Come make friends with our small travel groups!
See beautiful places! Descubra hermosos lugares!
Vienna and Budapest, Paris and Rome, Buenos Aires and the Andes Mountains, Rio de Janeiro for Carnaval are on our route! With Travel Friends, we see world-class sights and get to know cities and people. We make all the travel, lodging and sightseeing arrangements, meet you on your arrival at the host city and stay with you until you check-in for your flight back home. We'll be the friendly faces as you arrive at the airport in Rome, Paris, Buenos Aires or wherever we start, and we'll be with you and the rest of the group throughout our 10 to 14-day itineraries.
Make new friends! Hágase nuevos amigos!
We travel in groups of 10 to 15 easy-going, friendly and adventurous people. We see, learn and enjoy ourselves and each other's company in some beautiful destinations in Europe and South America. There is a lot out there: dynamic cities with world-class museums, theater, music, opera and dance, restaurants, boulevards, palaces and quiet cafés and shops on quaint side streets, mountain glaciers and subtropical forests with rare wildlife and breathtaking waterfalls. We include a wide variety of sights for everyone. We use one, two or sometimes three fun cities as our bases, enjoy all they have to offer and see the cultural and natural features within an easy drive or train trip.
Have fun! Pase lindos momentos!
We have fun! We'll be the friendly faces as you arrive at the airport in Rome, Paris, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro or wherever we start, and we'll be your travel companions to all the spots in our itineraries. Our groups offer spontaneity and the chance to interact with more people and cultures.
Spain and Portugal, September and October 2025
The tales of Don Quixote, the man who imagines himself reliving the ideals of a medieval knight, the real power of two European empires that controlled much of America, and the centuries-long exchange between Western and Muslim learning--the cultures and histories of Spain and Portugal left a lasting impact on our modern world. TravelFriends will offer three separate explorations of these two beautiful and historic countries in September and October 2025--Lisbon and the coast of Portugal, Madrid and the Moorish legacy of Andalucía, and a yoga retreat on the shores of the Mediterranean. All three programs offer a close-up look at culture, art, architecture, history and cuisine, in easy-paced, fun adventures that take advantage of the cooler temperatures at the beginning of fall.
Contact us for a complete itinerary.
Argentina: Iguazú to Patagonia, December 2024-January 2025
Tango and gauchos, fabulous steak restaurants and great wine, and some of the most beautiful landscapes on Earth--all these await us in a 13-day trip to Argentina at the start of the Southern Hemisphere summer. We'll start in Buenos Aires, a distant port for grains and beef embellished by Spanish and Italian immigrants a century ago into the "Paris of South America." We fly to the subtropical forest in the north to experience Iguazú Falls, one of the world's greatest waterfalls spread across a three-mile escarpment and home to a great variety of wildlife. Then we'll fly to the far south, to the "End of the World," to see the magnificent glaciers in Argentina's Glaciers National Park and experience the surrounding Patagonian ranch culture. We return to Buenos Aires and take a day trip to Colonia, Uruguay, a Portuguese outpost in the colonial era and walk along its quaint cobblestone streets to get a sense of an era long past.
Contact us for a complete itinerary.
See what we've been up to...
We hope you’ll join us. Because traveling with friends is so much more rewarding.
Travel Friends offers small-group international tours to exciting destinations where we explore and learn together. Our groups are adventurous and curious about cultural, historic, and natural areas in the world. We enjoy the shared experience of meeting people along the way. We have fun!
Karl and Mark work in entertainment and higher education, much of it outside the United States—Karl in Europe and Japan, Mark in Europe and South America. We work in French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and sometimes in Japanese. We know how much fun exploring abroad can be. Our trips give lifelong memories to share with family and friends.
The challenges of doing it alone, making reservations, getting from the airport to the hotel, managing where to go, when and how to go about it in different languages, currencies, and customs, can be daunting. That’s where we come in. We make the reservations abroad. We meet you at the airport when you arrive, and we’re with you throughout your stay. We take you with us to see the sights, to watch a performance, to walk a trail, to go shopping, to enjoy a restaurant or café, and will give you time and space to explore on your own.
We provide transportation while abroad and get you back to the airport or train station at the end of our adventure to be sure you’re safely on your way home, or to your next destination. We want you to relax, have fun, feel comfortable and know that you can count on our help when you need it.
Our groups are easy-going, interesting and fun people. We’re Midwesterners, East-Coast, West-Coast people from different walks of life, but people who genuinely enjoy getting to know each other, sharing experiences, and most of all having a good time.
Our trips run at all times of the year in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, taking advantage of comfortable travel weather and avoiding times that are heavily traveled.
We hope you’ll contact us about our upcoming programs.
Mark McMeley
Karl Atkinson