

[00:22:37] Diana Ditto: It is a beautiful part of the world. It has a very European feel, believe it or not, when you get to these parts of the world, a very European feel, but also unexplored. The Balkans is very similar to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia. You go to these places and you know you're in Europe, you feel you're in Europe, but it's still unexplored, which in Europe increasingly is hard to find.

[00:23:01] Nicky & Heide: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:02] Diana Ditto: Pivoting back to the Balkans, it's—so confusing Baltics, Balkans. But pivoting back to the Balkans, former Yugoslavia, we actually have full disclosure. One of our top competitors moves thousands and thousands of travelers there from the United States every single year. So we find it's a destination that really is intriguing to these well-heeled travelers who have been to UK and Ireland. They've been to Greece, Italy, you know, many of the top European destinations. They love going to Europe, but they want to go further and they are seeking authenticity and the Balkans has all of it. It also, let's not forget in the nineties you couldn't go there.

I mean, they were at war and there were horrible war crimes. But I equate it to Afghanistan for someone who's my age, so all of a sudden, this part of the world that was previously closed off, but you heard a lot about on the news every day is now open and you can go and you can talk to the people that lived through all of this.

So I can imagine that it would be, 20, 30 years from now for someone my age and I'm 41, almost 42. If a place like Afghanistan opened up and I'd be curious to go because we've just grown up hearing so much about it.

[00:24:33] Nicky & Heide: Definitely. And too in places like this, you know, they feel intimidating to especially new travelers that may not have been there for the first time. Do you recommend people balance the adventure with comfort?

[00:24:46] Diana Ditto: I think that's again, where going on a guided tour is such a benefit. Our guides are from there. Our team at Collette, we have very strict brand standards, so we're a solid four, four and a half star tour operator. And all of our inclusions, whether it's meals, hotels, reflect that level of quality.

We know what our travelers value. We're definitely not one of these companies that says, "Oh, a hotel is just a place to sleep." No, it needs to be nice. Very nice. Usually part of the experience, we prefer them to be culturally reflective. "Oh, meals are just calories." No, no, we want good food, good wine.

So we definitely have a premium product. But in terms of the safety, going back to our conversation around Egypt and our conversation around some of these other parts of the world, tourism is such an opportunity and many of these cultures, particularly former Yugoslavia, they are wildly entrepreneurial and they are so excited to have travelers visiting that their safety, their happiness becomes a community priority. And you feel it. So I've been blessed to actually go to the Balkans four times—two by myself and two with Collette for work. I've been to Sarajevo three times.

It's one of my favorite cities. I've never felt unsafe. I've only ever felt welcomed because I—not to sound obnoxious, but I think people see tourism and travelers as an opportunity wherever they're coming from. So yeah, it's a good thing.

[00:26:30] Nicky & Heide: And like you said, it was a country that went through war that had some horrible things happen, challenging things happen, and you have the Sarajevo Tunnel of Hope experience, which sounds incredibly moving. So just for our listeners, what's that about?

[00:26:48] Diana Ditto: The Tunnel of Hope is, oh, it's probably about a mile long, underground tunnel that during the siege of Sarajevo—Sarajevo sits in a valley. It's a beautiful city, but it sits in a valley and the mountains around it were all occupied by the rebel forces and they were shooting down into the city and it became extremely dangerous to go out and to walk around, and you really couldn't drive in and out of the city.

So the city was under siege and they dug this tunnel under the city streets, and that was how they moved goods in and out of the tunnel. And if you're thinking it's some roomy tunnel, it's wildly claustrophobic. And I'm not someone who typically has issues with confined spaces, but you had to hunch over—I'm five seven. You had to hunch over and very narrow.

But they would smuggle people. They would smuggle food, they would smuggle gas, water, any of the resources that you might need to survive through this tunnel in and out of this tunnel. And you go, you walk through there and you're just blown away that this happened in the nineties.

I think sometimes we forget about that, that this was very recent and, you know, "How could we let this happen?" It's quite moving. And so you see what these people had to do to survive and you hear their stories and they're so recent. It's quite humbling actually.

So often when we travel, these stories of injustice and war and all the horrible things that can happen seem very far away and very far off in history. Sarajevo and much of the Balkans is real and you are talking to people who are our age that lived through it.

[00:28:50] Nicky & Heide: Yeah, that's extremely impactful. And to wrap up our talk about trending destinations, let's talk real quick about South America—Argentina and Chile are trending on a lot of wishlists as well. What about these two countries draws mature travelers?

[00:29:15] Diana Ditto: These are two amazing places to visit. So Chile, of course, very famous for its wines. So we get out into the vineyards, which travelers absolutely love. And both countries, Chile and Argentina, experiences there center around this gaucho culture, which is very much like a kind of a cowboy, really.

And so people may not realize that in much of South America, you do kind of have this cowboy almost akin to Montana, you know, big sky. You're out there, horses, ranches, great steaks and great food in these beautiful environments. And again, relatively unexplored.

[00:30:00] So this is where you'll see it's quite a common trend. Our travelers love going with us to the mainstream destinations, but increasingly they're asking for places further and further afield. So that's where we have both Argentina and Chile on our new tour list for 2025. And in Argentina, of course, you can't go and not visit Buenos Aires where we spend four nights on our essential South America tour.

And travelers absolutely love it. You know, we get to do a Tango class and then the Tango teacher takes us out to this local—I forget the name of it. It's some Spanish word, but this—it kind of is like a dive bar where they have tango and there are these incredible dancers. Then it could just be a Tuesday night and they're out dancing and they look amazing and we look like idiots.

But it's very fun after a couple of glasses of wine. So travelers love it. And again, being able to slow down, spend multiple nights in these destinations so that you're not rushed, you can get a real feel, is another priority of ours. And where we feel we have a great competitive advantage.

[00:31:15] Nicky & Heide: Okay, let's talk about the elephant in the room too. Over tourism. A lot of these places seem to be like alternatives to the over-touristed places that your typical traveler might go to. It seems that you guys address this while still giving travelers those must see experiences.

[00:31:40] Diana Ditto: We try to. One of the things that we're increasingly encouraging our travelers to reflect on before booking is when do you want to go? Because the reality is you are going to want to visit Rome, you are going to want to visit Florence and London and other bustling destinations. But if you can get there off season, yes, you're helping to thwart over tourism, but the likelihood is that you're going to have a better time.

[00:32:12] Nicky & Heide: Actually we need to do that because we were just talking about off season. I love the fact that you brought up shoulder season and off-season travel, because that's my favorite—

[00:32:22] Diana Ditto: Oh, it's the best.

[00:32:23] Nicky & Heide: Isn't it?

[00:32:27] Diana Ditto: Oh yeah. Traveling in the low season—it's cheaper. Everything's cheaper. Your hotels, your airfare. I find it so much more enjoyable. I love going into a restaurant and being surrounded by locals, and that if you're traveling in the low season, that's the best time to do that. And also just crowds.

I mean, waiting in line and being just surrounded by hundreds, sometimes thousands of other people. It just is less and less appealing for both for me, but also for a lot of our travelers. And because of global warming, you find that a lot of destinations around the world, they can be lovely in what are traditionally off season months.

I mean, one of my favorite times of the year to go to the UK is March. Ditto for Ireland. It's a great time to be there. November is a great time to be in both of those places. I was walking around Paris in November and it was almost 60 degrees. It was lovely. So yeah, timing is essential and something that we set clear expectations with our travelers on, because if you want to go to Europe in August or September, you're going to pay top dollar. It's going to be hot, very hot. A lot of these places don't have air conditioning and you're going to be with a lot of people from all over the world, which can be great.

If that's your jam, okay, go for it. But what we're seeing is our travelers really are seeking out the shoulder and the low seasons.

[00:34:12] Nicky & Heide: And that's a fantastic way to travel and save a little money. So you can take twice as many trips.

[00:34:18] Diana Ditto: Yeah, exactly. Love that.

[00:34:21] Nicky & Heide: So what advice do you have for women who want to travel but may feel overwhelmed by all of the choices out there? Because we have talked about quite a few destinations today, and with 170 plus trips that you guys offer, what's the best way for them to kind of find the perfect trip for them?

[00:34:40] Diana Ditto: The group size element is the first thing. So on our website or usually on any tour operator's website, you can filter by group size. So that would be the first thing. If traveling as part of a smaller community is something you value and are looking to do, I think just leaning in and going where you want to go.

If that's a place that may be a little bit more intimidating, going guided is such an excellent opportunity to still travel, to still scratch that itch and not have to worry about safety concerns. The group dynamics thing is definitely a point of hesitancy for a lot of people, and I get it.

Guided travel has many stereotypes and there's a reason stereotypes exist, and it's because as an industry we've often not done the best thing and had cookie cutter itineraries and inauthentic experiences and horrible dinners and hotels and all of this stuff. But most of the industry has changed.

I can promise you, Collette, small group explorations have changed. That was a key priority of mine when I was leading our product design team. And we find that if we can get people on a guided group tour nine out of 10 times, they love it. They love the like-minded travelers. They love the ease of traveling.

I just had a woman on my team come back from her first guided tour ever. And she said, "It's the only way she's going to travel now." She goes, "I'm the planner in my family and vacations are a point of stress for me because I have to do everything from figuring out where we're going to eat lunch, to what time we need to leave, what route we're going to go."

She goes, "This Collette trip I took, I just had to show up. I didn't have to think. I just had to show up. And it was the most relaxing thing I've ever done. Why have I not done it before?" And I was like, "That's so true." I mean, planning can be overwhelming. I think sometimes for women too, if you're traveling with your family, they often look to you, "Okay, mom, okay, whomever, you know, what are we doing now?"

And guided group touring takes a lot of that off of you. Now you still have the freedom to explore as you want. Your three days in a city, you may have a day and a half completely at leisure, but by and large there's someone there who's taking a lot of the heavy lifting off of the travel planner and the family.

[00:37:30] Nicky & Heide: Oh, definitely. And that for my family, that's me. And next week we're going to Peru for my birthday and since I'm usually the one that plans it and it's like, "We're going to go on this trip. What do you think?" And she's like, "Okay." I didn't have to plan anything. They told me where my flights were, when my hotel was. Half the day is organized and then we have free time in the evening. So for me that was perfect.

[00:37:53] Diana Ditto: That's great.

[00:37:54] Nicky & Heide: I just have to pack. All we have to do is pack and show up. Like that lady told you.

[00:37:58] Diana Ditto: Yeah.

[00:37:59] Nicky & Heide: Are there specific—do you choose group tours that are family friendly or some that are, say, adults only, or is that some different kind of options you guys offer?

[00:38:12] Diana Ditto: So we don't have a dedicated family line, but I can tell you we do have about 3,000 travelers a year who are children—by which I now use the US healthcare definition, anyone under 26. So still traveling with their family. So we don't have family tours specifically, but we have itineraries that over the summertime and over winter break we start to see swell with families going.

So we have a small discount for families traveling together. But popular tours like London and Paris or our Finland's Northern Lights tour in the winter, you'll see a lot of families on, and increasingly multi-gen travel is on the rise. And it's everything from cousins traveling together and, yes, the three generations of children and adults and grandparents. We don't allow children under five on our tours. So everyone needs to be five and older. For Safari, I believe it's 12 and older. You have to be a little bit older for Safari.

Usually children aren't that young. I'd probably say we start to see kids coming on tour at the age of 10, 12. And often it could just be a grandmother taking her grandson, granddaughter as a graduation present, things like that. And of course, if you like, you can take over the whole departure date.

So that's another option for families traveling together. I told my husband, he wants to go and his family, they want to go on a trip over to Europe. And I said, "Absolutely. But we're going on a guided tour."

[00:40:00] We can take over the trip. We'll have it private just for us, but there is no way I'm trying to corral 18 of your family members into dinner reservations. We can't decide where we're going when we're in New York, let alone when we're over in Morocco somewhere. Like not happening.

[00:40:17] Nicky & Heide: Now, looking ahead, what destinations or trends should we be watching for 2026 and beyond?

[00:40:26] Diana Ditto: Definitely the continued focus on, I think, off season travel and companies really trying to encourage travelers to go in the shoulder and the low seasons because we know the experience is better. The surveys that come back, the overall excellent scores of itineraries that operate in the off season are 10 percentage points higher on average than those that operate in the high season.

A continued focus on small group travel, and I would say at least from Collette's standpoint, a continued focus on elevating the stories of the local people, often the local women in the destinations that we're visiting as the key experiences on tour.

We're fortunate to have so many of these—we call them impact moments where we visit what is the equivalent of a 501(c)(3). Most of our small group tours will have two. We see travelers are so happy with them that we continue to add more and more. So that is something that will continue to forge ahead with in the years to come.

[00:41:41] Nicky & Heide: I really love how Collette is thinking about the why behind travel, not just the where and that focus on smaller groups, those meaningful cultural connections and addressing over tourism, really resonates with what we are hearing from our community as well.

[00:41:59] Diana Ditto: That's great.

[00:42:00] Nicky & Heide: For listeners who want to learn more about these tours or explore Collette's offerings, where should they go?

How do they find you?

[00:42:08] Diana Ditto: Head to our website, gocollette.com. So lots of information there, lots of tours to choose from. As I said, filter by destination, group size, activity level. There are many ways to slice and dice and find the best tour for you. And if you're still feeling overwhelmed, pick up the phone and call us.

We have a customer care team of almost 200 people, many of them are experts in the destinations that we travel to, and they would gladly help navigate what's a very important and oftentimes overwhelming decision. So we're the experts in so many places around the world, and we love sharing that expertise.

[00:42:53] Nicky & Heide: Oh, that's perfect. So to our listeners, remember that life doesn't slow down just because we've hit our forties, fifties, or beyond. In fact, this might be the perfect time to explore those places you've always dreamed about and to even explore just past where you thought you'd end up. And Diana, we cannot tell you how much we have enjoyed having you on and learning about, especially some of these destinations that weren't even on my radar.

I hadn't considered the Balkans, and now it's on the list. So whether it's walking through Namibia's Desert or sailing around Naxos, or learning to tango in Buenos Aires. Your next great adventure is waiting and it's waiting with Collette. Definitely. So thank you to Diana and thank you to our listeners for joining us on today's episode of Untethered and Wander Wise. Until next time, keep exploring, keep wondering, and remember, the world is still yours to discover. Safe travels everyone.