Retirees Passionate About Traveling to Foreign Lands
 Kim Palchikoff - Reno Gazette-Journal
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| Jackie Knight took a trip to the Galapagos Islands.
A Naturalist Trip to Costa Rica: March 7-17; cost is all-inclusive, double occupancy for $3,100
London and Scotland Highlands: July 17-28; cost is all-inclusive, double occupancy for approximately $4,500
Contact: Jackie Knight at jlkrenonv@sbcglobal.netor Diane Burkett at dianebuckgolf@yahoo.com |
Reno, Nevada - About 15 years ago, Diane Burkett, 66, a retired teacher from Sparks, got the travel bug in a serious way.
She wasn't just up for a little cruise to Mexico or a weekend in British Columbia, but dreamed of going places more far away, like China and Ecuador.
So, when her friend, Jackie Knight, another retired teacher from Reno with a passion for all things foreign approached Burkett to help organize tours abroad, she eagerly accepted.
Now, the two women are well into their 14th year of recruiting locals for trips to such places such as Costa Rica, Peru, London and the Galapagos Islands. Most recently, they returned from China.
"I love to travel," Burkett said. "This way allows me to get to see the world."
The two women work through the American Council for International Studies, or ACIS, an educational company that makes door-to-door travel arrangements and provides everything from airline tickets and trip managers to local guides and museum tickets.
"We wanted to see the world, and we wanted to do it with friends," said co-organizer Jackie Knight, 63. She said their groups range in size from 20 to 40 people.
In return for the coordination and planning, the organizers' own travel costs are covered.
The average cost of a trip is about $3,500 for 13 days. Burkett and Knight also occasionally get bonus trips during the off season.
Some of their tour participants are teachers they've known over the years, such as Donna Bergener, 73, a part-time English as a Second Lanugage teacher who has traveled with Burkett and Knight for the last eight years.
She likes traveling with their group, Bergener said, because she knows a lot of the people on the tour, most of whom are from Sparks or Reno.
Bergener said she prefers it to taking tours with people she doesn't know.
"We get together three times before we leave. The last time, they give us each a recipe from that country, and we have to make the food and bring it for a potluck," said Bergener.
And, she said, "when we get back, we keep in touch."
Socializing before the trip is an important part of Burkett and Knight's approach to traveling.
They hold pre-trip socials where participants meet each other, get a chance to learn about their upcoming destination and ask questions about things, such as what to bring and what to expect.
Walking shoes are a high priority. Their trips are for active folks. Next spring, Burkett said they are going to Costa Rica during spring break for a "naturalist" trip. According to their pamphlet, participants will be experiencing rain and cloud forests, the Braulio Carrillo National Park, riverboat journeys and the Gandoca Manzanillo
Wildlife Refuge.
Joyce Cox, 61, a retired Truckee Meadows Community College administrator, said she likes the educational component that ACIS provides.
"I always wanted to go to Ireland," Cox said. "My grandparents are from there. Then, I heard about their trip to Ireland and Wales in 2002, and I signed up for it. I was a novice traveler; I didn't even have a passport."
Now she is a regular. For Cox, having everything prearranged and scheduled is a much easier way to travel than traveling solo.
"All the big decisions are made," she said.
"You don't have to go on every tour, but I never want to miss anything."
She also said she likes the fact that she sees familiar faces each time.
"Some people on the Italian trip went on the China trip -- there's always some repeats and some new ones each time."
For Bergener, it boils down to one word: fun.
"I've been to China, Italy, Peru. ... I'd like to go back to Peru, we went hiking at Machu Picchu. Now I don't ask where are we going, I ask when." |
Vallarta Weddings
Travel & Outdoors | September 2007 
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