What's a TravelMaven?
A 'maven' (from the Yiddish word 'mevyn') is a person with a deep understanding of a subject built up over many years of practical experience (unlike an 'expert' who typically has formal training).
Mavens are the people you turn to for advice, whether it's about cars, fashion, computers or travel. Imagine you need new winter tires. Is there someone you'd ask for advice? That's your tire maven! In recent years, the term gained much exposure when Malcolm Gladwell explored it at length in his book 'The Tipping Point'.
Barry Devolin's first passion has always been travel. He made his first trip to Europe when he was 15, and has subsequently lived in 4 countries, visited more than 40 more (does East Germany still count?), 49 American states and 12 Canadian provinces & territories.
In 2015, Barry and his wife Ursula took their kids George and Molly (13 & 11 at the time) on a six month backpacking trip around the world. They took 17 flights, visited 19 countries and stayed in more than 40 places in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Australia. Barry planned every step and stop, and in so doing, learned that complex travel planning is his true calling.
And so, after several decades in government and academia, in 2018 Barry launched a new career in the travel industry. His goal is to share his love of travel with everyone he meets, and to show them that they can have the advantages of group travel without its stifling lack of freedom and flexibility.. To this end, TravelMaven offers travellers small group tours that still allow people to do what they want.
BarryTravelMaven is an affiliate of and receives booking services from DeNure Tours, where it is licensed and insured under TICO (Travel Industry Council of Ontario).
What makes TravelMaven tours unique?
TravelMaven offers guided tours to independent travelers. Please let us explain.
A couple of years ago, Barry overheard one of his guests describing TravelMaven to another hotel guest by saying, "Barry looks after us, but we get to do what we want." In that moment, Barry realized that Bill had verbalized exactly what he was trying to create with TravelMaven.
As we all know, travellers have an incredible variety of options when it comes to travelling abroad. One of the most popular is DIY (do it yourself) where you research online yourself, make your own bookings, then look after yourself while travelling. If travel planning is like a hobby to you, and you're comfortable dealing with airlines, hotels and the odd curveball, this might be the way for you to go!
At the other end of the scale, others prefer to let an experienced travel professional research, plan, book and operate their time abroad. The is most often a large group tour, where you travel with a Tour Leader and busload of people on a tightly programmed agenda. In this case, you basically 'show up' and let someone else make the all the decisions and look after you. Very easy!
TravelMaven offers something that bridges the gap between independent travel and large group tours. This middle path offers the safety and peace of mind that group tour clients seek, while eliminating the lack of choice that many independent travellers find stifling. In many cases, TravelMaven cllients are those who might be comfortable on their own in North America or Europe, but might not feel that way in Africa or East Asia.
In a nutshell, TravelMaven offers small group tours (max 20) to exotic locations that still offer our guests as much freedom and flexibility as practically possible. Our goal is to offer the planning and logistics of a large group tour while still allowing guests to make their own decisions.
TravelMaven's offerings have evolved
When Barry started TravelMaven in 2018, his expectation was the company would offer 10 one-week tours to different cities around the world each year. However, things have evolved in some unexpected directions since that time. Obviously, nobody could have predicted COVID, but there have been other significant changes made in response to demand from clients.
First, our original Great Cities Walking Tour of Cape Town (with a few days on safari added) quickly evolved into a broader focus on South Africa and our best-selling tour, Best of SOUTH AFRICA. As it turns out, there is huge demand for affordable safaris and visits to spectacular Cape Town. Today, South Africa accounts for 50% of TravelMaven's business. For 2024, we've also responded to demand by adding Victoria Falls to some of these tours.
Second, in late 2021 TravelMaven developed a partnership with Haliburton Rotary to offer tours to the Rotary International Convention each year. Basically, we offer pre-convention and post-convention tours to make trips to faraway places more practical and rewarding (Melbourne 2023: New Zealand and Australlia; Singapore 2024: South Korea and Vietnam; Calgary 2025: Haida Gwaii and The Klondike).
Third, a focus on East Asia has emerged. This shouldn't surprise anyone, given Barry's experience in Asia and the fact that several upcoming Rotary Conventions will be in the Pacific region. Overall, this portfolio will eventually include South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Borneo and the Philippines.
It should be noted that Barry still loves Europe, so he's kept two special tours on the agenda. The first is a German Christmas Markets tour in early December. The second (to be offered for the first time in September 2024) is a driving tour called German Car Museums. (If you're a car nut, wouldn't you love driving yourself around Germany visiting the homes of Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Porsche?)
Finally, TravelMaven also offers private tours for families or groups of friends, usually to places where small group tours are already offered. The most popular example is the 10 day KRUGER SAFARI.