Newsletter - April 2014

Greetings from Robbi and Jim

A warm welcome to all of the members of our Aroma Tours Newsletter in more than 35 countries from around the world.

Robbi and I are now almost ready to begin this year's Aroma Tours adventures beginning with a short break in Singapore, then on to Spain to begin our delightful gourmet pilgrimage Flavours of Spain.

We always enjoy watching the excitement and anticipation building for our guests and we feel truly blessed to be able to share our passion for the places and experiences that we love with wonderful people from around the world, almost half of whom are joining us once again.

This year we are welcoming our greatest ever number of Aroma Travellers. Most tours are fully booked with just a few places remaining in Provence and Bali and we would love to see you there.

Over the next few years we will be beginning to wind back the number of tours we are offering to allow us more time for other projects and for sharing with our dear friends and family. After more than 20 years it feels good to know that we will be throttling back a little.

For detailed information about any of our tours please visit our information request page and if you would like to join us please visit our booking request page to reserve your place.

Aroma Travellers Our Thanks

Without doubt, the main reason that we continue to grow and flourish, is the on-going support we receive from our past Aroma Travellers.

This year we are enjoying an outstanding number of returning Aroma Travellers and new guests who are joining us because of direct referrals - currently over 49% of our guests!

For Robbi and myself, it is such a great delight to welcome back so many good friends and to see our Aroma Tours continuing to flourish.

We would also like to give our heart-felt thanks to all of you who continue to support us with your kind words and referrals as you spread news of our tours and retreats amongst your friends.

Robbi and I also greatly appreciate your wonderful words of thanks, it means so much to us to know that we have shared a special time with you during our journey together.

If you have not already done so, please take a peek at our Guest Comments from 2013

Let The Photo Fest Begin!

Beginning with this newsletter we will be sharing some of our favourite photos from the more than 70,000 images that we have collected over the last 20 years of our Aroma Tours adventures in Spain, Dordogne, Turkey, Provence, Italy and Bali.

We will also be highlighting some of the wonderful photos kindly contributed by our past Aroma Travellers chronicling the delightful experiences that we have shared on our journeys together from a more personal perspective.

In addition to these new photos in our newsletters, we invite you to return from time to time to our Picture Gallery Page for the latest photos of our adventures.

Photos of Provence by Mary Van Abs

Our Aroma Tours Photo Fest begins with images of Provence taken by Mary Van Abs from Newburyport USA who has the distinction of being our most prolific Aroma Tours shutter bug to date - taking more than 2,800 photos in 1 week!

It was a big job to condense this body of photos down to the images below but it was such a delight to relive Provence through Mary's eyes and recount moment by moment each day's adventures.

It is always a joy for Robbi and I to share our love of the places that are special to us with lovely people from around the world and over the coming months it will be our pleasure to introduce you to more of these wonderful people through their photos.

50 Years of Gastronomic Passion

This year we will be privileged to witness a unique gastronomic event with the 50th anniversary of one of our favourite restaurants and chefs who has dedicated his life to excellence in the culinary arts.

We have always enjoyed delighting our guests with the convivial service, beautiful dining room and delicious food made with love and care that transcends the mundane and welcomes all to share. All tucked away in a tiny village in Provence!

In addition to the diners who travel from across France and Europe to experience this Provencale gastronomic pilgrimage ( including our good selves who have travelled even further ), this is the restaurant favoured by local Michelin starred chefs who often dine there on their nights off!

Sadly there is no way to transmit the flavours and aromas of these culinary masterpieces but know that they are a delight for all of the senses.

One element that is most telling of the character and quality of a restaurant is the desserts.

Many a fine eatery will produce flavoursome dishes for the main part of the meal but once the cheese course is finished and the table cleared, it is the restaurants that bring the same attention and excellence to their dessert's that shine above the mediocre. And here of course we are treated to desserts sublime!

It is our pleasure and passion to find and share such wonderful places and experiences with our guests and it will be all the more special this year to witness history in the making.

Our Current Booking Status

We are thrilled to be enjoying our best ever season with the largest number of bookings we have ever achieved and we are once again on track to fill all of our tours.

There are still a few places available for this year and Robbi and I hope that you will be able to join us.

Our booking status at the time of this newsletter is:-

If you are planning ahead for next year please note that you are no alone and we already have a significant number of early bookings from returning guests and folks who missed out on getting a place this year. As a result several of our 2015 tours are already almost half full.

Robbi and I hope to have the pleasure of welcoming you to one of our delightful aromatic adventures and to sharing a wonderful and memorable time with you.

For detailed information about any of our tours please visit our information request page and if you would like to join us please visit our booking request page to reserve your place.

It is our pleasure to assist you with any questions you may have and we invite you to get in touch with us either by email at [email protected] or by phone on: +613 5331 3254 (afternoon/evening USA time zones, mornings from other countries). 

Please note

• We will be adding one or two more tours to our 2015 offerings once their planning has been finalized.
• Our up-to-the-minute booking status is available via our calendar page

• If the tour you would like to attend becomes fully booked you may like us to add you to that tour's waiting list as sometimes we receive late cancellations or transfers.

20th Anniversary Bali Women's Retreat - March 2014

Our second Aroma Tours Photo Fest contributor is one of our dearest friends Vesna Bragagnolo from The Sunshine Coast in Australia.

Vesna has been on two journeys with us and last March she joined Robbi and other women from around the world to celebrate the anniversary of our 20th Bali Women's Retreat

It was a very special week of celebration full of delights, joyfulness, sharing, nurture, massages, spa treatments, delicious food, temple visits, purification ceremonies and a heart felt sharing of the beautiful culture and character of the Balinese people and their island of temples.

If you would like to join Robbi in beautiful Bali this September to share in the wonderful experience of our Bali Women's Retreat there are still a few places available.

For more details please visit our information request page and if you would like to reserve one of the remaining places please visit our booking request page

Arranging Your Travel

Once you have reserved your place via our tour booking page, all your need to do is make your travel arrangements to meet us at the tour rendezvous point. You can either ask your travel agent to assist you, or for the more adventurous you can book your flights and connections yourselves. All of our rendezvous are easily achieved and naturally we provide all of the information and assistance that you will need.

Just a reminder that we have a frequently asked questions page to help answer the most common questions including how to book, travel arrangements, group sizes etc.

Previous Newsletters and Stories of Interest

Our past newsletters contain a lot of interesting stories and are well worth a read. You can find them by visiting our newsletter archives

You may also enjoy reading a few of the stories that we have compiled over the years on our stories of interest page

Our Invitation

Robbi and I look forward to welcoming you to one of our delightful tours or retreats in the near future and invite you to take a peek at the latest photos of our travels in our photo galleries

For detailed information about any of our tours please visit our information request page and if you would like to join us please visit our booking request page to reserve your place.

As always if you have any questions or if you would like us to assist you personally with advice about your travel arrangements or with any other details please contact us either by email at [email protected] or by phone on +61 3 5331 3254 ( afternoon/evening USA time zones, mornings from other countries ).

Please note you need to replace the '+' in our phone number with your country's international dialing prefix: from the USA/Canada it is 011 from most other countries it is 00.

Warmest regards,

Jim and Robbi