UnTours

And she still has a favorite destination—we had to ask. There are milestones, and then there are moments that make you stop and say: wow, look how far we’ve come together. This year, UnTours turns 50. Half a century of helping curious, independent travelers unpack once, settle in and discover what it truly means to live like a local. Fifty years of UnGuides, handpicked apartm...

Some travelers come to us knowing exactly what they want. Others arrive at UnTours through something harder to name — a feeling, a hunch, an answer a grandson gives when you ask him where he’d like to go. Germany. And what would he like to do there? Just be there. So wise. If you’ve ever traveled with us, you know that’s not a strange answer. That’s the whole point.

There’s a moment that happens to almost every UnTourist in Vienna. You settle into a curved bentwood chair, a copper tray lands softly in front of you — a Melange in a porcelain cup, a small glass of water beside it — and something in you just… exhales. You’re not in a hurry. Nobody is asking you to move along. The waiter, impeccably dressed and magnificently unhurried…

Sometimes our Untourists of the Week answer our questions with one single answer, like the wonderful travelling twin sisters, Elaine and Cecilia Hruska: As one gets older, it seems like the birthdays that are most important are the ones that occur each decade. So when we, twin sisters, were approaching our 70th birthday, we discussed how we would celebrate it to make it extra...

Advent is a much-beloved season in Germany, celebrated in church and in private homes. Every child has an Advent calendar, either store-bought or homemade, and filled by the parents with candy, coins, and small toys. Lighting a candle on the Advent wreath each Sunday afternoon is a ritual celebrated in many families, usually accompanied by coffee, tea, and goodies like Stolle...