WJ & Lauranne Kitchen

1. Why did you become a Group Leader?
   Originally, our VMI ’64 Group had a different couple as our Group Leaders, but when the wife became ill after our 3rd trip, we agreed to head this group of college alumni friends to Russia in 2010. Following that trip, we started setting up further trips, and before we knew it, we were the Group Leaders, organizing 41 trips over the years.


2. How do you know your Group?
   When we first set up tours for our VMI ’64 travelers, everyone in the group was connected to W.J.’s alma mater (Virginia Military Institute, graduating class of 1964) as either an alumnus or a wife. However, over the years we began to meet other people on our trips who showed interest in traveling with us. Now, over 50% of our most dedicated travelers have no connection to VMI, other than as friends, relatives or people we’ve met along the way.


3. How do you get NEW Group Members to travel with your Group?
   New group members are friends of ours, friends or relatives of our most frequent travelers or people we meet on trips, and these travelers express an interest in traveling with us. If they appear to be fun and responsible travelers, we send out an invitation to join a trip that we’ve set up.


4. What do you enjoy most about Group Travel?
   We have the best of Group Travel as we know it, because we know everyone in our group and consider them to be good friends. We love the camaraderie of traveling with people who enjoy new and different people and countries, and enthusiastically join our great adventures. Our travelers have the choice of “doing their own thing,” or electing to do the group itinerary. These people tend to be quite active and we typically explore additional opportunities during our free time that are “off the beaten track.”


5. How do you select an itinerary and date to take a Group Trip on?
   Several couples and singles in our group have been on many trips with us. This core group get together sometime during a trip, and discuss future trips, often making requests. We do our best to set up trips that others want—BUT—as Group Leaders, we do make sure the trips we set up are the highest priority for us. A number of our travelers have gone on trips they typically would not have considered but find our choice of trips to be exciting and very different.


6. Tell us about a memorable Group Travel experience you’ve had!
   Some of the favorite places our group likes to travel to are countries in Africa. We have been on game drives in Southern Africa (South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe), to the Serengeti (Tanzania), to Kenya, back to Tanzania and into Rwanda. Each time we go on a game drive, the experienced travelers are awed once again by the incredible numbers and varieties of animals, birds and interesting people living in these areas. While each experience is unique and always great, the new travelers who have never been to Africa are so completely blown over, that through their eyes and ears, we get to relive our first unbelievable trip-- and our second-- and our third-- (and looking forward to a future fourth trip we’ve set up in 2021)! Then we get together in the evening over a campfire and an appropriate beverage to share these experiences all over again. Nothing is more memorable than sharing the events of a trip with good friends and traveling companions!