Four of Our Guides’ All-Time Favorite Spots

If you want to find the most unforgettable spots to explore in a region, ask the people who call it home. Our local guides aren’t just aware of the highlights of the places where they lead tours; they know what it’s like to live there. That’s why, when we asked them for their favorite walks, landscapes, towns, or vistas, we knew their answers would resonate. Here are four of our guides’ favorite places in the regions they call home:

Francesca Assandri

Guides In: Italy: Portofino & Cinque Terre, Italy: Piedmont
Favorite Spots: “My favorite places to hike are the Parks of Portovenere and Portofino, mainly for the peaceful corners and the breathtaking views. In Piedmont, I go often to hike in the Barolo area. It’s so amazing to walk between the rows of vines!”

Mark Kutolowski

Guides In: Maine: Acadia National Park, Vermont: Fall Foliage
Favorite Spots: “Some of my favorite walks of all are the Vermont trails that wind through deep, cool hemlock forests and meander alongside a rocky stream bed. The sound of the stream flowing over the rocks, the deep moss, the newly sprouted mushrooms—it really is like something out of a fairy tale. Plus, it’s fun when we run into one of my (or my co-guides') friends on the trail—a surprisingly common occurrence in our small state!”

Juan Carlos Choquehuanca

Guides In: Peru: Machu Picchu & the Sacred Valley (Note: This tour is not available in 2018)
Favorite Spots: “I love traveling through the Patacancha region of Peru. The cultural wealth of people in Peru’s Andean villages—who kept intact traditional Incan beliefs through centuries of isolation from modern life—is staggering. Today I’m happy to help them face a new challenge: how to continue keeping such ancestral knowledge alive while the economical growth of our country occurs.”

Pol O’Colmain

Guides In: Ireland: Connemara & Galway Bay
Favorite Spots: “In the Galway region, the Burren is so amazing and so different. The light is wonderful, the scenery stunning, beautiful, magnificent. To walk there—filled with resonances of the past, quiet, empty, yet filled with life—is a gift.”