The Origins of Castles Tours

The castles tours now offered by European Castles Tours are a "second generation" of the tours originally launched by Castles of the World.

The first tours were organized by the Castles of the World organization in 2000. Despite its focus on castles from centuries ago, Castles of the World was an internet-savvy organization, and had a presence on the internet (at www.castles.org) beginning in 1995. Castles.org is a complete reference site relating to castles, including a section on architecture, descriptions and photographs, building your own castle, real state, castle hotels, books, site of the week, links, armour and weapons, and a section for children.

Castles of the World did not set out to become a tour operator. Jaime Fernandez began putting pictures from his own castle trips in Europe online and posting stories of his difficulties in getting to some of them. Viewers of his photographs and readers of his travel accounts began asking Jaime if he would organize such trips for them, and as the volume of requests grew plans were formed to do just that.

Jaime and his colleagues at Castles of the World used the internet to announce the availability of their first English-language tour of European castle highlights, and continued to develop more tours and promote them via their website.

The first Castles of the World Tour
September 2000, at Heidelberg

P R E S S R E L E A S E

14-Day Castles Tour Highlighted by Castles of the World in 2000

SUGAR LAND, TX - January 5, 2000 - Castles of the World launches its first tour which offers castle lovers the opportunity to visit the most famous castles of Europe in a 14 day, six country fully escorted tour leaving September 15, 2000. It promises to be a premium tour offering English-speaking guides, first class hotels and delicious meals. The tour is operated by Globus.

Twelve world-renown castles round out the tour. Some of these include the fantasy castle of Neuschwanstein from which Disney based the Cinderella castle; the elaborate palace and gardens of Versailles; the castles of the Loire Valley, Chambord, Chenonceau, Angers, and Amboise; Chillon Castle which was immortalized by the poet Lord Byron; Bouillon Castle famous from the First Crusade, and the fascinating Abbey of Mont. St. Michel.

Castle aficionados will have the chance to visit medieval as well as post medieval castles ranging from the most elegant palaces of the world to military fortresses, from the opulence of Versailles to the inhospitable castle of Bouillon. The styles are representative of the six countries, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Castles are coming back in popularity, and there is an increase in historical tourism worldwide. This has led the editors of Castles of the World to create their first European tour focusing on castles, while including some of the major tourist attractions.

The first tour was a great success, and generated a flood of positive comment from its participants. The roster of tours increased during 2001 and by 2002 Castles of the World travelers were all over Europe.

The customer testimonials continued in glowing terms, frequently thanking Jaime and his colleagues personally, and many of them making special mention of their Tour Guide, Astrid Baur.

Everything was going well until uncontrollable events led to the cancellation of the 2003 season tours.

"Every so often a situation arises which causes us all to freeze in our tracks and re-evaluate our position. 2003 has seen many such situations already. This year we have suffered through a grim American economy, the inflation of the European currency, SARS outbreaks worldwide, as well as the ongoing threats of war and terrorism. These terribly unfortunate circumstances have lead to low participation in every 2003 Castle tour, thus leaving us no choice but to cancel all tours for this year."

The travel patterns of Americans changed drastically. Visits to Europe for any purpose were unattractive for a variety of reasons, and Americans with an interest in travelling somewhere turned to domestic attractions or more secure locations and planned less expensive vacations.

The operators of Castles of the World tours created AffordableTours.com to respond to the shifts they perceived in American travel patterns. Their perceptions proved very accurate and the broader-appeal and less expensive tours in their catalogs became extremely popular. AffordableTours.com has grown into one of the largest tour booking operations in the world.

As AffordableTours.com grew, it cut into the time available for Castles of the World to re-launch its tour activities, and it reached an arrangement under which one of its most popular tour guides, Astrid Baur, would operate the European castle tours.

Castles of the World Tours, Chapter 2

Astrid Baur's tours began in May 2004, and there were three Bavarian Castles tours and one Christmas Markets tour that year.
The River Castles Tour of the Rhine and its tributary rivers was introduced in 2005.

The Bavarian, Christmas, and Rivers tours continued through 2006 and 2007, with the number of tours increasing as referral business increased. The Imperial Castles Tour and Day Tours from Fussen were introduced for 2008, and the Kids and Castles, French Castles, and Italian Highlights for 2009. New tours continue to be added.

As many more tours were added and the company grew, a name change (to "European Castles Tours") was necessary to ensure that Astrid Baur Travel - European Castles Tours is recognized as an independent tour operator, not part of, Castles of the World, USA.

The tours have not changed. And Astrid has not changed. Only the name and the website address are different.

The tour activities begun by Castles of the World are now being carried on completely independently at www.europeancastlestours.com.