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The Whitman Travel Group
Box 3050 RR #3, Granville Ferry, Nova Scotia B0S 1K0
Ph:902- 532-1300 Fx: 902-532-1235
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All About
Whitman Travel Group

The Whitman Travel Group is a coperative team of Bruce and Nancy Gurnham, recently "retired"innkeepers at the Whitman Inn of Caledonia, Nova Scotia, Canada. Named for Bruce's Grandfather Ralph Hart Whitman, the Whitman Travel Group evolved as a means to satisfy their desires to travel, and to share their past travel adventures with new friends. We are pleased to offer a fine blend of 1) leisure walking tours, 2) specialty travel, 3)customized discovery holidays and (upon individual request), family adventure travels.

We personally design, research and test each holiday venture to insure that our clients holiday experience is peaceful, refreshing and one that creates new knowledge and fond memories in the years that follow. We focus our travel offerings each year to ensure quality experiences, always returning to our favorite spots as well as carefully selecting a few new destinations. All of our travels involve meeting with our friends overseas, and whenever possible, they join us on walks and participate in activities. This adds a feeling of local welcoming, a bit of history and of course stories of the countryside.

In order to create fine travelling experiences we feature group sizes of 8-12, thus assuring that all our adventures offer quality service, intimate care, and a maximum degree of flexibility. Old friends or new friends it matters not, just that we all enjoy a happy holiday together and become good friends at the end of the journey.


Leisure Walking Tours

We have a very simple philosophy when it comes to our leisure walking holiday tours. We walk as much or as little as our friends wish. To rush down a trail is to see nothing! To compete with your walking partners is NO FUN! On the contrary, to stroll down lanes at YOUR OWN PACE is the best way to enjoy the scenery of a foreign land. Our walking companions may walk briskly ahead for a few moments to satisfy their curiosity on what's ahead, and the next moment we lag behind taking photos, checking out the plant and wildlife or maybe simply just breathing in the fresh air.

Our walks in England,Scotland, Wales, Germany, Austria, Portugal and New Zealand are varied and are adjusted in length as the collective group wishes. We are at a distinct advantage in that we are two people, allowing those who may want to go a bit further to do so with one of us and the rest return with the other to our starting point. We nonchalantly assess our groups needs and then quietly arrange our walks accordingly.

We always take a thermos and often lunches for the trail side which adds enjoyment to the walks, breaks them into shorter segments and provides time for sharing of our life stories so to speak. Our lunches on the trails are special experiences that are remembered by all of our travelling companions.



Specialty & Craft Tours

Our interest in Specialty Travel began over 14 years ago when, as Innkeepers at our Whitman Inn, Caledonia, Nova Scotia, we organized 3-7 day craft retreats for Rug Hookers from around Nova Scotia. The following year these workshops expanded to include Quilting retreats and 3 day wine tasting events. Shortly thereafter our guests asked if we could extend these getaways into full fledged holiday experiences in other parts of the world. Thus "Happy Hookers" were born. We now offer two rug hooking adventures, one in the north of England the other in the south. The latter excursion includes a tour theme project and daily instruction sessions with a professional mat maker from Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia.

In the next few years we will offer a tour for the "Queens Quilters", named for a group in Nova Scotia who started the idea. Like the rug hooking tours, we will meet crafters enroute for informal gatherings, and visit museums and attractions that offer quilting oriented displays and demonstrations. The Textile Arts theme of the adventure will accompany much of our daily activities, blended with scenery, history and events of the season.

As a logical development from our 15 years of workshop design and hosting, we are now pleased to be taking the wine tasting weekend retreat concept and organizing it into a two week wining and dining extravaganza. Nancy's knowledge of foods of the world, coupled with my enjoyment of the same, blended with the expertise of nationally known wine society coordinator, have produced the newest tour for 2007. The "Windows on Wine" tour will be a pleasing mix of wine tasters, regional cuisine adventures balanced with daily touring and leisure walks in the vinyards, hillsides and villages in three of our favorite wine producing countries of the world, Germany, Austria and Italy. Details do not appear on the website as of yet, but do infquire about details by email, and we will gladly respond.


Customized Discovery Tours

The idea of Customized Discovery Travel, from music to railroading and wine touring, entered our tour company several years ago from an old friend from Lyons, France, Jean-Paul LaRochette. The concept is simple, yet very powerful when it comes to assuring your vacation is what you select, not what is on a preset agenda. Through a series of questionaires, correspondence and sometimes face to face meetings, the travel adventure is conceived, moulded and completed to your desires. From the type of lodging, the activities we take part in, the attractions we attend to the travel itinerary and time of year are all elements that we assemble with your wants in mind.

In the past we have merged highlights of an England tour with select elements of our Scotland adventure to meet specified wishes of several groups. We have also taken parts of our Scotland tour, added more items from our traveling partners "wishbook" and created a new Scotland tour. We have now done this with Italy, New Zealand and in 2007, with a Round the World Tour that is sold out. The method is easy and without commitment, merely complete the electronic form below and next "We Talk to You".



Family Oriented Holiday Tours

Our family tours will remain on a "on demand" basis, catering to the whims of specific family needs. Having arisen from the wonderful world of grandchildren. these tours are a classic example of the joys that can be reaped from family travel when done in a consultative manner, keeping the parents/grandparents happy and simultaneously producing happy kids. These tours are targeted at small family groups, usually two family units, and are always conceived, developed and coordinated through a joint effort of all generations involved.

Why not call us with an idea/destination in mind, and see what we can produce for you, balancing all the crucial elements of time, resources and family activity needs and wishes. We are off to Disneyworld this Spring with our grandaughter, see you there!


Whitman Travel: Nancy & Bruce Gurnham
Personally speaking we have been together as husband and wife for over 25 years,(celebrated our anniversary in Santorini this year) working side by side as owner/operators of the fully restored and expanded circa 1900 country inn located at the gates of Kejimkujik National Park in western Nova Scotia's quiet wilderness. We entertained guests from 65 countries and hosted small retreats, specialty workshops, civic assemblies and group symposiums.

We have been blessed with new friendships with well known Maritime musicians, prominent government leaders and a fascinating collection of worldwide scientists from the Phillipines to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.. It is from this culturally rich livlihood that we have ventured into our own travel leadership group, exploring informally with friends since 1988 and formally now with small groups beginning 12 years ago.




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