4 Seasons Tours offers travel packages

Not all travel and tour companies are alike. In the travel business, there’s no substitute for experience, said Barbara Osman, president of 4 Seasons Tours and Travel.

“I’ve been in business for 40 years,” Osman said. She started the company in Wilmington and now operates from her home office near Millsboro.

4 Seasons offers complete tour packages including day trips, motor coach tours and cruises. Osman said motor coaches the company uses are air-conditioned, restroom equipped and a pleasure to tour in.

“The seats are very comfortable. We make rest stops about every two hours,” she said. Motor coach tours feature sightseeing nearly every day.

“We’re very strong on Christmas tours because they do well,” Osman said.

An upcoming motor coach tour is ‘A Lavish Asheville Christmas,’ featuring the Biltmore Mansion and The Inn on Biltmore Estates in Ashville, N.C.

The five-day trip in early December costs $1,053.

The Biltmore Mansion will be decorated with dozens of Christmas trees, wreaths, poinsettias and miles of garland.

“My motor coach tours are pretty deluxe. I never run budget tours, and we have very good food on our tours,” Osman said.

Another motor coach tour, ‘A Nashville Country Christmas at The Opryland Hotel,’ is Tuesday, Dec. 7 through Monday, Dec. 13.

“The hotel is beautiful and there are lots of things to do there,” Osman said. The tour includes a visit to the Biltmore Mansion and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.

Next summer the company is offering a motor coach tour to Mackinac Island, Mich., June 18-25. Travelers will stay in The Grand Hotel and visit the Bavarian-style town of Frankenmuth. The trip costs $1,567.

Motor coach tours depart from Georgetown, Lewes, Newark or Wilmington.

For those who would prefer a longer, broader experience, there are cruises to places such as Scandinavia and Russia, Bermudas, Panama Canal and Egypt.

‘Splendors of the Nile, Egypt,’ will cruise the river and tour the ancient country. The 12-day, 11-night trip begins Thursday, Oct. 21, and costs $3,997.

Osman said she doesn’t go on every tour the company offers, but she does take many of the trips because she loves to travel.

“I’ve been to Egypt 46 times. The people of Egypt are very friendly. They like Americans, and they think the country is fascinating,” she said.

An Egyptologist accompanies travelers throughout the tour. There’s also dinner in a private home with English-speaking Egyptians, Osman said. She said a maximum of 20 people would be in the tour group.

After arriving and staying in Cairo for three days, the tour group’s itinerary is packed with nearly everything Egypt has to offer. 4 Seasons Tours and Travel is at 29721 Franklin Roosevelt Lane, Millsboro, in the Independence community.

For more information, call 302-645-7700 or go to 4seasonstoursandtravel.com