Christine is retired and lives in Christchurch. She travels mostly alone, aiming for three months or more away each year, with a philosophy she describes as seeing as much of the world as she can while she still can.
She is drawn to architecture, craft, cooking, textiles and village life, and she is an avid photographer of birds. She has a fondness for a mild hike, a good high tea, and the kind of luxury that feels earned rather than showy, alongside stays that ask nothing more of a place than that it be warm and real. Confident and open in unfamiliar settings, she is equally clear that she needs a guide and clear instructions to enjoy that freedom fully. Arriving somewhere and not knowing where to go next is one of the few things that unsettles her.
"Christine isn't someone who wants to be consulted on every decision. Once she trusted that I understood her, she let me take the reins almost completely, so long as she was never left uncertain of where to go or what came next."
Christine came to Spirit of Travel through our website. What began as a coffee turned into a ten-week itinerary across the Middle East, the Balkans, France, Britain and Ireland. She had recently divorced and arrived with a clear intention: to see the world on her own terms, while she had the time and the health to do it fully.
She had already booked her own trip to Turkey before we met, so that piece of the journey was set. Beyond it, she came with only a loose sense of where she might go. The itinerary that followed grew from conversation, insights into what excited her leading Ron to propose destinations and experiences she then embraced, with the occasional place or idea of her own added along the way. Once she felt her needs were properly understood, she was content to hand the rest over almost entirely, happy to let the plan unfold so long as she was never left without a clear next step.
"What stayed with me from that first coffee was how deliberate she was about starting this chapter herself. My job was to build a structure she could step into and make her own."
Two decisions sit underneath everything else in this itinerary. Every arrival, in every city and country, meant someone waiting with a sign in hand, and every flight over five hours meant business class. Both came from what Christine needed to travel confidently alone: never a moment of not knowing where to go next.
A private, guided introduction to Romania came first, giving her a few days of one-on-one contrast before she joined Insight Vacations’ sixteen-day tour through Bulgaria, Bosnia and on to Belgrade. Multi-country touring like this suits a well-run small group far better than a private arrangement, and it gave Christine the social structure to step into and out of as she needed. The region matched her closely too, its architecture, food and everyday village life sitting well alongside her interest in how people actually live. Ireland carried a version of the same logic through Luxury Gold, whose group access opened doors that are difficult to secure privately, certain castles among them, along with accommodation not otherwise available to a solo traveller.
"Early in our conversations, Christine excitedly showcased her photography from previous holidays. Most of the photos were of birdlife from around the world. Including the Falcon Hospital was a clear fit."
The trip opened in Dubai, two nights to settle after the long flight before a full day exploring the city and an evening on a traditional dhow in the marina. From there Christine moved into her own arrangement, a women’s tour through Turkey she had booked before we met.
Romania came next: three private nights in Bucharest, with a guide taking her to the Village Museum, its houses transplanted from across the country and showing centuries of architectural change, and out to the palaces and a monastery beyond the city. The Village Museum was a highlight she still talks about often.
From Bucharest, Christine joined the Balkans tour, sixteen days through Bulgaria’s Roman ruins, Sarajevo’s Tunnel of Hope, an after-hours visit to Bran Castle, and a home-hosted dinner with a Sarajevan family, ending in Belgrade.
The French Riviera followed, based in Antibes with a private guide throughout: a morning croissant-making class with a local chef, private walking tours of Nice, Cannes, Monaco and Eze, and two vineyard visits with tasting. The croissant class was, by her account, the standout, for the atmosphere as much as what came out of the oven.
A rail journey through Wales carried her into London for seven nights, split between small-group walking tours, the City, art collections including the Wallace Collection with its afternoon tea, the Tower and Tate Modern, and private days at Windsor, Hampton Court and Greenwich. A day on the Belmond British Pullman to Highclere Castle sat inside that week, one of the trip’s targeted luxury moments.
Ireland closed the European leg with a twelve-day Luxury Gold tour: Belfast, Dublin, Kilkenny, Killarney, Limerick and two nights at Ashford Castle, arriving over the drawbridge to a lone piper.
The trip finished in Abu Dhabi: a falcon hospital tour, a full day through the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and Heritage Village, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, private shopping and a dhow cruise, before the long flight home to Christchurch.
"I still think about the Village Museum in Bucharest. It's easy to overlook next to somewhere like Highclere, but it was the one Christine talked about the most."
Names have been changed to protect our clients’ privacy.
